Napi (nah-pee), or the Old Man, is a trickster from Blackfoot legend. He is an incarnation of the sun and was responsible for creating the world where the Blackfoot live. Many of Napi’s trickster tales explain why certain animals, trees, or landforms look the way they do. Napi stories serve as a way to explain right and wrong and to teach the responsibility each person has to the laws of the natural world. They also serve as morality tales to warn against using the good gifts of the world for selfish purposes.
Napi was given power by the sun to create the world. In the beginning, there was only water on the earth. Napi and the animals floated on a raft on this wide sea. Napi wished to make land, but he needed mud from the bottom of the water to make it. Napi sent Duck to fetch some mud, but the water was too deep. Next Otter tried and then Badger, but the water was still too deep for both of them. Finally, Muskrat dove into the deep water and reappeared with mud on his paws. Napi blew on this mud until it dried. He scattered the pieces of mud over the water where they turned into land. Napi traveled around the new land and made rivers, mountains, plants, and animals. He decided he would make people and formed a woman and child out of clay and spread his robe over them. After four days, the woman and child stood and walked. Napi gave the people bows and arrows and knives made of stone. He taught them how to hunt buffalo with their bows and arrows and how to drive the buffalo over a cliff so they would fall to their deaths.
Napi was the Blackfoot’s first teacher. He taught them to hold the sacred ways in honor and to be faithful to the natural laws of balance. After Napi helped the people for many years, he began to use his power to cause mischief, to make himself great, and to trick the people and animals in the world. Napi was able to transform himself and others into different creatures, put thoughts into people’s minds, understand any language, heal people of diseases, and even raise the dead.
One of the many stories told about Napi began as he and Coyote walked together. Napi had just tricked someone into giving him a robe made of buffalo hide, and he was wearing it around his shoulders. The Sun and the Wind thought they would play a trick on Napi as revenge for the many tricks he played on others. The Sun beat down on Napi and Coyote, and Napi longed to take off the buffalo hide. “What should I do with this robe?” Napi asked Coyote. “Why don’t you give it to that Big Rock?” Coyote suggested. Napi went to the rock and presented the buffalo robe as a gift. Relieved to be rid of the hot robe, Napi continued on his way. The Wind decided it was time for his part of the trick, and it blew in strong, cold gusts. Soon Napi was shivering and longed for the buffalo robe. “Go back and get that robe for me,” Napi told Coyote. “No, no,” replied Coyote, “You gave that robe to Big Rock. I will not take it from him.” Napi decided that he would take the robe himself. “Big Rock, I have come for the robe,” he called. “You gave the robe to me. You may not have it,” said Big Rock. “You cannot stop me. You are a rock and cannot move,” Napi taunted. He snatched the robe from the rock and continued on his way with Coyote.
Suddenly, they heard a noise and looked behind them. Big Rock was rolling after them! Napi began to run, but the rock kept rolling. He ran past many animals and asked for their help, but they had been tricked too often by Napi and were pleased to see that he was being punished. Coyote realized that the rock only chased Napi, so he ran away. Napi’s strength was failing when some bats took pity on him and began to fly into the rock over and over. The rock began to break into smaller pieces and finally broke into two. That rock can be seen today in Okotoks, Alberta, where it lies in two pieces. The bats’ faces became smashed while they broke the rock, and that is why bats have flat faces.
Mary L. Sellers
See also Coyote Tales; Creation Stories of the Native Americans; Culture Heroes of the Native Americans; Tricksters, Native American
Further Reading
Bastien, Betty, and Jürgen W. Kremer. 2004. Blackfoot Ways of Knowing: The Worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi. Calgary, CA: University of Calgary Press.
Bullchild, Percy. 2005. The Sun Came Down: The History of the World as My Blackfeet Elders Told It. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.