Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache

“I wish I might drink water again on top where black rain stands up. I wish I might drink water again on top where the water stands up.” His brother returned and surprised him while he was still singing.

They went back again to the house and the boy told them that his brother had been singing. He was told there were no songs and that he was not speaking the truth. He reaffirmed his statement. He asked that a sweathouse be built. When it was ready the boys went in and were singing inside. The young man who had been turned into water started to sing the water songs. Inside he wove lightning together again. There had been no water songs and now they existed. Thus, there came to be medicinemen for water.

The Man who visited the Sky with the Eagles. 59

Long ago, there was a man who had a wife and two children, both boys. He went with Coyote on a hunting trip and camped near where they expected to secure game. He went out to hunt in the morning; and Coyote also went by himself and, as he was walking along, he came where there was an eagle's nest on a point of rock jutting out in the middle of a high cliff. There were young eagles in the nest.

Coyote returned to the camp and reported to the hunter that he had seen young eagles in a nest. Saying he wished some good feathers for feathering arrows, he asked the other man to lower him from the top of the cliff to the nest. When they had come to the place, Coyote asked the other man to allow himself to be lowered and to throw the feathers down for him. Coyote lowered him, asking if he had come to the young eagles. The reply was, “Not yet.” A little later, the same question was repeated and the answer this time was, “Yes.” Coyote then let the rope fall on the man saying, “Cousin, she who was your wife will be mine.”

The man then sat with the young eagles. He asked what sort of weather prevailed when their father returned. They replied that a “male” rain fell.60 Soon a “male” rain fell and the father of the young eagles flew back in the rain. When he came where the man was sitting with the young eagles, he asked who was there. The man replied that Coyote had lowered him and that he was hovering his children for him. The male bird told him he might remain there and flew off.

The man then asked the young birds in what sort of weather their mother came back. They said she returned when a “female” rain was falling. Soon a “female” rain fell and the eagle's wife returned. She asked the man who he was; he told her that Coyote had lowered him down there and that he was staying with her children. Now she told him he might remain there and departed.

The male bird came back accompanied by a “male” rain. He brought with him a water vessel made of turquoise and bade the man drink. He drank and the water was not exhausted although the vessel of turquoise was very small.61

Accompanied by a “female” rain the female bird returned and perched nearby. She put down a horn vessel of boiled corn and invited the man to eat it. It was a small vessel, but it was not empty when he had finished his meal.

She flew away again and after four days the eagle people all assembled. They gave him an eagle shirt and instructed him to do as they did. He put on the shirt and flew a little way with it. He put on one shirt after another and flew farther and farther each time, four times. He was a man but he became an eagle.

“Where am I going?” he asked.

“Where the black mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go up.

In the shadow of his dark wings, I come.

“Where the blue mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go up.

In the shadow of his blue wings, I come.

“Where the yellow mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go up.

In the shadow of the yellow wings, I come.

“Where the white mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go up.

In the shadow of the white wings, I come,” he sang.

“Between the two who sit on the white sky, I go up. Where the white weeds tower up, white on the sky at its center, I go up,” he sang.

“Where the dark houses of the eagles project, I come,” he sang.

“Where the blue houses of eagles project, I go up.

“Where the red houses of the eagles project, I go up.

“Where the white houses of the eagles project, I go up,” he sang.

He lay down where there were no habitations. They asked him in vain to come inside the building, for soon the person with a skull that kills would come.

Saying he would remain there, he refused, and lay down. In the night, he heard the one with a skull that kills coming. He took up a stone and hit him with it as he walked by and killed him. He also killed the bees that had caused the eagles to die out by stinging them. He took the bees from their nests and killed them all. He killed, too, the wasps that lived in rocks, and all the yellow jackets. The tumble weeds, also, were killing the eagles by rolling on them. He beat these weeds with a stick and destroyed them.

He inquired of an old eagle woman where others were living. She told him of wood-rats which have many houses and bring back much material when they go abroad. He went where cactus was standing and when night came, lay down to sleep. He heard the sound of people shouting toward the east. They were saying, “Down here.” They were chasing an insect called agetdlic. He killed it.

The stars were people and were coming to get arrows. Those who were running after agetdlic jumped over his body one by one as they reached it. The last one who was running succeeded in jumping over the body but fell back on it.

They removed the skin, cut up meat, tied it up, and put it on the man's back for him to carry. They warned him against looking back. He started away with it and carried it until he came to the top of a hill. Wondering why he had been told not to look back, he did so and fell over backward. He went to the camp of the eagles and told them his load was on the hill. They went to get the load and brought it to the camp. There was a big pile of the meat which they brought back. “This was what he meant,” they said. It was sunset by the time they brought the meat back.

“The man is a good helper,” they said. “He has killed for us all those who used to kill us.” The man then said he was going home, and the eagle people told him he might do so. They told him, though, that if he was afraid four times to fly down, that he could not go down. He was afraid the fourth time and came back saying that he would start home again on the fourth day.

They went with him to the place where the trail came up. He was afraid three times, but when it was to be the fourth time he flew down.

“Where the white mirage is located in the center of the sky he rested; where the yellow house stands, resting in its shadow he sat down.

“The blue house, standing at the center of the sky; resting in the shade he sat down again.

“The black house, standing at the center of the sky; resting in its shade he sat down again.”

From there he flew down and lit on the earth. He alighted on a tree near which sat the Coyote who had lowered him. He was saying he would shoot the eagle there and get feathers to fix his arrow's. When Coyote tried to steal up close under him the eagle flew away to his house and became a man again. Those, who used to be his children had been renamed, “They grew up by eating the neck.” Coyote had punched their eyes out. “He did it with an awl,” they told their father.

When he came back from hunting, his two children had been all right. He heard him bring his load as he came back. He was saying, “Raised-with-neck-meat, come and meet me.” “Do not go there,” he told his sons. Coyote kept shouting as he came. He brought the load there and threw it down. He called out. “Good, Cousin. You have come back? I took good care of your children.”

The man who had been with the eagles then told his wife to put four stones on the fire. She put them on the fire to heat. She put one here and one here. “Put two of the stones in your mouth and put your feet on these two,” he told Coyote. Coyote did as he was told to, but ran only a little way before his tail fell out. His wife had an ill odor from being with Coyote. He beat among Coyote's children with a stick.

He did not like living on the earth. He placed eagle plumes in a row which multiplied fourfold. With the aid of these the man became an eagle. The people living here came to have medicinemen with power from eagles. He was a man but became an eagle and is now in the sky above.

He who became a Snake. 62

A man (Naiyenezgani) was living alone. He brought wood there and built a fire. He danced on rawhide against white men and then went to war. He came where the white people were and killed a white woman. He raised up her skirt with a stick and Gila monster was there. “Let that be your name,” he said and Gila Monster was called łenellai. The two of them started back and came to a mountain called Bitcilł'ehe. From there they went back and came to a place called Tsitena'a. A porcupine was there and one of the men said, “My cousin, a porcupine lies here.” They killed it and buried it in the ashes of the fire. At midnight he uncovered it, but Naiyenezgani did not eat of it, only his partner. “My cousin, it tastes like red peppers, taste it,” he said. They lay down again and went to sleep. The next morning there were traces where the one who had eaten had crawled into the water as a snake. Naiyenezgani went back from there and in the yellow light of evening came back to Tatakawa,63 saying, “Since early this morning I came from Tsitena'a.” When all the people had come together they asked, “What place is called that?” “Big-hawk-old-man says he has been all over earth and seen everything.64 Send for him,” they said. When he was summoned, he came walking with his cane and sat down. “You are accustomed to say you have seen every place on earth. A man says he has come from Tsitena'a since early this morning,” they told him. “Well, it is not near. I flew from there in ten days and when I came here the yellow light of sunset was over the earth.”

Naiyenezgani then said, “He stayed with me last night and he ate something. It seems he turned into a snake and crawled in the river.”

All the Eagle people, Black Whirlwind, the Sun, the Moon, and the Gan people all started toward Tsitena'a. When they came there, in the presence of the Sun and Moon, Black Gan rolled a turquoise hoop into the water. The water of the river rose up so much. Then Ganłbaiye rolled a hoop of bacinϵ into the water. Next Gan with his face half covered rolled a hoop of tsϵłtcϵϵ in the water and the river was lifted up so much (about a yard). Finally, Ganłtci' rolled a hoop of yołgai and the water was high enough above the river bed that a man could walk under it.65

They all entered the bed of the river and followed the man who had turned into a snake. They finally overtook him. There was a snake on the other side which they concluded was the one who had been a man. A turquoise hoop was rolled toward him and it jumped over his neck. From the neck up he took on the appearance of a man. A hoop of bacinϵ was next rolled and it fell to the waist. Next a loop of tcϵłtcϵϵ was rolled which jumped on the man and fell to the hips, above which he took the form of a man. Finally a hoop of yołgai was rolled, and his entire body became human. Then they took him by the hand and led him back. They danced for him twelve nights and he was restored as a man. During the twelve nights, no one was allowed to sleep, but someone did fall asleep. The one who had turned into a snake began to sing, “I am going up. I am going up where the sky comes together,” he said as he sang. He was no longer seen where he had been standing. The man had a sister who began to sing. “Truly, I am going where it is called, mesquites-come-together.” She was no longer where she had been standing.

She is the one who crawls around here in the summertime. The female lives below; the male lives above.66

It was here the Indians secured the supernatural power. Naiyenezgani alone had the najonc poles. He alone played with them. There were two of the poles.

My yucca fruits lie this way.

The Hunter who secured the Bear Ceremony. 67

A man was out hunting when there was snow on the ground. As he walked along a hillside he slipped and fell off. Below was a bear's den and he fell right into it. When the female bear discovered him she jumped around and said, “Wau, wau, wau, wau.” “Please do not act like that, grandmother,” he said. “It seems I fell in here.” He remained there four days without anything to eat. “Are you not hungry?” the bear asked. “I am hungry,” he replied, “but what is there I can eat?” She shook herself and cactus fruit rained down from her. After a second period of fasting, the same question was asked and the same reply given. When the bear shook herself, juniper berries fell. The third time it was white oak acorns, and the fourth time, manzanita berries.

After that she said there were two persons living across the valley and that they would go there to visit. She also said the visit would be dangerous, for she had in mind bears and a bear's camp. The bear told the man to remain between her hind legs during the period of danger.

When they entered the bear's house and the hosts became aware of the man's presence, they became aroused and growled, “Wau, wau, wau.” The man remained between the hind legs of his companion who reached around with her front legs and defended him. “He has been with me a long time and he is our friend,” she said to the others.

Next they all went to a camp where there were three bears and there again the same things happened and the same expressions were used. From there they went with him to a camp where there were four bears. He was protected at that camp as on the former occasions and was introduced as a friend.

Accompanied by the bears, he went back to the camp at which he had first arrived. He had been gone a year. He came back to his own people. From this man there came to be bear songs and medicinemen with bear power.

The Cannibal Owl. 68

Owl was a person. He lived by eating people, carrying off the small children in a large burden basket. He had a wife to whom he brought them, saying to her, “Boil them.” When they were cooked he ate them.

There were some people who were living in a large house made of white cactus. Owl poked a pole in after them. The people inside held on to the pole. Owl pulled on it and the people held to it. They let go suddenly and Owl fell over backwards. He took two children on his back and carried them away toward the camp. He put the basket down with the children in it and went some distance away to urinate. While he was gone, the children put a large stone in the basket and defiled it. Owl started away again with his load, but when he passed under the limb of a tree the children caught hold of it. They turned into downy feathers and were blown away by the wind. “Boys, downy feathers are being blown about over there,” he said. They had been persons, but now they were downy feathers. Owl brought his load to the house for his wife. She took a knife and tried to cut across the stone with it. “It is a stone,” she said. He took it to his son-in-law. “It is a stone with manure on it,” he said. “That is its gall,” he replied. Owl went back to his wife. (The story was interrupted at this point.)

The Doings of Coyote. 69

Long ago, Coyote was told that the people were dying. He tied together a hairbrush, a wooden skin-dresser, and a stone pestle, and threw them in the water. “If these float let them come back to life,” he said. They sank and, therefore, the dead did not come back.70

Snow fell. It rained down in the form of flour. This same Coyote said, “I chewed ice,” and it became ice.

Also the horns of deer were tallow. Coyote again said, “I chew bones.”

Coyote became ill. He had a handsome daughter. When he became ill, he told his wife to throw him away. He said their daughter was to be given to a man with a panther-skin quiver on his back who would come to play najonc. This man, he said, would also have a prairie-dog in his hand.

When Coyote was dead his wife gave the daughter to the man described by Coyote and he married her. It was Coyote himself, who married his own daughter. He had her hunt his lice. On the back of his head was a large wart. He told her that the lice always stay on this side, indicating a portion of his head remote from the wart. While she was looking for his lice, her husband fell asleep. Wondering why he always spoke as he did, she looked on the back of his head. There was a wart there. She slipped his head off her lap while he was asleep and going to her mother told her that the man was her father; that he had a wart on the back of his head. She picked up a large stone and was about to strike him on the crown of his head when he saw her shadow. He jumped, ran out, and trotted off toward the east. Whenever he came where there were camps people reviled him as the man who had his own daughter for his wife. They heard him saying “ci, ci, ci.” They referred to him as the scabby one and hit him. He cried “wai” and turned from human form into a coyote.

Coyote was driving some mules. He smothered five of the mules. He wondered what smothered them. “Hurry,” he said, “skin their throats. This place will be called Coyote Springs,” he said.

When coyotes were people they all drank whiskey and ran about everywhere shouting. When they became coyotes, they barked.

Bibliography

Franciscan Fathers, The.

An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910.

Goddard, Pliny Earle,

(a) Jicarilla Apache Texts (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. VIII. New York, 1911.)

(b) The Beaver Indians (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. X, part IV. New York, 1916.)

Kroeber, A. L.

Gros Ventre Myths and Tales (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. I, part III. New York, 1907.)

Matthews, Washington.

Navaho Legends (Memoirs, American Folk-Lore Society, vol. V. New York, 1897.)

Russell, Frank.

Myths of the Jicarilla Apache (Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. XI, 1898.)

Voth, H. R.

The Traditions of the Hopi (Publication 96, Anthropological Series, Field Columbian Museum, vol. VIII. Chicago, 1905.)

Wissler, Clark, and Duvall, D. C.

Blackfoot Mythology (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. II, part I. New York, 1908.)

1

Told by a White Mountain Apache called Noze, at Rice, Arizona, in January. 1910. Noze was a native of Cedar Creek and came to the San Carlos Reservation when it was organized. He was for a long time the chief of a considerable band which in 1910 had greatly dwindled. He died some time between 1910 and the next visit in 1914.

2

This mountain was said to be called tsidalanasi and to stand by the ocean at the south. This is a remarkable statement as east would have been expected and as is so stated in fact in a following paragraph.

3

This makes the boys brothers in our use of the word. They are always so called in the Navajo account according to which their mothers were sisters. Matthews, 105.

4

At the center of the sky.

5

And therefore the boys were not seen by the Sun.

6

The sacred numbers are 4, 12, and 32.

7

This method of making the journey has not been encountered before in this connection, but is an incident in a European story secured from the San Carlos, p. 82, above. The usual account includes a series of obstacles some of which resemble the incidents of a European story. See p. 116 below.

8

Clouds according to the Navajo account, Matthews, 111; and below, p. 117.

9

Thus far the myth seems chiefly to deal with the adolescence ceremony of the boys. The San Carlos account brings in the Sun's father and brothers of the Sun's father as performers of this ceremony, while the Navajo account mentions the daughters of the Sun. See p. 11 above, and Matthews, 112.

10

Other versions make this the second naming of the elder brother. His boyhood name was “Whitehead,” p. 31. Still other names are known to the Navajo. Matthews, 263-264.

11

To know by name things or animals hitherto unknown is often mentioned as a great feat. P. 24.

12

It is seldom that the Apache conception of animism is so plainly stated. Songs however abound in the designation of objects as “living.”

13

When a youth went through an adolescence ceremony he did it with a definite career in mind. The normal myth of this type put the emphasis on the weapons secured and feats of warlike prowess in killing the monsters; that is, the warrior idea is uppermost. This version stresses the acquisition of horses and probably is a specialized myth for those who wish to be successful in acquiring and breeding horses.

14

The house of the Sun with the stable and corral, the furniture of the house, and many other references indicate the home of a European and such seems to be the conception.

15

The two wives of the Sun are often mentioned. The Navajo account has Esdzanadlehi go to the west where the sun visits her daily. Here and there, especially in the songs, the Moon is coupled with the Sun, and is feminine in sex. That the Moon and the Earth should both be called the “Woman who renews herself” is interesting. These conceptions are generally vague and implied rather than expressed.

16

Earth, literally “There on the earth.”

17

The narrator said those mentioned at the beginning of the narrative were not real people but just like shadows. The other versions have only the one family existing at this time.

18

The reference may be to moss, especially as rain falling on it is mentioned below.

19

The narrator said it was true that horses would not pass a blanket so placed in a narrow canyon.

This order of the colors and their assignment varies from the one more generally found of black for the east and white for the south. P. 7, and Matthews, 215.

20

This announcing of names is probably to be explained as ceremonial. Ordinarily, it is improper, probably because immodest to call one's own name.

21

The use of pollen for sacred purposes is a very important feature among the Athapascan of the Southwest. It is always preferred to the cornmeal used by the Pueblo peoples.

22

In the division of labor the women are supposed to saddle and unsaddle the horses.

23

Because he must use a white saddle, the informant explained.

24

The whinneying was heard from the top of the sky.

25

The conception of time passing while the Sun stood still is fairly difficult for a people without timepieces.

26

This method of traveling implies lightning, rainbow or a similar supernatural method, in this case said to be sunbeams.

27

The name is Naiye', “a dangerous monster,” and – nezgani, “he who kills.”

28

It is said above that he had no eyes in front.

29

“Mountain, its child.”

30

He did not mention his fly by name.

31

Probably means he can see people who are on the opposite side of a hill.