The Story of Napi
Story as told by Carl Brave Rock
Napi is a trickster. All First Nations have what we call “a trickster”. In some places it is Ableegumooch (Mi’kmaq Trickster Animal), in some it is Sitconski (Assiniboine Trickster) and for others it could be Raven (Northwest Coast Tribes). Where we live, it is The Old Man, it is Napi (Blackfoot Trickster God) (Native American Indian Trickster Characters (native-languages.org). Napi is crazy – it represents our human side. It represents everything that we should not be and it represents the beauty of the tricksters.
What are stories? The world is made up of stories. History is made up of stories. People are stories. Every single one of you here today is a story. [VH1] Before you got onto this earth, you were a story and when you leave, you’re going to be another story. So, stories are about us. We are stories. Everyday, we are either telling stories or we are living one. We talk about what happened last week or on your weekend. It’s not your job to hold onto your stories. Just like me, our job is to go out there and to give those stories away. So, tell your auntie, your cousin, your ex-girlfriend- it doesn’t matter right? As long as you pass the story on. It’s what we call the oral tradition. And that’s how the Blackfoot culture has survived for thousands of years. These stories have actually been passed on from generation to generation and they could be 3 or 4 hundred years old- I don’t know. It’s not my job to hold on to these stories.
Who is Napi? Napi is a trickster. The Blackfoot trickster is a shape shifter. He’s powerful and he’s foolish; very foolish, just like humans. Although Napi represents our human side, he tells us how not to be. That’s what we need to take away from these stories.
My instructor, Betty Bastein has noted “Napi traveled above the earth making mountains, rivers, lakes, grasses, roots, berries, timber, animals and birds. He created everything around us”.
We all start with creation. In this beginning, there was nothing but water. Napi was on a raft with four water creatures. There was kssiskstaki, the beaver; there was áímmóniisi, the otter; there was sa’ái, the duck and mí’sohpsski, the muscrat. Napi wanted to create land. They were floating and there was nothing but water, so he asks these animals if they’d go down and find some pieces of earth. The first animal, kssiskstaki, the beaver said, “Napi I’ll go down and try to find some land for you.” He went deep, deep down into the water, but he couldn’t find anything. He came back up and said “Napi there’s nothing down there but water.” Áímmóniisi, the otter said, “I’ll try Napi, to go down there and see if I can find some land.” Áímmóniisi swam deeper than the beaver, but he came back up with nothing. He said “Napi, there’s nothing down there but water.” So sa’ái the duck said, “Well I’ll go down and I’ll try to find some earth.” Same thing happened- sa’ái says “There’s nothing.” Mí’sohpsski, the muskrat said, “Well Napi I’ll try. I’ll go down and I’ll see if there’s some land down there.” He went down in the water and was gone for such a long time that they thought muscrat had died. Finally, he came floating back up in the water and they threw him up onto the raft. Muscrat was half dead and they tried to resuscitate him. Then his paw opened up. He had a little piece of dirt in his hand. So Napi took that piece of dirt and created everything around us, the prairies, the rivers the cliffs, the coulees…everything around us.
That’s the Blackfoot story of creation.