Choctaw

A prophet was sent by the high god to warn of a coming flood, but nobody took notice. When the flood came, the prophet took to a raft. After several months, he saw a black bird. He signaled it, but it just cawed and flew away. Later, he sighted and signaled a bluish bird. The bird flapped, moaned dolorously, and guided the raft towards where the sun was breaking through. Next morning, he landed on an island with all kinds of animals. He cursed the black bird (a crow) and blessed the bluish one (a dove).

John R. Swanton, Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931), 202-204.

The Great Spirit ordered a man named Oklatabashih (People's mourner) to build a large boat on which to save his family and pairs of all animals. However, three birds evaded him, the sapsucker, yellow hammer, and large red-headed woodpecker. When the flood and darkness came, those birds were forced to cling to the sky. The floodwaters splashed their tails, causing them to become forked and notched. The Great Spirit, pleased by their skill and spirit in eluding Oklatabashih's grasp, appointed them the guardian birds of red men.

The people tried to save themselves on sassafras rafts, but bears swimming in the flood were fond of the vines holding the rafts together, gnawing them so that the rafts came apart. One man had prepared a boat; only he, together with his family, survived. After the man had watched a crow fly off, a dove appeared with a leaf in its bill. When the dove flew slowly to the west, the man steered his boat to follow. At length, he came to land, and the dove flew away and did not return.

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