Indian Myths

When the battle between the Deer and the Bear was ended, the Animals called the Rainbow before the Great Council.

When the Rainbow stood there to answer them, the Wolf said to her. “Why did you make the Beautiful Path of your glowing colors for the Deer? Why did you make the Beautiful Bridge to go into the sky?”

The Rainbow answered, “I did not dare to refuse the Deer. I must obey every member of the Great Council. And the Deer said he wished to visit his sister, the Little Turtle, in the skyland.”

“What the Deer told you was only an excuse. It was but half the truth,” said the Wolf. “The Deer wished to go to the glorious sky land to live. Now the Bear has gone there, too. They will not come back. You did wrong to make the Beautiful Bridge for the Deer. And you must be punished.”

The Rainbow knew that she had done wrong. She felt guilty. She stood mute. She could not utter a word for herself.

Then the Big Turtle said, “All the Animals who are still in the Lower World may go over the Beautiful Burning Bridge to the happy skyland. As we go, it shall burn to ashes behind us. And the Rainbow shall lose her power to make another.”

So all the Animals walked over the Beautiful Bridge and came into the land of the Little Turtle, where they must live evermore. As they passed along, the Bridge was burned to white and feathery ashes. The winds carried these ashes away and scattered them across the sky. There you may still see them among the stars. And we call them the Milky Way.

And the Mud Turtle passed below the earth to the Land of the Little People, where she must live forever.

From that day has the Rainbow been seen only weeping in the feeble rays of the sun after a summer shower. But all the spaces of the heavens are no more filled with her glowing glory.