How Old Is Man's Relationship With The Dog

 

 

From: Oxsan
Date: 05 Aug 2001
Time: 11:36:55

According to the Kato Indians of Southern California the world was created by the god Nagaicho. Anthropologists quite some time ago collected the Kato creation myth on tape recorders and in writing and the story goes like this. Nagaicho decided to create the world so he went to each corner of the earth and put up a giant pillar to hold up the heavens so that he could have rain when he wanted it and then he created the river valleys with his hands and dug out the lakes and decided to have plants and trees and grass and made them. And then he took earth and made human man and human woman and decided also that he would have buffalo and elk and wolf and deer and beaver and all of the other animals of the world . Then he caused the wind to blow and the rain and snow to fall and the lakes and rivers filled up and we had a world.

The anthropologist interrupted the ancient Kato at this time and said "You have told us how Nagaicho created all of the animals in the world--I suppose that included the dog also but you did not mention him."

The old Kato elder looked at the anthropologist and said, "Oh, no! Nagaicho did not create the dog. He took his own dog with him when he started the task".

So you see the dog has been around quite a while according to the Kato.