MIWOK NATION

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The Coyote
(Daniel White), Miwok Nation, California, United States.
 
"So Coyote created human beings. He set to work and created human beings. He locked himself in his house and danced all night. Then he created human beings. He carved them out of wood. He used all kinds of wood: white oak, redwood, fir, pine, black oak, sugar pine, horse chestnut, maple, live oak. He made them like sticks and stuck them in the ground around the house. He sang and danced all night. “In the morning you will be people!” The next morning they were people."
 
MIWOK AND POMO MYTHS.
BY JAIME DE ANGULO AND L. S. FREELAND.

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Ah-hā'-le, the Coyote Man

(Trey Lewis), Miwok Nation, California, United States

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In the beginning, the people of Yosemite Valley had no light or fire. Their land was cold, dark, and foggy. Ah-hā'-le, the coyote man, was unhappy and traveled everywhere, trying to find a better place for the people. That was how he discovered the people of the hills, and for the first time in his life he saw trees, and found the land dry and warm, and pleasing to the eye. He himself was a magician or sorcerer, so he became one of the Hill People and mingled with them to see what they had and what they were doing. He saw that they had fire, which produced light and became Wut'-too, the Sun.

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When he returned to his village, he tried to convince the chief to buy the sun. But then he discovered that the people in the hills did not want to sell it. If he wanted to obtain it for his people, he would have to steal it. So he returned and turned himself into twisted oak branches and waited for the keeper of the fire to find him and take him home. Then, when the keeper of the fire threw him into the fire and went to sleep, Ah-hā'-le regained his form and fled with the fire.

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That is how Coyote got fire and the sun for his people, but he allowed it to continue shining for the people in the hills.

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Death and the Coyote

(Gary Pitman), Miwok Nation, California, United States

 

In the beginning, there was no death. Then Chief Hawk, grandson of the Coyote, was killed by Old Moon. Coyote wanted people to be able to die twice, that is, on the fourth day after their first death, they could come back to life, until a second death. But Man said no, that it was not right, because they would smell bad and so it was better for people to die only once and remain dead. Finally, Coyote agreed.

 

“Then Old Coyote said, ‘When people die, they must come to my house in the land of the dead, beyond the ocean. They must come there after four days. Only dead people must come here, not living people. That's how it's going to be.’ That's how it is. When people die, they go to Grandfather.”

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MIWOK AND POMO MYTHS.

BY JAIME DE ANGULO AND L. S. FREELAND.

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Po'-lotī, spiritual woman of the waterfall.

(Shona Medinas), Miwok Nation, California, United States.

 

"Perhaps most fundamentally, an understanding of spiritual power and its role in the order of the universe unifies the highly diverse and complex societies that make up this trans-Sierra indigenous world.  While individual tribal communities preserved and transmitted their own unique histories of the past through oral narratives about creation, the Miwok peoples of the Sierra and their neighbors understood that the landscape itself was endowed with “residual powers from the past, sites of historical moments and homes and places of residence of powerful beings, and of themselves, in the recent past.” One of the largest villages in the Ahwahnee Valley, Koom-i-ne, for example, was located near the foot of Cho'-lok, Yosemite Falls, whose pools held the tremendous and sometimes dangerous power of the spiritual women Po'-lotī.  In an earlier time, the spiritual power of the Po'lotī was known to have swept away an entire village community in a violent gust of wind. This kind of omnipresent power was at the core of indigenous geographies far beyond the territory of the Sierra Miwok, and the numerous and diverse societies of the Yokuts to the west and south, and the Paiutes to the east, named countless landmarks in their own lands, just like the Miwok, to convey some of the power, history, and spiritual resonance they possessed."

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The Spirit of the Forest

(Anthony Lerma), Miwok Nation, California, United States.

 

When he was little, Anthony's cousin had a dangerous experience, which Anthony told me about: One day, the boy was outside his house, near the forest, hitting a piece of wood. Every time he hit it, he heard a response coming from deep within the forest. The sound he made when he hit the wood generated an equal response, but deeper and more serious: Knock, knock, knock, the boy knocked. Knock, knock, knock, the forest repeated. Knock, knock, knock, knock, the boy knocked; knock, knock, knock, knock, the forest responded. But the sound coming back from the forest was getting louder and deeper. Until the boy's father noticed what was happening and intervened forcefully: he immediately told him to stop that game. He explained that the sound coming from the forest was not a coincidence or a friendly conversation. It was actually the response of the strange spirit of the forest, who was neither satisfied nor happy with this conversation, but rather considered it a challenge. That is why the father forced his son to stop immediately. He told him that he should never again challenge the spirit of the forest, who is much bigger, more powerful, and more irritable than all human beings.

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Kah'-kool, the Raven

(Daniel White), Miwok Nation, California, United States.

 

In the beginning of time, the raven was white and complained to Too'-le and He-le'-jah that he couldn't get close enough to his prey to shoot; the animals saw him too easily; he was too light in color. So he decided to paint himself black; he took charcoal, crushed it in a basket, and rubbed it all over his body where he could reach, and asked others to help him put it on his back where he couldn't reach. When he was completely black, he went out hunting and killed two or three animals on the first day, because now they couldn't see him. He climbed to the top of El Capitán—the sentinel hill—and from there he spotted the animals, which could not see him. That was how the raven discovered that black made him invisible and became a successful hunter, because a hunter must disappear from the sight of his prey.

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Ho-hā'-pe, the mermaid

(Sequoia Miller), Miwok Nation, California, United States.

Some rivers are inhabited by Ho-hā'-pe, the River Mermaids or Water Women. The Ho-ha'-pe have long hair and are beautiful to behold. They usually live in deep pools and are known in various places. They have been seen several times in the part of the river that runs through Ah-wah'-ne (Yosemite Valley).

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Kah'-kah-loo, the crows

(Joshua Velliotes), Miwok Nation, California, United States.

"When water covered the world, only the top of the highest mountain stood out. The people had climbed this mountain, but they could not find food and were starving. They wanted to go down to find something to eat. When the water receded, the ground turned into soft mud. After a while, the people rolled stones to see if the mud was hard enough to hold them. When the stones stayed on the surface, the people went down to find food.

But the mud was not hard enough to support them, and they sank, leaving deep holes where they had fallen. Then the Kah'-kah-loo Ravens came and perched in the holes, one in each hole where a man had fallen. After a while, when the earth hardened, the Ravens turned into people. That is why the Mewuk are so dark."

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The Dawn of the World

Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan [Miwok] Indians of California

By C. Hart Merriam (1910)

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Uzumati, the Bear

(Domingo Barron), Miwok Nation, California, United States

For the Miwok people, bears are immensely important as symbols of spiritual power, strength, and a deep connection to the natural world. They are revered as protectors and guides, often featured in mythology and associated with warrior rituals and ceremonies to represent courage and bravery. The bear is also a source of wisdom, strength, and resilience, influencing tribal traditions, naming conventions, and medicinal practices. Domingo, who works in forest fire control in Yosemite, belongs to the Bear Clan, one of the two main clans of the Miwok people.

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MONO NATION

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The Coyote and the Flood

(Aaron Pomouna), Monoche Nation, California, United States

At the beginning of time, the earth was covered by water. A boundless flood was all that existed. But the coyote man, our great ancestor, to whom humans owe the best, was dissatisfied. He wanted the land to rise from the bottom of the waters. And so he asked for the help of the ducks, who dived to the bottom to extract particles of sand and earth and accumulate them to form the topography we see today.

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Qui-am-i Wintook Poot-see, the North Star

(Travis McFarland), Monache Nation, California, United States

Long ago, when the Earth was young and the North Star did not exist, there was a very brave and sure-footed mountain goat named Na-Gah. Na-Gah's greatest pleasure and joy was climbing mountains. However, there was one great mountain that towered above all others. Na-Gah walked around this tall mountain and could not see or find the way to the top.

One day, Na-Gah came across a cave and a tunnel that went deep into this great mountain. He gathered all his courage and entered the dark, rocky tunnel. His sharp hooves knocked loose many rocks that rolled down and were left behind as they climbed higher and higher. The tunnel became very dark and small, causing Na-Gah to question his courage. At one point, Na-Gah became a little scared and decided to turn back, only to discover that all the fallen rocks had blocked the tunnel and that the only option was to keep going.

After many hours, just as Na-Gah was about to give up, he saw a small ray of light. Following the light, Na-Gah reached the top of this great mountain. By then, Na-Gah's father was walking in the sky and discovered that Na-Gah was trapped at the top of the mountain, unable to come down.

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The great father said, "Na-Gah, there is no way you can return to Earth. You have climbed to an unimaginable height that no one has climbed before, and you have finally reached your limits, but I will not allow you to die. I will transform you into a star, and you will be a beacon in the night so that all things on Earth may find their way. You will be known as Qui-am-i Wintook Poot-see, which means ‘North Star’. You will shine where everyone can see you and remain motionless so that they can easily find you. Once they find you thanks to your brightness and stillness, the people on Earth will also find their way."

 

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Yibano, Autumn

(Perl Hutchins), Monache Nation, California, United States

I asked Perl, a renowned storyteller, if there were any mythological stories about autumn, and she said of course there were. Autumn is the season when the seven types of acorns that form the basis of the diet of the native peoples of California are harvested. She explained that the Black Acorn is the most nutritious and important, and the least important is the Water Acorn, because it does not coagulate into a gelatinous form and is the most bitter, but it is so nutritious that, if there are none of the others, its “juice” is consumed. Perl is so intelligent, generous, and enthusiastic that she is, in herself, mythological.

 

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The Acorn Woman

(Loretta Sylvas), Monache Nation, California, United States

The staple of the California peoples' diet is the acorn, of which there are at least eight edible species. Its presence on the land originated with the acorn women.

 

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Two-spirit

(Eric Mills), Monoche Nation, California, United States

“Two-Spirit” (or Niizh Manidoowag in the Anishinaabe language, from which it originates) is a pan-Indian term adopted in 1990 by LGBTQ+ Native Americans to describe a person who embodies both the male and female spirit and often plays different social, spiritual, and work roles within their communities.