Title: Boy and the Sun
Tribe: Hopi
Region: Northern Arizona
Object: Sun, Moon, Milky Way
A boy once lived with his mother's mother for he didn't know who his father was. His grandmother said to ask the Sun about his father, surely the Sun would know. One morning the boy made a flour of crushed tortoise shell, cornmeal, coral, and seashells. He threw the flour upwards and it made a path into the sky (Milky Way). He climbed the path and when he found the Sun he asked "Who is my father?" and the Sun replied, "You have much to learn." The boy fell to Earth. He then made a wooden box from a Cottonwood tree and sealed himself in it as it floated west down a river to find the Sun again. The box washed ashore where two rivers join. He was freed from the box by a young female rattlesnake. Together they traveled west to find the Sun. They saw a meteor fall into the sea on its way to the Sun's house. They asked it for a ride. In this way they made it to the Sun's house. There they met the Sun's mother (the Moon) who was working on a piece of turquoise. That evening when the Sun came home from his days work, the boy asked again, "Who is my father?" And then the Sun replied "I think I am."
Background was created by Brad Snowder of the
Western Washington University Planetarium .
Legend from
Starlore of Native America, assembled by Brad Snowder.
Used with permission.
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