American Indian Creation Myths. Teresa Pijoan Phd
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and reread all collected works. May we do her proud!
This work is dedicated to Judy Burkhalter who with love and
dedication edited this manuscript into a substantial book.
Thank you for your persistence!
A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY
Collectors of tales cannot follow the rigorous theory, experiment, and proof of the hard sciences. Collectors of tales must convince someone to talk about their past and their people's past. They must ask what stories their grandparents told. The collector must sit quietly and listen and only talk to ask questions to further the stories they are told.
In collecting these tales no tape recorder was used and no notes were taken during the telling. Immediately after the session, copious notes were taken and later expanded into a retelling of the myth as it was told to the author.
Subjects were located through word of mouth and after a short time people started coming forward and volunteering their story. All subjects were promised that they would remain anonymous.
Many of the tellers of the creation myths refer to their tribe or linguistic group. Perhaps the linguistic background at the end of this book will help you appreciate the histories of our tellers' lives.
As an example of my experiences, here is what happened at one of the sessions:
“Who are you?”
“What do you mean who am I?” I asked.
“Just that, who are you?” he replied.
“You mean my name?”
“No, no, no, we already know your name. Tell us about who you are and why you are here?”
“Oh, that's a long story,” I replied.
“You want us to tell you long stories so maybe you better tell us your long story, only make it short.”
“All right. I was born in Española, New Mexico, and lived on the San Juan Pueblo Reservation until I was twelve and then moved to the Nambe Indian Reservation. My mother is from the East Coast and my father was born in Spain. How's that?”
“That's weird. Why are you asking us about our stories? Don't you have some of your own?”
“Yes, I have stories you wouldn't believe or maybe you would. The reason I am asking you YOUR stories is out of specific interest. You see, I never really had a culture except for the culture I was raised in, which was at San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico. I loved stories when I was little and was taught the Pueblo stories. I have a great love for the stories of the Old Ways and collect them.”
“Just Indian stories or everybody's stories?”
“To be quite honest, everyone's stories, but my love for Indian stories is the strongest.”
“What are you going to do with these stories?”
“Keep them, write them down, and perhaps publish them so they are not forgotten. Most stories today disappear with people moving around and traditions are lost. My goal is to keep your stories, the traditional stories, alive by having them written down so others can read them and remember.”
“Sounds good to me, how about you guys?” he said to the others.
“Sure, my kids aren't interested, but maybe my grandchildren would like to know. Who would publish these stories and will our names be used?”
“There are publishers who will understand the purpose and your real names will not be used to protect you.”
“We will sign these papers to give you permission to use our stories, but first you must speak some Tewa.”
“Does anyone here speak Tewa?”
“No, but we will tell you our stories.”
1
CREATION FROM THE SKY
PAWNEE
The Pawnee are part of the Caddoan language family. Once, they lived freely from Nebraska to southern Arkansas and into Kansas. The Pawnee were removed to the Indian Reserve in 1876. This version was given by two tellers and has been verified by several texts, one of which is Legends and Lore of the American Indians, edited by Terri Hardin, Barnes and Noble, New York, 1993, and the BAE Anthology. This story was gathered at a car repair shop in Window Rock, Arizona. The tellers wanted to remain anonymous.
In the beginning, Atius created the earth. He put Stone People on the earth. Stone People were strong and powerful, they felt they were more powerful than Atius. Every day they would laugh at Atius as they crushed animals, tore up trees, and trampled the land. Atius was disappointed in his creations.
Atius decided to kill them. He called the clouds from the North, East, South, and West to come and bring rain. The clouds came and poured water on the earth. Mountains slid into rivers, trees disappeared, birds couldn't fly for their wings were soaked, animals drowned.
Stone People tried to get to the mountain tops, but they were too heavy to move quickly and soon sank down into the mud and all was quiet, for a time.
Mosquito flew over the water. Tiny Little Duck swam around in circles in the water and soon the two of them found each other. Tiny Little Duck asked Mosquito how he survived. Mosquito answered, “I have been living on water foam. How have you been doing?”
Tiny Little Duck pointed at the water with his beak, “I dive down to where the green plants are under the water and they are my food.” Mosquito was excited. “I would like to see the green plants, this foam is not very good.”
Tiny Little Duck tucked Mosquito under her wing, between her feathers, where Mosquito would remain dry. Tiny Little Duck dove down under the water to the green plants, but as soon as she touched a plant, the water disappeared. Suddenly, all around them was dry land. There was nothing, it was dry, flat and quiet.
Atius decided to make all the living things he had made before. Trees, plants, animals, birds and other things appeared once again on the earth's surface. People were made and again, they were as strong and as powerful as Atius. These powerful people were disrespectful to Atius. He, once more, destroyed everything on earth.
One more time, he recreated all things, but this time he made them up in the Sky World. This way he could watch them and talk with them. He made First Man. First Man knew there was a creator and spoke to him, “How is it to be now?” Atius realized First Man was alone and made First Woman. After watching over all these things for some time, Atius decided they should be put down on the earth.
Atius called to Lightning and asked him to place all things on earth. Lightning came with Cloud and they put all the living things from the Sky Place on his back. Lightning with his excited spirit, zapped them down with his lightning bolt. The living beings crashed to earth, were pushed through the mud and sent underground. Lightning was saddened by this and cried. This is why there is always thunder when there is lightning.
Confusion brought fear and terror to the living beings underground. They were crawling over each other, trying to survive. Mole decided to burrow out of this chaos. He dug through the crust and into the brilliance of the sunlight. It was so bright he lost his sight. He buried down to the others to tell them what he had found and how it had hurt him.
The others followed Mole up to the surface. Mole didn't want to come up with them, but he did. The earth was barren. There were no trees, no plants, no birds, many animals were not there. It was decided they would walk away from this place to find another place which would better suit their needs.
Each night they camped and the next day they moved farther away from the place of emergence. On one of