The Origins of the Totems and of Names
Zuni (New Mexico)
Now the Twain Beloved and the priest-fathers gathered in council for the
naming and selection of man-groups and creature-kinds, and things. So
they called the people of the southern space the Children of Summer, and
those who loved the sun most became the Sun people. Others who loved the
water became the Toad people, or Turtle people, or Frog people. Others
loved the seeds of the earth and became the Seed people, or the people
of the First-growing grass, or of the Tobacco. Those who loved warmth
were the Fire or Badger people. According to their natures they chose
their totems.
And so also did the People of Winter, or the People of the North. Some
were known as the Bear people, or the Coyote people, or Deer people;
others as the Crane people, Turkey people, or Grouse people. So the
Badger people dwelt in a warm place, even as the badgers on the sunny
side of hills burrow, finding a dwelling amongst the dry roots whence is
fire.
Traditions of Wanderings
Hopi (Arizona)
After the Hopi had been taught to build stone houses, they took
separate ways. My people were the Snake people. They lived in snake
skins, each family occupying a separate snake skin bag. All were hung on
the end of a rainbow which swung around until the end touched Navajo
Mountain. Then the bags dropped from it. Wherever a bag dropped, there
was their house. After they arranged their bags they came out from them
as men and women, and they then built a stone house which had five
sides. Then a brilliant star arose in the southeast. It would shine for
a while and disappear.
The old men said, "'Beneath that star there must be people." They
decided to travel to it. They cut a staff and set it in the ground and
watched until the star reached its top. Then they started and travelled
as long as the star shone. When it disappeared they halted. But the star
did not shine every night. Sometimes many years passed before it
appeared again. When this occurred, the people built houses during their
halt. They built round houses and square houses, and all the ruins
between here and Navajo Mountain mark the places where our people lived.
They waited until the star came to the top of the staff again, but when
they moved on, many people remained in those houses.
When our people reached Waipho (a spring a few miles from Walpi) the
star vanished. It has never been seen since. They built a house there,
but Masauwu, the God of the Face of the Earth, came and compelled the
people to move about halfway between the East Mesa and the Middle Mesa
and there they stayed many plantings. One time when the old men were
assembled, the god came among them, looking like a horrible skeleton and
rattling his bones. But he could not frighten them. So he said, "I have
lost my wager. All that I have is yours. Ask for anything you want and I
will give it to you."
At that time, our people's house was beside the water course. The god
said, "Why do you sit there in the mud? Go up yonder where it is dry."
So they went across to the west side of the mesa near the point and
built a house and lived there.
Again when the old men assembled two demons came among them, but the old
men took the great Baho and chased them away.
Other Hopi (Hopituh) came into this country from time to time and old
people said, "Build here," or "Build there," and portioned the land
among the newcomers.
The Migration of the Water People
Walpi (Arizona)
In the long ago, the Snake, Horn, and Eagle people lived here (in
Tusayan) but their corn grew only a span high and when they sang for
rain, the Cloud god sent only a thin mist. My people lived then in the
distant Pa-lat Kwa-bi in the South. There was a very bad old man there.
When he met any one he would spit in their faces.... He did all
manner of evil. Baholihonga got angry at this and turned the world
upside down. Water spouted up through the kivas and through the fire
places in the houses. The earth was rent in great chasms, and water
covered everything except one narrow ridge of mud. Across this the
Serpent-god told all the people to travel. As they journeyed across, the
feet of the bad slipped and they fell into the dark water. The good
people, after many days, reached dry land.
While the water was rising around the village, the old people got on top
of the houses. They thought they could not struggle across with the
younger people. But Baholihonga clothed them with the skins of turkeys.
They spread their wings out and floated in the air just above the
surface of the water, and in this way they got across. There were saved
of us, the Water people, the Corn people, the Lizard, Horned-toad, and
Sand peoples, two families of Rabbit, and the Tobacco people. The turkey
tail dragged in the water. That is why there is white on the turkey's
tail now. This is also the reason why old people use turkey-feathers at
the religious ceremonies.
Coyote and the Mesquite Beans
Pima (Arizona)
After the waters of the flood had gone down, Elder Brother said to
Coyote, "Do not touch that black bug; and do not eat the mesquite beans.
It is dangerous to harm anything that came safe through the flood."
So Coyote went on, but presently he came to the black bug. He stopped
and ate it up. Then he went on to the mesquite beans. He stopped and
looked at them a while, and then said, "I will just taste one and that
will be all." But he stood there and ate and ate until he had eaten them
all up. And the bug and the beans swelled up in his stomach and killed
him.
Origin of the Sierra Nevadas and Coast Range
Yokuts (near Fresno, Cal.)
Once there was a time when there was nothing in the world but water.
About the place where Tulare Lake is now, there was a pole standing far
up out of the water, and on this pole perched Hawk and Crow. First Hawk
would sit on the pole a while, then Crow would knock him off and sit on
it himself. Thus they sat on the top of the pole above the water for
many ages. At last they created the birds which prey on fish. They
created Kingfisher, Eagle, Pelican, and others. They created also Duck.
Duck was very small but she dived to the bottom of the water, took a
beakful of mud, and then died in coming to the top of the water. Duck
lay dead floating on the water. Then Hawk and Crow took the mud from
Duck's beak, and began making the mountains.
They began at the place now known as Ta-hi-cha-pa Pass, and Hawk made
the east range. Crow made the west one. They pushed the mud down hard
into the water and then piled it high. They worked toward the north. At
last Hawk and Crow met at Mount Shasta. Then their work was done. But
when they looked at their mountains, Crow's range was much larger than
Hawk's.
Hawk said to Crow, "How did this happen, you rascal? You have been
stealing earth from my bill. That is why your mountains are the
biggest." Crow laughed.
Then Hawk chewed some Indian tobacco. That made him wise. At once he
took hold of the mountains and turned them around almost in a circle. He
put his range where Crow's had been. That is why the Sierra Nevada Range
is larger than the Coast Range.
Yosemite Valley
(Explanatory) (3)
Mr. Stephen Powers claims that there is no such word in the Miwok
language as Yosemite. The valley has always been known to them, and is
to this day, when speaking among themselves, as A-wa'-ni. This, it is
true, is only the name of one of the ancient villages which it
contained; but by prominence it gave its name to the valley, and in
accordance with Indian usage almost everywhere, to the inhabitants of
the same. The word Yosemite is simply a very beautiful and sonorous
corruption of the word for grizzly bear. On the Stanislaus and north of
it, the word is u-zu'-mai-ti; at Little Gap, o-so'-mai-ti; in
Yosemite itself, u-zu'-mai-ti; on the South Fork of the Merced,
uh-zu'-mai-tuh....
"In the following list, the signification of the name is given whenever
there is any known to the Indians:
"Wa-kal'-la (the river), Merced River.
"Lung-u-tu-ku'-ya, Ribbon Fall.
"Po'-ho-no, Po-ho'-no (though the first is probably the more correct),
Bridal-Veil Fall.... This word is said to signify 'evil wind.' The
only 'evil wind' that an Indian knows of is a whirlwind, which is
poi-i'-cha or Kan'-u-ma.
"Tu-tok-a-nu'-la, El Capitan. 'Measuring-worm stone.' [Legend is given
elsewhere.]
"Ko-su'-ko, Cathedral Rock.
"Pu-si'-na, and Chuk'-ka (the squirrel and the acorn-cache), a tall,
sharp needle, with a smaller one at its base, just east of Cathedral
Rock.... The savages... imagined here a squirrel nibbling at the
base of an acorn granary.
"Loi'-a, Sentinel Rock.
"Sak'-ka-du-eh, Sentinel Dome.
"Cho'-lok (the fall), Yosemite Fall. This is the generic word for 'fall.'
"Ma'-ta (the canon), Indian canon. A generic word, in explaining which
the Indians hold up both hands to denote perpendicular walls.
"Ham'-mo-ko (usually contracted to Ham'-moak),... broken debris lying
at the foot of the walls.
"U-zu'-mai-ti La'-wa-tuh (grizzly bear skin), Glacier Rock... from
the grayish, grizzled appearance of the wall.
"Cho-ko-nip'-o-deh (baby-basket), Royal Arches. This... canopy-rock
bears no little resemblance to an Indian baby-basket. Another form is
cho-ko'-ni,... literally... 'dog-house.'
"Pai-wai'-ak (white water?), Vernal Fall.
"Yo-wai-yi, Nevada Fall. In this word is detected the root of Awaia, 'a
lake' or body of water.
"Tis-se'-yak, South Dome. [See legend elsewhere.]
"To-ko'-ye, North Dome, husband of Tisseyak. [See legend elsewhere.]
"Shun'-ta, Hun'-ta (the eye), Watching Eye.
"A-wai'-a (a lake), Mirror Lake.
"Sa-wah' (a gap), a name occurring frequently.
"Wa-ha'-ka, a village which stood at the base of Three Brothers; also
the rock itself. This was the westernmost village in the valley.
"There were nine villages in Yosemite Valley and... formerly others
extending as far down as the Bridal Veil Fall, which were destroyed in
wars that occurred before the whites came."
(3) The explanation given above is that made by Mr. Stephen Powers, in
Vol. 3, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain
region, Part 2, Contributions to North American Ethnology, 1877.
Legend of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La (El Capitan)
Yosemite Valley
Here were once two little boys living in the valley who went down to the
river to swim. After paddling and splashing about to their hearts'
content, they went on shore and crept up on a huge boulder which stood
beside the water. They lay down in the warm sunshine to dry themselves,
but fell asleep. They slept so soundly that they knew nothing, though
the great boulder grew day by day, and rose night by night, until it
lifted them up beyond the sight of their tribe, who looked for them
everywhere.
The rock grew until the boys were lifted high into the heaven, even far
up above the blue sky, until they scraped their faces against the moon.
And still, year after year, among the clouds they slept.
Then there was held a great council of all the animals to bring the boys
down from the top of the great rock. Every animal leaped as high as he
could up the face of the rocky wall. Mouse could only jump as high as
one's hand; Rat, twice as high. Then Raccoon tried; he could jump a
little farther. One after another of the animals tried, and Grizzly Bear
made a great leap far up the wall, but fell back. Last of all Lion
tried, and he jumped farther than any other animal, but fell down upon
his back. Then came tiny Measuring-Worm, and began to creep up the rock.
Soon he reached as high as Raccoon had jumped, then as high as Bear,
then as high as Lion's leap, and by and by he was out of sight, climbing
up the face of the rock. For one whole snow, Measuring-Worm climbed the
rock, and at last he reached the top. Then he wakened the boys, and came
down the same way he went up, and brought them down safely to the
ground. Therefore the rock is called Tutokanula, the measuring worm. But
white men call it El Capitan.
Legend of Tis-Se'-Yak (South Dome and North Dome)
Yosemite Valley
Tisseyak and her husband journeyed from a country very far off, and
entered the valley of the Yosemite foot-sore from travel. She bore a
great heavy conical basket, strapped across her head. Tisseyak came
first. Her husband followed with a rude staff and a light roll of skins
on his back. They were thirsty after their long journey across the
mountains. They hurried forward to drink of the waters, and the woman
was still in advance when she reached Lake Awaia. Then she dipped up the
water in her basket and drank of it. She drank up all the water. The
lake was dry before her husband reached it. And because the woman drank
all the water, there came a drought. The earth dried tip. There was no
grass, nor any green thing.
But the man was angry because he had no water to drink. He beat the
woman with his staff and she fled, but he followed and beat her even
more. Then the woman wept. In her anger she turned and flung her basket
at the man. And even then they were changed into stone. The woman's
basket lies upturned beside the man. The woman's face is tear-stained,
with long dark lines trailing down.
South Dome is the woman and North Dome is the husband. The Indian woman
cuts her hair straight across the forehead, and allows the sides to drop
along her cheeks, forming a square face.
Historic Tradition of the Upper Tuolumne
Yosemite Valley
(As given by Mr. Stephen Powers, 1877.)(4)
There is a lake-like expansion of the Upper Tuolumne some four miles
long and from a half mile to a mile wide, directly north of Hatchatchie
Valley (erroneously spelled Hetch Hetchy). It appears to have no name
among Americans, but the Indians call it O-wai-a-nuh, which is
manifestly a dialectic variation of a-wai'-a, the generic word for
"lake." Nat. Screech, a veteran mountaineer and hunter, states that he
visited this region in 1850, and at that time there was a valley along
the river having the same dimensions that this lake now has. Again, in
1855, he happened to pass that way and discovered that the lake had been
formed as it now exists. He was at a loss to account for its origin; but
subsequently he acquired the Miwok language as spoken at Little Gap, and
while listening to the Indians one day he overheard them casually refer
to the formation of this lake in an extraordinary manner. On being
questioned they stated that there had been a tremendous cataclysm in
that valley, the bottom of it having fallen out apparently, whereby
the entire valley was submerged in the waters of the river. As nearly
as he could ascertain from their imperfect methods of reckoning time,
this occurred in 1851; and in that year, while in the town of Sonora,
Screech and many others remembered to have heard a huge explosion in
that direction which they then supposed was caused by a local earthquake.
On Drew's Ranch, Middle Fork of the Tuolumne, lives an aged squaw called
Dish-i, who was in the valley when this remarkable event occurred.
According to her account the earth dropped in beneath their feet, and
waters of the river leaped up and came rushing upon them in a vast,
roaring flood, almost perpendicular like a wall of rock. At first the
Indians were stricken dumb, and motionless with terror, but when they
saw the waters coming, they escaped for life, though thirty or forty
were overtaken and drowned. Another squaw named Isabel says that the
stubs of trees, which are still plainly visible deep down in the
pellucid waters, are considered by the old superstitious Indians to be
evil spirits, the demons of the place, reaching up their arms, and that
they fear them greatly.
(4) (Vol. 3, Part 2, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the
Rocky Mountain region: Contributions to North American Ethnology, 1877.)
California Big Trees
Pai Utes (near Kern River, Cal.)
The California big trees are sacred to the Monos, who call them
"woh-woh-nau," a word formed in imitation of the hoot of the owl. The
owl is the guardian spirit and the god of the big trees. Bad luck comes
to those who cut down the big trees, or shoot at an owl, or shoot in the
presence of the owl.
In old days the Indians tried to persuade the white men not to cut down
the big trees. When they see the trees cut down they call after the
white men. They say the owl will bring them evil.
The Children of Cloud
Pima (Arizona)
When the Hohokam dwelt on the Gila River and tilled their farms around
the great temple which we call Casa Grande, there was a beautiful young
woman in the pueblo who had two twin sons. Their father was Cloud, and
he lived far away.
One day the boys came to their mother, as she was weaving mats. "Who is.
our father?" they asked. "We have no one to run to when he returns from
the hunt, or from war, to shout to him."
The mother answered: "In the morning, look toward the sunrise and you
will see a white Cloud standing upright. He is your father."
"Can we visit our father?" they asked.
"Yes," said their mother. "You may visit him, but you must make the
journey without stopping. First you will reach Wind, who is your
father's eldest brother. Behind him you will find your father."
The boys travelled four days and came to the house of Wind.
"Are you our father?" they asked.
"No, I am your Uncle," answered Wind." Your father lives in the next
house. Go on to him."
They travelled on to Cloud. But Cloud drove them away. He said, "Go to
your uncle Wind. He will tell you something." But Wind sent them back to
Cloud again. Thus the boys were driven away from each house four times.
Then Cloud said to them, "Prove to me you are my sons. If you are, you
can do what I do."
The younger boy sent chain lightning across the sky with sharp,
crackling thunder. The elder boy sent the heat lightning with its
distant rumble of thunder.
"You are my children," said Cloud. "You have power like mine."
But again he tested them. He took them to a house near by where a flood
of rain had drowned the people. "If I they are my sons," he said, "they
will not be harmed."
Then Cloud sent the rain and the storm. The water rose higher and
higher, but the two boys were not harmed. The water could not drown
them. Then Cloud took them to his home and there they stayed a long,
long time.
But after a long time, the boys wished to see their mother again. Then
Cloud made them some bows and arrows differing from any they had ever
seen, and sent them to their mother. He told them he would watch over
them as they travelled but they must speak to no one they met on their
way.
So the boys travelled to the setting sun. First they met Raven. They
remembered their father's command and turned aside so as not to meet
him. Then they met Roadrunner, and turned aside to avoid him. Next came
Hawk and Eagle.
Eagle said, "Let's scare those boys." So he swooped down over their
heads until they cried from fright.
"We were just teasing you," said Eagle. "We will not do you any harm."
Then Eagle flew on.
Next they met Coyote. They tried to avoid him, but Coyote ran around and
put himself in their way. Cloud was watching and he sent down thunder
and lightning. And the boys sent out their magic thunder and lightning
also, until Coyote was frightened and ran away.
Now this happened on the mountain top, and one boy was standing on each
side of the trail. After Coyote ran away, they were changed into mescal
--the very largest mescal ever known. The place was near Tucson. This is
the reason why mescal grows on the mountains, and why thunder and
lightning go from place to place--because the children did. That is why
it rains when we gather mescal.
The Cloud People
Sia (New Mexico)
Now all the Cloud People, the Lightning People, the Thunder and Rainbow
Peoples followed the Sia into the upper world. But all the people of
Tinia, the middle world, did not leave the lower world. Only a portion
were sent by the Spider to work for the people of the upper world. The
Cloud People are so many that, although the demands of the earth people
are so great, there are always many passing about over Tinia for
pleasure. These Cloud People ride on wheels, small wheels being used by
the little Cloud children and large wheels by the older ones. (5)
The Cloud People keep always behind their masks. The shape of the mask
depends upon the number of the people and the work being done. The
Henati are the floating white clouds behind which the Cloud People pass
for pleasure. The Heash are clouds like the plains and behind these the
Cloud People are laboring to water the earth. Water is brought by the
Cloud People, from the springs at the base of the mountains, in gourds
and jugs and vases by the men, women, and children. They rise from the
springs and pass through the trunk of the tree to its top, which reaches
Tinia. They pass on to the point to be sprinkled.
The priest of the Cloud People is above even the priests of the Thunder,
Lightning, and Rainbow Peoples. The Cloud People have ceremonials, just
like those of the Sia. On the altars of the Sia may be seen figures
arranged just as the Cloud People sit in their ceremonials.
When a priest of the Cloud People wishes assistance from the Thunder and
Lightning Peoples, he notifies their priests, but keeps a supervision of
all things himself.
Then the Lightning People shoot their arrows to make it rain the harder.
The smaller flashes come from the bows of the children. The Thunder
People have human forms, with wings of knives, and by flapping these
wings they make a great noise. Thus they frighten the Cloud and
Lightning People into working the harder.
The Rainbow People were created to work in Tinia to make it more
beautiful for the people of Ha-arts, the earth, to look upon. The elders
make the beautiful rainbows, but the children assist. The Sia have no
idea of what or how these bows are made. They do know, however, that war
heroes always travel upon the rainbows.
(5) The Indians say the Americans also ride wheels, therefore they must
have known about the Cloud People.
Rain Song
Sia (New Mexico)
We, the ancient ones, ascended from the middle of the world below,
through the door of the entrance to the lower world, we hold our songs
to the Cloud, Lightning, and Thunder Peoples as we hold our own hearts.
Our medicine is precious.
(Addressing the people of Tinia:)
We entreat you to send your thoughts to us so that we may sing your
songs straight, so that they will pass over the straight road to the
Cloud priests that they may cover the earth with water, so that she may
bear all that is good for us.
Lightning People, send your arrows to the middle of the earth. Hear the
echo! Who is it? The People of the Spruce of the North. All your people
and your thoughts come to us. Who is it? People of the white floating
Clouds. Your thoughts come to us. All your people and your thoughts come
to us. Who is it? The Lightning People. Your thoughts come to us. Who is
it? Cloud People at the horizon. All your people and your thoughts come
to us.