One of our animals was very brave! This was a ground mole. One day the mole crawled far, far away from all of us. It crawled up and up. After a blond time, it saw a hole. The mole crawled through that hole and saw light! It saw trees and rivers and sky! Here there was no darkness. Here there was beauty and light all around.

The mole crawled back through the hole as fast as it could. The mole told our people of the wonders it had seen. Alas, the light had made it blind. (That is why all moles are blind to this very day.)

Our people were so excited! There was light out there! There was beauty! We could hardly wait to climb out and see for ourselves!

And that is just what we did. Indian after Indian climbed through that hole.

Our people saw the world and all of its beauty for the first time.

More and more Indians came out of the hole into the wonderful world.

But then a terrible thing happened! A very fat Indian got stuck in the hole! Our people tried pushing. Our people tried pulling. Push, pull, push, pull-push and pull some more!

But that fat Indian was stuck for good!

So, all of our people did not leave the darkness. But we who did kept walking on and on.

Soon, we came to a river. A beautiful bird flapped its wings three times. The waters of the river parted. We walked across the dry path of the river.

Many, many of us crossed the river. But lo! After a while the bird flew away. The waters came back together. Some of our people could not get across.

After several moons, we came to a very high mountain. Some kind deer led us across the rocky, high mountain. But pretty soon, some eagles chased the deer away. Many of my people did not cross the mountain.

Those of us who did make it across the mountain soon found ourselves in the thickest forest in the world! We could not even see each other because of all the trees! We tried to stay together, but we could not. A few of us went this way. A few of us went that way. All over the place we were scattered. And that is why to this very day we all live in different places.

Copyright 1983, Commonwealth Studies Program, Virginia Department of Education

If you liked this legend--check out these sites to read more Native American legends!

Aadizookaang: traditional stories, legends, and myths. These are--or in their original form were--often sacred. Themes represent large themes of human existence: where we came from, how we should live. Check it out-there are a lot of cool legends to read created by Native Americans from the Southeastern states.

Indigenous People's Literature: This site has tons of legends on-line- if you have a question, check out this site, it has a ton of cool stories most of which focus on animals.

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