Tsitctinako had told them that their father forbade them to think about having children. She promised that other humans would be born to them at the appropriate time. But now Nao’tsiti met a snake who said, “Why are you sad? If you bore a child in your likeness, you wouldn’t have to be lonely just because you and your sister don’t get along.”
“What can I do?” Nao’tsiti asked.
“Go to the rainbow; he will show you.”
Soon afterward Nao’tsiti was sitting alone on a rock when it rained. It was so hot that the rain cracked on the ground, and she lay on her back to receive the drops. As the water dripped into her, the rainbow did his work and she conceived without knowing it. Ia’tik noticed that her sister was growing very fat, and after a time Nao’tsiti bore two children, both boys.
Very angry, Tsitctinako came to them. “Why have you disobeyed your father?” she said. “For your sin, he is taking me away. You are alone now.”
Tsitctinako left them, but instead of feeling sorry, the two sisters found that they were happier. It turned out that Nao’tsiti disliked one of her children, so Ia’tik took him and brought him up. The two women still did not get along, but they were so busy with the children that it hardly mattered.
When the children were almost grown, Nao’tsiti said to her sister, “We aren’t really happy together. Let’s divide what remains in our baskets and separate. I still have many things, though they require a lot of work.” Nao’tsiti pulled out sheep and cows, seeds for wheat and vegetables, and many metals. But Ia’tik refused them, saying they would be too difficult to take care of. Nao’tsiti looked again in her basket and found something written. She offered it, but Ia’tik did not want the gift of writing either. “You should have taken some of the things I offered,” Nao’tsiti said. “In a long time we will meet again, and then you will desire my possessions. We’ll still be sisters, but I’ll have the better of you again.”
Taking the boy she had brought up, Nao’tsiti disappeared into the east. Ia’tik said to the other boy, “We will continue to live here with everything our father has given us.” The years passed, and Tia’muni, as she called him, grew up to become her husband. Ia’tik bore him a girl who was entered into the clan of her sister, the Sun clan. After the fourth day of the baby’s birth, Ia’tik put some pollen and sacred cornmeal into its hands and took it to pray to the sun. And with the many children that Ia’tik bore afterwards, she followed this same ritual that she herself had been taught when she came up into the light.
Ia’tik’s children lived together and began to increase. Their mother ruled over them, for she had her own power now that Tsitctinako was gone. But Ia’tik wished to create some other rulers, so she made the spirits of the seasons by taking earth from her baskets and giving it life. First she made the spirit of winter, which she told, “You will live in the north mountain and give life to everything in the wintertime.” Next she created the spirit of spring and sent him to the west mountain. The spirit of summer she sent to the south mountain and the spirit of autumn to the east mountain. These four spirits were ugly, not at all like the children she had borne. She taught each one what to do: winter was to bring snow, spring would warm up the world, summer would heat the world, and autumn would dislike the smell of plants and fruits and work to destroy them. And Ia’tik taught her children how to pray to these spirits for moisture, warmth, ripening, and frost.
Taking dirt from her basket, Ia’tik next gave life to the gods. The first one she created she named Tsitsenuts. “You are very handsome,” she said, “but I will give you a mask that makes you different from us humans.” She fashioned it from buffalo skin, colored it with different kinds of earth, and decorated it with feathers. Around Tsitsenuts’ neck she hung a wildcat skin, and she painted his body. She gave him a skirt, a belt, and moccasins, put cords on each wrist, and painted buffalo skins on his arms. On his calves she bound spruce branches.
“You see that I have created many other gods,” she told him. “I appoint you their ruler; you will initiate the others.” She gave him weeds of the soapwood plant for the initiation and then spoke to them all: “From now on, wear the costumes I have made for you. You are rain gods, created to call the rain when you dance before my people. They will worship you for all time.” And after she had instructed each of the gods and given each his costume and a prayer, she told them that they would have a sacred chamber in each of the four mountains. And so everything was as it should be.
—Based on a legend reported by C. Daryll Forde in 1930, and on various oral accounts.
The Hopis tell this as the tale of Bahana, the lost White Brother, replacing the sisters with brothers throughout. This version from Acoma shows Spanish influence in the mention of “sin,” a concept unknown on this continent until after Columbus; the role of the snake in tempting Nao-tsiti may also be colored by knowledge of the Bible.
EARTH MAKING
[CHEROKEE]
The Cherokee are one of the very few Indian tribes who conceive of the sun as female. This version is unusual for the Cherokee because it refers to Sun as “he.”
Earth is floating on the waters like a big island, hanging from four rawhide ropes fastened at the top of the sacred four directions. The ropes are tied to the ceiling of the sky, which is made of hard rock crystal. When the ropes break, this world will come tumbling down, and all living things will fall with it and die. Then everything will be as if the earth had never existed, for water will cover it. Maybe the white man will bring this about.
Well, in the beginning also, water covered everything. Though living creatures existed, their home was up there, above the rainbow, and it was crowded. “We are all jammed together,” the animals said. “We need more room.” Wondering what was under the water, they sent Water Beetle to look around.
Water Beetle skimmed over the surface but couldn’t find any solid footing, so he dived down to the bottom and brought up a little dab of soft mud. Magically the mud spread out in the four directions and became this island we are living on—this earth. Someone Powerful then fastened it to the sky ceiling with cords.
In the beginning the earth was flat, soft, and moist. All the animals were eager to live on it, and they kept sending down birds to see if the mud had dried and hardened enough to take their weight. But the birds all flew back and said that there was still no spot they could perch on.
Then the animals sent Grandfather Buzzard down. He flew very close and saw that the earth was still soft, but when he glided low over what would become Cherokee country, he found that the mud was getting harder. By that time Buzzard was tired and dragging. When he flapped his wings down, they made a valley where they touched the earth; when he swept them up, they made a mountain. The animals watching from above the rainbow said, “If he keeps on, there will be only mountains,” and they made him come back. That’s why we have so many mountains in Cherokee land.
At last the earth was hard and dry enough, and the animals descended. They couldn’t see very well because they had no sun or moon, and someone said, “Let’s grab Sun from up there behind the rainbow! Let’s get him down too!” Pulling Sun down, they told him, “Here’s a road for you,” and showed him the way to go—from east to west.
Now they had light, but it was much too hot, because Sun was too close to the earth. The crawfish had his back sticking out of a stream, and Sun burned it red. His meat was spoiled forever, and the people still won’t eat crawfish.
Everyone asked the sorcerers, the shamans, to put Sun higher. They pushed him up as high as a man, but it was still too hot. So they pushed him farther, but it wasn’t far enough. They tried four times, and when they had Sun up to the height of four men, he was just hot enough. Everyone was satisfied, so they left him there.
Before making humans, Someone Powerful had created plants and animals and had told them to stay awake and watch for seven days and seven nights. (This is just what young men do today when they fast and prepare for a ceremony.) But most of the plants and a
nimals couldn’t manage it; some fell asleep after one day, some after two days, some after three. Among the animals, only the owl and the mountain lion were still awake after seven days and nights. That’s why they were given the gift of seeing in the dark so that they can hunt at night.
Among the trees and other plants, only the cedar, pine, holly, and laurel wer still awake on the eighth morning. Someone Powerful said to them: “Because you watched and kept awake as you had been told, you will not lose your hair in the winter.” So these plants stay green all the time.
After creating plants and animals, Someone Powerful made a man and his sister. The man poked her with a fish and told her to give birth. After seven days she had a baby, and after seven more days she had another, and every seven days another came. The humans increased so quickly that Someone Powerful, thinking there would soon be no more room on this earth, arranged things so that a woman could have only one child every year. And that’s how it was.
Now, there is still another world under the one we live on. You can reach it by going down a spring, a water hole; but you need underworld people to be your scouts and guide you. The world under our earth is exactly like ours, except that it’s winter down there when it’s summer up here. We can see that easily, because spring water is warmer than the air in winter and cooler than the air in summer.
—Told at a Cherokee treaty council meeting in New York City, 1975.
[NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST]
Before this world was formed, there was another world with a sky made of sandstone rock. Two gods, Thunder and Nagaicho, saw that old sky being shaken by thunder.
“The rock is old,” they said. “We’ll fix it by stretching it above, far to the east.”
They stretched the sandstone, walking on the sky to do it, and under each of the sky’s four corners they set a great rock to hold it up. Then they added the different things that would make the world pleasant for people to live in. In the south they created flowers. In the east they put clouds so that people wouldn’t get headaches from the sun’s glare. To form the clouds they built a fire, then opened a large hole in the sky so that the clouds could come through. In the west they made another opening for the fog to drift in from the ocean.
Now the two gods were ready to create people. They made a man out of earth and put grass inside him to form his stomach. They used another bundle of grass for his heart, round pieces of clay for the liver and kidneys, and a reed for the windpipe. They pulverized red stone and mixed it with water to form his blood. After putting together man’s parts, they took one of his legs, split it, and turned it into a woman. Then they made a sun to travel by day and a moon to travel by night.
But the creations of the gods did not endure, for every day and every night it rained. All the people slept. Floodwaters came, and great stretches of land disappeared. The waters of the oceans flowed together; animals of all kinds drowned. Then the waters completely joined, and there were no more fields or mountains or rocks, only water. There were no trees or grass, no fish or land animals or birds. Human beings and animals all had been washed away.
The wind no longer blew through the portals of the world, nor was there snow, or frost, or rain. It did not thunder or lightning, since there were no trees to be struck. There were neither clouds nor fog, nor did the sun shine. It was very dark.
Then the earth dragon, with its great, long horns, got up and walked down from the north. It traveled underground, and the god Nagaicho rode on its head. As it walked along through the ocean depths, the water outside rose to the level of its shoulders. When it came to shallower places it turned its head upward, and because of this there is a ridge near the coast in the north upon which the waves break. When it came to the middle of the world, in the east under the rising sun, it looked up again, which created a large island near the coast. Far away to the south it continued looking up and made a great mountain range.
In the south the dragon lay down, and Nagaicho placed its head as it should be and spread gray-colored clay between its eyes and on each horn. He covered the clay with a layer of reeds, then spread another layer of clay. On it he put some small stones, and then set blue grass, brush, and trees in the clay.
“I have finished,” he said. “Let there be mountain peaks on the earth’s head. Let the waves of the sea break against them.”
The mountains appeared, and brush sprang up on them. The small stones he had placed on earth’s head became large, and the head itself was buried from sight.
Now people appeared, people who had animal names. (Later when Indians came to live on the earth, these “first people” were changed into their animal namesakes.) Seal, Sea Lion, and Grizzly Bear built a dance house. One woman by the name of Whale was fat, and that is why there are so many stout Indian women today.
The god Nagaicho caused different sea foods to grow in the water so that the people would have things to eat. He created seaweed, abalones, mussels, and many other things. Then he made salt from ocean foam. He caused the water of the ocean to rise up in waves and said that the ocean would always behave that way. He arranged for old whales to float ashore so that people would have them to eat.
He made redwoods and other trees grow on the tail of the great dragon, which lay to the north. He carved out creeks by dragging his foot through the earth so that people would have good fresh water to drink. He created many oak trees to provide acorns to eat. He traveled all over the earth making it a comfortable place for men.
After he had finished, he and his dog went walking to see how the new things looked. When they arrived back at their starting point in the north, he said to his dog: “We’re close to home. Now we’ll stay here.”
So he left this world where people live, and now he inhabits the north.
—Based on E. W. Gifford’s 1930 account.
Because so many California tribes were shattered so early on by contact with Europeans, decimated by disease and displaced from their traditional lands, many of their stories have been recorded only as fragments, and it is often difficult to attribute some to specific tribes. We can only note the general region of origin.
PEOPLE BROUGHT IN A BASKET
[MODOC]
Kumush, Old Man of the Ancients, went down with his daughter to the underground world of the spirits. It was a beautiful world, reached by one long, steep road. In it were many spirits—as many as all the stars in the sky and all the hairs on all the animals in the world.
When night came, the spirits gathered in a great plain to sing and dance. When daylight came, they returned to their places in the house, lay down, and became dry bones.
After six days and six nights in the land of the spirits, Kumush longed for the sun. He decided to return to the upper world and to take some of the spirits with him to people his world.
With a big basket in hand, he went through the house of the spirits and chose the bones he wished to take. Some bones he thought would be good for one tribe of people, others for another.
When he had filled his basket, Kumush strapped it to his back and together with his daughter started up the steep road to the upper world. Near the top he slipped and stumbled, and the basket fell to the ground. At once the bones became spirits again. Shouting and singing, they ran back to their house in the spirit world, lay down, and became dry bones.
A second time Kumush filled his basket with bones and started toward the upper world. A second time he slipped, and the spirits, shouting and singing, returned to the underground world. A third time he filled his basket with bones. This time he spoke to them angrily. “You just think you want to stay here. When you see my land, a land where the sun shines, you’ll never want to come back to this place. There are no people up there, and I know I’ll get lonesome again.”
A third time Kumush and his daughter started up the steep and slippery road with the basket. When he came near the edge of the upper world, he threw the basket ahead of him, onto level ground. “Indian bones!” he called out.
Then h
e uncovered the basket and selected the bones for the kinds of Indians he wanted in certain places. As he threw them, he named them. “You shall be the Shastas,” he said to the bones he threw westward. “You shall be brave warriors.”
“You also shall be brave warriors,” he said to the Pit River Indians and the Warm Springs Indians.
To the bones he threw a short distance northward, he said, “You shall be the Klamath Indians. You’ll be as easy to frighten as women are. You won’t be good warriors.”
Last of all he threw the bones which became the Modoc Indians. To them he said, “You will be the bravest of all. You will be my chosen people. Though you’ll be a small tribe and though your enemies are many, you will kill all who come against you. You kill keep my place when I have gone. I, Kumush, have spoken.”
To all the people created from the bones of the spirits, Kumush said, “You must send certain men to the mountains. There they must ask to be made brave or to be made wise. There, if they ask for it, they will be given the power to help themselves and to help all of you.”
Then Kumush named the different kinds of fish and beasts that the people should eat. As he spoke their names, they appeared in the rivers and lakes, on the plains and in the forests. He named the roots and the berries and the plants that the people should eat. He thought, and they appeared.
He divided the work of the people by making this law: “Men shall fish and hunt and fight. Women shall get wood and water, gather berries and dig roots, and cook for their families. This is my law.”
AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS Page 14
