Long ago before the earth was made, there were many of us who lived in the sky or what would later be known as heaven. Many different stories have been passed down about my people and the stories are very similar but slightly different depending on which tribe of the Great Iroquois Nation. Over time there have been at least 25 different versions of my fall from the great sky above, so tonight I will tell it my way.

In the beginning there was no Earth to live on, only the Great Blue in the sky above. I lived there and I was a woman who had dreams. One night I had a dream of a big tree that stood in the middle of the Great Blue. In my dream the tree bloomed large white flowers that brought beautiful light but when the flowers closed, there was terrible darkness. This dream frightened me greatly, so in the morning I ran to the elders of my people and asked them to destroy the tree. I asked them to pull it up, but they did not understand and as they were digging around the roots, the tree simply fell out of the clouds leaving a big hole. The men were frightened and mad at my dreaming and blamed me that there was now only darkness in the Great Blue because the tree was gone. I knew the men were angry with me and would possibly do something to me for taking the light away. So as I stood looking down through the hole, I jumped, for I feared less the void below me than the anger of the wise men of my people.

As I fell through the big hole and down through the darkness there was nothing below me except the dark waters below. As I fell, many birds came and held me suspended in the air while they communicated with the animals below. A great turtle came to the surface of the water and the birds put me on his great strong back. The animals knew that I would not be able to live on the turtle's back forever, so some of them decided to try to dive to the bottom of the great waters and bring up mud to make land. First the mighty beaver tried but sadly the birds found him dead, floating in the water. Several water birds tried to get the mud, but they failed too. The muskrat and the toad then went down to try. The muskrat's body floated to the top of the water, he had not made it back to the surface before running out of air. In his hand however was mud from the bottom of the big waters. The animals took the mud and spread it on the back of the big turtle's back. Toad came back up with a mouthful of mud and that was added to the land.

I was very grateful for all of the animal's concerns and their help in making me a great place to live. The animals continued adding mud, until Turtle Island was created. This is what is now called North America. The birds and animals had so much fun making Turtle Island, that they just kept making masses of land upon the water until they had created the whole round earth.

I lived on this great island all alone until one day I became pregnant by the west wind and I gave birth to a daughter. She grew and learned the animals and the plants of the land we lived on. One day though, she came to me and she too was pregnant and was to give birth to twins. In her was the light and the dark of the earth. When it was her day to deliver her sons, the first son came out the natural way and was a good sweet boy. The other boy wanted to come out first so he burst his way out of the armpit of my beautiful daughter and she died. This son was dark and did many bad things.

When my daughter died, I buried her and from her body came the Three Sisters that the people would learn to depend on for food. Out of her head grew squash, from her chest grew corn and from her legs came pole beans. I was very sad to lose my daughter, but I had her sons to look after now.

These two twins, Sapling the first strong happy twin and Flint the cold hearted angry twin, were hard to deal with. Sapling grew and would travel the land creating lakes and springs while Flint would follow him and dry them up. Sapling opened a large cave in the earth and all of the animals that are on the plains came forth. Flint created all things poisonous to try to kill the creatures Sapling created.

Finally I began to see the twins like the flowers on the tree in the Great Blue. Sapling was the white blossoming flower that brought light, and Flint was the darkness that came from the closing of the flowers. The continued to fight so much, that finally I banished Flint and his darkness far to the west, to govern the spirits of the dead, while Sapling and I live in the east. Sapling sees to running the natural things of the world.

And I, Sky Woman, live in my cabin in the east, where the sun rises. Legend say that I rule the lives of humans, their birth, lives and deaths, but really I am simply here to lend a hand to the destiny you decide to create. For though I might know specific dates and times of the happenings in your lives, I do not dictate how you reach them. For your life is created by the dreams you have and follow.