Companionship

There is a storied tradition in some of the ancient tribe of how the Great Spirit made the earth and all the animals, birds, fish, and other creatures and placed them all together.  Man was called 'The People' and he was supposed to care for everything.  A drouth came and food was scarce.  The animals began fighting for the food.  Blood was spilled and some of the animals liked the taste and began killing and eating each other.  The Great Spirit saw that this was not good for many of the animals were stronger than The People.   He broke the earth in half and created a great chasm to keep the animals separate from The People.

He gathered all the animals up before making the separating chasm and then, with his hands, he broke the earth in half just as he had planned but, at the very last minute, the dog wolf leaped across the widening chasm and joined The People.  They had always been pretty friendly and now they were together all the time.  One problem existed.  The dog wolf had learned to kill and eat other animals and, when he was hungry, he  would leap the chasm to hunt for food.  He remembered The People each  time and brought meat upon his return.  Sometime The People would hang the meat in a tree to keep the leaves and dirt off.

The drouth came to a close one day with much thunder and lightning and heavy rain.  The People had hung some meat in a salt cedar that grew from a salty slick.  Lightning stuck the tree causing it to burn which covered the meat with smoke before it fell to the salt below.  The Human Being tried to drag the meat away from the tree stump and, of course, burned his fingers.  Sticking his burned fingers to his mouth, the Human Being got his first tast of charcoal broiled venison.

This was a pretty nice set up with the dog and the Human Being except they had a problem communicating.  At times the dog understood. sometimes the Human being knew what the dog wanted.  The Great Spirit saw that this was not enough.  The Human Being needed another being with which to converse and the Great Spirit though he would like that too.  While the Human Being slept with his belly full of venison, the Great Spirit took some materiel from the Human Beings body so his new creation would be like the Human Being.  From that, He shaped a being like the Human Being but still not quite human. 

When the Human Being awakened and saw this beautiful being he excaimed "Woe Man" and that proved to be an accurate prediction of the future.  From that time forward from  honey-do Lists, squawling kids, lawns to be mowed, etc; both the Human Being and the dog have been jumping that chasm to go hunting at every chance since he first saw "Woe Man".  Even the Great Spirit watches from afar.