Native Indian Thanksgiving Story
submitted by Mike Pedde

There are variations of this story, of course, but this is a good beginning story. It has been around for a very long time.....

Many long time ago, after the last world had been destroyed and the Earth restored to balance once again, there was a gathering of all the peoples and the Creator instructed them all that they had to live in harmony with each other, be thankful for what they had been given, and to give back something to the Earth as well.

Life was good for all for a good many years, but one day some of the two-legged peoples started to fall away from this way of being. The Creator looked at this sadly, and decided that the world would have to be destroyed again at sunrise the next morning.

Now of all the peoples, the eagle is the one who flies highest and sees farthest and the eagle knew that there were still some two-legged people who were trying to maintain the old traditions. The next morning, just before sunrise, the eagle left his nest and went soaring across the land. Here and there he could see the little puffs of smoke from those who were offering tobacco, sweetgrass or sage; those who were still living in the old ways.

The eagle started circling, higher and higher, higher than he had ever gone before, higher than he thought possible, until finally the eagle came to the ear of the Creator. "Stop, you must not do this!" cried the eagle. The Creator knew of the wisdom of the eagle, and so the Creator extended a left hand and held back the sun for a moment just as it was cresting the horizon. "Why have you come to me?" demanded the Creator. "Look and you will see for yourself," replied the eagle. "There are some surely who do not follow the old ways, but there are still many who do." The Creator looked around, and saw that the eagle had reason. It was decided on that day that as long as there was still one of the two-leggeds who lived in the spirit of the old ways, that the Earth would be spared.

It is said that every morning, just before sunrise, the eagle flies off the nest and soars over the countryside, looking for those little puffs of smoke from those making offerings of thanks. And every morning, just as the sun crests the horizon, the Creator reaches out and holds back the sun for a moment to see who is left. Those of us who live in this way do so because if tomorrow I was to decide that it was too much work, too much trouble, we might all find out I was the last one.