McLeod Lake Tse'Khene First Nation
Inside the maiden, Astas grew from the spruce needle into a child and the maiden eventually gave birth to him. Astas grew very quickly but was always crying for a skin of water  - a skin of water shaped like a ball in which the Father of our Peoples had locked away all the waters that existed.

The maiden asked her Father, Old Man, if the boy could play with the ball. "Surely he is young and cannot run away with it." Old Man gave the ball to  Astas, who played with it all through the camp, rolling it this way and that.

Astas played with the ball for a few days, always under the watchful eyes of Old Man.  The one day the Father forgot to watch him, Astas placed the ball onto his shoulder and fled from the camp.

Old Man gave chase after the boy, who ran always one step ahead of the old Man. As Astas ran, he cried out, “Where I dip my finger to the ground, let there  be a creek.” Astas drew into the ground and a creek sprang up behind him but still Old Man chased him.

“Where I fall to the ground let there be a lake,” Astas cried out. Falling to the ground, Astas got up running and a lake grew behind him but still Old Man chased him.

Astas ran around the land, forming creeks and rivers and lakes. Eventually the Father gave up running after the trickster and returned to his camp.

This is how we came to have water on Our land.
Website developed and maintained by Nathan Paul Prince
a member of the McLeod Lake Indian Band
Created July 2006    Revised December 2008

ASTAS, THE CUNNING ONE

Astas had a reputation for being cunning. He was intelligent but it often got him into trouble. These were the days before the water covered the land we live on....

Long ago, before our people had water on the land, Old Man, the Father of all our People, and his wife had two daughters. Their young maidens were not allowed to be with men, so Astas travelled far and wide until he came upon the camp where the Father and the Mother lived.

Spying on their young maidens, Astas waited until one girl took her water baskets to draw water from the River of Life. Astas ran to a place above the stream from where she got her water. Turning himself into a spruce needle, Astas floated down to where her basket came into the water. The maiden dipped her basket into the water, and the spruce needle floated in. At camp she drank some of the water, including the spruce needle.