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Hopi - Grandmother Spider and the Moon
Five guides had climbed with the Hopi old ones from the cave worlds beneath the earth. There were mother Spider and her webs, Coyote and his mica eyes, and Vulture, and Locust, and Swallow. The Two Brothers questioned these guides and asked the five to teach them to make light and their guides tried many ways but this world remained in shadows. Spider was the first to try. She spun a web of pure white cloth and the cloth shone in the dark but it wasn't bright enough. But because she had been the first to try Spider became the people's grandmother as they walked on this world's crust and she is even now.
The men searched this world's shadows until they found a white doe's skin which was not broken or torn in any spot and the Hopi grandfathers made a shield case from the skin. The Hopi women painted the doe skin with crushed turquoise and the shield case glowed with light that filled the world and the Spider's cloth faded in its light. The Two Brothers set the shield in the eastern sky, and they said it was the Moon and the moon shines white and blue and fills the night with shining turquoise light.
Reposted with Permission from Brother to Horse
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