The Probert Encyclopaedia of North American Indian Mythology

POIA

In Blackfoot mythology, Poia was the son of the Morning Star and the mortal woman Soatsaki. The Morning Star took Soatsaki to the court of his father the Sun in Heaven, hoping to grant her immortality. But she preferred Earth to Heaven and the Sun, insulted, sent her back to Earth to bear her son, and then let her die. The child was born with a port-wine birthmark- hence his name - and grew up with the Blackfoot people. He asked to marry the chiefs daughter, but was rejected as ' blemished'. He set out to find his grandfather the Sun and ask for help, leaving the land and walking West across the sea on the path made by the Sun's reflection on the water. In Heaven he rescued his father Morning Star from seven birds of darkness, and the Sun rewarded him by removing his birthmark. He hurried down to Earth, along the Milky Way, and took his mortal beloved back into Heaven just as his father had fetched his mother there long before.
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