Rise of the Sunfeather Bird

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The first women did not walk, and the first trees sang.
In the first time, trees and women were the same.

 

  In the river women's creation legend, Old Tree put trees into the world and gave them her gifts. When the hot light threatened her creation with its overabundance, she put living things into the world to try to save it from the heat.   In the formal telling, the sunfeather bird is not mentioned specifically. The narrative only describes Old Tree making birds, which all fly away. The brightly colored feathers of the male sunfeather bird became symbolically important in representing Old Tree's various gifts, especially fire, so a variant of the story was told that linked those feathers to the world's creation and gave the sunfeather bird a special role to play.    

Summary

Old tree was in the center, and from her came the light and the wind, the water and the land, and the trees. The light went up and the wind and water went out and the land went down. The new trees caught the land and made it stay in one place. They caught the water and made it go into the land. They caught the wind and passed it around them. They caught the light and held it, but it was so strong that the trees began to shrivel from the heat.   Old Tree made birds with feathered wings to catch the light before it went to the trees. But the birds felt its heat and ran away, one and another, into the sky. Only one was left, a great bird with a crown and cloak of shining dark feathers. It spread its wings to shelter the trees, but the light was so strong that the feathers on its head and face caught fire and burned away, leaving glowing coals.  Still the bird tried to protect the trees, but when its wings caught fire it fell to the ground. It hid from the light in sheltered places, and never flew again unless it was afraid.   All its children forever have featherless heads of glowing red, and necks and wings covered in flames.  Only their tails, which had been hidden by their outspread wings, still have the same shining feathers that once covered the birds from head to tail.

 

Variations & Mutation

The story of an old matriarch making the world has existed for more than 100,000 years. In the version that the women's nomadic ancestors carried with them, the word for "ancestor" came to be associated with trees, so the legend's central figure was known as Old Tree. Before the women lived by the river, it was Old Tree's water rather than her light that threatened the created world. During the drought event that drove the nomads into the mountains, the punishingly hot and dry summers prompted a shift to blaming the light for their troubles.  

Cultural Reception

The full creation story is too abstract for very young children, so the excerpt of the sunfeather bird is often told to them as an introduction. It also serves as a warning that they must not go too near the house's fire, or they, like the bird, will get burned.