There is an old legend about a gentle young woman named Autumn Sunset who loved all the creatures in the forest. She could talk to the birds and the deer and the rabbits and no animal was afraid of her because they knew she was their friend.
Every day Autumn Sunset would walk in the forest and the animals would gather around her and follow her. When she would lay down in the soft grass to rest, the animals would lay down in a circle around her.
Sometimes the warriors in the tribe would try to follow her into the forest to hunt the animals to feed the tribe but she was too clever and even the best trackers could not follow her to her secret places.
The Chief told her that when winter came, it was her duty to give up a bear or an elk to feed the tribe but she said she could not betray her friends. The Chief was angry and said because she didn’t care if her own tribe starved she was banished and sent off to die in the woods alone.
Her animal friends brought her berries and nuts and roots and plants to eat so she would not starve and the bears shared their cave with her so she would not freeze. She lived with her animals in peace and happiness for years but she was growing older and so were they.
One by one, her faithful friends began to die from old age. She lost the mighty elk, the brave bears died, as did the gentle rabbits and the strong eagle until finally, all she had left to keep her company was the coyote.
The coyote couldn’t bear to see Autumn Sunset so heartbroken.
“It is life,” he said, “It is the way things are. Things are created by Creator. They live and they die and the cycle repeats itself. Things are born, they live and they die.”I can’t bear the pain,” she said. “I loved all my friends and now they are all gone except you, Coyote.”
“I’m also getting old, my fur is getting white, I’m running more slowly all the time, soon, I will have to leave you, too,” he said sadly.
“Then I will go with you,” Autumn Sunset said, “Because I would be too sad and lonely to remain here.”
“You cannot go until Creator calls your name, and your time is not now,” the coyote said. “When Creator calls your name you will follow His path.
“I can’t see them,” she said as she looked at the dark sky.
“Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” the coyote said.
“You can’t see them because the moon is too bright. If you take an arrow and shoot at the full moon, you will break off a thousand pieces and those pieces will turn into stars and cling to the fur and feathers of your friends and you can look up at the sky and see them outlined with stars.”
Autumn Sunset did as the coyote told her. She made a bow and arrow of birch and made an arrowhead from obsidian and with all her strength she shot the arrow at the moon.
To her amazement, half of the moon shattered into thousands of pieces that became stars and because the moon was only half as bright as before, she could see the outlines of all her friends in the sky. There were the bears and elk and deer and rabbits and eagles and all the rest of her forest friends. They were all there just as coyote had told her. They weren’t gone at all, they had left the forest to live in the sky.
Once a month, the moon would become smaller so she could see her friends more clearly.
Finally Creator said it was coyote’s time to go.
“Will I see you in the sky?” Autumn Sunset asked. “You will if you follow Creator’s path. I will be near the four bears and I will wait for you to join us,” coyote said.
“And when I join you, will I also be outlined by stars so people can see me?” she asked.
“No, you have had such a good heart all your life and been so kind and gentle you will become the brightest star in the sky, you will remain in one place and be a constant welcoming light to all other creatures on earth. All other animals in the sky will move around you, just as they did in the forest, but they will never go far and never leave you.
Coyote died that winter and as he had promised, the outline of coyote appeared in the sky with her other friends.
Soon after, Autumn Sunset heard Creator call her name and a bright star appeared in the sky and remained constant and in one place while all the other stars traveled around her.
Autumn Sunset learned that even when our friends leave us, they are not gone, they have only gone ahead of us and even now as we look up into the night sky, we can see the glory of the stars and heavens that Creator put in place and see the animals outlined with stars and we trust we will see our friends again.
Crying Wind is the author of Crying Wind and My Searching Heart, When the Stars Danced, and Thunder in Our Hearts, Lightning in Our Veins. All her books are available from Indian Life. Check catalog on page 18.
