Blackfoot legendary history describes Napi (Old Man), a creator figure who is said to have slid down on his belly to form the Belly Buttes bluffs. SFU archaeologist Eldon Yellowhorn argues these stories preserve eyewitness memories of catastrophic glacial dam bursts at the end of the ice age, similar to the Missoula floods that carved the Channeled Scablands.
Napi legendary history reflects real glacial flood events in Alberta
Site mentioned
📍 Belly Buttes
Key facts
- Blackfoot legendary history describes a creator being called Napi (Naapi), whose name refers to dawn time or the beginning of time
- Napi is said to have created landscape features like the Belly Buttes bluffs by sliding down on his belly
- Simon Fraser University archaeologist Eldon Yellowhorn argues these stories preserve eyewitness accounts of glacial dam bursts at the end of the ice age
- The Connecticut River Valley was similarly carved by catastrophic glacial flooding when the ice dam burst
Sources
Old Man and Old Womanencyclopedia.com
Blackfoot creation myths ... Old Man, also known as Napi, is a creator god and trickster figure in the mythology of the Blackfoot Indians of North America.
Blackfoot Legends – Napi The Trickstermysteriesofcanada.com
Napi, known as Old Man, is the culture hero of the Blackfoot tribe. Napi is often portrayed as a trickster, a troublemaker, and a foolish ...
Overlay: Chief Napi's divinity in Wonder Woman (2017)checkplease.neocities.org
In Blackfoot mythology, Napi (meaning "Old Man") is the creator deity who shaped the world and its people. By naming the character Chief Napi, ...
Blackfeet Creation Mythlegendsofamerica.com
The Blackfeet believe that the Sun made the earth--that he is the creator. One of the names by which they call the Sun is Napi—Old Man. This is the story.
Napi: The Trickster | Werklund School of Educationwerklund.ucalgary.ca
Napi, the Old Man of the Blackfoot Nation, appears prominently in mythology, sometimes as a quasi-Creator, sometimes a fool, and sometimes a brutal murderer.
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