beginning of dreams

In her sleep Bright- Shining- Woman thought she was in a big open empty place, and something long, hard and round came floating up. She reached out and took hold of it and started walking away carrying it with her, though she couldn't think what it was nor what it could be for. But the more she walked the more she could feel her dream telling her what it was, and finally it began to form in her mind that this was an ear of corn, and that it was something to eat, and you had to call it holy besides. Now she could hear a voice telling her that as long as men lived on earth they'd live by corn. But if they ever failed to keep it holy, the corn would fail too, and life would end.

So she woke up and there was Come- And- Carry- Light. Now they had corn to plant and animals to hunt, and they had both dreamed the same dream about them.

The next thing they did was to climb a hill to look at the world under the sun. They got up high enough so they could see away off yonder east, and if they turned right around, away off yonder west. They could see where the hills and the timber quit, in the east and in the west too, and the prairie that started from there. They noticed many places to plant corn, and animals all over the glades. Then that night they both had the same dream again. Their dream told them that this timber country laid out between prairie on the east and prairie on the west was their own. This was the center of the world, the dream said, and it would always belong to Come- And- Carry- Light and Bright- Shining- Woman and all the people coming after.

-- Towakoni Jim as told to George Dorsey
Retold by L.D. Clark