There are many stories of people going to the Moon, from Jack and Jill, to Chang O. This story is from the Gwich'in (also known as Kutchin or Loucheux), a Canadian and Alaskan Native people, and is found in The Man in the Moon: Sky Tales from Many Lands by folklorists Alta Jablow and Carl Withers here. Other Native tales can be found at First People - The Legends here.
Boy on the Moon is told by storyteller and author Lynn Moroney, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Lynn's Native American ancestry and pioneer roots are deeply woven into her stories. Her repertory abounds with sky tales from around the world...most particularly the sky myths and stories of indigenous peoples.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far in the North, where the winter nights are long and cold, there lived a little boy who had special powers. The boy wanted to use his special powers to hunt deer. But because the boy was so young, his father refused to give him permission to use his magic. The father said, "Your powers must not be taken lightly. You must wait until you are old enough to use your powers wisely. The boy begged and begged, but his father still refused.
The boy cried and cried, and in time the people in the village persuaded the father to give the boy permission to use his magic powers. Oh, the boy was pleased, and for a time, he used his magic well and helped the hunters return with deer meat.
Then it happened that one day, the boy said to his father, "I want to go to the Moon. I might want to live there."
And the father replied, "Well my son, you may want to go to the Moon, but it is of no matter, since no one can travel to the Moon."
The boy then said, "I shall find a way. I'll use my magic powers, and if one day I disappear, you will know where I have gone. "
Well, time passed and one morning the father woke up and called to his son, but there was no answer. The father looked for his son, but the boy was nowhere to be found. Later in the morning the father saw that high in the smoke hole, hanging from the lodge pole, was one of the boy's pant legs. It was then the father remembered what the boy had said about wanting to go to the Moon.
That night when the full Moon rose, the father looked up and there was his son, standing on the Moon, looking down at the Earth.
He is still on the Moon. Look. His right leg is bare. When the boy wished himself to the Moon, he shot up through the smoke hole so fast that he tore his pant leg off.
And so far, his powers have not been great enough to return him to Earth.
And that is the end of the story of the How the Boy Got to be on the Moon.