Long ago, perhaps in the days when Chickasaws still resided in the land of the setting sun, their Great Spirit, Ababinili, sent rain. Soon water covered all the Earth. Some Chickasaws made rafts to save themselves. Then, creatures like large white beavers cut the thongs that bound the rafts. All drowned except one family and a pair of each of all the animals. When the rain stopped and the flood began receding, a raven appeared with part of an ear of corn. The Great Spirit told the Chickasaws to plant it. The Great Spirit also told them that eventually the Earth would be destroyed by fire, its ruin presaged by a rain of flood and oil.

The Chickasaws are not the only North American Indian Tribe who has a legend of the flood. Almost every other ancient people, from the Chinese to the Mayans and Incas, had their own version which told of destruction of the world by water.