Legend of Poia

Coyote and
Monster

Chinook Salmon Legend

First Creator
and Lone Man

Edward Goodbird's Story

Legend of Poia

Native American creation stories underscore the intimate relationship between human beings and the natural world, or world of the creators.

In this Blackfeet story, Feather Woman travels to the heavens to marry Morning Star but is returned to Earth after she disobeys him. Their son, Poia, grows up on Earth but eventually travels to the sky to make peace with his father and obtain wisdom he can bring back to earth for the benefit of humans.

While this 1914 retelling of Feather Woman’s marriage to Morning Star is heavily romanticized, it retains the core elements of the original story.

Walter McClintock. The Old North Trail; or, Life, Legends and Religion of the Blackfeet Indians, 1910.