The Story of Star Boy

Thunder Horse

It was a warm summer night and many of the Indians had emerged from their airless tipis to sleep under the open sky among the cool, sweet smelling prairie grass. One, a young girl called Feather Woman, awoke early, it was not yet dawn, and the morning star had just begun to rise above the distant horizon. The girl propped herself on one elbow and watched the star as it climbed steadily into the dark sky. She thought that she had never seen anything quite so beautiful. “I love the morning star,” she whispered to herself. “How clear and bright it is. If only I could find a husband half as handsome as that star, how happy I should be!” Her loving gaze followed the star until it faded into the paler light of the coming day.

The camp was busy that summer. The buffalo were plentiful and there was always meat to be cooked and dried, and skins to be dressed and made into warm clothing for the winter. There was little time to be fanciful and Feather Woman thought no more about the morning star.

She thought no more, that is, until one day in autumn when she left the camp to collect firewood. Intent on her task, she wandered far from the camp. Suddenly, she became aware that she was no longer alone. A young man, a stranger, stood before her. He was tall and handsome, dressed in a robe of soft white buckskin embroidered with porcupine quills. He wore eagle feathers in his hair and in one hand he carried a small juniper bush covered with cobwebs.

Startled, Feather Woman turned to flee, but the young man caught her arm and said gently, “Wait, Feather Woman, do you not recognize me? I am morning Star. One night in summer I looked down and saw you lying among the grass by your tipi. I fell in love with you then and heard you say that you loved me too. Do not return to your village. Forget your own people. Come with me now to the sky, to the land of the Star People.” Feather Woman looked at him shyly and knew that she loved him now as she had loved him on that summer night when she had watched him rise, bright and shining, into the sky. And although it grieved her to leave her parents and friends with no word of farewell, she agreed to go with him as he asked.

Morning Star laid the juniper bush on the ground before her. He told her to place her feet on the lowest strand of the cobweb and to close her eyes tightly. Feather Woman felt herself being carried swiftly upwards and when she reopened her eyes, she found herself in the Star Country, Morning Star by her side. It was a land very like the earth below. On all sides the grassy plains rolled away to meet the distant hills. Here and there lay circles of tipis, the smoke from their campfires drifting into the clear air.

Morning Star pointed to a tipi which stood nearby. “That is the lodge of Spiderman,” he said, “it is he who weaves the ladders by which the Star People travel between earth and sky. Tread warily here, unless you damage his webs.” Then he led Feather Woman to the large splendid tipi which was the home of his parents, Sun and Moon. As it was still day Sun was on his travels, but Moon was at home and welcomed her son’s bride kindly, offering her refreshment of water and berries. While Feather woman ate, however, Moon drew Morning Star aside. “I fear that your father will not approve of this marriage,” she said with a worried frown. “Take care that she does not anger him, for he is a stern man and will not hesitate to banish her if she does wrong.”

When Sun returned in the evening, he was indeed far from pleased to see his son’s new wife. He had no very high opinion of the Earth People, considering them weak and stupid, but, despite his misgivings, he greeted Feather Woman courteously. “Learn our customs, daughter,” he said gruffly, “and obey our laws, and you will be happy here.” Feather Woman was nervous of Sun, but she grew to love the kind and gentle Moon. Moon instructed her in all the ways of the Star People. She taught how to tan deer skins so that they became as soft and white as snow, and how to extract the juices of herbs and flowers to make colorful dyes. She gave her a digging stick of ash wood, sharpened and hardened in the fire, and showed her where to hunt out the edible plants and roots which nestled close to the earth – the wild potato and turnip, the Camus root, the milk vetch, and the evening primrose.

For a long time Morning Star and Feather Woman lived happily together in the Star Country. When their son Star Boy was born, their happiness was complete. One day, as Moon and Feather Woman were out gathering roots and berries, the girl noticed a very large turnip half-buried in the ground. It was so enormous that its green leafy top came almost to her waist. Moon, following her gaze, said, “Take care! That is one root which you must never touch, for it is sacred to the Star. People and great sorrow and distress will come to anyone who tries to uproot it. You must leave it where it is.”

In the days that followed, Feather woman frequently passed by the giant turnip, but although she wondered much about it, she was mindful of Moon’s warning and left it well alone. One day, Moon fell ill. She lay on her bed pale and wan, and so Feather Woman took her digging stick and went to gather roots on her own. By chance, she found herself once more by the giant turnip. She gazed at it, speculating on what lay beneath it.

“What secret can it hide?” she wondered. “Perhaps it is a great treasure of some kind. Surely it would do no harm to peek below, only for a moment. If I replaced it very carefully, no one need ever know that I had disturbed it.” Her curiosity at last got the better of her, and she drove her digging stick into the earth at the base of the root ant pushed with all her might. She gripped the tall green top with both hands and tugged as hard as she could, but, in spite of her efforts, the turnip remained immovable. When she finally paused for breath it was as firmly rooted as before. She was about to give up the struggle when two large white cranes swooped from the sky and landed beside her. “Your poor digging stick will never move I hat great root!” cried one. “Let us help you. Our strong beaks will soon have it out.” Feather Woman accepted their offer gratefully, for she was not to know that the cranes were the sworn enemies of the Star People. One of their favorite tricks was to tear down the ladders woven by Spider Man so that the stars tumbled to earth and were killed. The Indians believed that the puff-balls which they found on the ground were the remains of stars which had fallen from the sky in this way. The cranes began to lever and prod with their long, sharp beaks until at last the great turnip, creaking and groaning, was loosened from its bed of earth and with a mighty crash, rolled over on its side.

“There!” cried the cranes triumphantly. “Now you can see what lies below,” and they flew off, delighting in the damage they had caused. Where the giant turnip had been, there was now a huge crater. Feather Woman knelt down and peered into it. Far, far below lay her old home, the earth. She saw the wide prairies, the woods, rivers and mountains. She saw men hunting buffalo and girls gathering berries on the hillsides. In the camps the women were tanning skins or preparing food, while the children played between the tipis. The smoke from the campfires rose up to her and she heard again the voices of her own people. Homesickness overcame her and she longed to return. Night was falling when she finally turned away. She rolled the giant turnip back into place as best she could and with a heavy heart, made her way home.

Her sad and guilty face aroused Sun’s suspicions at once and he demanded to know what had happened. When he learned the truth, he flew into a terrible rage. “I knew that no good would come of this!” he stormed, stamping the ground so that the whole tipi shook with his fury. “Have I not always said that Earth People were not to be trusted? They are all the same, these creatures, constantly meddling in what does not concern them!” He towered over Feather Woman and she shrank back in terror. “Well, my girl, since you like to look at the earth, you had better return there. You cannot remain here any longer.” Morning Star and Moon pleaded with him and Feather Woman wept bitter tears of remorse, but Sun remained implacable. Feather Woman was banished from the Star Country forever.

Sadly, Morning Star led his wife to where Spider Man wove gauze ladders. He put Star Boy in her arms and wrapped a white buffalo robe around them both. Spider Man fastened a strong line about her and let her down from the sky. It was evening and the Indians sat by their tipis resting after their day’s work. Suddenly a boy pointed upwards. “Look!” he cried. “A shooting star!” and the people saw a bright light descending from the sky. They ran to where it fell and there they found Feather Woman and her son, wrapped in the white buffalo robe. Feather Woman had died from the fall. Star Boy tried to wake his mother but she was dead. The fourth day he started to go off a long way, and as he was going along he came to a patch of corn and squash. He walked among the corn and pulled some ears and ate them.

Close this field was a poor little lodge, in which lived an old woman and her little grandson. One day the little boy went into the corn patch and saw the footprints of a little child. He went back home and told his grandmother about it. They did not know whether the tracks had been made by a girl or a boy. They looked for the child everywhere but could not find it. At last the old woman told her grandson to take out a flesher and a hoe and leave them in the field. “If it is a girl,” the old woman said, “she will take them.” The little boy did as she had said, and left the things there, but when the strange child came he did not take them. They could see his tracks where he had walked straight by them. Then the old woman said: “My son, take your bow and arrows and put them there. If it is a boy he will take them.” He did as he was told. When the little boy went back to the corn patch the following day he found his bow and arrows gone. Then the little boy went into the corn and hid himself and waited. He stayed hidden there until the little Star Boy came back. He walked up to Star Boy. He said, “Come, let us go to where my grandmother lives. We can play there together with our bows and arrows.” The boys went to the lodge and went in and ate together. Then they went out and played with their bows and arrows.

They lived like this for a long time. When they had grown so that they could go a long way from home, they would sometimes stay away too long and the old woman would get frightened about them and would scold them when they came back. One day she said to the boys, “My sons, you must never go over there to that place where the timber grows thick. Never go there. That is where your fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and brothers were killed by a grizzly bear. It is dangerous to go there.” Not long after that the little Star Boy said, “Let us go out and kill little birds.” They went out and when they had gotten some distance from the lodge he said, “Brother, let us go over to that place where grandmother told us not to go.” The other boy said, “It is good. We will go.” They went over there, and when they had gone into the thick timber, suddenly they saw a bear. It seemed very angry and roared and growled. The Star Boy laughed at it, and walked up to it and tapped it on the head with his bow. His father was using his power so that the bear could not hurt him. The boy took the bear home with him to the lodge, and called to his grandmother to come out. He said, “Grandmother, here is a bear. You can have him to pack wood and water for you.” The old woman was scared. The boy killed the bear with his little arrows. One day after that the old woman said to the boys: “Now boys, do not go to that thick-timbered place over there. That is where some of your brothers and relations disappeared. Do not go there.” One day when they were out hunting little birds and had got away from the lodge, the Star Boy said, “Brother, let us go over to that place where grandmother told us not to go. Let us see what is there.” They went, and as they were going along through the timber they saw a panther. The panther growled and looked very fierce, but the boy walked up to it and shot his little arrow at it and killed it. His father was helping him. The boys skinned it and took it home and stuffed it with grass and stood it up in the lodge. Their grandmother was away. When she came back they told her to go into the lodge. They said, “We have something nice for you in there.” She went into the lodge, and when she saw the panther she was frightened almost to death, and the boys laughed. The boys said to the old woman, “Grandmother we have done this so that we scare away other animals outside the lodge and they won’t come near us.”

The grandmother said, “Boys, boys, you must not do as you have been doing. You must not go so far away, and you must not go into danger. Right up there on the hill is a den of snakes. I do not want you to go there. You must not go near that place.” Soon after this the Star Boy said to his playmate “Brother, let us go over to that hill where the snakes live. Let us each take a piece of rock and we will kill them.” They went, and when they got to the place he said: “Sit down. Put your rock on the ground and sit down on it. I know what the snakes are going to do, but our father will take care of us.” The snakes came out of the den, bunches of them. The snakes came towards the boys. All at once the boys saw a cloud rising and coming towards them. Pretty soon it began to rain where the snakes were and the water got so deep that the snakes were swimming. Where the boys were it did not rain. On them the sun was shining warm and bright. Then the sun got hotter and hotter. The water started to boil. It got so hot that the water killed all the snakes.

The boys went home, and the old woman’s grandson told her what had happened; just how it all was. Then she said to him, “Grandson, I believe there is power in this little boy. Now we will go back to our people.” They had left their people because they were poor and had no horses, and the others in the camp did not take care of them. She said, “We will go back and try to find out where this boy came from, and whether he is a relative of any of our people there.” Before they started the grandmother asked the Star Boy where he came from. He told her that he did not know. He said that he had come from above but he remembered that his mother had told him that they did not belong up there but down below. He told her that she had been taken up by a star. He said that she had come down with him on her back, but had been killed by a stone dropped from above, which had hit her on the head but did not kill him.

Then the old woman remembered that once a girl had disappeared one night from the camp when she was sleeping on an arbor, and that this girl was the daughter of a chief. They left their lodge and went back to their people. When they reached the camp, they had a lodge of their own and all lived together. His relations, when they found out who the Star Boy was, wanted him to come and live with them, but for a long time he would not do so. When he did go, he took the old woman and her grandson with him. When he grew up he began to go on the warpath, and he had good luck and struck many of his enemies. At length he married the daughter of a chief, and the grandson married another daughter of a chief.

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Source: http://www.republicoflakotah.com/2010/the-story-of-star-boy/ Illustration: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/morning-star-greg-mort-a4216.html by Greg Mort. [Via: http://www.markmallett.com/blog/wp-images/Morning%20Star.jpg]