Wanblee kept that beautiful girl with him and made her his wife. There was a closer connection then between people and animals, so he could do it. The eagle’s wife became pregnant and bore him twins, a boy and a girl. She was happy, and said: “Now we will have people again. Washtay, it is good.” The children were born right there, on top of that cliff.
When the waters finally subsided, Wanblee helped the children and their mother down from his rock and put them on the earth, telling them: “Be a nation, become a great Nation—the Lakota Oyate.” The boy and girl grew up. He was the only man on earth, she the only woman of child-bearing age. They married; they had children. A nation was born.
So we are descended from the eagle. We are an eagle nation. That is good, something to be proud of, because the eagle is the wisest of birds. He is the Great Spirit’s messenger; he is a great warrior. That is why we always wore the eagle plume, and still wear it. We are a great nation. It is I, Lame Deer, who said this.
—Told by Lame Deer in Winner, South Dakota, in 1969, and recorded by Richard Erdoes.
PUSHING UP THE SKY
[SNOHOMISH]
Chief William Shelton, who relates this story, says he was told it as a child by his family elders to teach him what could be accomplished if people work together.
The Creator and Changer first made the world in the East. Then he slowly came westward, creating as he came. With him he brought many languages, and he gave a different one to each group of people he made.
When he reached Puget Sound, he liked it so well that he decided to go no further. But he had many languages left, so he scattered them all around Puget Sound and to the north. That’s why there are so many different Indian languages spoken there.
These people could not talk together, but it happened that none of them were pleased with the way the Creator had made the world. The sky was so low that the tall people bumped their heads against it. Sometimes people would do what was forbidden by climbing up high in the trees and, learning their own words, enter the Sky World.
Finally the wise men of all the different tribes had a meeting to see what they could do about lifting the sky. They agreed that the people should get together and try to push it up higher.
“We can do it,” a wise man of the council said, “if we all push at the same time. We will need all the people and all the animals and all the birds when we push.”
“How will we know when to push?” asked another of the wise men. “Some of us live in this part of the world, some in another. We don’t all talk the same language. How can we get everyone to push at the same time?”
That puzzled the men of the council, but at last one of them suggested that they use a signal.” When the time comes for us to push, when we have everything ready, let someone shout ‘Ya-hoh.’ That means ‘Lift together!’ in all our languages.”
So the wise men of the council sent that message to all the people and animals and birds and told them on what day they were to lift the sky. Everyone made poles from the giant fir trees to use in pushing against the sky.
The day for the sky lifting came. All the people raised their poles and touched the sky with them. Then the wise men shouted, “Ya-hoh!” Everybody pushed, and the sky moved up a little.
“Ya-hoh,” the wise men shouted a second time, and everybody pushed with all his strength. The sky moved a few inches more. “Ya-hoh,” all shouted, and pushed as hard as they could push.
They kept on shouting “Ya-hoh” and pushing until the sky was in the place where it is now. Since then, no one has bumped his head against it, and no one has been able to climb into the Sky World.
Now, three hunters had been chasing four elks during all the meetings and did not know about the plan. Just as the people and animals and birds were ready to push the sky up, the three hunters and the four elks came to the place where the earth nearly meets the sky. The elks jumped into the Sky World, and the hunters ran after them. When the sky was lifted, elks and hunters were lifted too.
In the Sky World they were changed into stars, and at night even now you see them. The three hunters form the handle of the Big Dipper. The middle hunter has his dog with him—now a tiny star. The four elks make the bowl of the Big Dipper.
Some other people were caught up in the sky in two canoes, three men in each of them. And a little fish also was on its way up into the Sky World when the people pushed. So all of them have had to stay there ever since. The hunters and the little dog, the elk, the little fish, and the men in the two canoes are stars, even though they once lived on earth.
We still shout “Ya-hoh!” when doing hard work together or lifting something heavy like a canoe. When we say “Hoh!” all of us use all the strength we have. Our voices have a higher pitch on that part of the word, and we make the o very long—“Ya-hooooh!”
—Reported by Ella Clark in 1953.
EMERGING INTO THE
UPPER WORLD
[ACOMA]
This legend reflects the matrilineal society of the Western Pueblos; Ia’tik, the All-Mother, herself makes the gods she wishes to believe in.
In the beginning two female human beings were born. There was land already, but no one knows how long it had existed. The two girls were born underground at a place called Cipapu. There was no light, but as they grew up they became aware of each other through touch. Being in the dark, they grew slowly.
When they had reached adulthood, a spirit, Tsitctinako, spoke to them and gave them nourishment. Slowly they began to think for themselves. One day they asked the spirit to appear to them and say whether it was male or female. But Tsitctinako replied only that it was not allowed to meet them.
The women asked the spirit why they had to live in the dark without knowing each other by name. It told them that they were under the earth (nuk’timi), and that they must be patient until everything was ready for them to go up into the light. During the long time that they waited, Tsitctinako taught them their language.
One day the sisters found two baskets full of presents: seeds of all kinds, and little images of many animals. Tsitctinako told them that the baskets had been sent by their father, whose name was Utc’tsiti, and that he wanted them to take his gifts up into the light.
Tsitctinako said, “You have the seeds of four types of trees. Plant them; you will use the trees to climb up.” Because the sisters could not see, they felt each object in their baskets and asked, “Is this it?” and Tsitctinako answered yes or no. In that way they identified the four seeds and then buried them in their underground world. All sprouted, but the trees grew very slowly in the dark. The women themselves slept for a long time, and whenever they woke, they felt the trees to find out how tall they were. A certain pine grew faster than the others, and after a very long while it pushed a hole through the earth and let in a little light.
However, the hole was not large enough for the women to pass through. With Tsitctinako’s help they found the image of an animal called dyu·p (badger) in their baskets. Commanding the badger to come alive, the sisters asked him to climb the tree and dig around the edges of the hole. They warned him not to go out in the light, so he climbed up, enlarged the hole, and returned directly. Thanking him, they said, “As a reward, you will come up with us into the light and live in happiness.”
Next Tsitctinako helped them sort through the baskets until they found tawai’nu (the locust). They gave him life, asked him to smooth the hole by plastering it, and warned him not to go into the light. But the locust, having smoothed the hole, was curious and slipped out to look around before he returned. Three times the women asked him if he had gone out, and three times the locust said no. When they asked a fourth time, he admitted that he had.
“What is it like?” they asked him. “It’s just tsi’iti, laid out flat,” he replied. “From now on,” they said, “you will be known as Tsi . k’a. You may come up with us, but for your disobedience you will be allowed to see the light for only a short time. Your home will be in the ground. You will
soon die, but you will be reborn each season.”
A shaft of light now reached into the place where the two sisters lived. “It is time for you to go out,” Tsitctinako said. “When you come to the top, wait for the sun to rise. That direction is called ha’nami, east. Pray to the sun with pollen and sacred cornmeal, which you will find in your baskets. Thank it for bringing you to the light. Ask for long life and happiness, and for success in the purpose for which you were created.”
Tsitctinako taught them the prayers to say and the creation song to sing. Then the humans, followed by the badger and the locust, climbed the pine tree. Stepping out into the light, the sisters put down their baskets and for the first time saw what they contained. Gradually the sky grew lighter, and finally the sun came up. As they faced it their eyes hurt, for they were not accustomed to strong light.
Before they began to pray, Tsitctinako told them that their right side, the side their best arm was on, would be known as south, and the left north. At their backs was west, the direction in which the sun would go down. Underground they had already learned the direction nuk’um’, down. (Later they asked where their father was, and Tsitctinako said, “Tyunami—four skies above.”)
As they waited to pray to the sun, the girl on the right moved her best hand and was named Ia’tik, which means “Bringing to life.” Now name your sister,” Tsitctinako told her. Ia’tik was perplexed at first, but then she noticed that her sister’s basket was fuller than her own. So she called her sister Nao’tsiti—“More of everything in the basket.”
They prayed and sang the creation song, and for the first time they asked Tsitctinako why they had been created. The spirit replied, “It was not I but your father, Utc’tsiti, who made you. He made the world, the sun, the sky, and many other things, but he is not yet satisfied. For this reason he has made you in his image. You will rule over the world and create the things he has given you in the baskets.”
“And who are you?” they asked Tsitctinako. “And why don’t you become visible to us so that we can see you and live together?”
“I am female like you,” the spirit replied. “But I don’t know how to live like a human being. Your father has sent me to teach you, and I will always look after you.”
When it became dark at the end of the first day, the sisters were frightened. They thought that Tsitctinako had betrayed them, but she explained, “This is the way it will always be. The sun will go down and a new sun will come up in the east tomorrow. Rest and sleep while it is dark.” So the sisters slept, and the next day the sun rose. Happy to feel its warmth, they prayed to it as they had been taught.
Tsitctinako asked Nao’tsiti which clan she wished to belong to. Nao’tsiti said, “I see the sun; my clan will be the Sun clan.” The spirit asked Ia’tik what clan she wanted. It’tik had noticed that her basket contained the seed from which the sacred meal was made, and she said, “My clan will be Ya’ka-Hano, the Red Corn clan.”
The sun was too bright for Ia’tik; it hurt her eyes. She tilted her head sideways so that her hair hung as a sunscreen, producing a reddish shade on her face. “The sun has not appeared for you,” Tsitctinako observed. “See how it shines on Nao’tsiti, and how white she looks.” Hastily Ia’tik also bared her face to the sun. But it did not make her as white as Nao’tsiti, and Ia’tik’s mind was slowed down, while Nao’tsiti’s was made quick. Even so, both always remembered to do everything Tsitctinako taught them.
“From now on,” Tsitctinako told the sisters, “you will rule in every direction, north, west, south, and east. Bring everything in your baskets to life for Utc’tsiti has created you to help him complete the world. Now is the time to plant the seeds.”
So far the sisters had not eaten food, and they did not understand what the seeds in their baskets were for. “First plant the corn, and when it grows, it will produce a part that you can eat,” Tsitctinako said. Highly interested, the two women watched the growing corn every day. The spirit showed them where the pollen formed so that they could continue to offer pollen and cornmeal every morning to the sun. And they always did, though sometimes Nao’tsiti was a little lazy.
After a while the corn turned hard and ripe. Ia’tik carefully picked two ears without hurting the plant; Nao’tsiti yanked two off, and Ia’tik told her to handle it more gently. Tsitctinako had said that the corn must be cooked, but the sisters did not understand what “cooked” meant until a red light dropped from the sky that evening. Explaining that it was fire, the spirit taught them to scoop some of the flames up on a flat rock and feed them with branches from the pine tree.
Following Tsitctinako’s directions, they roasted the corn and seasoned it with salt from their baskets. Nao’tsiti grabbed some and ate it, exclaiming how good it was. Then she gave a piece to Ia’tik, and so it was that the two women had their first meal. “You have been fasting for a long time, and your father has nourished you,” the spirit told them. “Now you will eat in order to live.”
The sisters learned to give life to their salt by praying to the earth, whereupon salt appeared in each of the four directions. Then Tsitctinako taught them their first song for creating an animal—a mouse. When they had sung it, they said, “Come to life, mouse,” and their mouse image breathed. “Go and increase,” they told it, and it ran away and soon bred many offspring. Tsitctinako showed them how to take one back, kill it, and roast it with the corn and salt. They prayed to their father and offered him little pieces of the meal before they ate. There was not much food on the mouse, but they thought it was good.
Looking into their baskets for larger animals to eat, the women found images of a rat, a mole, and a prairie dog. “Before you give life to them,” Tsitctinako said, “you must plant grass for their food.” The sisters took grass seed and scattered it north, west, south, and east—and grass immediately covered the ground. Then they gave life to the animals, telling each its name as it began to breathe. Before commanding them to run away and increase, they told the three creatures to live in the ground, because there was no shade on earth.
“Now we are going to make the mountains,” Tsitctinako said, and showed them how to throw a certain stone from the basket toward the north while speaking certain words. There a large mountain arose. They did the same in the other directions, and mountains appeared all around them. “Now that you have the mountains,” the spirit said, “you must clothe them with growing things.” From the trees they had planted underground the sisters took seeds which they scattered in all the directions. “These will be tall trees,” Tsitctinako said, “and large enough to form the logs you will use to build houses.”
There were many seeds left in their baskets. The women planted the food-yielding trees—piñon, cedar, oak, and walnut—with the prayer, “Grow on this mountain and yield fruit for food. Your places are in the mountains. You will grow and be useful.” They planted other seeds, such as pumpkin, squash, and beans, that Tsitctinako said would be important to them. As these crops ripened, she showed them which parts to eat.
The sisters too were growing, and they needed more food. They began to bring the larger animals to life: first rabbits, jackrabbits, antelope, and water deer; then deer, elk, mountain sheep, and buffalo. They told the buffalo to live in the plains, the elk and deer in the mountains, and the sheep on the very high mountain slopes. They ate their meat and enjoyed the new tastes, and always they prayed to their father before they began a meal.
The sisters made mountain lions, wolves, wildcats, and bears—strong beasts that hunted the same game the humans used. They made birds—eagles and hawks, which hunted small game, and little birds whose bright colors beautified the country. They made the wild turkey, and told it not to fly. They told the smaller birds to eat various seeds on the mountains and plains.
Tsitctinako pointed out that there were still fish, snakes, and turtles to be created, and the sisters gave life to all these and tried them for food. They found that some were good to eat and others were not, but whenever they ate they
prayed first to their father. So it happened that many animals came alive in the world.
Ia’tik was always ready to use her seeds and images, but Nao’tsiti was selfish about the things in her basket. Now Nao’tsiti had many left, and she said she wanted a chance to give life to more of her images. “I am the elder,” Ia’tik replied. “You are younger than I.” “Is that true?” Nao’tsiti said. “I thought we were created at the same time. Let’s put it to the test: tomorrow let’s see for which of us the sun rises first.”
Ia’tik agreed to the test, but she was afraid that her sister would get the better of her in some way. She went to a white bird she knew called co’eka (the magpie) and asked it to fly quickly into the east and use its wings to shade the sun from Nao’tsiti. The magpie flew fast and far, for Ia’tik had told it not to stop. But it began to feel hungry, and when it passed over a lion’s kill, it could not resist landing. The carcass, a deer, had a hole in its side. The bird put its head into the gash to eat the intestines, and then flew on without noticing that its white feathers were soiled and bloody.
The magpie did reach the east before the sun had risen. It spread its wings on the sun’s left side, creating shade over Nao’tsiti. In this way it happened that the sun struck Ia’tik first, and Nao’tsiti was very angry. Ia’tik whispered to the magpie that it must never tell. Then she saw its filthy plumage and said, “Because you stopped and ate, from this day on you will eat carrion, and your feathers will be spotted instead of white.”
Both sisters were now having selfish thoughts. Nao’tsiti was full of plans to outwit Ia’tik, but Ia’tik watched her and anticipated everything. Nao’tsiti saw that Ia’tik was not happy; Ia’tik noticed that Nao’tsiti wandered off alone.
AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS Page 13
