THE RABBIT & THE SUN
story Told by Snake (Paul) Tabbee
(adaptation of narrative told to me as a boy by grandma, Byrdie Quecut Tabbee)
This story takes place wee-tis (long time ago). You see, after Senawahv
(the Creator) had made all things and called it good (too-aye), all
things in nature lived as we do today. Everything had it's own
personality and characteristics, which is why the Noocheeyoo (the Ute
People) consider the animals as pahvi-chee (brother)Way back then, Tava (the Sun) was stubborn and would not move. Tuvu-poo (the Earth) was very hot on one side, and very dark & cold on the other. Life was miserable no matter where you lived... Tah-vooch (Rabbit) lived on the side that was very hot. He was always miserable and couldn't do anything because of the heat, not even sleep. He hated Tava-chee because of all the misery caused by his laziness to move. Tava-chee started to tease ol' Tah-vooch because he complained more than anybody else did. Rabbit's hatred for him grew... Tah-vooch couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed his bow and swore he'd straighten things out between him and Tava-chee. He walked past where the Kuvua-chee (Mountain-top Indians) lived and climbed the highest mountain he could find. When he got to the top, Tah-vooch began to yell at Tava-chee and threatened to kill him if he didn't stop making his life miserable. Tava-chee just laughed at him... Tah-vooch got mad and shot an arrow at the Sun, but Tava-chee burned it up before it even got close to him and laughed at Tah-vooch again. Tah-vooch shot another arrow at him; same thing happened. Tava-chee laughed and taunted the poor Rabbit. Tah-vooch was really mad now. He sat down by a creek and thought of ways he might go about killing ol' Tava-chee. He watched the water for awhile and remembered how he had watched a fire put out with it some time ago... Tah-vooch had an idea... He took his best arrow and soaked it in the creek. When the arrow had soaked up all the water it could, Tah-vooch placed it in his bow, and took another aim at the taunting Sun. Tava-chee laughed at him again. Tah-vooch was very mad now and he let the arrow go. Tava-chee couldn't burn up the arrow in time because it was protected by the water, and it struck him. But, the angerthat Tah-vooch had felt had made his aim bad, and he only wounded the
Sun... Tava-chee wasn't laughing this time; he was really mad and he started chasing ol' Tah-vooch. The Rabbit took off running and hid
behind too-pweech (the Rock). Tava-chee threw down fire and made the
rock so hot that it began to crack... Tah-vooch took off again and
jumped into pah-gah-ri (water - lake). Tava-chee threw down fire again and made all the water boil away. Everything Tah-vooch tried to hide behind got burnt up; until, he found sah-koo-poo (rabbit-brush), which is hard to burn... The brush protected Tah-vooch, but a few hot ashes drifted down through the branches and burned his back a little bit. This is why the Rabbit has a dark back with black spots, because of the burns he got from the ashes... And, to this day, Tava-chee circles around Mother Earth looking for Tah-vooch, wanting revenge... his search for Tah-vooch brings us night and day now... And this is why the Rabbit is always running and scared of everything around him...