AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS

by Richard Erdoes

  Though she was the chief’s wife, the woman did what the medicine man had asked. She was ready to travel in no time, and the two left unobserved in the dark of night. Two days and one night they traveled without stopping, urging on the dogs who carried the trayois with the tipi poles and hides and other things needed for survival.

  At last they rested. The man told the woman to put up the lodge and to prepare two beds of soft, fragrant sage for them to sleep on. He said: “Make the tipi face the rising sun.” He also told her that Maheo, the Creator, had sent him a vision revealing that the two of them must go north and bring back the great medicine lodge, Maheo’s symbol of the universe, and with it a sacred ceremony which they would teach to the Cheyenne. “In my vision,” he said, “Maheo promised that if the people accept and perform this holy ritual, the rains will fall again and the earth rejoice, the plants will bring forth green leaves and fruit, and the buffalo will return.”

  And so they traveled, the woman every evening pitching the tipi facing east and preparing the beds of sage on opposite sides of the tipi, the man sleeping on his bed, the woman on hers. One night she said: “How is this? You made me run away with you, but you never approach me as man approaches woman. Why did you make me go with you, then?”

  He answered: “We must abstain from embracing until we enter the great mountain of the north and receive the sacred medicine dance. After we emerge from the mountain, I shall embrace you in a renewal-of-all-life ceremony by which people will continue to be born, generation after generation, through the woman-power of perpetuation.”

  At last they came to a vast, dark forest from whose center rose a cloud-wreathed mountain reaching far into the sky. Beyond the mountain they saw a lake of unending waters. They came to a large rock at the foot of the mountain, rolled the rock aside, and discovered an entrance. They went inside the mountain and, closing the opening behind them, found themselves in the mountain’s great medicine lodge, which was wonderful to behold. Today the medicine tipi which the Cheyenne put up for their sun dances at Bear Butte is an imitation of that sacred mountain lodge.

  The young man and the woman heard voices coming out of the mountaintop—the voices of Maheo the Creator and his helper Great Roaring Thunder. Instructing them in the holy ways to perform the sacred ceremony, Maheo spoke for four days. When they had learned all there was to know about the dance, the Creator, said:

  Now you will leave and teach the people what I have taught you. And if they perform the ceremonies in the right way, they will be favored for generations to come. The sun, the moon, the stars will move again in harmony. Roaring Thunder will bring soothing rain and winds. Corn and chokecherries will ripen again. Wild turnips and healing herbs will grow once more. All the animals will emerge from behind this mountain, herds of buffalo and antelope among them, and follow you back to your village and your people.

  Take this sacred hat, issiwun, and wear it whenever you perform the sun dance. With issiwun you will control the animals—the buffalo, the antelope, the elk, the deer—who give themselves to the people for food. The Tsis-tsistas shall never be hungry again, but live in plenty. Put on this sacred buffalo hat as you leave, and Grandmother Earth will smile upon you forever.

  And so the young medicine man of the Sutai and the good-looking woman left the mountain through the secret passage. As they rolled the rock aside and emerged, buffalo without numbers streamed out of the mountain behind them, and the earth brought forth green shoots. Herbs and plants sprouted under a gentle rain, and the earth was like new, glistening in freshness. Thus the man and woman walked sacredly, clad in buffalo robes painted red, and the medicine man wore his horned cap. Their dogs walked before them, dragging their travois poles, while behind them followed a thundering herd of buffalo, and after these came all manner of animals, male and female, big and small.

  At the day’s end the man and the woman put up their tipi and lay down on their beds of sage to rest, and all the animals settled down to rest also. And at some time during this journey back to their village, the man and the woman did lovingly what was necessary to ensure renewal and continuation of life through woman-power. Each morning during their travels, the man sang the sacred songs which the voice of Maheo had taught him.

  At last one evening they arrived near the stream where the people were still camped, awaiting their return. The medicine man and the woman did not go into the village at once, but spent the night outside. In the morning the medicine man put on issiwun and entered the camp, accompanied by the woman. He told the people of all that had passed, told them that he had brought them the knowledge of the great medicine lodge and the great sacred dance, the songs and ceremonies that went with it, and above all, issiwun, the sacred buffalo hat which had the power to control the wandering of the animals. He told the people that if they performed the sacred sun dance, they would have plenty of buffalo to eat and would never suffer hunger again.

  The people put up the medicine lodge according to the young man’s instructions, painted their bodies in a sacred manner, and sang the right songs. The children made clay figures of buffalo, antelopes, and elk and brought them into the lodge as a symbol of life’s renewal. Since then, whenever the little figures are placed inside the Medicine lodge during the dance, some of those animals will come near to gaze upon the sacred tipi, and some of their animal power will linger on. In the same way, our old friends, the Sioux people, fasten the figures of a man and a bison, both cut from buffalo hide, to their sacred sun dance pole. Then an eagle will come in and circle above the dancers to bless them.

  Thus the Tsis-tsistas people performed the great medicine ceremony for the first time, and all was well again. And the people named the young medicine man Horns Standing Up, because the sacred hat has two horns at each side.

  —Told by Josie Limpy and Mrs. Medicine Bull, with the help of an interpreter, at Birney, Montana, in 1972. Recorded by Richard Erdoes.

  Some say that Horns Standing Up did not touch the beautiful woman until well after the sun dance was finished. And from this belief comes the custom that men refrain from having relations with women from the time of making the vow to dance until after the ceremony is over.

  Josie Limpy was an old, chain-smoking lady belonging to the Sutai division of the Cheyenne tribe. She was, at the time, keeper of issiwun, the sacred buffalo hat, at the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. This story was actually related inside the tipi in which issiwun was kept.

  THE ORIGIN OF

  CURING CEREMONIES

  [WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE]

  This is how ceremonies started among us for the curing of sick people. Long, long ago, the earth was made. Then the One Who Made the Earth also planned for each person to have a piece of land that he could live on and call his own. Our people were living in one such place, but they didn’t like that particular spot. So the One Who Made the Earth told them to move to a new location, and when they did, they slept well, and liked it, and lived in a good way.

  Then two men among them became sick and grew weaker day by day. The people didn’t do anything for them because no one knew then about illnesses and how to cure them. The One Who Made the Earth said, “Why don’t you do something for those two men? Why don’t you say some words over them?” But the people had no knowledge of curing ceremonies.

  Four men among the people happened to be standing, one to the east, one to the south, one to the west, and one to the north. The One Who Made the Earth spoke to one of these men, telling him, “Everything on earth has power to cause its own kind of sickness, make its own trouble. There is a way to cure all these things.” Now this man understood that knowledge was available. Then those four stood there. On the first night, the one standing on the east side began to chant a set prayer all by himself. On the second night, the one on the south started to drum and sing lightning songs. On the third night, the one on the west chanted a set prayer. On the fourth night, the one on the north began to drum and sing lightning songs. They did not conceive this pattern in
their own minds; it was bestowed upon them by the One Who Made the Earth. It was as if the knowledge of what they should chant or sing had suddenly been transmitted to them from outside.

  Then the One Who Made the Earth said to these four, “Why don’t you go to the two sick men and say some words over them and make them well?” So those four went to where the two sick men were and worked over them, and they were cured. From that time on, we had curing ceremonies and knowledge of the different kinds of sickness that may be caused by various things. That’s the way all curing ceremonies started.

  —Based on a tale reported by Grenville Goodwin in 1939.

  [NAVAJO]

  The first people came up through three worlds and settled in the fourth world. They had been driven from each successive world because they had quarreled with one another and committed adultery. In previous worlds they found no other people like themselves, but in the fourth world they found the Kisani or Pueblo people.

  The surface of the fourth world was mixed black and white, and the sky was mostly blue and black. There were no sun, no moon, no stars, but there were four great snow-covered peaks on the horizon in each of the cardinal directions.

  Late in the autumn they heard in the east the distant sound of a great voice calling. They listened and waited, and soon heard the voice nearer and louder than before. Once more they listened and heard it louder still, very near. A moment later four mysterious beings appeared. These were White Body, god of this world; Blue Body, the sprinkler; Yellow Body; and Black Body, the god of fire.

  Using signs but without speaking, the gods tried to instruct the people, but they were not understood. When the gods had gone, the people discussed their mysterious visit and tried without success to figure out the signs. The gods appeared on four days in succession and attempted to communicate through signs, but their efforts came to nothing.

  On the fourth day when the other gods departed, Black Body remained behind and spoke to the people in their own language: “You do not seem to understand our signs, so I must tell you what they mean. We want to make people who look more like us. You have bodies like ours, but you have the teeth, the feet, and the claws of beasts and insects. The new humans will have hands and feet like ours. Also, you are unclean; you smell bad. We will come back in twelve days. Be clean when We return.”

  On the morning of the twelfth day the people washed themselves well. Then the woman dried their skin with yellow cornmeal, the men with white cornmeal. Soon they heard the distant call, shouted four times, of the approaching gods. When the gods appeared, Blue Body and Black Body each carried a sacred buckskin. White Body carried two ears of corn, one yellow, one white, each covered completely with grains.

  The gods laid one buckskin on the ground with the head to the west, and on this they placed the two ears of corn with their tips to the east. Over the corn they spread the other buckskin with its head to the east. Under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle; under the yellow ear the feather of a yellow eagle. Then they told the people to stand back and allow the wind to enter. Between the skins the white wind blew from the east and the yellow wind from the west. While the wind was blowing, eight of the gods, the Mirage People, came and walked around the objects on the ground four times. As they walked, the eagle feathers, whose tips protruded from the buckskins, were seen to move. When the Mirage People had finished their walk, the upper buckskin was lifted. The ears of corn had disappeared; a man and a woman lay in their place.

  The white ear of corn had become the man, the yellow ear the woman, First Man and First Woman. It was the wind that gave them life, and it is the wind that comes out of our mouths now that gives us life. When this ceases to blow, we die.

  The gods had the people build an enclosure of brushwood, and when it was finished, First Man and First Woman went in. The gods told them, “Live together now as husband and wife.”

  At the end of four days, First Woman bore hermaphrodite twins. In four more days she gave birth to a boy and a girl, who grew to maturity in four days and lived with one another as husband and wife. In all, First Man and First Woman had five pairs of twins, and all except the first became couples who had children.

  In four days after the last twins were born, the gods came again and took First Man and First Woman away to the eastern mountain, dwelling place of the gods. The couple stayed there for four days, and when they returned, all their children were taken to the eastern mountain for four days. The gods may have taught them the awful secrets of witchcraft. Witches always use masks, and after they returned, they would occasionally put on masks and pray for the good things they needed—abundant rain and abundant crops.

  Witches also marry people who are too closely related to them, which is what First Man and First Woman’s children had done. After they had been to the eastern mountain, however, the brothers and sisters separated. Keeping their first marriages secret, the brothers now married women of the Mirage People and the sisters married men of the Mirage People. But they never told anyone, even their new families, the mysteries they had learned from the gods. Every four days the women bore children, who grew to maturity in four days, then married, and in their turn had children every four days. In this way many children of First Man and First Woman filled the land with people.

  —Based on a legend reported by Washington Matthews in 1897.

  It is very common in origin stories around the world for the first people to be hermaphrodites or bisexuals. Religious scholars have been trying for years to find an explanation, but have not yet succeeded.

  HOW MEN AND WOMEN

  GOT TOGETHER

  [BLOOD-PIEGAN]

  Old Man had made the world and everything on it. He had done everything well, except that he had put the men in one place and the women in another, quite a distance away. So they lived separately for a while.

  Men and women did everything in exactly the same way. Both had buffalo jumps—steep cliffs over which they chased buffalo herds so that the animals fell to their death at the foot of the cliff. Then both the men and the women butchered the dead animals. This meat was their only food; they had not yet discovered other things that were good to eat.

  After a while the men learned how to make bows and arrows. The women learned how to tan buffalo hides and make tipis and beautiful robes decorated with porcupine quills.

  One day Old Man said to himself: “I think I did everything well, but I made one bad mistake, putting women and men in different places. There’s no joy or pleasure in that. Men and women are different from each other, and these different things must be made to unite so that there will be more people. I must make men mate with women, I will put some pleasure, some good feeling into it; otherwise the men won’t be keen to do what is necessary. I myself must set an example.”

  Old Man went over to where the women were living. He traveled for four days and four nights before he saw the women in their camp. He was hiding behind some trees, watching. He said to himself: “Ho, what a good life they’re having! They have these fine tipis made of tanned buffalo hide, while we men have only brush shelters or raw, stinking, green hides to cover us. And look what fine clothes they wear, while we have to go around with a few pelts around our loins! Really, I made a mistake putting the women so far away from us. They must live with us and make fine tents and beautiful clothes for us also. I’ll go back and ask the other men how they feel about this.”

  So Old Man went back to his camp and told the men what he had seen. When they heard about all the useful and beautiful things the women had, the men said: “Let’s go over there and get together with these different human beings.”

  “It’s not only those things that are worth having,” said Old Man. “There’s something else—a very pleasurable thing I plan on creating.”

  Now, while this was going on in the men’s camp, the chief of the women’s village had discovered the tracks Old Man had made while prowling around. She sent a young woman to follow them and report back. The young wo
man arrived near the men’s camp, hid herself, and watched for a short while. Then she hurried back to the women as fast as she could and told everybody: “There’s a camp over there with human beings living in it. They seem different from us, taller and stronger. Oh, sisters, these beings live very well, better than us. They have a thing shooting sharp sticks, and with these they kill many kinds of game—food that we don’t have. They are never hungry.”

  When they heard this, all the women said: “How we wish that these strange human beings would come here and kill all kinds of food for us!” When the women were finishing their meeting, the men were already over the hill toward them. The women looked at the men and saw how shabbily dressed they were, with just a little bit of rawhide around their loins. They looked at the men’s matted hair, smelled the strong smell coming from their unwashed bodies. They looked at their dirty skin. They said to each other: “These beings called men don’t know how to live. They have no proper clothes. They’re dirty; they smell. We don’t want people like these.” The woman chief hurled a rock at Old Man, shouting: “Go away!” Then all the women threw rocks and shouted “Go away!”

  Old Man said: “It was no mistake putting these creatures far away from us. Women are dangerous. I shouldn’t have created them.” Then Old Man and all the men went back to their own place.