Keeper of Stories

March 11, 2010

Game Story

Filed under: Navaho — Tags: , — bluepanther @ 7:56 pm

There was a man who, while playing the hoop game and the game of seven wooden dice, lost all his property, including a very good house. He also lost the beads that belonged to his niece. Because of this his brothers resolved to kill him. A necklace of mixed beads was hanging in the center of the house. The niece told her uncle he might wager that also. “All right, niece,” he replied, and took the white shell, the turquoise, the abalone, the coral, the jet; he took five of them off one by one. He also provided himself with specular iron ore, pollen of larkspur and of cat-tails. With these he walked away to the corn pits which were full. From these he took one ear each of the five colors. He patted these together until they were small. “Well, little mother,” he said to his niece, “they speak of killing me. It may be you and I will see each other again. Goodbye.”

Then he put a tree into the water with himself (inside of it). He floated in the tree down where the stream enters the Colorado River. He got out of the tree there and walked along the shore. He felt lonesome there. He planted the corn he had brought with him in the form of a cross, putting the seed in, one by one. Each stalk had two ears projecting opposite each other. There were twelve stalks with two ears each.

He stayed there four years and then started to return to his home. After many days he got back, arriving early in the morning at his home which was called te’ineisk’it. He went to the corn storage pits, but they were entirely empty. He put four ears in them and blew on them four times. After that he went where his niece was sitting. They were having a famine. “Prepare food for me, my little mother,” he said to her. “There is none,” she replied. “Four days after you left, the corn was all gone. I do not know how it happened.”

She sat there crying. “I cannot cook food for you, my uncle.” “Go and get something,” he said again. “Do not say that, uncle, there is none, none.” When they had spoken to each other four times she went to the pits. When she got there the pits were full. “Thanks, uncle,” she called as she ran back with the corn. The girl then ran to the men and told them her uncle had come and that the corn pits were full again.

“Welcome,” they said, when they came in and they then embraced him. “You are the only one, younger brother. In the future we will not speak evil of you. Something has happened to the game animals. We hunt in vain.”

Wondering what had happened, the returned brother hunted for days in vain. One day when he was hunting he went to the top of a mountain. Below a cliff he saw a deer standing. He ran around and crept up where the deer had been, but it had vanished. He examined the ground, but the soil had not been disturbed. The next day he climbed the mountain again and there the deer stood again. This time he walked directly toward it trying to keep it in sight; but where it had been standing there was nothing but some deer dung. A little distance from where he stood there had been a spruce tree, but when he turned his head away and then looked in that direction again a god stood there. “What is it, grandchild?” he asked. “A deer which was standing right there has vanished,” he replied. “Have you white shell, grandson?” “I have them all, grandfather.” “My grandson has everything. We will do it,” the god said. [They went up to the god’s house.}

He found the door fronts were darkness, daylight, the moon, and the sun. Inside, shadow gods were sitting on either side, facing each other. “Well, go on, my grandson,” the first god said. He took steps on the right side of the house four times, blowing as he did so, and four footprints appeared. He discovered that the first god had pets which he kept far in the interior. He heard from inside someone say, “Ho, I smell earth people. The polite master has brought in a human being.” “Do not say that; he has everything,” the god said. Back of the fire a male deer was lying. On him lay a feathered arrow with a red shaft. It had just been pulled out.

The man took a seat in the center. He put down one each of white shell, turquoise, coral, abalone, jet, specular iron ore, blue pollen, cat-tail pollen, and then covered them with a blanket. He stepped over these four times and they became a great heap. The god was sorrowful and said, “I do not think we can give you a fair equivalent.”

He found out afterward that he stayed there in the house of the game animals four days. The shadow gods distributed the precious objects. They gave each of those present fifteen pieces, then thirteen, then nine, then seven, then five, then three, and all had been given out.

“This is the way deer should be skinned. Break the legs here at the wrist joint, but let them hang by the tendons. Leave the skin on the nose and lips. Draw the skin carefully from under the eyes. Do not cut through the bladder. Turn the hide back to the hips. If you do this way you will always kill game. Put the head toward the center, but do not let the eyes bum or the teeth. You must not cook it by burying it in the ashes. Game animals must not be thrown away. Sickness will result if you do not observe these things. If the teeth are burned the hunter’s teeth will hurt. You earth people will have a cure for it, grandson,” the god told him.

He had everything prepared. “What did you come for, grandson?” Small Whirlwind told him that on that side were images of the game animals standing side by side. On the east side was the paunch of an animal in which were deer songs. The man pointed to these. The god looked down and said, “All right, grandson. It was for these you came.”

Being xactc’eyahi I came up.
To the abode of the deer I came up.
To the door post of darkness I came up.
To the door post of daylight I came up.
To the door post of moon I came up.
To the door post of sun I came up.
To the place where xactc’eyahi with xactc’ejin sat facing each other, I came up.
To where the black bow and the feathered arrows with red shaft lie across each other, I came up.
Over there they lie across each other, red with the mouth blood of a male deer.
Over there the deer I killed likes me.
He sang only one deer song.

They were here when I was hunting them in vain he thought to himself. “Shoot them in the brush,” he told him. This is where they are.

I being xactc’eyalti.
On the trail to the top of Black Mountain,
On the trail among the flowers,
Male deer are there,
The pollen of herbs I will put in its mouth,
The male deer steps along in the dew of the vegetation.
I kill him but he likes me.

He returned home. He shot into the brush and a deer rolled over with the arrow in him. He shot into another kind of brush and a fawn rolled over with the arrow in him. He shot into another kind of brush and a yearling rolled over with the arrow.

“I have done something important,” he thought to himself as he ran back. They found he had killed them all. That is why when they get away we track them.

There are very many game songs. If one does not know them he does not hunt. We are afraid about these things because they are pets of the gods.

Taken from American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Volume
IV, Part I, page 161-164.

December 2, 2009

Four Worlds: The Dine Story of Creation

Filed under: Navaho — Tags: , , , — bluepanther @ 7:49 pm

Before this world existed, there was a first world far below the world where we are now.

In that world everything was black. There was darkness everywhere, and in the darkness there were six beings. Those beings were first man, the son of night and the blue sky over the sunset; first woman, the daughter of day break and the yellow sky of sunset; salt woman; fire god; coyote and Begochiddy. Begochiddy, who was the child of the sun, was both man and woman, and had blue eyes and golden hair.

There were no mountains or plants in that first world, so Begochiddy began to make them. Begochiddy made four mountains. To the east Begochiddy made a white mountain. To the south Begochiddy made a blue mountain. To the west Begochiddy made a yellow mountain. To the north Begochiddy made a black mountain.

To the north Begochiddy created the ants and other insects and made the first plants. But things were not right in the first world. One story is the fire god became jealous and started to burn everything up. According to another story, the first begins were not happy in that dark world. Whatever the reason was, they decided to leave the first world.

“Gather together the plants and other things I have made,” said Begochiddy to first man.

First man did as Begochiddy said. Then he and the other beings came to the red mountain which Begochiddy created in the center of the first world. The Begochiddy planted the big reed. As the hollow Big Reed began to grow, the first beings climbed into it. Up and up it grew, leaving the first world behind. It grew up and up until it came to the second world.

In the second world Begochiddy created even more things. Begochiddy created the clouds. Begochiddy created more plants and mountains. The color of the second world was blue, and there was other beings in it- Sallow People and Cat People. The Cat People tried to fight Begochiddy and the others, but First Man used his magic and overcame them. For a time, everyone was happy. Then things began to go wrong. Once more Begochiddy planted Big Reed. Once more Begochiddy told First Man and others to put all the tings created into big reed. Big reed began to grow. Up and up it went and carried them all to the third world.

The third world was yellow. Though there was no sun and moon, the mountains gave light. It was the most beautiful of the world they had seen. In this world Begochiddy created rivers and springs. Begochiddy created all kinds of human beings. In this beautiful third world everything spoke one language. All of the things and beings in creation understood each other. But everything was not perfect in the third world. Yellow and red streaks appeared across the eastern sky. They were placed there by first man and represented the diseases about to come to the people through evil magic. Before long, the men and women began to quarrel with each other. The men said that the women were causing trouble. The women said that it was the men. Coyote came to Begochiddy and told him that men and women were always quarreling. Begochiddy decided to put a stop to it.

“All of the men must stay on the right side of the bank of the river. All women must stay on the left side of the river. Neither may cross the river to be with the other.”

So it was done. The men and women lived apart for some time, but they were not happy without each other. Finally they went to Begochiddy. Some say it was the women who came first, but others say it was the men.

“We are not happy by ourselves,” they said. “We wish to be reunited.”

So Begochiddy brought men and women back together.

“If there is more trouble,” he warned them,” this third World will be destroyed by a flood.”

All of this time, Coyote was roaming around. Wherever he went he was curious about everything, including things he should have left well enough alone. One day, Salt Women went walking by the two bog rivers Begochiddy had made in this Third World. When she came to the place in the water. It looked like a baby with long black hair. Coyote lifted it out of the water and hid it under his blanket. He told no one what he had done.

Four days passed and then a great noise was heard all around the Third World. Begochiddy knew what it was, knew what had happened. Someone had done wrong. Now this Third World was about to be destroyed by flood. From the East a black storm came. From the south a blue storm approached. From the west came the yellow storm. From the north a white storm swept. Once again Begochiddy gathered all the beings and things created. Once again Big Reed grew up and up. It lifted up all the beings and things as storm waters rose beneath them.

This time, though, was not as easy as before. Big Reed stopped growing before it entered the next world. The Spider People wove a web to bring them closer, but they could break through into the new world. The ant People tried to dig through, but they could not do it. Finally Begochiddy told the Locust to try. Using their hard head the locust broke through into the Fourth World. Now Brgochiddy climbed up through the hole the locust had made. He found himself on an island with only water to be seen in all directions. Begochiddy saw right away that there were others in this Fourth World who had great power. To the east was talking god. To the south was forest bringer of seeds. To the west was house god. To the north was a second bringer of seeds. Begochiddy waved to each of them. Then the four powerful beings made the waters recede, leaving a world covered with mud. Begochiddy went back down Big Reed to the others.

“Grandparent,” said the others, “how is it in the new world?”

“The new world is good,” Begochiddy said, “but it is not yet dried. Someone must try to walk up there. Who will try?”

“I will go,” said Badger. Then he went up through the hole and tried to walk on the new Fourth World. His feet broke through the surface, through, and became covered with mud. To this day all badgers have black feet.

“This will not do,” Begochiddy said. “How can we dry this new world?”

“We shall dry it,” said the winds. Then the winds went up to the Forth World. The cyclones and the whirlwinds and small dust devils went up to the Fourth World. They swirled about and dried the surface well so the people went up and walked on the dried Fourth World, and all the other people and created things followed.

Begochiddy, though, looked back down through the hole to the Third World. The water was still rising.

“Who is the one who angered the water monster?” Begochiddy said.

No one answered, but coyote pulled his blanket tighter around himself.

“Open your blanket,” Begochiddy said.

Then Coyote opened his blanket and Begochiddy saw the water baby.

“You must give the water monster back its child,” Said Begochiddy.

Coyote did as Begochiddy said. He dropped the water baby back to the Third World, and the waters receded.

Now Begochiddy went around the Forth World and placed things in order. The mountains were put in their places. The sun and moon and stars were put into the sky. Fire god tried to keep all the fire to himself, even though the people needed it to keep warm and cook their food. One night, through, a fire god slept, coyote stole fire from him and gave it to all the people. Then Begochiddy told the humans beings the right way to live, how to give thanks, how to care for the plants such as corn and squash and beans. Begochiddy gave them ,may different languages, then, and sent them to live throughout the world. It was now, in the Forth World, that changing Women came to be. She became the greatest friend of the human beings, helping them in ways. It was changing women who gave birth to the hero twins, who traveled throughout the world doing great deeds, destroying the monsters that threatened the people.

So the Fourth World came to be. However, just as the worlds before it were destroyed when wrong was done, so too this Fourth World was destined to be destroyed when the people do not live the right way. That is what the Dine say to this day.

( Dine [Navajo] Southwest)
Taken from the book Keepers of the Earth

June 10, 2009

Creation Story Navajo

Filed under: Navaho — Tags: , , , — bluepanther @ 5:11 pm

The Navajo creation story involves three underworlds where important events happened to shape the Fourth World where we now live.

The Navajo were given the name Ni’hookaa Diyan Diné by their creators. It means “Holy Earth People” or “Lords of the Earth”. Navajos today simply call themselves “Diné”, meaning “The People”. The Tewa Indians were the first to call them “Navahu”, which means “the large area of cultivated land”. The Mexicans knew them as “Apaches Du Nabahu” (Apaches of the Cultivated Fields), where “Apache” (Enemy) was picked up from the Zuni Indian language. The “Apaches Du Nabahu” were known as a special group somewhat distinct from the rest of the Apaches. Alonso de Benavides changed the name to “Navaho” in a book written in 1630. The English name the Diné officially use for themselves is “Navajo”. Recently, Navajos have been referring to call themselves by their original name, “Diné”.

According to the Diné, they emerged from three previous underworlds into this, the fourth, or “Glittering World”, through a magic reed. The first people from the other three worlds were not like the people of today. They were animals, insects or masked spirits as depicted in Navajo ceremonies. First Man (‘Altsé Hastiin), and First Woman (‘Altsé ‘Asdzáá), were two of the beings from the First or Black World. First Man was made in the east from the meeting of the white and black clouds. First Woman was made in the west from the joining of the yellow and blue clouds. Spider Woman (Na ashje’ii ‘Asdzáá), who taught Navajo women how to weave, was also from the first world.

Once in the Glittering World, the first thing the people did was build a sweat house and sing the Blessing Song. Then they met in the first house (hogan) made exactly as Talking God (Haashch’eelti’i) had prescribed. In this hogan, the people began to arrange their world, naming the four sacred mountains surrounding the land and designating the four sacred stones that would become the boundaries of their homeland. In actuality, these mountains do not contain the symbolic sacred stones. The San Francisco Peaks (Dook’o'oslííd), represents the Abalone and Coral stones. It is located just north of Flagstaff, and is the Navajo’s religious western boundary. Mt. Blanco (Tsisnaasjini’), in Colorado, represents the White Shell stone, and represents the Navajo’s religious eastern boundary. Mt. Taylor (Tsoodzil), east of Grants, New Mexico, represents the Turquoise stone, and represents the Navajo’s religious southern boundary. Mt. Hesperus (Dibé Nitsaa), in Colorado, represents the Black Jet stone, and represents the Navajo’s religious northern boundary. Pictures of these sacred mountains can be found by clicking here.

After setting the mountains down where they should go, the Navajo deities, or “Holy People”, put the sun and the moon into the sky and were in the process of carefully placing the stars in an orderly way. But the Coyote, known as the trickster, grew impatient from the long deliberations being held, and seized the corner of the blanket where it lay and flung the remaining stars into the sky.

The Holy People continued to make the necessities of life, like clouds, trees and rain. Everything was as it should be when the evil monsters appeared and began to kill the new Earth People. But a miracle happened to save them, by the birth of Ever Changing Woman (Asdzaa Nadleehe) at Gobernador Knob (Ch’óol’í’í), New Mexico.

Changing Woman grew up around El Huerfano Mesa (Dzil Na’oodilii), in northern New Mexico. She married the Sun and bore two son, twins, and heroes to the Navajo people. They were known as “Monster Slayer” and “Child-Born-of-Water”. The twins traveled to their father the Sun who gave them weapons of lighting bolts to fight the dreaded monsters. Every place the Hero Twins killed a monster it turned to stone. An example of this is the lave flows near Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, believed to be the blood from the death of Ye’iitsoh, or the “Monster who Sucked in People”. All of the angular rock formations on the reservation, such as the immense Black Mesa (Dzil Yíjiin), are seen as the turned-to-stone bodies of the monsters.

With all of the monsters dead, the Navajo deities, or “Holy People”, turned their attention to the making of the four original clans. Kiiyaa aanii, or Tall House People, was the first clan. They were made of yellow and white corn. Eventually other clans traveled to the area round the San Juan River, bring their important contributions to the tribe. Some were Paiutes who brought their beautiful baskets. Others were Pueblos who shared their farming and weaving skills. Still others were Utes and Apaches.

For her husband, the “Sun”, to visit her every evening, Changing Woman went to live in the western sea on an island made of rock crystal. Her home was made of the four sacred stones: Abalone, White Shell, Turquoise, and Black Jet. During the day she became lonely and decided to make her own people. She made four clans from the flakes of her skin. These were known as the Near Water People, Mud People, Salt Water People, and Bitter Water People. When these newly formed clans heard that there were humans to the east who shared their heritage, they wanted to go meet them.

Changing Woman gave her permission for them to travel from the western sea to the San Francisco Peaks. They then traveled through the Hopi mesas where they left porcupine, still commonly found there today. Then they traveled toward the Chuska Mountains and on to Mt. Taylor. Finally, the people arrived at Dinetah, the Diné traditional homeland, and joined the other clans already living there. Dinetah is located in the many canyons that drain the San Juan River about 30 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico.

http://www.lapahie.com/Creation.cfm

June 1, 2009

Creation of First Man and First Woman

Filed under: Navaho — Tags: , , , , , — bluepanther @ 7:14 pm

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 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 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 women 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 completely covered 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 gave birth to 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.

May 14, 2009

Coyote Loses His Eyes – Navajo

Filed under: Navaho — Tags: , , , , , — bluepanther @ 7:18 pm

Coyote was walking along one day when he saw some small birds playing a game. They were sliding down a hillside on a rock. As they slid they removed their eyes and tossed them up into the treetops.

Then they said, “My eyes, come back,” and the eyes returned to them.

Coyote watched them for a long time. He decided he wanted to play that game.

He trotted over to the players and said, “I want to play that game, too. Please take my eyes out.”

“No,” they all said, and went on playing.

Coyote kept begging to be allowed to play. The fourth time he asked them they said he could play.

They removed his eyes and handed them to him. As he slid down the hillside he tossed them into a tree. Then he called out, “My eyes, come back to me.”

They came back into his hands. Coyote was very excited and wanted to play again.

The small birds warned him, but he wouldn’t listen; and the fourth time he slid down the hill the eyes did not come back when he called to them.

“Where are my eyes?” he cried. “Tell me, where are my eyes? I can’t go anywhere without eyes.”

“We warned you not to play this game,” the birds told him, but they felt sorry for him.

“We could make him some eyes,” one of them said. “Let’s go get some pitch.”

They went to the forest and gathered pitch from pine “trees,, and they pressed it into Coyote’s empty eye sockets.

After a while. Coyote could see again. And he disappeared, happy that he could use his new eyes.

Not far away, some people were celebrating and feasting.  Coyote, who was hungry, swiftly approached the crowd and asked to help cook the food. They agreed; so he joined the people and assisted with the cooking. In that way he hoped to get something good to eat.

As he went close to the fire, however, his eyes began to melt. He became worried and tried to keep away from the heat. But the people urged him to stay near the fire so that he could help cook.

Coyote faced away from the flames while he tried to turn the meat cooking in the hot coals, and he grabbed a red hot piece of wood, burning his hand. He dropped the coal and yelled.

The people wondered why Coyote was afraid to get near the fire and why he picked up a hot coal. Then they noticed that Coyote’s yellow shining eyes were made of yellow pine pitch, and Coyote jumped away from the people and ran off.

That is why coyotes even today have yellow eyes.

Taken from Coyote Stories of the Navajo People, Navajo Curriculum Center Press, 1974 School Board, Inc. Rough Rock Arizona.

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