The deer and the antelope race

A few years ago I was invited to Grand Ronde, Oregon for a speaking engagement with Chance Rush and his organization Cloud Boy Consulting. I had never been to that part of Oregon before and I was totally enchanted by the beauty of the countryside and the people. But I was even more impressed with the organization of the Grand Ronde tribe itself. I had never seen a tribal executive committee govern their tribe like a Fortune 500 company.

Like a handful of tribes, they owned a successful casino. But the casino wasn't the end all be all for the tribe. They used portions of their casino money to invest in the infrastructure of the town. (At that time they were busy with several road construction projects.) And instead of giving tribal members a monetary per cap, the tribe instead created college endowments. When a tribal member reached 18 years of age they had the opportunity to attend the college of their own choice. The tribe also had their own tribal college and were able to support tribal members with continuing adult education programs and vocational training. They even had an after school center for their tribal youth complete with several computers and an after school tutor. As I walked around the Grand Ronde tribal headquarters I felt a mixture of pride and maybe a little bit of jealousy.
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I spent a decent amount of time in the Grand Ronde tribal library when I was free. The tribal library was easily on par with some of the public libraries that I've visited in the past. The librarians were always nice and they pointed me in the direction of some old books on tribal lore and mythology. It was here that I came across a book published in 1907 that contained several stories from the tribes of central California. There was a short story from the Tachi Yokuts that I liked called The Deer and the Antelope Race.

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The deer & antelope race

In olden days the antelope and the deer once walked the wide grasslands together. But in time they began to contend against each other in all things. Eventually the antelope said: "I bet that I can beat you in a race." The deer laughed, "I think not." The antelope responded, "Let us see then." The deer replied, 
"Fine, we shall run for six days straight," and the antelope agreed. The deer said, "We will go south and run to the north."

The two then traveled together far to the south even crossing the great western ocean in order to run northward to the ends of the Earth. The antelope said, "This will be my path on the west. You will take the path on the east." The deer agreed. Their path was the milky way. On the side where the antelope was set to run was a wide clear path; on the other side where the deer was set to run was a narrow path fraught with dark patches of nothingness. Too late did the deer realize that he would have to jump over these patches of darkness in order to win the race. The antelope said, "If I win this race, all of the wide open fields will be my country and you will have to abide in the brush." The deer confidently replied, "So be it, and if I win it will be the same for me." The two contestants then raced to the north for six days straight. For five days the Deer and the Antelope were even but on the six and final day the Deer grew weary from all of the leaping and the Antelope won the race.
So now he has the plains to live in, but the deer abides in the brush.