The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 7rituals of burning his house and belongings so they may “follow him to the spirit
land.” Explaining birth and death, this tale of origins is typical also in explaining the
special place and destiny of its tellers. Having taught the Yuma people the appropri-
ate rites, Kumashtam’hu offers them the gift of corn and other “useful seeds from the
four corners of the world.” He scatters the other tribes “over all the world,” but keeps
the Yuma near him beside the Colorado River “because they were the special people
he loved.” “I cannot stay with you forever,” he warns his people. “I am now only one,
but I will become four:” four eagles that, after Kumashtam’hu no longer dwells
among the Yuma “in the shape of a man,” still keep watch over them and enter their
dreams to give them “power from Kokomaht.” “Everything that is good comes from
Kokomaht,” the legend ends, “and everything evil comes from Bakutahl.” For
Bakutahl, “the Evil Blind One,” survives beneath and “does bad things.” To him, for
instance, are attributable all storms and earthquakes; when such things erupt, “then
the people are afraid and say, ‘The Blind One is stirring down below.’ ”
Not all tales of origin resemble those of the Yuma people in attempting to explain
the creation of the world, perhaps the evolution of sun, moon, and stars, and human
and cultural emergence all in one narrative. There is, for example, the tale told by the
Hopi people about a poor little boy who becomes a warrior and kills many. His
power comes from his discovery that he is the son of the sun, but the tale is less
about this than it is about the specifics of Hopi culture. The enemies the boy kills are
all hunter-gatherers, reflecting the fear felt by the Pueblo farmers toward marauding
nomadic tribes; and, having killed his enemies, the boy returns to the Hopi village
where he proceeds to “teach the people the right way to live.” On the other hand,
there is a legend popular among the Tsimshian, featuring Raven the Giant, a favorite
hero among Northwest coast tribes, which is precisely about how daylight came into
the world. A shifting, metamorphic creature, the hero of this legend assumes the
form of a raven, cedar leaf, child, and then raven again, while stealing light from “the
chief of heaven.” More specifically still, there are tales that concentrate on explaining
the existence of a staple or ritual. A Blackfoot story tells how a young man called
Bull-by-Himself was taught by the beavers how to grow and smoke tobacco:
“Bull-by-Himself and his wife brought the sacred tobacco to the tribes,” the story
ends, “who have been smoking it in a sacred manner ever since.” A Brule Sioux story
tells of a vision quest that became the foundation of all others. An old woman,
journeying to “the top of a lonely hill,” finds the “holy herb” of peyote after strenu-
ous prayers and visions; and she returns to the tribe to introduce them to “the sacred
herb, the drum, the gourd, the fire, the water, the cedar” – everything needed, from
sweat lodge to solitary vigil, to achieve a visionary state. Sometimes, the tone of these
stories is humorous. A Pima tale, for instance, suggests that white and black people
are a mistake of creation, burned too little or too long in the oven of “the Man
Maker,” whereas the Pueblo Indian is “exactly right,” perfectly baked and beautiful.
Sometimes, on the contrary, the tone is serious, even rapt. So a Cheyenne legend
simply explains how “Maheu the Creator” first taught the sun dance “that represents
the making of this universe,” “the great medicine dance” to a medicine man and his
wife. And a more complex tale, told among the Brule Sioux, tells how “White BuffaloGGray_c01.indd 7ray_c 01 .indd 7 8 8/1/2011 7:54:53 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 53 AM