reserch paper about Lower Lake Rancheria

In the

Beginning… These three Cahuilla creation stories were recorded in the first half of the 20

th century. Two of

them were collected by early anthropologists to the area, William Duncan Strong and Lucile Hooper. Alejo Patencio’s (Agua Caliente Cahuilla) story was interpreted for W.D. Strong by Julian Norte in 1925. Lucile Hooper does not identify who told her the story, but we know she was here in 1918. The third story was told to Margaret Boynton by Francisco Patencio (Agua Caliente Cahuilla), and published in 1943. Each story is told slightly differently, but the underlying message is the same.

Introduction

The Cahuilla creation story was originally

told in songs, accompanied by the meter of

gourd rattles at nukil ceremonies. These

ceremonies were usually held a year after a

person’s death to help guide the deceased to

telmikish, the place where the dead go. There

are only a few singers that still know these

creation songs. Traditionally, it took seven

nights to complete the song cycles which told

among other things, of um na’a, the power that

created twin boys, Mukat and Temayawit.

Mukat and Temayawit created the earth,

people, and animals. After quarreling,

Temayawit took his creations to the underworld, and Mukat’s creations remained on earth. Mukat taught his

people the laws for survival. But after he gave rattle snake poisonous fangs, tricked the people into killing each

other, and acted inappropriately with his daughter, Menil (moon maiden), the people decided they had to kill

their creator.

When Mukat became sick, and nothing helped him, he knew he had been “witched” by his people.

Even though the story is told differently by each storyteller, the instructions within are the same.

Because of these stories being recorded, the knowledge may now be passed down to future generations.

*Some of our sources have chosen to italicize Cahuilla words and others not; while one source italicizes both Cahuilla and Spanish words. For the sake of consistency, we have chosen to italicize only Cahuilla words. The serious reader is advised to consult the original texts for an exact presentation.

**All rights reserved except where otherwise noted

Coyote Saves His Fathers Heart, by Andrew Gillespie

Anthropologist Lucille Hooper wrote The Cahuilla Indians in 1918 after living with Desert Cahuilla for six

months. Her short, but seminal work reccounts aspects of Cahuilla social life, ceremonies, and the creation

story.

Lucille Hooper (1882- )

Lucille Hooper, received her M.A. in

anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1919—a time when

most women did not even attend college. Hooper

wrote The Cahuilla Indians in 1918 as a University of

California research fellow in anthropology. Her

research goal was to determine if the Desert Cahuilla,

living in Indio and around the Salton Sea area, were

more culturally affiliated with the Tribes east of the

region or the Tribes west of the region. She chose to

study the Cahuilla bands in this area because she

believed them to be less influenced by the Euro-

American settlements and culture than the other bands of Cahuilla in the mountains and pass region.

Hooper stayed at a ranch in Coachella for six months and studied the Cahuilla people’s daily life,

ceremonies, and political and social systems; and, she made field recordings of songs and ceremonies on

cylinder, which are now held in the UC Berkeley archives.

“Her work was short but seminal, presented for the first time, essentials about the Cahuilla culture

which some of its most important leaders chose to relate.”

– Lowell J. Bean, Ph.D

To view the list of Hooper’s audio recordings held in the UC Berkeley archives, please visit the link:

http://cla.berkeley.edu/collection/11046

Desert Cahuilla Home by Edward Curtis

The Desert Cahuilla Person from whom Hooper Gained Info

Even though there were differences in dialects, the Cahuilla were not

categorized into three distinct groups—Desert, Pass, and Mountain—until W.

D. Strong, an anthropologist, came to the region in the 1920s. Desert Cahuilla

are those who live near Indio, CA and the Salton Sea; today, the bands

considered Desert Cahuilla are the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians,

the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, and the Cabazon Band of Mission

Indians.

Although, Lucile Hooper did not record the name of the person she

acquired the creation story from, nor did she indicate whether a translator

was required during the interview, some facts can be reasonably assumed

about who this Cahuilla narrator may have been. Based on the work done by

anthropologist William Duncan Strong, who followed Hooper to the region

6 years later, one might assume that she too gathered her information

from a Cahuilla net (ceremonial and clan leader). It was the net’s duty to

learn and know the creation stories precisely, and to preserve and teach the history of their people. The

hereditary role of net was normally passed from father to the oldest or most capable son, however, female

nets were not unknown in Cahuilla history.

An unknown Cahuilla man Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. All Rights

Reserved Gift of Frank Bogert

The Cahuilla Indians Lucille Hooper

“Origin Beliefs” 203

Birth of Mukat and Tamaioit

In the beginning, there was no earth or sky or anything or

anybody; only a dense darkness in space. This darkness seemed alive.

Something like lightnings seemed to pass through it and meet each

other once in a while. Two substances which looked like the white of

an egg came from these lightnings. They lay side by side in the

stomach of the darkness, which resembled a spider web. These

substances disappeared. They were then produced again, and again

they disappeared. This was called the miscarriage of the darkness. The

third time they appeared, they remained, hanging there in this web in

the darkness. The substances began to grow and soon were two very

large eggs. When they began to hatch, they broke at the top first. Two

heads came out, then shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, toes; then the

shell was all gone. Two boys had emerged: Mukat and Tamaioit. They were grown men from the first, and

could talk right away. As they lay there, both at the same time heard a noise like a bee buzzing. It was the song

of their mother Darkness.

Attempt to Create Light

Mukat said he was the first to hear the song, but Tamaioit declared that he was. They argued about

this, because the first one to hear it would be considered the older, and each desired this honor.

As they lay there, they seemed to be old enough to think. Mukat suggested that they make light that

they might see. Tamaioit said, “You think you are the older, now carry out your ideas.” So they began creating

things. Mukat reached into his mouth and took from his heart: (1) a cricket, Shilim shilim; (2) Papavonot,

another insect; (3) a black and white lizard, Takmeyatineyawet; (4) a person, Whatwhatwet.

203

The only previously recorded information on the Cahuilla origin story is the outline given by E.W. Gifford, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. Ethn., XIV 188, 189, 1918. T.T. Waterman has summarized and analyzed most of the literature on the origin myths of the southern California Indians in the American Anthropologist, n.s., IX, 41-55, 1909.

By Shannon Mirelez

Mukat and Tamaioit decided to turn all these new creatures loose and let them drive away the

darkness. Since Mukat had made them, they had almost as much power as he. Lizard tried to swallow the

darkness but was not successful. Finally, all of them together managed to drive east part of the darkness and

then there was a little light. But when they returned to Mukat and Tamaioit, the darkness they had driven

away rushed back and they could not drive it away again.

Mukat and Tamaioit then said they should have something to smoke to remove the darkness, just as

medicine men smoke now to remove disease.

MakingTobacco

They therefore planned to make tobacco. Mukat took black tobacco from his heart and Tamaioit

brought forth a lighter colored tobacco. Next, they needed some way to smoke it, so they each brought forth

another substance from the heart. Mukat’s was dark, Tamaioit’s was light. With this they made pipes. There

were no holes in these pipes, so they each pulled out a whisker and pierced holes in the pipes. Mukat then

took a coal of fire from his heart to light the tobacco with. Now they were ready to smoke. Mukat filled his

pipe first, held it up in the air, and inhaled.

He then decided to play a trick on Tamaioit, so he handed his pipe to him and said, “I am holding it up

high,” but he held it low, and in the dark, Tamaioit could not see it. However, Tamaioit was always suspicious

of Mukat, so he reached low instead of high, as Mukat expected him to do, and seized the pipe. Tamaioit then

got his pipe ready to smoke, held it out to Mukat and said, “I am holding it low,” and really held it that way.

Mukat, thinking the same trick was being played on him, reached high and of course missed it. Therefore,

Tamaioit claimed he was the wiser, because he could not be fooled.

Creation of the Earth

They next took a substance from their hearts to make a

huyanachet (rod). As usual, Mukat made a black one and Tamaioit a

white one. These were to be the roots of the earth. When they tried

to stand them up, they found a support was necessary, so they made

snakes to twine around them. Even this was not enough, so they

made spiders which crawled to the top of the rods and made a web from there to the corners of the darkness.

The huyanachet were then firm. Mukat and Tamaioit climbed

up to the top but had to rest several times. When they reached the top, though it was dark, they could see

Drawing of a snake by Royal (age 4), created at Kids Explore! 2012

that something like a mist or smoke was rising up from below. Mukat

asked Tamaioit what it was, and he answered, “I have always told you

that I am the older, but you say you are. How does it happen you do

not know that that is our after-birth coming up behind us, and that it

causes all sickness and disease.” Mukat then made a song about it; he

never seemed to know things first, but he always thought about

creating things before Tamaioit did.

While up on the top, Mukat now thought about creating earth, so suggested it to Tamaioit. Tamaioit

said, “I have always told you I am the older, but you say you are. So just

go ahead with your ideas and don’t consult me.” But he consented to

help. Mukat sang his song, then both shook all over, and soon a

substance poured out of their mouths, ran down the poles, and

spread all over, even reaching to the top of the huyanachet.

This substance was very soft at first; in order to make it solid

they created whirlwinds to dry it, and brush to make it firm. They also

made many kinds of insects of various sizes for this same purpose. Many

of these insects have since then been used by shamans, who take them

and let them bite a person who has a pain, and that person is then

cured. The whirlwinds which they took were of two kinds: teniosha,

which is the worse, and tukiaiel. These whirlwinds live in ant holes, and

when a fire is placed in these holes the whirlwinds whistle in their anger.

They are dangerous, for they often steal souls.

After Mukat and Tamaioit made the earth, they made the ocean to hold the earth in one place. They

made creatures and weeds to live in the ocean. The sky they made of metal so that it would be strong enough

to stay up high and not fall. In this sky they put starts to make more light.

Creation of People

Now that the earth was solid and ready to walk upon, Mukat asked what they should do next. Tamaioit

said, “You say you are the older, so go ahead with your ideas.” Mukat said that he thought it was now the time

to create people, for they needed someone to talk to and play with.

Preliminary drawing by Eric Grohe of the Creation Story, which will be used in the rotunda of the new Museum

(c) Eric Grohe, 2013

By Shannon Mirelez

This they did, Mukat making dark people and Tamaioit light

people. As he made them, Tamaioit placed his people in a circle

around him. When his circle was nearly completed, Mukat had only

enough to go half-way around him. Mukat wondered how Tamaioit

could make them so fast, so he made Sun, in order to see. Sun was

too hot to hold and slipped away from him and went east, so there

was not very much light yet.

Mukat told Tamaioit about the escape of Sun and asked

him what they had better do about it. Tamaioit said, “You insist

that you are older than I; if you are, it is strange that you have to ask me what to do all the time.” However, he

consented to help, and the two of them created Moon. Moon was a woman and very bright and beautiful and

white. After she was created, Mukat could see

Tamaioit’s people, for there was more light. He did not like the

people at all.

Tamaioit’s people were exactly alike on both sides. They had

faces on both sides, toes pointing in both directions, breasts both in front and in back. All the fingers and toes

were webbed.

Mukat said, “No wonder you could make them so fast, they don’t look

good at all. You should make them right: look at mine.” A quarrel followed.

Tamaioit said, “My people do not have to turn around to see behind them, nor

will mine drop things through their fingers as yours will.” Mukat said, “Mine

can close their fingers when they wish to hold things.” Tamaioit said that

people should live always; or, if there was death, the person should return to

life the next day and be young; or else people should remain young always.

Mukat said it would never do not to die, for the world would get overcrowded

and there would not be enough food for all. Tamaioit said they could make

both more food and more room to live in. Mukat said it was intended that

people should die, for after-birth’s blood was meant to bring disease into the

world and thus cause death.

They then said that they must create doctors to take care of the people. They had created an old wood

far north and a mermaid under the water. The wood and the mermaid were the ones chosen to give power to

Drawing by Kalieh Patencio, age 13

Preliminary sculpture of the Creation Story by Eric Grohe, which will be used in the

rotunda of the new Museum (c) Eric Grohe, 2013

the doctors. 204

They created a very short man in the north, Keketumnamtum, who was to be a medicine man

and give power to the people through their dreams of North Wind or Rain. After obtaining this power, they

would be able to create wind or rain.

This world is a man. Rain was created and sent to the sky. Rain is a man and makes things grow. North

Wind is a man and makes things dry up.

Mukat and Tamaioit tried to decide when things should grow and ripen. First they said it should take

fifty menyil (moons), but later they decided that it should be four menyil, and thus it is today.

They quarreled continually about which people had been made the proper way, and as to whether

there should be death or not. Finally Tamaioit got angry and said that since his suggestions did not seem to

amount to anything here, he would go to another world and take his

people. He said that, if he went down into the ground, the world would

turn over; Mukat said he would prevent that.

Tamaioit then sang his song and sank into the earth, taking all

of his people. In his hurry he forgot Palm, Coyote, Duck and Moon.

Earth and Sky want to follow him, but Mukat knelt on the earth and

held his hand up to the sky; by doing this, he prevented their going.

There are now five stars in the sky where his fingers rested.

As Tamaioit went into the ground, there was a tremendous

rumbling and earthquake. Mountains arose at this time and the water

in the ocean shook so that it overflowed and caused the rivers and

streams we now have. The sky became bent and curved. Because of

this, the sun seems to stop at noon when it gets to the highest point.

While the sun is making it light for us here, it is dark in the world below; when we see it go over the horizon in

the evening, it is beginning to get light there and dark here.

Mukat took the people Tamaioit forgot and made them into the right shape, but he forgot the duck’s

feet; so they are still webbed.

While Mukat and Tamaioit were creating people, Mukat created a place in the east for the spirits of

the dead to go to. He pulled out a whisker and pointed it east. This made a road. At the end of this road was a

gate. Montakwet, a man who never dies, guards this gate. Just

204

This statement is not clear, but it is as clear as my interpreter could make it.

By Shannon Mirelez

beyond this gate are two large hills constantly moving apart and then

together. As they move apart, an opening is left through which the

spirits may enter.

If the spirit has been wicked during its lifetime, it is caught

between these moving hills and crushed; it then becomes a rock, bat,

or butterfly. If it has lived a good life, it gets through this opening

safely and passes into the regions beyond, known as Telmekish.

Because this road over which the spirits travel is toward the

east, one must never lie with his head in that direction while sleeping;

death might result. It is well enough to do this when old, for an old person can live only a short while longer

anyway.

Life of Mukat and His People

Mukat and his people lived in one big house. Animals were human then. They were all very happy

here. Moon taught the people many games and they loved her very much. Every morning she took her people

far away to the water, and here they played all day long, returning to Mukat’s house late in the evening.

She taught them how to make things. “Cat’s cradle” was one of the games she taught them. It was a

game played by making figures by means of string twined around the fingers. There were many figures they

had to know. Later when they died and went to Telmekish, they had to know how to make these figures and

tell Montakwet, the guardian. If they could not do this, they were not admitted.

Moon taught them that they would be getting married after a while, and explained to them what this

meant. She said they would have children; that they must name their children and have songs for them. She

said these children should be instructed in the right way to live; that the old people were the best instructors.

Rattlesnake was the only one that remained at home all day with Mukat. He stayed at the door of

Mukat’s house all day long. When the people returned at night, there was one man among them who always

danced on and around the snake. This was To, the funny man whom they all loved; he was very tiny. To made

fun of Rattlesnake and made his head flat, by dancing on him; it is still flat. Rattlesnake complained to Mukat

and asked him what to do.

At this time Rattlesnake was not poisonous, for he had no teeth. Mukat decided that Rattlesnake

should have teeth. He tried many ways of making them for him, but none succeeded until he pulled some of

Preliminary painting of the Creation Story by Eric Grohe, which will be used in the rotunda of the new Museum

(c) Eric Grohe, 2013

his whiskers out and used them for teeth. He then made the teeth poisonous and told Rattlesnake to bite To

when To came home that night and danced on him, and then he must run away to the rocks so that no one

could find him. Accordingly, when the people returned that night, very happy as usual, To began dancing on

Rattlesnake, but Rattlesnake bit him and then ran away. Rattlesnake was the first to leave the big house and

not return.

Moon was very beautiful. One night Mukat seemed to notice this for the first time, and desired her as

his wife. He did not tell her, but she knew it, and it made her feel very sad, for he was her father. She decided

to leave, and told her people. She told them that there were a great many games she had not yet taught them,

but that it was now too late. She said she would never die or have diseases as other people had, for Tamaioit

had helped to create her. She told the women how to care for themselves during menstruation and

pregnancy; they must not eat salt, meat, or fat, or drink cold water. She showed them certain herbs to use if

they became ill.

That night she left and got beetles and ants to crawl over her tracks so that no one would follow her.

Everyone felt very badly and tried to find her. Coyote went to the water where they always bathed to look for

her. He saw her reflection in the water and thought it was she. He jumped in after her but couldn’t find her.

When he climbed out and looked in again, he was sure he saw her and again he jumped in, with the same

result. As he came out this time, Moon, who had gone to the sky, spat on him. He looked up to see where the

spit had come from, and he saw her. He begged her to return but she would not talk, only smiled. He then

returned to the others to tell them where their beloved playmate and teacher had gone. He felt very sad, so

he hung his head as he said, “Here she is, here she is.” The people looked down where he was looking, but of

course could not see. Finally someone happened to look up and there saw Moon in the sky. She seemed very

far away and they all wept. Each night, for a long time, she went higher up, until she was where we now see

her. 205

Soon Mukat decided he want for have a little more fun with his people. For several days he thought

about it. Then one day Sun rose out of the east. As soon as it was fully light, the people all talked in different

languages and could not understand each other. Sun made them hot and many ran in search of shade. Many

turned into trees or animals or birds. This probably was meant to happen from the beginning. Those that

looked for water and found water, turned into sea animals. Those that looked for shade turned into trees. The

people who stayed with Mukat remained human.

205

Formerly, the Cahuilla would not look at the full moon, for fear of disease. If they ate during an eclipse, they were likely to eat a “moon spirit.” Whoever died during an eclipse was thought to have eaten one of these moon spirits.

Mukat taught them how to make bows and arrows; just what kind of material to use, how to dry it, and

how to make arrowheads out of rock. When the people put them down, after making them, the arrows made

a queer noise. It frightened the people and they would not touch them. Mukat had showed them how to use

these arrows and had promised that the arrows would not hurt them, but they were afraid when they heard

this sound. One among them, Takwich, picked up an arrow, and said, “Why be afraid of this? It will not hurt

you.” He put one right through his stomach and then pulled it out and it left no opening. When they saw this,

the others were afraid no longer.

Mukat lined them up on two sides and they shot at each other, as he had shown them how to do. The

dust became very thick, so they stopped, and then they saw that several of their number were dead. They

wept, for they could not bring them to life. Mukat told them not to worry; that the dead would return.

At night the people heard them return, but it was only their spirits. These spirits could not find their

abiding place; they had hunted in all directions. Finally they thought of Tamaioit. They started down into the

earth to find him. Tamaioit heard them coming and stopped them before they got there. He told them that he

was sorry for them, that he had wanted the people to live always, but that he saw now why Mukat had made

them as he did. It was so there would be sorrow in the world. Tamaioit said that, since they were not his

people, he could do nothing for them. He said his people were all happy and he did not want any other kind

down there. However, he could tell them something that might bring them back to life. They should go to the

water and smear mud all over themselves and twine brush around their bodies. They did as he advised them,

but it did no good.

The spirits then returned to Mukat and asked him where to go. He told them about Telmekish and that

there was no sickness or sorrow there. He said this world was just to raise children in; Telmekish, the next

world, would last forever.

At the time Sun came the people turned different colors. The Negroes are those who stayed close to

Sun. White people ran farther away than anyone else. Indians went only a short distance, so they are brown.

Death of Mukat

Mukat had now done three things which made his people very angry. He had made Rattlesnake bite

one of them, had insulted Moon, which made her leave; and had given the people bows and arrows and let

them kill each other, after promising them no harm should come to them. So they decided to kill Mukat, but

did not know how to do it. They asked Bear and Puma to do so; but they refused, saying it would be better for

someone to bewitch his spirit.

Now Mukat lived right in the middle of his big house and was never seen to leave there. They were

anxious to find out what he did at night. For this purpose, they appointed the white lizard, that runs up

mesquite trees, to get on top of the house and watch from above at night. Nobody saw Lizard go up. This is

what he saw. Mukat smoked until the smoke was very thick and all the people were asleep; he then went

outside to defecate. Lizard heard the excrement drop three times. Mukat then returned to the house.

Next day, Lizard told the people what he had seen. They then decided how they would kill Mukat. They

put small animals under the log to catch his droppings, but they were unable to do so. Frog said he would try.

That night, when Mukat went outside as usual to defecate, Frog caught the droppings in his mouth. Mukat did

not hear anything drop as he usually did, so he put his cane down, to find out what was the matter. In feeling

around, he struck frog on the back, the marks can still be seen on Frog’s back.

Right away, Mukat knew that something was wrong, for he felt very ill and weak; he felt as though his

soul had left him. However, he pretended that he did [not] know what caused his illness and asked many

questions concerning it.

Shamans pretended to help him but they did not really try, for they wanted him to die. He asked his

people to get North Wind to come and cure him. They sent Swallow to tell North Wind that his Creator

wanted his help. North Wind said he would come in the afternoon and for them to turn the Creator around

with his head to the north. When the wind came, he blew dust all over Mukat. It seemed to help drive away

the fever for awhile, but Mukat could not endure the dust in his eyes and ears. He wanted something to eat,

so he sent Crow to get piyatem (something like snails). Crow found plenty, but just stayed there and would not

bring them to Mukat. Mukat next sent Dove to the mountains for pine nuts and Dove really brought some

back. He wanted meat and sent Hawk after it, but Hawk never returned. Mukat said his people had forsaken

him and he was very sad. He asked his people, the Locusts, to sing to him and cheer him up. This helped him

for a time, but soon he tired and asked them to stop. He was anxious to die now; he said death was so slow in

coming.

All the time Mukat was ill, Coyote stayed right by his side. He watched him every minute and ate all of

his expectorations and excretions. Mukat was afraid of Coyote; he was afraid Coyote would eat his body when

he died. Because of this, he asked his people to send Coyote far away to get fire to light his pyre, for he felt

that death was very near. Coyote did not want to go, but they told him it was his duty to do so, since he was

the fastest runner.

Mukat kept wondering in what moon he would die, and repeated then names of the moons over and

over. He sang all the time, knowing he was dying. This was to send his spirit to Telmekish. This is the reason

people sing now when one of their number is dying.

Soon he could not move, and then he died. The people dug a hole in the ground and placed his body in

it. Animals with big claws dug this hole. The Quail carried the wood for the fire, on their heads, to the pit. Fly

then made fire by rubbing small pieces of wood between his feet; he has been rubbing his feet together in this

manner ever since. When the fire was lighted, the people gathered round it.

During this time, Coyote was on his way for the fire, but kept looking back constantly. Soon he saw the

smoke and knew that they were burning Mukat. He ran back as fast as he could. As he drew near, he pushed

his way through the crowd, and jumped over several. All of the body had burned, except a small piece of the

heart, which is always the last to burn. Coyote jumped for it, and as he landed on it, it splashed blood. He then

ran to the mountains. The blood stains can still be seen there.

The people all wanted to kill Coyote when he ran off with Mukat’s heart, but they could not run fast

enough to catch him.

Conclusion

Before Mukat died, he told his people they should hold a fiesta once a year, in memory of their dead.

He said they should make an effigy of each one who had died and with these they should dance. This fiesta

was to be held in the winter, when they had time. He further explained that it would take six nights; that

during the singing of the songs which he had taught them, all should sit quietly on the ground, around the fire.

One man must be appointed as the leader of the singing. He promised them that during the fiesta the spirits of

the dead would return for the last time and would know just what was going on. All of the facts concerning

Mukat and Tamaioit must be kept secret; anyone telling them would either die or become very ill.

They planned to make a fiesta for Mukat, as he had told them to do, but they did not invite Coyote. He

found out about it, however, and came. By that time, the people were no longer angry at him. When he

returned he was very thin.

All were sad after Mukat died. Coyote said, “Let’s live in a different house and burn this one, so as not

to think about Mukat so much.” This they decided to do.

When they were ready to hold the fiesta, Coyote told them he knew what to make effigies of, and

offered to go to the end of the world to get it. Misvut (a seaweed) was what he got. It grew far under the

water. It had probably been made in the beginning for this purpose.

After Coyote made the body out of this, he made the eyes out of shells and decorated the body with

feathers. Then they held a fiesta and Coyote was Net (chief). They have been doing this every since, when a

person dies.

In the new house the people now lived in, Coyote became one of the pillars (?). However, they did not

like that, so they made a roof of him. Before that, Coyote sang a great deal; he divided the songs into Mukat or

Wildcat songs, and Tamaioit or Coyote songs. Because of this, the Wildcat people sing Mukat songs, and the

Coyote people sing Tamaioit songs. During the time that Mukat and Tamaioit were in the stomach of the

darkness, they had decided that Mukat would be a Tukut (wildcat person), Tamaioit an Isil (coyote person).

During that first fiesta, the Isil people wanted some more misvut. When they went to get it, the water

bubbled and made a queer noise. It was talking to them, but they could not understand it at first. Soon they

understood that Misvut was asking them what they wanted. They told him they wanted the big stone,

sharvovoshal, which was to pound things on, more misvut, and a pipe made of rock. The misvut was always

kept rolled up and had a stone pipe in it. Net had given a feast in order to get this pipe, for Mukat had told

them that this was necessary. This pipe is used only at fiestas and can be obtained only after the Net has given

a feast.

As soon as the new home that Coyote had suggested was built, the people scattered. When they got

tired of wandering some turned into trees and deer. A few went out at midnight and therefore became dark-

skinned. Some went in the daylight and so were white. Some went early in the morning and are brown-

skinned.

After Mukat dies, Crow returned to where he had been burned, fell down into the pit, and thus

became black. Buzzard also did this, and his head has been bald ever since. The white-spotted hawk fell in and

became a mottled color.

One day, Buzzard saw a lot of queer looking things growing out of the pit where Mukat’s body had

been burned. He told the people about them. These things were different kinds of vegetables, but they had

never heard of such things, and did not know what to do with them. They decided to send Palmechewet, the

man who never slept, to Mukat to ask him what they were for.

Palmechewet started out to find Mukat, and as he was going through the brush and mountains, he

constantly prayed to Mukat to guide him to his abode. Finally he heard Mukat but could not see him. Mukat

said, “Those things are to eat. You killed me before I had a chance to teach you about them. Tobacco is for the

old people to smoke. The melons grow from my skull; pumpkins from my stomach; corn from my teeth. 206

Return to my people and tell them that all of these things are good.” Palmechewet returned to the people and

repeated these words. They had never eaten vegetables before.

The following creation story is from the book Aboriginal Society in Southern

California, "Palm Springs Cahuilla Creation Myth," by William Duncan Strong,

which was told to him by Alejo Patencio in February, 1925.

Alejo Patencio (1852* - 3/28/1930)

Alejo Patencio, a net (ceremonial leader) of the kauisik clan, administered the affairs of the people in

the late 1890s. He knew all the ceremonial songs (the oral history of the Cahuilla), was in charge of the

maiswut (sacred bundle), resolved disputes, and set dates for all sacred and secular ceremonies. As was often

practiced in pre-contact times, Alejo at one time lived and ruled from the kishumna’a, or ceremonial house –

the symbolic center of clan life.

The hereditary role of net was normally passed from father to the oldest or most capable son, but

female nets were not unknown in Cahuilla history. Alejo Patencio was the elder brother of Francisco Patencio;

Francisco would later succeed him as the net. In 1947, Albert Patencio became the final net until his death in

1951. At this time the kishumna'a was burned and not rebuilt, marking a break with traditional Cahuilla

religious practices.

206

These are the characteristic plants of native agriculture. The Cahuilla have never been reported as having farmed before the advent of the Spaniards, but the neighboring Yuman tribes on the Colorado River grew these plants, except perhaps melons.

Alejo greatly enriched our modern understanding of traditional Cahuilla society thanks to his

collaboration with William Duncan Strong, author of Aboriginal Society in

Southern California, in the 1920s. The boundaries of kauisik traditional

territories and the creation story of the Pass Cahuilla people are among the

oral traditions preserved as a result of Alejo imparting his traditional knowledge.

* the 1926 Mission Agency Census disagrees and lists 1864 as the birth year

William Duncan Strong

William Duncan Strong, one of the preeminent archaeologists of the first half of the 20th century,

received his Doctorate in Anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1926. He carried out archaeological and

ethnographic work in the Plains, Honduras, Peru, southern California, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon,

Washington, and with the Naskapi people of Labrador. Strong preferred to live with the people he was

studying and to participate in their “daily lives.” He later went on to become a member of the Bureau of

American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute, and teach at Columbia University.

His ethnographic book, Aboriginal Society in Southern California, is one of the earliest and most in

depth coverage of Shoshone-speaking Tribes in southern California. Many researchers still use his book today

as a reference guide. Strong lived with the Cahuilla, Serrano, Cupeno, and Luiseno at a very pivotal point in

their history – many of the elders remembered the old ways, while American culture was pressing down on

the younger generations. Strong called an ethnologist who studies a group of people after they have been

influenced by another dominant culture a “social paleontologist”—requiring the memories of these elders to

“reconstruct” the past.

“…he acquired the confidence of many of the most learned men in southern California’s Indian

communities. They trusted Strong and they assisted him in collecting an immense amount of data that

made it possible to describe conditions as they existed in social, economic, political, and ceremonial life

in 1925. Then, working through the memories of older people, Strong proceeded to attempt a

reconstruction of the patterns of change in there institutions back to the 1850’s.”

– Lowell J. Bean

To view selections of Strong’s Honduras journals held by the Smithsonian, please follow this link:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/features/strong.htm

Alejo Patencio Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.

All Rights Reserved

Jolian Nortes

Jolian Nortes worked as the interpreter between Alejo Patencio and William Duncan Strong.

Aboriginal Society in Southern California

William Duncan Strong

Palm Springs Cahuilla Creation Myth

As told by Alejo Potencio, ceremonial chief, through Jolian Nortes, interpreter, immediately after the biennial

mourning ceremony at Palm Springs, February, 1925. 207

In the beginning there was nothing but darkness. At times it was lighter but with no moon or stars. One

was called tukmiatahat (female) the other tukmiatelka (male). Sounds, humming or thunder, were heard at

times. Red, white, blue, and brown colors 208

came all twisting to one

point in the darkness. These were acting all together-twisting. 209

These came together in one point to produce. This ball shook and

whirled all together into one substance, which became two embryos

wrapped in this placenta. 210

This was formed in space and darkness.

These were born prematurely, everything stopped for they were

stillborn.

Then again all the lights whirled together, joined, and

produced. This time the embryos grew fully-the children inside talked

to one another. They asked each other, “What are we? We are

eskwatkwatwitcem, and estanamawitum,” 211

for at that time they did

not know themselves. While they were in this sack they rolled back

and forth; 212

they stretched their arms and knees 213

to make a hole 214

so they could get out. 215

Then they named themselves Mūkat and Temaīyauit.

By Shannon Mirelez

207

This myth includes the greater number of songs sung at the mourning ceremony. Each sentence given here forms one verse, including much repetition, and the song takes three nights to sing completely. It varies slightly from group to group, and the versions of any two widely separated Cahuilla groups are different in detail though the general motifs are the same. It is a highly impressive and solemn chant, rising at times to rare beauty, but usually sung in a monotonous rising and falling cadence. 208

sel wīl, sel h’eu: red; tēvic wīl, tēvic he’u: white; tūkic heū, tūkic wīl: blue; tesit heū, tesit wīl: brown. 209

tahūhuñ-sūivee. 210

tcemsilayaa: our placenta. 211

Archaic or esoteric. No meaning remembered. 212

manamanatcemayahī. 213

wawalwawal-tcemeyahī. 214

hataniamkavayuul. 215

tūnaltūnal-tcemeyahī.

First their heads came out; they called themselves teimūluka; both heads came out at once. Then came

out their shoulders, ribs, waist, thighs, knees, and ankles. 216

Thus they came out of their house into the

darkness, but they were unable to see one another in the dark space. As they sat in the dark Temaīyauit said,

“I am older than you, for I heard the darkness making sounds.” 217

Mūkat answered, “No! I am the older for I

heard it first.” Thus they began to quarrel. Then Temaīyauit said, “What can we do to eat our smoke and blow-

aaah! Away the dark.” Mūkat answered, “Why do you say you are older than I am? Take the pipe 218

from your

heart, 219

out of your mouth.” So Mūkat took from his heart the black pipe, 220

and Temaīyauit took from his

heart the white pipe. 221

Temaīyauit asked Mūkat, What will we smoke in it?” Mūkat answered, “Why do you say you are old

than I am? We can draw from our hearts tobacco. 222

Then we can eat

and smoke it in our pipe.” He drew black tobacco 223

from his heart,

and Temaīyauit drew white tobacco 224

from his heart. Their pipes

were solid, and Temaīyauit asked Mūkat, “How can we open up our

pipes to eat and smoke tobacco?” Mūkat answered, “Why do you say

you are older than I, if you do not know that with our whiskers we can

bore a hole 225

through which to draw smoke?” 226

Then the hole was

too big and the tobacco would not stay, but from their hearts they

drew out white and black materials 227

and made it smaller. All was

settled, but they had no fire.

Then Temaīyauit asked Mūkat, “How can we light our tobacco

to eat and smoke it?” and Mūkat answered, “You still say you are

older than I am and yet do not know how to light your pipe! We can draw from our heart the sun from which

we can light our pipe.” Then he began to draw the sun; from his mouth it came, but it slipped through his

216

sēka, amī, hemhūlūlū, hemees, hemtomī, hemī. 217

This was their mother’s lullaby. 218

taīuuinumuli, pipe. 219

tcemsuñ a, from our heart. 220

uliltunikic. 221

ulitevicnikic. 222

pīwut. 223

pīwut tūlnikic. 224

pīwut tēwicnikic. 225

penliwalwaane, bore a hole. 226

penhusossone, to draw on a pipe. 227

temalhu uhū, temal pikikī, tūlkūsivivamal (archaic), kanawal tūlawal: black; tēwic nikic: white.

By Shannon Mirelez

hands to his feet. Both tried to catch it, but it was too fast and got away and disappeared. It was lost in the

darkness.

Then Mūkat drew out from his heart the West Light, 228

and Temaīyauit drew from his heart the East

Light. 229

With these Mūkat lit his pipe. When he smoked the smoke drifted up and formed clouds. He blew it

out in spreading puffs, and said, “This is to eat our hearts and kill out hearts!”

To find out who was the oldest he held up his pipe, saying, “I am holding it down.” Temaīyauit said,

“Where are you?” looking on the ground. Temaīyauit tried to find it below, but Mūkat cheated him holding it

up in the air. At last he reached it. Mūkat said, “You claim you are older but you are not old enough to know

this!” Temaīyauit smoked until he had had enough, then he said, “I

am holding it up,” but he held it on the ground. But Mūkat knew

where it was, and right away reached and took it. This proved Mūkat

was the oldest.

Then they smoked, and Temaīyauit asked Mūkat what they

should do next. Mūkat answered, “We can draw from our heart the

center pole of the world,” 230

and from their hearts they both drew it.

“Lift it up, stand it up, your center pole of the world, our center pole of the world. Make it stand, your heart of

the world, our heart of the world,” they said. They put it into the air

but it would not stand. They then drew from their hearts all kinds of

snakes 231

to hold the center pole of the world. These they told to hold it but they could not. Then they put two

huge rocks 232

together to hold it but still it moved.

Then from their hearts they drew all kinds of web-spinning spiders, 233

and these ran their webs from

the top of the pole in all directions, and at last the center pole of the world stood firm.

Both said, “It is all still, our heart of the world, your heart of the world,” and they began to climb up it,

saying, “We, Mūkat and Temaiyauit, are climbing up!” Still farther up they sing, “Mūkat, Temaiyauit, going up,

up, farther up we are going!” Halfway up the center pole they sing again, and still singing they come nearly to

the top, always calling themselves by name. Then, still calling their names, they reach the top, and sing, “We,

228

kauwīkut. 229

tamīkut. 230

whiyanahut, translated as the “center pole of the world,” or “heart of the world,” and described as a tremendously enlarged shaman’s wand, with which they effect cures and perform magic. It was “like a Bishop’s mitre” and symbolized the power of the creators. 231

palukūwit, temesuwut, all kinds of snakes. 232

hauwaiyauwut and temamlawut. 233

whalwhalwitem, kuītukwitem.

Drawing by Evelyn Garza (12 years old) at Kids Explore! 2012

Mūkat and Temaiyauit, are sitting on the top, on the point of the center pole of the world.” From the top they

looked down and saw clouds of smoke 234

rolling up from the place whence they had come.

Temaīyauit asked where the smoke came from. Mūkat answered, “It is settling 235

in the place where

we were lying and comes from our afterbirth. 236

It is black blood, red blood, fresh blood, smallpox, colds and

sore throat, cramps in the back, boils, mumps, hives and itches, inflamed and sore eyes, blindness, acute body

pains, palsy and twitching, consumption, venereal disease, rheumatism, emaciations, swelling of the body, 237

and all other sicknesses.” All these were the clouds of smoke coming

from the place where they came into being. Then Mūkat said, “We

will give power to man or woman, so that each sickness can be cured

by someone that has power. These will be the doctors.” 238

Mūkat was on the west side of the center pole of the world

and Temaīyauit on the east side. Mūkat asked Temaiyauit, “Which

direction shall be the oldest?” Temaīyauit answered, “We will name

that direction where you are now.” Mūkat then said, “I am older than

you, so first of the directions is the west, 239

then the north, 240

south, 241

and east.” 242

Thus it is that when people come into the

ceremonial house they blow west, north, south, and east.

Temaīyauit said, “How can we make the earth?” Mūkat answered, “You see I am older than you, for we

can draw the earth from our heart.” And he drew black earth 243

from his heart, and Temaīyauit drew white

earth 244

from his. This earth they put on top of the center pole of the

world but it rolled off and was lost. From their hearts they drew all

black and all white spiders, 245

who spread webs in all directions. So for a second time they drew black and

234

mūlikalipa, hauakalapa: smoke rolling in clouds. 235

tcemkonive, tcemwenive: settling. 236

tcemsilayaa: our placenta; tcemkalapī: our afterbirth. 237

ewul tūlnikic: black blood; ewul selnikic: red blood; ewul palnikic: fresh blood; lūmūil: smallpox; k’ekū: cold and sore throat; tcewiwinut: cramps in the back; tcuklalunit: boils; pahaieuluwinit: mumps or swollen sore throat; kisawinit: hives or itch; miwinit: inflamed eyes; tawawinut: blindness; mūwhinut: acute body pain; tawekkūskalet: palsy, twitching; tcatawawinut: consumption; ūūmuwinut: venereal disease; lumīwinut: rheumatism; whawhinut: emaciation; paticwinut: swelling of the body. 238

pūelem: doctors. 239

kauikanvic. 240

temankawic. 241

kitcamkawic. 242

tamīkawic. 243

temul tūlnikic: earth, black. 244

temul tēwicnikic: earth, white.

Preliminary painting by Eric Grohe of the Creation Story, which will be used in the rotunda of the new Museum

(c) Eric Grohe, 2013

white earth from their hearts and placed it on the top. To spread this earth they drew forth from their hearts

all the kinds of ants 246

who spread out the earth on all sides. To make it faster they drew out two whirlwinds 247

that rapidly completed the spreading out of the black and white earth. Thus was the whole earth made, but it

moved and would not stay still. The ants were too light, they could not hold it steady. From their hearts Mūkat

and Temaīyauit drew the ocean 248

and placed it all around the world, and likewise they drew out pana

tewelevelum and papakniwitum, the two water demons, and placed them in the ocean. All water creatures

they put into the ocean, and, last of all they drew the sacred seaweed mat, 249

the sacred dancing feathers of

the doctors, 250

the “water apron” 251

and “water tail” 252

and placed these in the ocean. Thus by their combined

weight the last quivers of the earth were stilled, and it was flat as a table.

From their hearts again they drew the sky 253

but it swayed and flapped in the wind. They blew their

saliva 254

to the sky and thus made the stars 255

which held the sky in place. Then they put the two whirlwinds at

the edge of the earth, and they held the bottom of the sky firmly in place.

245

kuītūwhitum: black spiders; whalwhalwitum: white spiders. 246

kūvicniwitum, anwitum. 247

tenauakatem, kōtiaīalem. 248

pal nūkut. 249

pānã maīswut, a mat that is wrapped around the fetish bundles, and from which images of the dead are made. 250

pānã tcīatum, feathers used by shamans. 251

pānã wīava, significance unknown. An archaic or esoteric term. 252

pānã hekwas, significance unknown. An archaic or esoteric term. 253

tūkvac, also means “iron,” because it is black before the sun comes up. 254

hemhaña. 255

sūūwitem.

Preliminary sketch by Eric Grohe of the Creation Story, which will be used in the rotunda of the new Museum

(c) Eric Grohe, 2013

The creators determined to make creatures 256

for the earth. Temaīyauit drew coyote 257

from his heart

for he was the first assistant. 258

Mūkat drew the horned owl, 259

who could see in the darkness from his heart.

Mūkat had black mud and Temaīyauit white mud to make creatures from, and they each commenced to make

the body of a man. Mūkat worked slowly and carefully, modeling a fine body such as men have now.

Temaīyauit worked rapidly making a rude body with a belly on both sides, eyes on both sides, and hands like

the paws of a dog. The creators worked in the darkness, and the horned owl sat watching them. When a body

was finished the owl would say, “M-M-M! It is finished,” and coyote would come and put it away, putting

those created by Mūkat in one place, and those by Temaīyauit in another. The latter worked three times as

fast as the former, and had a great number of crude bodies finished, compared to the few good bodies make

by Mūkat. All this took a long, long time.

Finally Mūkat stopped and drew the moon 260

from his heart

and it became faintly light so they could see their creatures. Mūkat

looked at those made by Temaīyauit and said, “No wonder you have

finished them so quickly, you are not doing good work!” Temaīyauit

wished to know why, and Mūkat said, “They have two faces, eyes all

around, bellies on both sides, feet pointing both ways and hands like

a dog’s paws!” Temaīyauit answered, “That is right, it is good, but

your work is not good. One face and all parts on one side are not right

for they cannot see behind. Mine can see coming and going. Open

fingers will let food slip through, mine will hold anything.” Mūkat

replied, “Yes, but they can draw their hands together and hold anything. Your creatures cannot carry anything

for they have no back or shoulders, they cannot hold an arrow to the bow or draw it back, for they are like a

dog.” “But,” said Temaiyauit, “there will be no shooting.” “Yes, there

will be, later on,” 261

said Mūkat.

256

nūkatem. 257

īsil. 258

paha, the ceremonial assistant of the clan chief. 259

mūut. 260

menyil. 261

temal hemūwan: earth, coming to the top; temal paākwan: earth, coming generations.

By Shannon Mirelez

“But there will be no death,” said Temaiyauit. Mūkat

answered, “Yes, there will be death.” “Then,” said Temaiyauit, “if they

die, they shall come back.” “If they come back they shall smell like

dead things,” answered Mūkat. Temaīyauit said, “then they can wash

with white clay, 262

and smoke their bodies with burning salt grass 263

and willow 264

and become clean and good smelling.” “If they do this

the world will be too small,” answered Mūkat. Temaīyauit said, “We

can then spread it wider.” “Yes, but there will not be enough food for

all of them,” answered Mūkat. “They can eat earth,” said Temaiyauit.

“But they will then eat up all the earth,” answered Mūkat. Temaīyauit

replied, “No, for by our power it will be swelling again.” This was the

end of the dispute.

Temaīyauit was angry because he always lost in every dispute. He said, “I will go to the bottom of the

earth, whence I came, and take all my creatures with me, the earth, 265

sky, 266

and all my other creations.”

Mūkat answered, “You can take yours, but all mine will stay.” Then Temaīyauit blew, and his breath opened

the earth. His creatures went down with him, all save the moon, 267

the palm, 268

coyote, the wood duck, 269

and

a few others. He tried to take earth and sky with him; a fierce wind blew and the earth shook all over, while

the sky bent and swayed. Mūkat put one knee on the ground, held one hand on all his creatures, and with the

other held up the sky. He cried, “hi! hi! hi!” which is the way all people do now when the earthquake comes. In

the struggle all the mountains and canyons appeared on the earth’s surface, stream beds were formed, and

water came out and filled them. At last Temaīyauit disappeared below, all became quiet, and the earth

stopped shaking, but its rough uneven surface remains until today.

262

ūlīwut, tēviwit. 263

hañawit. 264

sahawut. 265

temal. 266

tūkvac. 267

menyil. 268

mawul. 269

sassēmul.

Then all Mūkat’s creatures became alive. While it was still dark the white people had stolen away to

the north, during the time Mūkat held up the sky. The sun 270

suddenly appeared, and all Mūkat’s creatures

were so frightened they began to chatter like blackbirds each in a different language. Mūkat could not

understand any of these, but hearing one man, kiathwasimut, speak the Cahuilla language 271

he pressed him

to his side, and let the others run around. This man was the ancestor of the Cahuilla people, and now lives in

the abode of the sun, 266

moon, 263

and evening star. 272

Thus only the Cahuillas, speak the original language.

Among these creatures was one with red hair 273

and a white clean face; he was cranky and crying, always

running about. Mūkat saw this, and he took a long 274

and a short stick. 275

The first he put between the

creature’s legs like a horse, the second he put in his hand like a whip.

Then the creature ran back and forth, going farther and farther away,

until at last he disappeared into the north where all his party had

gone before. Then Mūkat put all his creatures into the ceremonial

house 276

for it was night. Far away to the north they saw a light, and

all the creatures asked Mūkat, “What is that light in the north which

we see now?” “Yes,” he replied, “those are your older brothers and

your younger brothers, your older sisters and your younger sisters.

They went away at night. They did not hear me, they did not ask me.

They are devils! 277

They have four names.” 278

When the sun arose in the east the dog 279

was talking, but

then he became dumb. He knows everything in his heart, but he

cannot say one word. The sun came up very hot. Some of Mūkat’s

children were burned black, some burned red (well done, well cooked), but in the north where the white

people were, it was cold, and they remained raw and white.

270

tamit. 271

īvīatim. 272

sūwut pīniwus. 273

ūlika, selnikic: head, red. 274

kelawut, somatikic: stick, long 275

kelawut, voksekaipi: stick, short. 276

kicamnawut: translated “big house.” 277

tēwellevelem. 278

mūwhinut, pahīvawit, kwawinit: archaic; tēwullevelem: devils. 279

awel.

By Shannon Mirelez

By Shannon Mirelez

The moon was the only woman among all Mūkat’s creatures. Every morning she would go away from

the ceremonial house to a clean sandy place, where with woven grass string 280

she showed all the creatures

how to make cat’s cradles. Then she would put one group of people on one side and say, “you are coyote

people,” 281

and the others she would call wildcat people. 282

She told the coyote people to sing against the

wildcat people as though they were singing enemy songs. Then the

wildcat people would begin to dance; then they would do it the other

way around. This was a game. She told them to build a little brush

house and put one creature in the house to be chief. 283

Then she told

another group to come from far away singing and dancing to the

house. This was the way they should do later through all the

generations to come. She also taught them to run, jump, wrestle,

throw balls of mud at one another, and to flip pebbles at one another

from their finger tips. Certain ones she picked out and said, “You are

women. You must grind, and feed these others, who are men, that

come dancing to the house.”

At sunset they would return to the ceremonial house, dancing

as they came. Among them was one called, tevicnikictcumelmii, who always kicked the rattlesnake 284

when he

came in. The latter could not play with the other creatures because he could not walk. Mūkat took pity on the

rattlesnake and gave him a cactus thorn 285

in his mouth as a fang. When all the other creatures were gone,

Mūkat took his ceremonial staff 286

and told the snake to bite it. This the rattlesnake did, but his fang broke off.

Then Mūkat pulled out a black whisker and put it in as a fang, but it broke off. So he pulled out a gray whisker

and with this fang the rattlesnake bit through the ceremonial staff and blood came out of it. Mūkat told the

snake to bite his enemy and then crawl away to the mountain and stay in his hole. All was ready. When all the

creatures came back from their playground tevicnikicteumelmii laughed and kicked the snake, which bit him.

Tevicnikicteumelmii died at once, and the snake crawled away to his hole in the mountain, where he has

always stayed since rattling and biting, as the enemy of all Mūkat’s creatures.

280

witcut. 281

istam: one moiety name. 282

tūktum: the other Cahuilla moiety. 283

net: clan ceremonial chief. 284

sūwit. 285

īwīul. 286

whīyanahut: shaman’s wand. Also “the center pole of the world.”

Mūkat told the moon to have his creatures make bows of wood and arrows of reeds, 287

with no points

on them, and to have them stand in two lines and shoot at each other with these arrows. Then Mūkat told

them to sharpen the points of the arrows. He then told them to make rock arrow-straignteners 288

and to make

arrows of arrow-weed 289

about two feet long, with stone arrow-points. 290

These they were to shoot with

short, strong, sycamore bows. 291

He told them to stand in two lines and shoot at one another, but they were

afraid because it looked dangerous. Then takwic 292

said, “It is nothing. You cannot die from this,” and he stuck

an arrow through his body, pulling it out the other side. Then the hummingbird 293

put a quiver 294

on his back,

and all shot at him, but they could not hit him for he was too small. He dodged each arrow and said, “See, it is

nothing!” The Arkansas kingbird 295

and then the butterfly 296

did the same, and each said, “See, it is nothing!”

So did the crow 297

and the poor will, 298

and they both dodged. Then

the vulture 299

tried it but he was too slow; they hit him, and he

disappeared. Then the cony 300

wanted to fight them all, and he cried,

“Hurry up! Hurry up!” All the creatures began to shoot each other,

hunting through the tall grass. Mūkat laughed, and said, “Now they

are beginning to kill one another.” They shot until both sides were

nearly all killed. Then the remainder saw their dead comrades and

began to cry loudly. (At this point in the song all women must wail

loudly.)

Mūkat looked at the dead people whose bodies were

quivering and shaking. 301

Their spirits 302

arose, but their bodies were

287

hañal. 288

yēūnapic. 289

pāhal. 290

tamanīut. 291

isiltcukinup. 292

The fire-ball demon, a great shaman, living on the top of San Jacinto peak. 293

tūtcil. 294

mamakwut. 295

ultēhewic. 296

malmul. 297

alwut. 298

pūlmic, also called the night jar. The Cahuilla say this is the way he got his twisting flight. 299

yuñavic, the turkey vulture. 300

ūlut, also called the pika, or little chief hare. 301

kulūkwit, wekhauwut, hemtahau: “quivering and shaking are their bodies.” 302

hemteulave.

By Shannon Mirelez

dead, and the spirits did not know where to go. They looked toward the west, and it seemed to be all clear for

them. They went flying to the west. But when they got there there was no gate, they had to stop and come

back crying to their bodies. Then toward the north they did the same thing, and to the south, but in vain. They

flew to the sky but again in vain. Finally they went to the east where Temaīyauit was. He answered them,

“Yes,” he said, “you are something. You are great devils. 303

This is what I told Mūkat, that you would die and

come back to life, but he always pushed away my word. Thus we created two kinds of clay 304

and two herbs 305

to brush the body and make it clean. Go back again to earth as great devils.” Hearing this they all hung their

heads, and crying and wailing they came back to where their bodies lay. Among the creatures left alive was

muntakwut, who was a powerful shaman. He took pity on the dead spirits and with his ceremonial staff bored

a hole in the earth, opening the gate of telmekic. 306

When they saw this gate was opened all went below,

“sounding their heart,” 307

“sounding their body,” 308

“making great breathings,” 309

“fading away with noise,” 310

“disappearing forever.” 311

To this place go all the spirits of the dead. This is the way Mūkat tricked and joked

with his people.

All the people who were left on earth were very sad, but their teacher, the moon, was still with them.

The moon was a naked, white, and beautifully formed woman. She slept apart from the other creatures. One

night Mūkat, who had often watched her, leaned above her and touched her as he passed. 312

Next morning

the moon was weak, sleepy, and sore; she felt very sad. She planned to go away somewhere, but before going

she spoke to all Mūkat’s creatures, saying, “I am going away, but you must go to the place where you used to

play. 313

Go there and play as before. In the evening you will see me in the west, then you must say ha! ha! ha!

ha! and run to the water to bathe. Remember this always.” Then she disappeared and no one saw or knew

what became of her. In a short while they saw the new moon rise in the west, and they cried, “ha! ha! ha! ha!”

as she had told them and ran to bathe.

Some of his creatures now began to plan how they could stop their creator Mūkat from playing more

evil tricks on them. They knew that he had told the rattlesnake to kill them that he had told them to kill one

303

emetēwelevelatutcem, emeamnaalūtcem: “you are becoming great devils.” 304

ūliwut, tēviwut. 305

hañaawit, sahawit. 306

“Neither heaven or hell, but the place where the dead go.” 307

melkelewihemsun. 308

melkelewīhemtahau. 309

tēwoñtalallaī. 310

talalāilyu. 311

n’nēēlu. 312

The informant used these words. They do not make clear what happened, for that was a great sin of the creator. 313

kanīsunwīt, līwīkauwut.

Painting by Amil Pedro To learn more about the Blue Frog, please visit our

online exhibition Dream of the Blue Frog.

another with arrows, and lastly, that he had mistreated the moon and

caused her to leave. So while they were all in the place where the

moon had taught them to play they planned to get rid of Mūkat. Then

the flicker 314

cried, “pium,” which meant, “Don’t talk so much but go

and poison him.” All agreed to this, so they planned to watch him at

night time. They came into the house dancing, and told tataksil (a

little lizard that hides in cracks in the wood) to watch the creator; for

the lizard alone was not afraid to watch Mūkat at night. He hid in a

crack in the center post 315

while all the others were dancing around it.

All night he stayed there, watching.

At midnight, all were asleep as Mūkat had commanded them, save the little lizard who kept watch.

Mūkat got up, took his pipe, 316

lit it and smoked, blowing clouds of smoke over all his creatures to make them

sleep soundly. Three times he blew smoke over them. Then he set his pipe down, and taking his ceremonial

staff stood up. All the floor of the ceremonial house was covered with his creatures. First he stepped at their

feet, 317

then between their legs, 318

then next to their arms, 319

then above their heads, 320

and so walked out. All

this time the lizard was watching.

Mūkat went at once to the ocean, where two logs crossed above the water, and here defecated. 321

Lizard saw him do this, and heard the noise when this kwaimuitci 317

hit the water. Three times Mūkat did this,

and each time it was followed by a sound like thunder in the ocean. Then Mūkat returned into the house,

stepping in the same places that he had coming out, but he did not see the lizard who was watching. In the

dawn all the creatures awoke, danced around the center post, and the lizard joined them. They all went out to

their sandy playground, dancing. There the lizard told them all that he had seen that night.

So they planned to poison Mūkat through his own excrement, and they told the water skipper 322

to

stay below the place where the creator sat at night when he came down to the ocean. He tried to do this, but

the great waves washed him away. Then another small water creature 323

attempted it, but failed. Finally, the

314

tavic. 315

paīinut. 316

ūlī. 317

hemiña. 318

pal kicnallalva. 319

hemkwalmuña. 320

hemulukna. 321

paamilyawi, kwaimuitci: “this tobacco, he eats and drops down.” 322

puñatcauatcau. 323

pañawawulwawul.

blue frog 324

tried it, and stayed in spite of the ocean’s attempt to drive him away. Here he stayed until

midnight, when the creator came out as he always did. His first kwaimuitci hit the water and splashed but

there was no sound like thunder in the ocean, for the frog had taken it before it hit bottom. Then Mūkat was

very frightened, and with his ceremonial staff felt down in the water to see what was beneath him. He

scratched the frog’s back leaving three white marks there. Half of the kwaimuitci was left in the water and all

the water creatures scattered it over the great ocean. Half of it was brought to land, and all the land creatures

one by one scattered it over the earth. Thus it could not be put together again and Mūkat could not be made

well. Mūkat sang to himself, “I felt sick in that water. My body became cold, swollen and weak. Either this

water or my house makes me sick.” All his creatures stayed in the ceremonial house watching him. Coyote was

his nurse, and tended Mūkat. He dug a hole in the ground, made a fire in it, and then put the creator in,

covering him up. Day and night he did this for Mūkat, and thus he learned all of Mūkat’s songs. The others

slept all night so they did not learn Mūkat’s songs.

Mūkat grew sicker and sicker, and he called the horse fly 325

to suck 326

his blood. This was the first time

this was ever done. It did him no good. Then he called the sow bugs 327

and the dragon flies 328

to doctor him.

These two failed, so he tried the water snake, 329

the gopher snake, 330

the red racer, 331

and the king snake, 332

all of whom failed. All of these had only pretended to help him for they all wanted Mūkat to die.

The he told his creatures to tell the west wind, 333

that belonged to him, to come and help him. The

west wind came, like a hurricane, with a great dust storm. Mūkat was afraid, but the west wind went into his

body, and for a while he was better; but it was too strong; he was being blown away. He told the white-

throated swift, 334

which he named “wind meeter,” 335

to go meet the west wind and tell it to go away for he

was afraid. This same thing happened with the north, south, and east winds in succession.

Then he said, “All my creatures 336

have tried to cure me but I am no better. I know now that I am about

to die. Perhaps I shall die in the dark of the moon, 337

or in the faint light of the new moon, 338

or during the

324

wahaatukicnikic. 325

pīpic. 326

nemaīīī: sucking disease from a patient’s body. 327

kumsewhitum. 328

wakaīullalvawit. 329

pasiwit. 330

pokawit. 331

tatahol. 332

wiulwakanawit. 333

yaikauinawhit. 334

sikukwinut. 335

yainamkiwuc. 336

nenukem, netavum.

young crescent moon, 339

or during the older crescent moon, 340

or in the first week of the new moon, 341

or

when the moon has a cloudy ring around it, 342

or during the clear half-moon, 343

or when the half-moon has its

rim parallel to the earth, 344

or during the full moon when its spots show clearly, 345

or when the full moon

comes from the east and is red, 346

or when it begins to wane and one side is flattened, 347

or when it has half

disappeared, 348

or during the last dying moon. 349

All the time Mūkat was sick coyote tended him. When he spat coyote would pretend to take it away,

but he would really swallow it, and thus make Mūkat sicker and sicker. Coyote helped Mūkat move from one

side to another, from his face to his back, and helped him to sit up. When Mūkat was too weak to spit coyote

would lick the saliva off with his tongue. When coyote was away Mūkat called all his creatures, and said, “My

hands are growing cold, my heart is growing cold, I shall die soon. When I die coyote will try to eat me, for he

is planning to do this while you sleep. Therefore, when I am dead tell coyote to go after the eastern fire 350

which I drew from my heart to light my pipe. When he is gone have hunawit 351

and tekwawit 352

gather all

kinds of wood, dig a hole, and prepare the burn my body. Take the palm 353

and with a drill make fire.” When

the palm, who was a woman, heard this she began to cry and complain that it was unfair to select her from

among all the other creatures. But Mūkat continued, “The fly 354

will bore for fire with a drill. 355

Then you can

burn 356

me with my creature the fire.” That night Mūkat made all his creatures sleep, even coyote, and then

he died.

In the morning coyote woke up. He felt Mūkat’s heart and knew that he was dead. He said, “I think it is

all over with our creator!” All the other creatures woke up, saying, “He is dead! Our father, your father, is

337

sōūmenyil. 338

tēwi menyil. 339

sīva menyil. 340

tcaña menyil. 341

kaīvu menyil. 342

kava menyil. 343

liwi menyil. 344

tatca menyil. 345

yelamenyil. 346

tēvī menyil. 347

tese menyil. 348

kavī menyil. 349

tū menyil. 350

tamikut. 351

The large ancestor of the bear. 352

The large ancestor of the skunk. 353

ninmaīwit: one species of palm 354

pīpic. 355

kutmūīvawut: making fire with a drill. 356

nekwane: also means “eat.”

Coyote Saves His Father's Heart by Andrew Gillespie

dead!” Then they all cried that there was nothing with which to burn

their father, and they asked coyote, because he ran fast, to go after

the east light. Coyote went away to the east after the fire. When he

was out of sight they prepared the pit, gathered all kinds of wood,

and catching the palm tree they threw her down and held her

although she tried to escape. The fly took a stick and started to make

fire, twirling it between his hands. First came water, then blood, and

then fire. With this they kindled the fire, dragged the body of Mūkat to the pile, and put it on the burning

wood. It burned.

They all stood in a close circle around the fire. Meanwhile coyote went toward the eastern edge of the

world and tried to catch the fire, but it always ran just ahead of him. Finally he looked back and saw the smoke

of Mūkat’s body burning. “I thought that might be the way!” he said, and he came back running very fast. All

the people saw him coming, and shouted, “Here comes coyote” Do not let him in to the fire where Mūkat is

burning.” “Turn around my brothers and sisters,” said coyote, “I am full of tears. Let me in! Let me in! I too

want to see my father.” But they would not let him through. All of Mūkat’s body save the heart was burned.

Then coyote said, “I will fly over you,” and he jumped over their heads into the fire. All Mūkat’s creatures

pressed the creator’s heart into the flames with their sticks, but coyote reached it and scattered blood and

fire, so that the people were burnt and pushed back. Then coyote ran out with the heart.

To the east he ran, carrying the heart. 354

All the good runners, mountain lion, 355

wolf, 356

gray fox, 357

and kit fox, 358

followed him, but could not catch him. Then he called each by name, and said, “Stay away! Why

do you, my brothers, pursue me?” Then he talked to the heart of the creator, saying, “I am carrying you upon

the earth, to the edge of the world, to the point of earth and sky, to the bottom of the sky, to the bottom of

the world.” All things tried to frighten him as he ran, but he said, “I am not afraid of you!” Then he swallowed

the heart. 359

He at once became very sick; he became emaciated and his ribs showed.

Some of Mūkat’s creatures who had gone away in search of food for their sick creator returned too

late, and found the body of their father in ashes. Among these were suuwit, 360

elelelic, 361

witctcuic, 362

354

There are many more songs about the flight of coyote, but only a clan of the coyote moiety may sing them. Alejo belonged to the kauisiktum clan of the wildcat moiety. 355

tūkwit. 356

iswit. 357

kauwisic. 358

wilyul. 359

The Desert Cahuilla say this occurred in the Painted canyon, near Mecca, which accounts for the red stained rocks there. 360

One of the stars. Also named pahahūwit.

tuivonpic, 363

the jaguar, 364

and the marsh hawk. 365

They all cried loudly, and rolled in the ashes. Last of all

returned the buzzard, who was slow and returned late. He did not cry, he became dumb, took the skin off his

head, and with a stick bore a hole through his beak. After that he was always quiet, he could only hiss.

Then in the place where Mūkat was burned there began to grow all kinds of strange plants, but no one

knew what they were. They were afraid to go near the place for a hot wind always blew there. One,

Palmitcawut, a great shaman, said, “Why do you not go and ask our father what they are?” No one else would

go so he followed the spirit of Mūkat. By the aid of his ceremonial staff he followed the trail of Mūkat’s spirit

although whirlwinds had hidden the trail. In one place were thickets of prickly cactus and clumps of interlaced

thorny vines, but at the touch of his ceremonial staff they opened up for him to pass. Far away on the horizon

he saw a bright glow where the spirit of Mūkat was leaning against a rock. The creator’s spirit spoke, “Who are

you, that follows and makes me move on when I am lying still?” When the creator’s spirit spoke Palmitcawut

was dumb and could not answer, though Mūkat asked him several times. Finally he was able to speak: “Yes, I

am the one who disturbs you while you rest, but we, your creatures, do not know what the strange things are

that grow where your body was burned?” Mūkat’s spirit answered him, “Yes, that was the last thing I wanted

to tell you, but you killed me before I could do so.” Then he continued, “You need not be afraid of those

things. They are from my body.” He asked Palmitcawut to describe them and when he had finished the spirit

of Mūkat said, “That big tree is tobacco. It is my heart. It can be cleaned with white clay, 366

smoked in the big

house to drive away evil spirits. The vines with yellow squashes are from my stomach, watermelons are from

the pupil of my eye, corn is from my teeth, wheat is my lice eggs, 367

beans are from my semen, 368

and all other

vegetables are from other parts of my body.” (Thus when any vegetables are gathered and brought to the “big

house” all the people must pray to the creator.)

Then he said, “I am in that big house. My spirit is there, my saliva is there. You can move the big house

away and always live there.” They did this and all Mūkat’s creatures stayed in the house weeping for their

father. Then they began to wonder how they could make the image of their father. Meanwhile coyote was far

away, being very sick. At last he took some wet short reeds, 369

rolled them into a ball, and swallowed it. Then

he vomited up all kinds of disease from his heart. Thus he got well. From far away he heard the people in the

361

Archaic. 362

Archaic. 363

Archaic. 364

tūkwut. 365

wesunauwit, the marsh hawk, is gray because he rolled in the ashes. 366

yūliwit, tēviwit. 367

nasawam. 368

nenevum. 369

sīmūtum.

“big house” talking, planning to kill him when he came back. So coyote came near them and they saw him. He

talked gently to them from far away and they listened. He said, “I have heard you wondering how to make our

father’s image. I will show you.” And he gathered all kinds of flowers saying, “With these we can make the

image of our father!” He was joking with them, making them forget their anger. He brought many kinds of

flowers, but by the next morning they would all be dead. All this time he was planning what he should do. At

last he remembered that he must go to the ocean and get pana maiswut, 370

pana hekwa, 371

and pana

wiava. 372

So he told the people he was going after these things.

Then he went to the ocean which was far away. That evening he slept at the edge of the earth, and

woke up very early thinking it was dawn. He called aloud, asking it not to become light right away. Then he

began to sing because the surf was pounding in so hard that he could not go into it. He sang asking the ocean

to stop pounding for a little while. Then he went into the water, and got those three things with which to

make the image of Mūkat. 373

These three things he brought back to the “big house.”

Then he began to make the image of his father. All Mūkat’s creatures were crying, and they sang songs

as each part of the maiswut was cut and wrapped. Thus the image was made. They sang a song about moving

it, standing it up, carrying it to the fire, placing it on the pile, lighting the fire, the smoking, the burning, the

crumbling of the last ashes, the last of the burning. Then, covering the ashes with dirt, they sang the last song.

All was over.

370

seaweed matting. The wrapping of the clan fetish bundles. 371

water tail, archaic. 372

water apron, archaic. 373

The maīswut was to be cut and wrapped with the other two, but what “water tail” and “water apron” were, no one at present knows. The maīswut is now usually made of tule or reed matting.

The following creation story is from the book Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians, "Part I. Legend

and Tradition," by Chief Francisco Patencio, as told to Margaret Boynton.

Francisco Patencio (1857 – 8/10/1947)

Francisco Patencio was both a net (ceremonial and clan

leader) and a political activist for the Agua Caliente people, traveling

to Washington D.C. at the age of 80 in defense of Tribal land. He was

of kauisik lineage and inherited his role as net from his elder brother

Alejo. Though self taught, he was well-educated and a skilled linguist,

with knowledge of English, Spanish, French, and several Indian

dialects.

The tumultuous times which occurred during his life certainly

affected his decision to write the book Stories and Legends of the

Palm Springs Indians. Concerned that young Cahuilla people were no

longer learning sacred songs, ceremonies, or even the Cahuilla

language, Francisco Patencio dictated his book, which described and

preserved Cahuilla history, oral literature, and cosmology.

"...the older ones of our tribes are slowly passing away. The churches and schools of the new American

people are teaching our children. We find that the beliefs of the Indian people are being forgotten.

Even now there is much that will never be remembered again; and so, before I, too, pass into the world

of spirit which is around and about us, but which we do not often see, I now write this book for the ones

who have interest in new things, for the ones who like to hear new stories, and for the men of science

who study the world. But most of all I write the songs and stories for my own people, our children and

our children's children, and those yet to come, that when the Indian customs are forgotten, they may

read and know and remember in their hearts the ways and thoughts of their own people."

-Francisco Patencio

Lacking an interpreter and an anthropologist, this book represents a unique perspective on Cahuilla

knowledge and culture.

Francisco Patencio and wife Dolores Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. All Rights Reserved

Margaret Boynton

Margaret Boynton collected the stories in this book from interviews with Francisco Patencio. However,

not much is known about Boynton’s life, education, or character; nor is it known where her interest in the

Cahuilla and the recording of their history stemmed from.

According to Marshall McKinney who wrote about Margaret Boynton in his book Vanishing Footprints

from the Hot Desert Sand (1996), Boynton was a governess for many years at a military academy prior to

moving to the desert and becoming a live-in housekeeper. She owned a small adobe house, once belonging to

William Pester, which she moved to Patencio’s trailer park at the time of the sale. McKinney states that “she

spent many hours of her spare time writing, to preserve the Indian myths as told to her by the aging Francisco

Patencio, the local tribe’s Teller of Legends.” She was considered by some to be an “Indian lover.”

Francisco Patencio’s Creation Story

from

Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians

Creation

In the beginning there was nothing but nights, and other Indian words call them the two nights-man

and woman. They tried to create, to produce a child, but the child was lost before time for its birth. For four

times the same happened. Then with a flash of lightning (num yum a wit) came strong twin boys.

The name of the first one was Mo-Cot, and the name of the second was Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit,

meaning creator. These were the first people. They were sitting in the air. There was no earth, no water, no

light, nothing but darkness; so they could not see each other, but they could hear each other. They did not call

each other “brother,” but “my man.”

Now this Mo-Cot, he asked, “What are we going to do, my man?”

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit answered, “You should know, my man.”

Mo-Cot said, “We must create now.”

Then Mo-Cot created first tobacco. And Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit invented the pipe and gave it two

names: man and woman.

This pipe they filled with the tobacco, and not having light of fire or anything of that kind, they drew on

the pipe with their mouths, and fire and smoke came into it.

Then Mo-Cot asked Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit, “Which are we going to have the oldest direction?”

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit answered, “North.”

Mo-Cot said, “I am sitting on the north side, so I am the oldest.” But Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said, “No, I

am oldest.”

Now when Mo-Cot blew the smoke of the tobacco first toward the north, then west, then south, Mo-

Cot and Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit were sitting close together in the air, and Mo-Cot, holding the pipe high above

his head, said, “The pipe is low, my man.”

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit believed that the pipe was held low, and groped for it. Not finding it he

reached up and discovered that his brother Mo-Cot was holding it high.

Then Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit smoked the pipe. He blew the

smoke to the north, the west and the south. When he had finished he

handed the pipe back to Mo-Cot and said, “I am up, my man.” But

Mo-Cot did not believe him and putting his hand low, he took the

pipe.

Together they made a whÒ ya no hut. This is like a bishop’s

staff, which is carried in the church today. This they tried to stand up,

but it could not stand, because there was nothing for it to stand on.

So they put a tem em la wit (bedrock) to steady the whÒ ya no hut, and yet it would not be steady, for it was

growing up all of the time.

Now this was the first beginning of the earth. It was the foundation-stone, and is in the middle of the

world today. Then they created two kinds of snakes to hold it, but they could not hold it.

They made a big pile of stones and put them around the whÒ

ya no hut, and yet it was not steady; so they created great spiders,

black ones and white ones (not the spiders of today, but the ones that

live in the ends of the world), to weave threads to help hold it steady.

The men climbed up on the whÒ ya no hut to reach the point

at the top, and half-way up Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit saw smoke and

steam coming up from below, and he asked Mo-Cot, “What is that,

my man?”

And Mo-Cot answered, “You ought to know, my man. That is

what is left from our birth, the sack we were in, and from that will

come sickness, disease and death.” So they went on up to the top.

Then Mo-Cot said they were going to make the earth. So they

made the earth, but it would not hold together. Then the two kinds of

spiders wove their webs among the earth, and caused it to hold

together.

The earth first made grew so fast that it ran to the north like water. Then it went west and south and

east, but yet it weaved backward and forward and would not stay still, because of nothing holding it.

Drawing of spiders and ants by Randolph Avila, III (age 5) at Kids Explore! 2012.

By Shannon Mirelez

Then they made two winds-one a whirlwind and one a cyclone, to blow and smooth and level the

earth. At the same time they went north to turn up the end of the earth, and they stood up on the end of the

earth to help steady it; also the west, the south and the east.

Yet they could not make it stand still, it was so strong. So they created two kinds of ants-un wit em (red

ants) and kao wit em (black ants); but not like the ants of today. Then they went all over the earth, but they

could not steady it.

So then they made pal no cit, the water ocean. Then they turned up the edges of the earth, so the

water could not run over, and the earth became steady, as we see it today.

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit asked Mo-Cot, “How are we going to make no cot em (people) like ourselves?”

Mo-Cot answered, “We have made the earth, two kinds: fam av sil (meaning moist earth) and pal lis

ma wit (meaning damp earth). Also the u le wit (meaning the clay earth), the ta vi wit (meaning the white clay

and also the black clay, the yellow clay and the red clay). Of this earth which we have made will we make the

people.”

Then round and about them came a humming and a singing to soothe them, by the Two Nights their

parents. This humming and soothing is around and about us in the night forever, to make sleep in the all the

earth’s children.

They smoked the tobacco and created Ow il (a dog). They gave him some tobacco also, but the smoke

hurt his eyes, and he has never been able to see so well by day as at night since.

Then they created Is el (the coyote), meaning “quick and selfish.” Then they made Moot (the owl), and

so soon as he was finished he could see in the dark, and he said “o-o-o.” The coyote jumped quick and took it

and set it aside.

Coyote became very busy, helping with all of the created animals, and though he was one of the older

brothers, he always told everyone that he was the youngest brother.

So of this earth they began to fashion people, but because of the darkness Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit

began making them too fast. Mo-Cot could not see either, but he could feel, and worked carefully, and he

made people in the shape they are today.

Then they stopped making people, and wanted to see what they looked like-they needed light. So they

blew with their lips, and blew some stars into the sky, but there was so little light from the stars that they

could not see well enough; so then they tried to make more light, but could not. They called on all the animals

they had created to come and help, and yet there was no more light.

Then Mo-Cot and Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit put their mouths together and blew out the sun, but it

bobbed up and down and all around. They tried to grasp and hold it, so that they could see, but they could not

catch it. Then it sank into the earth. Next morning the sun came up from the earth and went back into the

night, and all the days afterward.

Then Mo-Cot and Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit saw all the people that they had made, and they called them

No cot em and Ta ba tem, which mean, “those that have been created.”

Now, after they had looked well at their creations, Mo-Cot said to his brother Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit,

“My oldest man, your work is an no com,” which meant that his creation was not good. Which was because

some of the faces were double, looking both ways at once, one on the back of the head as well as on the front;

and the hands and feet were all webbed, like ducks’; and so Mo-Cot told him.

But Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said it was all right, for in going they could look forward and backward at

the same time, without having to turn around-that there was no use to turn around, it took too much time.

Mo-Cot said, “See, my creations look better with one face, and if anything happens they can turn

around and look. Any of mine can lie to sleep three ways, but yours have only one place to lie. And another

thing, the hands and feet look very bad with a web across them, that they have no way to split.”

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said his hands were better, because in holding them together they could scoop

up with one hand more than Mo-Cot’s would with both. And Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said too that there should

be no sickness among them, that there would be no oldest, for if they got old they could go into the water and

come out young again.

Mo-Cot said, “There will be sickness come, they will die, and they will get old, and the young ones will

come, but when sickness comes we will have those among them to cure sickness.”

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said, “There will be no sickness among them. If you do not believe my words, I

will go back to where I came from, and take all the creation with me.”

Mo-Cot answered that if there were no sickness or death among the people, the earth, being small,

would soon be filled up with too many of them, because of more being raised all the time. And another thing,

what are they going to eat?

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said that it would be growing all the time, and that they were going to eat that;

that it would sprout up as they were eating it.

And so the first brothers quarreled, and all brothers have quarreled ever since.

Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit said that there should be no sickness or death or he would go down where he

came from and take with him all that had been made.

Mo-Cot told him, “You can take along with you all that you have made, but of mine you are not to take

it.”

Then Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit was thinking to destroy the world, the earth, the sky, the water, and

every thing, by taking it along with him; but Mo-Cot said, “No, you won’t. You take along what you have made,

what belongs to you, but not anything that I have made will you take with you.”

Now the earth was smooth and level, and so they quarreled, and Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit went down

with all his creations.

Then there came an awful time. The sky blackened, and fire flew, and lightning. The earth rocked and

rumbled. Earthquakes split the earth every way: Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit trying to destroy it, and Mo-Cot

holding, holding down hard as he could, trying to save and protect it and his creations. Then came something

worse than all: the smooth land was no more, the earth broke all in pieces, when up rose the mountains,

which are here today.

But, try as he could, Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit could not overpower his brother Mo-Cot, who held fast

one place and then another, and pushed hard until Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit gave it up.

Now, after every thing had settled and become quiet again, the people could see well, and they saw

that they were of different color. For the white clay had made white people, and the black clay had made

black people, and the yellow clay had made yellow people, and the red clay had made red people, and each

color of people went together.

Then it was that the white-clay people were not pleased about being the only ones without color. The

cried to be dark, like the rest. They put different clay on themselves, but it was no good. It came right off after

a while.

Then the people called to Mo-Cot that the people were going away. The white people went first, and

Mo-Cot said, “Let them go. They are different. They will always be different.”

Then Mo-Cot saw in the daylight that the colored people were fast going from him. He reached quickly

behind him and grasped the red people. These were the people that he kept with him. His creation children

left him, and so it has been to this day, that the children go on away, instead of staying with the parents. As

things were done in the first beginning, so they have done ever since.

The Moon Maiden

Now Man el the moon maiden was el ka men el, a very fine

young growing young woman, el ka he wit a very beautiful, intelligent

young woman, such as all Indian girls have hoped to be, and she was

teaching no cot em (the people, but especially the girls).

She took the young people to a place of water, and taught

them to dance and run and jump and wrestle and play games;

different for the boys, and different for the girls. She taught them

songs and foot-racing; taught the girls and women to rise and bathe

in the pool before the men got up. Then, just as the sun came up, she

taught them to shake out their hair backward and forward, to

thoroughly untangle it, and then as the sun shone on it, it would

never turn grey, nor get blossoms (split ends) at the ends. She taught

them how to laugh and play and be merry.

Now this is a song that she taught them, all about the funny faces of the animals: the coyote, who was

the youngest of them all, was the most teased of them all, so they sang the song about his long nose and his

long tail, and the color of his eyes and his hide; and about the wild-cat the same way: all about his short nose

and his short tail, and his bright eyes.

The coyote represents a tribe of people of his name, and the wild-cat represents a tribe of people of

his name; and she taught them that coyote must never marry with coyote, or wild-cat must never marry with

wild-cat.

Wolf and bear and birds and the Siou were all brothers to the wild-cat and coyote. Wolf, coyote, bear

and wild turkey were all on one side, with wild-cat, lion, fox and crow on the other, and one side must not

marry with each another, but the other side.

This was what the moon was teaching them, because if they should marry with their own side, the

children would not be good, the people of their own side would be against them, then songs (laws) would be

against them, too.

When the moon was teaching the no cot em (people) by the water, they saw a female spirit, and in the

night time the spirit saw the moon, too, but she did not know about it, and the people did not know what was

going to happen either.

Moon Maiden by Andrew Gillespie, inspired by Virginia Siva Gillespie

Now when the moon came home, bringing the young people, all laughing and dancing, they stepped all

over a huge rattle-snake that liked to curl himself up in the doorway in the sun. They danced on his head and

on his nose, and the snake felt very badly, badly treated.

At this time Mo-Cot was lying in his house, and he saw them running over the snake, and as the snake

was harmless and could not defend itself, Mo-Cot was sorry for it. So, as they went away next morning, he got

up and put two cactus thorns in the snake’s mouth; if they stepped on him again, some one would be stung.

When they came back in the evening the snake was watching to sting any one who stepped on him. They

came as usual, walking all over him, and he bit one, but there was no harm done at all.

The next day Mo-Cot got mesquite thorns and put them in the snake’s mouth and said, “Try it with

this.” The snake was ready for them when they came home in the evening. He bit the first one that walked on

him, but it was just the same as before- no harm done at all.

Mo-Cot said the next morning that he was going to try again, “and if it comes out right, you can run

under the rocks or into a hole (how y at) or brush.” Mo-Cot took two hairs from his beard and put them into

the mouth of the snake. Now, when the young people came, happy and dancing, they did it again, just the

same as before.

The first one that danced on the snake, he bit. Then he started to run under the rocks. They chased him

to kill him, but he ran too fast, and the one that was bitten died.

To va vish niks chum al mi ik was the name of the one that died (meaning, a bright shining light). He

was always the first to come running and laughing and dancing on the snake. No cot em (the people) they

knew what Mo-Cot had done. Often at night they saw a spirit, and heard acorns and cane rattling, but they did

not know what it meant.

One night Mo-Cot caused a deep sleep to come upon no cot em. Then he made trouble to the moon

maiden, because she had no one to protect her. Next morning she told some of the people what had

happened to her, and they decided that they were not satisfied to have this Mo-Cot stay any longer among

their brothers and sisters.

When the moon maiden went back to the pool, the place of dancing, she was not happy like herself.

She was pale and sick, and thinking that she did not want to stay at that place any more.

Her brothers and sisters were asking what was the matter. She did not tell them anything, but she

made a song, and then everybody understood what had happened to her.

After that she became quite happy again, and all the people were glad, but they did not know what

was going to happen. That night she caused them to sleep deep. They did not see or hear anything, and that

night she went up into the sky.

Next morning, all her brothers and sisters could not find her anywhere. There was no track of which

way she went. They looked everywhere, but they could not find her. They went to coyote, the youngest

brother, and said, “You have done good things for all of us, and now you had better go all around the world

and look for our sister.”

So he did. He went all over the world, but he could not find a trace of where she went.

Then one evening they saw her in the pool, looking up and laughing at them. She was in the sky, in the

West, but they were seeing her in the water. They were so happy to see her again, they all yelled, “Here is our

sister in the water,” and they all came and begged her to come out. But she would not come out.

They called coyote. “Our brother, you better come and drink this water, and let our sister come out.”

Coyote began to drink the water. He could not drink it all, it was too much, but he made it much lower.

And yet the moon laughed and did not come up from the pool. Then they looked up and saw her in the sky.

This was the first time of the new moon.

When the moon was among the people she had taught them to bathe, and ever after when they saw

the first quarter of the new moon, they plunged into the water of the pool.

They were sad and lonely when they came home, for they missed their sister and teacher who was

away up in the sky. They went to bed early, to forget. In the morning they went back to the pool of water

where she had been teaching them, but they were feeling no better, for they missed their sister.

Beginning of War and Death of Mo-Cot the Creator

After the moon had gone away, Mo-Cot began teaching the

people. He taught them to shoot rocks from split sticks toward each

other, by snapping the stones from the sticks. Then he made the pa

hal, a cane, to grow. This is what he made the arrow sticks from. It

was cut while somewhat green, then they dried it. Some dried

crooked, and then they took a certain dark stone and cut straight

grooves in it.

This stone is called in Indian Ya na pish. It was used for

straightening the arrow sticks. It was heated red hot; they wet the Mukat, by Antonio Patencio, age 11

arrow with saliva from the mouth; then, by twisting and turning and pulling the arrow through the slots, it

became perfectly straight.

This that they made became known as arrows, Hoo yel; the plain stick, Hoo I- the stick and point

altogether complete. The Hoo I was used for war, to kill by being poisoned; the Hoo yel was not poisoned, but

used to kill for food.

When the arrow was finished, Mo-Cot made the arrowhead, or point. It was made in his lungs, and

came out of his mouth. When he was making the arrowheads they were heard rattling in his lungs-this in

Indian is called S i vat.

There were all kinds of arrow heads-white, red, pink, blue, black, yellow, all kinds of colors and shades,

hundreds of them. They were heated in the fire red hot, to make the shapes. There were two shapes, one for

food ( ) and one for war ( ). The one used for food could be pulled out, but the one used for war could not

be pulled out, or had to go through, or be taken out.

When this was all finished, the arrowheads were fastened on the arrow sticks.

Mo-Cot called for is baw al (redwood) to make the bows. It is strong and hard to split, it is very strong

and shoots the arrow a long way.

Now that everything was complete, Mo-Cot began teaching the people how to shoot each another, by

drawing off the arrow heads, which left only a harmless stick. They learned how to shoot at each another by

drawing up sides, and no one was hurt. After they had learned to shoot well, Mo-Cot drew up sides, and

putting on the arrow heads told them to shoot. Some of the people were wise, and knew what would happen

when Mo-Cot told them to shoot, and this they refused to do.

Now there were three kinds of natural birds, also the butterfly, that could not be shot with the arrows;

no matter how close they were, they could not be hit. Not the birds we see today, but the first created birds,

they were different. One was the crow, one the water-bird, and the other like the red breast sparrow.

So the crow went up first and asked them to shoot him, then the others did the same thing; now the

butterfly went and asked the same thing. They told the people not to be afraid, because they could not shoot

them, they could not be shot, but the people were afraid.

Then Tahquitz, one of the first created Indians by Mo-Cot, was very wise, and knew many things. He

said, “You watch me now, because there is no danger.” He then took an arrow, pushed it down his throat,

then thrust it in his side, then through his head at the temples, then stabbed himself through the lungs. He

said, “You can see it is nothing. I am not dead, it is only play.” This is what he told them all.

They believed him and thought that they could do anything that he could do. Then, when they began

shooting at each another, many were killed.

Up to this time the people were as one family of brothers and sisters, but after the killing they became

angered and missed the ones that were gone. They were unhappy and lonely. So when night came they went

where the dead bodies of their friends were lying, to see if they could come back to life again. Every night they

went to see if they had come back, but they did not.

One night they went and saw lights from all sides; they heard talking, and knew from the voices who

they were, but they could not see them plainly like those living, only the lights at night. When the daylight

came they could not see them. Then they went to the place where the moon used to teach them, and the

spirits came there. There they played and talked to them and were glad and happy. The spirits thought they

could come back after a while, but could not come.

This was not in one day or one week-perhaps a thousand years, or maybe much time more that the

spirits were suffering on this earth with the people; so they got tired of it, but did not know where there was a

place for them to go. One night they gathered together and started to go north. They went so far that they

thought they were going to find a place for themselves, but they could not, and came back to the place where

the moon had taught them among the living people. There they stayed for a time; then started towards the

West.

They went up through the open spaces, as they had done to the North, thinking that they would find a

place for themselves there, but they found it no use going farther-all they found was book ray whenit (endless

space). So they turned back, and in a little while they heard voices in the North. Then they came back to where

the moon had taught them.

After a time they started to the South, then they went up, and they saw the endless space; but there

was no stopping place, so they turned back, but they heard sounds in their mouths and lungs. After some time

they returned to the place by the pool, where their sister the moon had taught them among the living people.

Now among the people there was a man named Mom tak wit and he was angry for his brothers’ spirits

suffering around for a place where they could be, and he was thinking about these things.

Then the spirits went again to the East. They rose higher and higher still, but could see nothing but

endless space as before. Then they came to the end of the world and could go no farther, and there they

found Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit with his people. He said that they were different, and he stopped them before

they got among his people. He said that they were not cooked well done, as they should have been, and that

their smell was different.

He told them, “That was what I was saying to my oldest man in the Beginning, but he did not believe

me. Now you suffer much. Why does he not show you a place for you to be? But now you to go back to Yo le

wit and Tew i wit and Chim no Ra,” which meant that they must return to that place which was created.

He told them to take a handful of clay and make a cross on their breast from one shoulder to the other.

Then he said: “My oldest man and I we made a hang a wit and san han wit. You might break some switches

off, and whip yourselves around the bodies. Maybe that would help you.

They went back and did that, and it helped for a while. They were happy in the night time, but in the

daytime they had no place to go, as before.

This man Mom tak wit, he was thinking so much about what they should do. So he got up and went out

and made a whò ya no hut, such as a Bishop’s staff, like Mo-Cot and Mo-Cot-tem-may-ya-wit made to create in

the First Beginning, and he took it in his hands and struck it in the earth, and shook it, and shoved and moved

it around until he opened up a place in the earth, so that all of the spirits went in. And when they went in they

made rumbling sounds in the earth, and this is the place that all spirits go, even today.

Now these people (No cot em) that were left behind became dissatisfied, so they were having a talk

with each another, what they should do with this Mo-Cot.

Ta va wit, the great woodpecker, said, “Pe om,” which meant for the witch doctors to witch Mo-Cot.

Before, the woodpecker was not saying this word, but ever since he can be heard saying “Pe-om-pe-om.”

They all wanted to know what to do with this Mo-Cot. He was always lying down, he was never

standing up or going about, he was always lying down in the house.

Then they told the great smoke-colored lizard that lived in the desert among the sage, to watch at

night; so he did. He watched that night and saw, as the people went to bed, that Mo-Cot cause them to sleep

deep. Mo-Cot took a pipe; there was no tobacco or fire in it, but he lighted it and smoked it. He blew the

smoke to the North and to the West and to the South and to the people. Then he stood up and took the who

ya no hut, and he struck it among the people, and where he struck it, he put his foot, first one and then the

other.

The lizard was watching and following in his shadow, and he saw Mo-Cot go away over to the sea, and

he had a post set there at the edge of the ocean. But the lizard could not go there, because of the water.

The lizard saw that Mo-Cot went there to take a bath; that he used this place for a bath room. When

Mo-Cot came back from the ocean, the lizard came back with him too. Then he went to the same place and he

lay down again.

Next morning the spirits went to the pool to play, where the moon had taught them, and the lizard told

them all that he had seen last night.

The people said that was all right, that was nothing. Then they told the great skipper that walks on the

water, “You go and kill him. You go to this place and watch for him.”

So that night the skipper, he went to this place, and stayed there until the middle of the night, when

Mo-Cot came down. But the skipper could not get near enough to bite him, because the waves of the ocean

were too strong, and they floated him about until he could not stay still. Next morning the people went to the

same place where the moon was teaching, and they asked him: “How did you come out?” The skipper said, “I

could do nothing, because the water was too strong and I could not hold myself. You had better try somebody

else.”

So they picked out the great green frog and told him to go and try it. He agreed, and started for the

place at once. That night he stayed on the bottom of the ocean, waiting for Mo-Cot to come. About midnight

he came.

Now, the great green frog had not only much power, but he was ready to poison him as well as

bewitch him. Always when Mo-Cot went into the ocean there was a rumbling and a thundering. The frog was

sitting tight against post on the bottom of the ocean. The frog was using his power, and when Mo-Cot did not

hear any rumbling or thundering, he did not know what to think about it.

He took the whò ya no hut and began to poke all about in the water with it. This he did three times, but

the frog was hiding and sitting close to the post, so the who ya no hut only scratched his back. Then Mo-Cot

gave it up; he was not feeling very well, and was shaking.

The next morning the people went to the same pool where the moon had been teaching, and they

asked the frog what he had done, and he said he thought he had done it all right. The people were all very glad

to hear that, and told each another when they got sick not to go to Mo-Cot to be cured.

Mo-Cot could not understand how his sickness got started to him. “Perhaps the water, or maybe my

house,” he said.

And when he was so sick that he could not take care of himself any more, coyote was taking care of

him. He did everything he could for him but Mo-Cot was afraid of coyote. He told his people that they must

watch coyote, “For, if any time at night I die, perhaps he would eat me,” so they watched coyote.

Then Mo-Cot told the people, “Send my creation, the swallow, to the north wind and tell him to come

and doctor me.”

The swallow went, but the wind was so strong that he could not get near it. Then he flew under it, near

the ground, and got to where the wind was, and he told the wind that Mo-Cot was sick and wanted him to

come and doctor him.

The wind said, “All right,” he would be there the next morning.

Next morning early he came down with all the power he had, to try and help Mo-Cot.

He blew the sand and the dirt and shook the houses until Mo-Cot was rather afraid, so he told his

people to tell the wind to go back home, that his eyes and ears were all full of sand. So the people told the

wind to quit and go back home. The wind stopped, but nothing happened to Mo-Cot. He was getting worse.

Then he thought we would try the west wind. “Perhaps my creation the west wind would be better for

me. You can go and ask him to come down.”

So the same bird he went, and the wind was very strong, as before, and the bird could not get in to

him, but he flew underneath the wind, close to the earth, and went anyhow to the wind and told him that Mo-

Cot wanted him to come down.

The wind said, “All right, I will be there in the morning.”

Next morning he came down very strong, shaking all the houses and bringing dust until they could not

see each another.

Mo-Cot told the west wind to quit and go back home, that his eyes and ears were full of dust, so the

west wind went home.

The tried the south wind. “Perhaps my creation, the south wind, could help me. You had better go and

ask him to come.”

So the same bird went, but he could not get in, for the wind blew so strong, so he flew under it again

and got in that way, and told the wind that Mo-Cot wanted him to come down and cure him.

The south wind said, “All right, I will be down in the morning.”

The next morning he came with all the power he could, trying to help Mo-Cot get well, but he did no

good to Mo-Cot--he was getting worse.

Of course the winds knew and understood that the people were witching Mo-Cot, so they were not

wanting to cure, they wanted to kill him. They did him no good, they put even more sickness upon him.

The people knew why he was getting no better. He was a trouble maker, and they were determined to

get rid of him. Mo-Cot then told the people to send wes so not the hawk to go after pa e wet the long tailed

desert rat. The hawk went after the rat, but he never came back, because he found the living so good he

forgot all about bringing the rat back. Mo-Cot could have told his people where they could have found some

things to eat, but he never did, and this was the first time that any of them had found anything.

Mo-Cot told his people to send all wot, the crow, to go after “those my creation (pe e whem em).” The

crow went, but he did not come back that same day, because he found them so good to eat, and so many of

them, that he like to live at that place with them.

The pe e whem em were very large worms, something like the army worms today. When they were

roasted on hot rocks or hot coals they were considered very fine eating. Tribes of Indian often quarreled over

the boundary lines when these worms were in season.

Mo-Cot ate them, and they did him so much good that he sent the crow back again for more. The Mo-

Cot began explaining to his people, “Maybe I die in the month of Sowl,” which means before you can see the

new moon. “Or the moon Seva (the crescent of the new moon). Perhaps I shall die in the new moon, chan a,

or the half moon (Ky vo), or the moon tan cha (three-quarters), or the full moon (te ve).

“Maybe I shall die in the moon (tes sa) going back to three-quarters, maybe I shall die in the Le we

moon. Maybe I shall die in the ca ve moon, maybe I shall die in he qua moon. Maybe I shall die in Too moon.

He told his people, “When I die, you better watch my creation coyote. When I die you must tell him to

go for my creation Rockfire and Sunfire.” He told this to his people.

The Rockfire and the Sunfire were very far away, and very strong, so Mo-Cot knew that coyote would

be a long time and could not get them. “Then when my creation coyote goes for the Rockfire and the Sunfire,

you must start to my creation that is a girl, a very fine girl, Min my wit the palm, and make a fire out of her.”

Now the girl who was a palm heard and began to cry, the tears were running, but Mo-Cot told the

people, no matter how much she screamed or cried, or the blood ran out of it, to keep on twisting the stick in

the hole until they made the fire.

So one night Mo-Cot died.

Coyote Goes for Rockfire and Sunfire

The coyote called out to the people, “My sisters and brothers, our father has died!” Then every one of

them, they cried, and this was the first time that the people knew how to cry. The roadrunner, the dove and

the owl, the wild mallard duck, and the red woodpecker, these were the first people who began to cry when

their father died. Then all the people cried.

Now when they were crying they went to their brother coyote and said: “You were always good for

everything, and attended to everything, so now you can go after Rockfire and Sunfire, so we can start burning

our father. Coyote was still crying, but he got up and brushed the tears from his eyes and walked away.

The people nor coyote knew where the Rockfire or Sunfire was, nor how far it was-nobody knew. But

coyote walked away, then he started to run, and he said: “My dear brothers and sisters watch me, my legs, my

tail pointing as I am running, and watch the dust I make. I am going to carry my foot in my hand, and my hand I

am going to put on my forehead, and my nose pointing straight ahead, and my eyes never wink, and my

mouth is going to be open, and I am going to be like standing steady, and then I say: ‘My dear Sunfire and

Rockfire come to me, come near to me, don’t you move far away, come near to me dear brother Rockfire and

Sunfire.’”

So he stopped and then pulled the earth near to him, and then he kept running until the Rockfire and

the Sunfire were quite near to him. But it was very dangerous, for there was nobody could be near them.

Coyote said: “You are my own brother, I won’t scare you at all. I am going to get you. You are trying to

eat me, or scare me, or kill me, but somehow I am going to get you, because you are my own brother.” Then

he came to it, and got Rockfire and Sunfire.

Now after the people had got coyote started after the Rockfire and the Sunfire, they began to make a

fire out of this girl (Min my wit) the palm tree. They nominated the great fly to twist the stick to make the fire.

The flies have never forgotten this, because today you can see even the common house flies rubbing their

hands together, remembering it yet.

They nominated Bac cho, the small coon-like animal, and the bear to dig the grave. The mountain quail

and the desert quail gathered the wood in long poles and short logs, and got the alder and the red brushwood,

and the wild plum, and other kinds, eleven kinds in all.

So they fixed it on the grave, and put the body of Mo-Cot on the top, as he had told them to do. Then

they started the fire. When the fire was starting, the people all stood in a circle tight and close, near the fire.

Then they all started a song about every thing as it happened.

First thing was the smoke, second thing was the smoldering fire, and third the burning of the fire, and

fourth how it lighted the wood, and fifth how it caught the body and caused the arms and legs to twist and

turn; how it caused the body to burst open, and then how the flesh all burned and left nothing but the bones

among the embers; but the heart did not burn quickly, it took some time for it to burn.

Now the coyote had much power, and by running and pulling the earth closer [to] him he found the

Rockfire and the Sunfire much sooner than anyone thought he could.

He came running back with the fire, crying, “I am coming back, my brothers and sisters,” but as he

came back nearer and nearer and saw the smoke, he saw the body of his father was burning. He said: “I knew,

I knew they were going to do that way, but I do not know what made me come after the Rockfire and Sunfire.”

So he dropped his fire and left it there, to run faster to get to the body of his father before it was all

burned. Then he saw the people all standing close to each another around the fire from a long way, and he

called: “My brothers and my sisters, look at my face, the tears running out of my eyes. Let me get through and

see my father.” But the people saw him coming, and told each another not to allow him to get in. When he

came up there was no place, so he said: “My brothers and sisters, give me an open place, so that I can see our

father.”

The heart was not yet burned, so they stirred the fire to make it burn more quickly. Now coyote was

running around and around on the outside of the circle, saying, “My brothers and my sisters, are you not sorry

for me? Let me get in to see my father.”

They stood closer together, so there was no chance for him to get in. He said, “I will go under your feet,

my dear brothers and sisters, or I will fly over you.”

Some of the people were short, and some were tall, and coyote was running about in circles, as he

does today. Then he jumped quickly over the shoulders of some of the shorter people, to the fire. He

scattered the embers among all the people, till they ran away. Then he snatched up the heart of his father and

ran away with it.

The mountain fox and the desert fox they chased him, but after a little way he turned around and told

them to stay away, that it would not do them any good to follow him, for he was running to the end of the

earth with the heart of his father.

When night came, many Spirits came to him, trying to scare him. “Ah, no!” he said. “I won’t be scared

of you because you are my father.” They were showing him things in front to frighten him, so that he would

not go there.

But he said, “Ah, no! I know you are my father. I am not afraid of you. I am going to eat up your heart,”

and he did.

The First New Plants

Now, when everything burned was cold, they filled the grave and smoothed it, and went back and

burned the house because Mo-Cot before he died told them to do this thing-not to live in the old house where

he had lived. Some one might get sickness.

In three days they went to look at the grave, and they saw some plants sprouting up where they had

burned their father Mo-Cot, and they did not know what it was.

They said to each another, “Our father never said anything about that, so how can we find out.”

Now one man among them was smart and intelligent, and he asked, “Did our father not leave

someone with the power of knowing about this?”

But no one knew, and then he said, “I am going to chase him until I find him, and then I am going to

find out.”

So the people said that was right; that he should go and ask him about it, and find out. The man who

was going to chase our father, his name was Pal mech cho wit, meaning “water not believing.” He went over

to the grave where they had burned the body, and he stood waiting there, looking at the plants.

Soon a very small whirlwind started going around, and he watched it until it went away from the

plants, and he followed it as it went to the east. The whirlwind was getting larger and larger. He followed it

until dark came, and in the darkness the whirlwind became light, so that he could see, and he still followed on.

He found after a time that the whirlwind was not a whirlwind, but a person.

He followed him, but could not get near to him; but anyway he could see all right until the daylight

came. He saw tracks, and he followed the tracks. But the great red ant walked over the tracks till he could not

see them any more. Then he used the tracks of the red ant to follow.

Pal mech me wit said, “It is yourself, my father, using the tracks of the ants, and so I am going to follow

you.”

Then the tracks of the great red ants were covered by the tracks of the Cev la bet em, the big black

beetle, the bug that stands on its head, but not the small bug of today. So Pal mech me wit used that track,

and said, “I know that it is you yourself, my father, using this track.” And he kept following until darkness

came.

After the dark came he kept going toward the East. Then he came to the grease-wood tree, and seeing

the bunches of mistletoe in the trees, thought it was some person, but found it was only mistletoe, such as

grew in his own country.

Pal mech me wit said, “It is your own self doing this to frighten me, my father.”

He kept on going till he came to the desert willow tree. He thought it was a person till he came close to

it. He thought perhaps it was Mo-Cot, but it was only desert willow. He kept on going till he saw a palo verde

tree, and the bunches of mistletoe again. He was very much afraid, so far away from his people, but he was

brave, and would not be frightened by a palo verde tree covered with bunches of mistletoe. Now this was palo

verde (oow oow wit) with the flat seed; the other kind is taw how cut with the round seed, and he saw this

kind also with the bunches of mistletoe. Still he kept going, and all things small looked large to him till he came

to them, when he found they were all small.

He was seeing the mirage across the sand. He kept going on till he came to the sand country, sand and

sand hills, which in the Indian language is called na che wit, a country with nothing but sand.

After passing through the sand country he came to prairie country. There he heard an owl howling, and

he knew he was getting near to the place he was looking for. When the night came, he could see the light

shooting straight up to the sky. He kept on going, and then he came close to Mo-Cot. As he came nearer, a

wave a heat came across his face, and he knew he was coming closer to Mo-Cot’s spirit.

He was filled with fear. He was not quite up to him, but he was nervous, and trembled so much that he

could not go farther. Mo-Cot’s spirit was asking him to come closer if he could. He tried, but could not. He had

no strength left to stand up. He could not walk any more.

And because Pal mech me wit’s strength turned weak when he saw the Spirit, so have all people since

become weak when they see a spirit.

He could see Mo-Cot’s spirit. The body was like crystal at night time, with pale colors glowing over it.

He could see the face, but not the features, and the spirit was beautiful.

Mo-Cot’s spirit knew who he was, and what he had come after, too, but anyway he asked, “Who are

you?”

Pal mech me wit answered, “I am of No cot em, the people, who gave me authority to come and ask

you something. In our grave something is sprouting up. We don’t know what that is. I and No cot em want to

know.

Then Mo-Cot’s spirit answered and said, “I was going to explain all these thing to you people. I did not

know what you people were thinking about when you bewitched me, but that is all right. Now I will tell you.

“These plants are all my body; all kinds: my bones, my skin, my head, my eyes, my ears, my nose, my

arms, my fingers, my legs, my feet, my liver, my guts, my heart, my hair.

“Everything is what you will use for your living. You are going to eat that.”

“My teeth will be your corn; the melons are my heart; my eyes are your fruit, your grass is my hair.”

“Everything that you have, that you will eat, that will be some part of my body.”

“You have to go back to the people and tell them that I will be there in one day, two days, or three

days.”

So Pal mech me wit went back, and when he got there he called them every one together, and he told

them everything that Mo-Cot’s spirit had told him-all about the plants which were to be ours to use. The

people did not know one plant from another, so Pal mech me wit told them all of the names of everything,

even those we see today.

The first name that they had was the beans, which were the fingers of Mo-Cot. These were named Ta

va my lum. The corn was named Pa ha vosh lum and the wheat was named Pach che sal and the pumpkins

were neh wit em, the watermelon was Is to chen. At the same time Pal mech me wit told them that Mo-Cot’s

spirit would be with them in one day, two days, or three days.

They were all glad and satisfied to have Mo-Cot’s spirit come again. They waited those three days, but

the night of the third day they all fell asleep.

Then one of them, a man named Chip chip wit, he awoke and saw coming the spirit of Mo-Cot. He saw

very plainly the spirit of his father, so he jumped up and he yelled to all the people, “all my brothers and

sisters, our father is here now!”

They jumped up, every one of them, and they looked and asked each another, but they could see

nothing. They asked each another, “Who is it that says our father is here now!”

Then Chip chip wit became nervous at what he saw, and fell down unconscious. He spit blood from his

mouth.

When he got better, he told them that he saw his father’s spirit. “Maybe I am mistaken, but I saw it,”

he said.

And so it was that some, but not all, could see the spirits.

First Memorial For Mo-Cot

Now coyote, when he took his father’s heart, went toward the coast, and he came to a great brushy

mountain that he could not pass. He said, “Oh! I have got to get through. I have done so much, and, my father,

I know you are doing this.”

Then he passed through and came to a Great Dry Desert, all crossed by many tracks, and he said, “I

have got to get across! You, my father, are doing this.” But the heart was trying to frighten coyote insane, to

get away from him.

Coyote said, “I will not let you go. I have to eat you.”

Whenever coyote became tired of carrying the heart, he laid it down to rest himself, and wherever he

laid it, there the blood left red stains on the ground. These marks remain today. This ground is called good

ground. It is used for medicine, for paint, it is used for many things.

After coyote got over to the end of the world, he ate the heart of his father, and as he ate it, some

blood spilled on the ground. This became clear, red paint. The Indians paint their faces red in memory of the

blood that was spilled from the heart of their father. And for this reason red is the Indians’ sacred color.

Since coyote had eaten the heart of his father he had much more power than he ever had before. He

was thinking always about his father.

He was feeling sorry, missing his brothers and sisters and his father, and being so far away; he was

thinking about what could be done now that Mo-Cot was dead. And then he began thinking about going back

to his brothers and sisters.

Now it might have been one thousand years or five thousand years or more since he had been gone.

The people were all very sorrowful and sad, and coyote was the same. His hair began falling off, he was poor

and thin and weak, and half sick. And so he went back to his brothers and sisters. They remembered what he

had done, and were very angry with him; but they were sorry for him, too, for he had done many things for

them. And so they were glad to have him back again with them.

One day he called them all together and talked to them about decorating their grave and having a

memorial fiesta for their father. They were all willing, but some told him that they had nothing, no food, no

clothes, not anything to make a memorial with.

Coyote said not to mind about that, he would look for some things. He went to the coast, to the ocean,

and found some pampas grass plumes and brought them home. He said, “My brothers and sisters, here we

are. We are going to do it with this.”

But his brothers and sisters did not pay any attention to him, and in a day or two the pampas plumes

dried and began falling off. So he went again and got more flowers—red ones and blue ones and other kinds,

and made them into bunches and took them home. They looked very pretty, but the people knew that they

would be pretty only while they were fresh.

Coyote said, “This is what we are to have for our father.” But the people paid no attention.

He talked very pleasantly and thought they were believing him, but they were not. They knew that

flowers would have to be gathered every day, and would fade the next.

Now coyote he knew what was right and what was not, but he was doing this only for pastime. His

brothers and sisters knew that coyote would get the right thing, and that he was intending to; but coyote had

trouble in making himself always do what he knew he should do.

He went to the ocean again. The ocean was at high tide, so he waited there and lay down and went to

sleep in the day time. When he awoke he did not know how long he had slept. The light was going for the

night, but coyote thought it was morning coming, so he held back the night to make it longer.

This can be seen sometimes at evening now—not often. The dark comes, and then it lightens again. It

seems as if morning is coming instead of the night. This is a sign coyote made when he held back the night.

Then, when he made it light enough to see, he jumped into the ocean and got Panga me ya va, in

English “water-apron.” And he go Panga ha quat, in English “watertail,” and Panga mic vat, a tall bunch of

grass called tule.

He took all those things home, and he called all the brothers and sisters. They came, because they

knew these things that coyote brought were good herbs instead of wilted flowers—herbs that were useful

medicine. So they came together and talked it over—what they were going to do, and how they were going to

do, and when they were going to do. For this was something they had never done before.

Who was to manage it, and who would attend to the ceremonials? Coyote said that he would attend to

the ceremonials, and he did it.

He began a song, and started with all the people—from where Mo-Cot had come out of the ocean;

then another, beginning from the ocean; then another, starting from the center of the earth, from which Mo-

Cot and Mo-Cot-tem-ma-ya-wit were born.

Then there were nights set apart for the ceremonials. The first night was for Mo-Cot and Mo-Cot-tem-

ma-ya-wit his brother; the second night for Mo-Cot’s sickness at the ocean, and the third night coyote getting

the Panga we ya va, the Panga ha quish and the Panga mic vat, the memorial for Mo-Cot.

So they had the ceremonies for Mo-Cot, and they called some others, who lived in tribes separate from

them, to visit the memorial of their father Mo-Cot.

This they agreed to do, and they sent a man to tell how they were coming. They were coming as Nu

theem, which means blackbirds.

Then the people asked him how they were coming, and he answered and said, “Dancing in a bunch,

and going into the ground, then flying into the air, and then dancing into the ground again, and flying, and so

on.”

The words of the song they were dancing were: Ha we-Ha we-Ha we, and then Ha we ta-Ha we ta-Ha

we ta, very quickly. This was repeated nine times by the head men, and all danced to it.

Then they held their hands up and yelled, and went into the earth, and coming up they repeated it.

They were all going into the earth and coming up into the fiesta house, because they did not want to go in by

the door. But the head man pressed hard on the earth and held it back.

The Blackbird people tried hard to go into the ground, but they could not, because of the power of the

head men; so they were forced to walk into the fiesta house through the door.

Now when they were all gathered together in the fiesta house, the head men of both tribes stood close

together and lighted the tobacco and smoked in the tubes of cane which were fixed for that purpose. The joint

was cut and put into the fire in the ground and swelled up by the heat. The outside bark was shaved off and

filled with tobacco.

After the head man of the tribe smoked he handed the pipe to the head man of the other people,

apologizing for the poor quality of the tobacco (although it was very strong), and as he handed it to the other

head man he said, “I don’t know what made me send for all of you people to come here through all the bad

weather and without food and shelter.”

Then the other head man took the pipe in both hands and put it to his lips as if it tasted very good, and

said, “I am here in this your biggest house, Kesh um now wit, and I don’t know what makes me feel this way,

but I am coming to your Kesh um now wit always.”

(The word now used is fiesta house, meaning a place of dancing or entertainment, but the Indian word

Kesh um now wit was used by the first created people for the first time at the memorial of Mo-Cot. The dances

of the Indians were always serious, sacred ceremonials in which they told in their songs the history of their

people. These times were celebrated together, and in all tribes there was a meeting place which was named

Kesh um now wit, meaning the big house or place of assembly.)

At the fiesta house the head man of the Nu theem people spoke all night about Mo-Cot and Mo-Cot-

tem-ma-ya-wit, their birth and their creations, the animals, and the people. They made this into a song for one

night, but if the song lasted more than one night they finished it in the next daylight.

The second night they made a song for the Moon Maiden and all she had taught them. They began by

playing a game that she had taught, played with pebbles, throwing one up and placing the others, like white

children’s jack stones today.

They took a piece of cane and split it into six parts at the joint, then they struck it on a rock and

counted the sections that fell underneath.

They took a flat stick with marks marked on one side XXXX, and throwing it up on the flat of the hand,

counted the marks. This game was named by the moon maiden con wel ah. These were games for the women

and children.

For the men’s and boys’ games they made a mark on the ground, then, taking a short bone in the hand

they thrust it into one of the points of the mark, and the other guessed which point it was, and if he guessed

right it was his turn to play. When the game was being played they sang a little song about the star that was to

hide the bone and slip it into the ground.

The third night a song was made of Mo-Cot—his sickness and death, and his spirit. The fourth night

they sang about coyote going after Sunfire and Rockfire, and how he stole his father’s heart and took it away

toward the east.

The memorial service for Mo-Cot lasted a week. The head men decided that the first day should be a

day of prayer, and all of the people agreed. It was a day of prayer for the people, their friends, their homes—

for all of the people, both living and dead. Before entering the fiesta house they made a prayer to purify

themselves.

Now the fiesta is managed by three heads. One head man has charge of everything pertaining to the

fiesta service, and gives permits to the other head man who has charge of distributing the food to the people,

and to the other head man who smokes the sacred pipe and blows the smoke to the north three times the

first day, three times to the west and south the second day, nine times the third day.

The fourth day is set apart for a day of rest, and on the fifth day they make the dolls. The second head

man who manages everything outside of the fiesta, except distributing the food, is called Pa ha, he who

attends to blowing the sacred smoke. At this, the first fiesta, Pa ha was the coyote.

On the fifth day he called all the people to be quiet. Then he blew the sacred smoke and called prayer,

and all of the very old people who belonged here (not any of the young people) went into the fiesta house.

Now to the Indian people the tule Panga mic vat represents what to other people would be a flag. The

tules grew so very tall that no one could find the end of them, so the head man of the fiesta cut a portion, and

in it he put the feather of an eagle, some Indian money made of strung shells, a pipe and some tobacco, and a

certain rock which is sometimes red, yellow, blue or black.

This tule was one of the good gifts that coyote brought the people, and of the piece which was filled

with these things by the head man, a doll was made to represent their father Mo-Cot. On the sixth day the

people burned the doll and scattered seed from the first plants which grew from the ground where Mo-Cot

was buried, in memory of their father.

These head men were great men, men of much power, and if anything should be done that was not

done right or was not done well, they knew it at once. And this is all of the first fiesta in memory of Mo-Cot.

Now the descendants of these first people are living here among us yet: the Chief Francisco Patencio

who looks over everything and gives permits to others; Ramon Manuel who has charge of distributing the

foods to the fiesta guests, and Willie Marcus who blows the sacred smoke along with other ceremonials.

These men have charge of the fiestas even today.

Some of the Early People

(Mo moh pechem)

These people before us, they are gone. We do not know their color, nor how they may have been, but

this we know: that they were people of much power. They did not walk, if they did not want to do so, because

they had the power to rise and go through the air. They were men like us, and had families the same as we

today—only they had much more power and could fly.

These people lived on the mountains, and called themselves Mo moh pechem, which means “moaning

in pain.” But this does not mean that they were sick at all—it was only a tribe name.

Now these people could not fly anywhere at any time. No, but only after long prayer till the time came

were they given the power. They did not go to be gone a day or a year, but stayed in one place much time,

many, many years, and flew away again when the time had come to do so.

From the pass where they lived they flew to the San Fernando Mountain. This mountain they called To

to be. From there they flew to the Cocomonga Mountain. That mountain they called Evo quish, meaning a

stick or poker to stir the fire. From there they flew to San Gorgonio Mountain, which they called Queri kitch,

meaning “bald” or “smooth.”

From there they flew to San Jacinto Mountain. They called it I a kitch, meaning “smooth cliffs.” There is

a place near the top which has no pine trees, a place of about forty or fifty acres; right in the center of this

place is a large smooth rock, about ten or fifteen feet square, not very high from the ground, about three feet.

There they stayed for a long time.

From here they saw a mountain lion coming, and they said that if you saw it once, you could not see it

again. But the head man of the tribe said that he could see him again. But the other said that if you see him

once, you can not see him again.

The head man went and stood on the top of the rock, looking, and the people were watching from

away. Then the lion leaped upon the rock before he saw the man, and they began to fight, and both died

there.

Now after the head man was killed the people felt very badly, and they left that place. They did not fly,

but walked down across the mountain side to Palm Canyon. Then the third head man of the tribe decided that

he would not go any farther. He turned himself into a rock, and he is there in the rock yet.

The people prayed, and flew again to the end of the Santa Rosa Range. Here they found many small

shells, and they called it the place of the shells. From there they flew again to the San Felipe Valley, to another

open place on the plain, and here they stayed. They had lost the head men of two tribes, and so their power

to go farther left them forever. They could never get it again. So they lived there and raised large families.

Then an animal, To quastto hut, which means an animal that comes from the sky with much noise of

thunder, he came and took two or three of these people every day.

Resources

Hooper, Lucile. 1972. The Cahuilla Indians. Ballena Press, Ramona.

Patencio, Francisco. 1943. Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians. Times-Mirror Press, Los

Angeles. (out of print; try libraries)

Strong, William Duncan. 1987. Aboriginal Society in Southern California. Malki Museum Press, Banning.