Then Sky Spirit stepped from the sky
to the mountain and walked down. When
he got about halfway down, he thought:
"On this mountain there should be
trees." So he put his finger down and
eveywhere he touched, up sprang trees.
Everywhere he stepped, the snow melted
and became rivers.

The Sky Spirit broke off the end of
his big walking stick he had carried
from the sky and threw the pieces in
the water. The long pieces became
Beaver and Otter. The smaller pieces
became fish. From the other end of
his stick he made the animals.

Biggest of all was Grizzly Bear.
They were covered with fur and had
sharp claws just like today, but they
could walk on their hind feet and talk.
They were so fierce looking that the
Sky Spirit sent them to live at the
bottom of the mountain.

When the leaves fell from the trees,
Sky Spirit blew on them and made the
birds. Then Sky Spirit decided to
stay on the Earth and sent for his
family. Mount Shasta became their
lodge. He made a BIG fire in the
middle of the mountain and a hole in
the top for the smoke and sparks.
Every time he threw a really big log
on the fire, the Earth would tremble
and sparks would fly from the top of
the mountain.

Late one spring, Wind Spirit was
blowing so hard that it blew the
smoke back down the hole and burned
the eyes of Sky Spirit's family. Sky
Spirit told his youngest daughter to
go tell Wind Spirit not to blow so
hard.

Sky Spirit warned his daughter: "When
you get to the top, don't poke your
head out. The wind might catch your
hair and pull you out. Just put your
arm through and make a sign and then
speak to Wind Spirit."

The little girl hurried to the top of
the mountain and spoke to Wind Spirit.
As she started back down, she
remembered that her father had told
her that the ocean could be seen from
the top of the mountain. He had made
the ocean since moving his family to
the mountain and his daughter had
never seen it.

She put her head out of the hole and
looked to the west. The Wind Spirit
caught her hair and pulled her out
of the mountain. She flew over the
ice and snow and landed in the scrubby
fir trees at the timberline, her
long red hair flowing over the snow.

There Grizzly Bear found her. He
carried the little girl home with
him wondering who she was. Mother
Grizzly Bear took care of her and
brought her up with her cubs. The
little girl and the cubs grew up
together.

When she bacame a young woman, she
and the eldest son of Gizzly Bear
were married. In the years that
followed they had many children. The
children didn't look like their
father or their mother.

All the grizzly bears throughout the
forest were proud of these new
creatures. They were so pleased, they
made a new lodge for the red-haired
mother and her strange looking children.
They called the Lodge - Little
Mount Shasta.

Ater many years had passed, Mother
Grizzly Bear knew that she would
soon die. Fearing that she had done
wrong in keeping the little girl, she
felt she should send word to the
Chief of the Sky Spirits and ask his
forgiveness. So she gathered all the
grizzlies at Little Mount Shasta and
sent her oldest grandson to the top
of Mount Shasta, in a cloud, to tell
the Spirit Chief where he could find
his daughter.

The father was very glad. He came down
the mountain in great strides. He
hurried so fast the snow melted. His
tracks can be seen to this day.

As he neared the lodge, he called
out for his daughter.

He expected to see a little girl
exactly as he saw her last. When he
saw the strange creatures his
daughter was taking care of, he was
surprised to learn that they were his
grandchildren and he was very angry.
He looked so sternly at the old
grandmother that she died at once. Then
he cursed all the grizzlies.

"Get down on your hands and knees. From
this moment on all grizzlies shall
walk on four feet. And you shall
never talk again. You have wronged me."

He drove his grandchildren out of
the lodge, threw his daughter over
his shoulder and climbed back up the
mountain. Never again did he come to
the forest.

Some say he put out the fire in the
center of his lodge and returned to
the sky with his daughter.

Those strange grandchildren scattered
and wandered over the earth. They
were the first Indians, the ancestors
of all the Indian Tribes.