Cottontail Shoots The Sun : COTTONTAIL SHOOTS THE SUN (Elko, Nevada. Shoshoni) At one time the sky was too low; it burned everything. The people would say "d d d, it is too hot." Cottontail said that he would kill Sun. He and Sand Rabbit walked toward the east. They went over mountains, mountains, mountains, mountains. Always...
Coyote Learns To Fly. Coyote Becomes A Mother : COYOTE LEARNS TO FLY; COYOTE BECOMES A MOTHER (Ash Meadows, Nevada. Shoshoni) Wolf's younger brother was Coyote. One day Coyote was hunting on the other side of the hills, east of the Armagosa Desert. Near Manse he saw a man going south and began to follow him. After a while he came to a place...
The Ice Barrier : THE ICE BARRIER (Winnemucca, Nevada. Northern Paiute) Coyote and Wolf went to the north to fight. Many people went with them. Coyote had been to the Snake River alone [before this]. He gathered the people and went back there. Ice had formed ahead of them, and it reached all the way to the sky...
Hawk And The Gambler : HAWK AND THE GAMBLER (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) Hawk (Tuhu'ni) and his sister-in-law, Snow Bird (Takandado'a), were the only people left in the world. Everyone had gone to Panamint Valley (Hauta) to gamble, but none of them had come back. All the animals--Coyote, Wildcat, Bear, Crow...
Coyote Learns To Fly. The Origin Of People : COYOTE LEARNS TO FLY; THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) Coyote had a house in Saline Valley where he lived alone. He decided to make a basket and he went out to gather willows. He did this for many days. While he was gathering the willows he heard a sound but did not know...
Next. The Race To Koso Hot Springs : THE RACE TO KOSO HOT SPRINGS (Death Valley, California. Shoshoni) At one time many people lived at Koso Hot Springs. These were animals who were then people. Even Sun was a person. Bear and all kinds of animals were there. The people were going to have a race. In this race they bet themselves [th...
Coyote Kills Wolf's Wives : p. 291 COYOTE KILLS WOLF'S WIVES (Big Smoky Valley, Nevada. Shoshoni) Coyote hunted rabbits with the Indians. Coyote's brother, Wolf, had a wife. Coyote and Wolf hunted. When they returned home they found mush in baskets for them. Wolf's wife had left it for them, but Coyote could not see her...
Next. Cottontail Shoots The Sun : COTTONTAIL SHOOTS THE SUN (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) Cottontail (Rabbit) and his old mother lived in a house in Saline Valley. One day Cottontail went out to kill Sun. He took all the arrows he could carry. He started off toward the east and slept on a hillside that night. When Sun came...
The Race To Koso Hot Springs : THE RACE TO KOSO HOT SPRINGS (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) All the animals were down south somewhere (pitiwana). All of them--Crow, Badger, Lizard, Coyote, the birds--were racing against Sun. Frog was in the lead, and reached Koso Hot Springs before Sun. When he got there, he waited...
Cottontail And Wind : COTTONTAIL AND WIND (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) Cottontail lived with the people on the side of Olancha Peak. The people had no wind; there was none in the whole valley. They could hear it up on the top of the mountain, but it never came down. Cottontail said, "I can bring the wind down...
The Theft Of Pine Nuts : THE THEFT OF PINE NUTS 6 (Winnemucca, Nevada. Northern Paiute) The north wind was blowing and Coyote could smell pine nuts. Coyote said, "It smells good. I will find the pine nut eaters." He traveled to where people were eating pine nuts. They were making mush of them. The people said, "Don't make...
Title Page. Part 3 : THE THEFT OF FIRE (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) A long time ago, the animals were people. They had no fire in any part of this country. Lizard was lying in the sunshine. He saw a tule ash, blown by the south wind from a long way off, fall to the ground near him. All the people came over...
Pole Cat, Takadoa, And Hawk : POLE CAT, TAKADOA, AND HAWK (Elko, Nevada, Shoshoni) Night Owl (Munibitc) lived with his wife and boy who was 6 or 7 years old. His wife, Takadoa, 37 carried the boy around on her back. Night Owl went hunting for rabbits. While he was stamping his feet in the snow, he stepped on a piece of bone...
The Theft Of Fire : THE THEFT OF FIRE (Panamint Valley, California. Shoshoni) The birds and animals were men. At one time there was no fire in this country. Lizard was lying in the sun to keep warm. As he lay there he noticed something falling slowly from the sky. When it came to the earth, all the people ran over...
Badger, Coyote, And The Woodchucks : BADGER, COYOTE, AND THE WOODCHUCKS (Lida, Nevada. Shoshoni) Badger lived alone in his camp. He had lived there a long time. On a hill close by his home were some rocks. In these rocks were the houses of many Woodchucks (Yaha). 35 p. 292 Badger thought, "These must be very good to eat. I am going...
Coyote And The Bear Cubs. The Death Of Wolf : COYOTE AND THE BEAR CUBS; THE DEATH OF WOLF (Ash Meadows, Nevada. Shoshoni.) One day Wolf said to his brother, Coyote. "I would like some seeds. I like them better than meat. Go to your aunt's place and get some for me." Coyote said, "We have no relatives." Wolf said, "Yes; we have. You go over...
The Flood : p. 284 THE FLOOD (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) At one time the world was filled with water. Only the Inyo mountains were left above it. All the people went to the summit of these mountains. (Probably New York Butte.) The water ran off toward the south.
Title Page : THE THEFT OF PINE NUTS (Elko, Nevada. Shoshoni) At one time there were no pine nuts in this country. All the pine nuts were up north, where Crane kept them on a high pole. One day Crow, Coyote, Frog, Snake, Mouse, and all the other animals and birds were lying on a hill, looking down at some boys...
Title Page. Part 1 : THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Smith Valley, Nevada. Shoshoni) All the birds and animals were men. Yellowhammer and the others went to where some people up north had pine nuts. They had put their pine nuts in a deer-skin bag, hung high up on a white pine tree. Coyote's people played the hand game and other...
Next. The Theft Of Pine Nuts : THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Ash Meadows, Nevada. Shoshoni) One day, Coyote went out to hunt rabbits. While he was hunting, he saw a large naked woman in the distance. This excited him. He said to himself, "Whew, I have never seen a woman like that. I will follow her." He followed her for a long time, but...
Next. Introduction : THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Death Valley, California. Shoshoni) Coyote had a home. He hunted rabbits to make a rabbit-skin blanket. When he had a great many skins, he started to make the blanket in his house. While he was working on his blanket, he saw a shadow pass the door. He went out of the do...
Title Page. Part 02 : SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Bureau Of American Ethnology Bulletin 136 Anthropological Papers, No. 31 SOME WESTERN SHOSHONI MYTHS BY JULIAN H. STEWARD UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. [1943] Scanned , February, 2003. John Bruno Hare, Redactor. This Text Is In The Public Dom...
Next. The Theft Of Fire : THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Beatty, Nevada. Shoshoni) Every day Coyote met a girl. The girl lived with her mother, who said, "Why don't you bring that Coyote here? He will hunt, game for us. Bring him home." When Coyote met the girl again, he became amorous. She said, "All right, but I shall go a little...
The Length Of Winter. Coyote Is Bitten : THE LENGTH OF WINTER; COYOTE IS BITTEN (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) Coyote, Owl, and Whippoorwill (Toovego) were making the year. Coyote was fixing the length of winter. Coyote said, "It should p. 282 have as many months as the hairs on my back." Owl said, "No, it should have as many...
Introduction : p. 253 SOME WESTERN SHOSHONI MYTHS BY JULIAN H. STEWARD INTRODUCTION These myths were procured from several Shoshoni of Nevada and eastern California and from one Northern Paiute during 6 months' ethnographic field work 1 in 1935. They by no means exhaust the western Shoshoni mythological...
The Deer Stealer : THE DEER STEALER (Death Valley, California. Shoshoni) Many people had houses at a camp where they were hunting deer and all kinds of animals. All the animals were people at that time. There were Eagle, Bullet Hawk (Kinii), Red Tail Hawk (kwiyoo), Crow, Coyote, and all kinds of birds and animals...
Title Page. Part 2 : THE THEFT OF PINE NUTS (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) The people in this country had no pine nuts. They talked about going off toward the north to get some. They started off toward the northeast. Coyote was among them. They went to a big camp where there were many people gathering pine nuts...
Coyote Liberates Game Animals. Wolf Is Killed : COYOTE LIBERATES GAME ANIMALS; WOLF IS KILLED AND RESTORED (Winnemucca, Nevada. Northern Paiute) Wolf was our father. Coyote was Wolf's brother. Their home was in a cave south of Humboldt City. It is called "Wolf's house." p. 298 [paragraph continues] Wolf had a hole [probably cave] in which he...
The Origin Of People : THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Skull Valley, Utah. Gosiute) Two women, a mother and her daughter, lived on an island in Great Salt Lake... Sinav and Coyote lived in Skull Valley. After the girl had killed all the men in the world, she came to get Coyote. Sinav told her that there was no [such person as]...
Next. The Origin Of People : THE ORIGIN OF PEOPLE (Big Smoky Valley, Nevada. Shoshoni) Wolf had a big water jug. He said to his brother, Coyote, "Coyote, don't touch or open this jug. Be careful!" Then Wolf went away. Coyote said, "What is the matter with my brother? What is in that jug? Why did he tell me not to open it? I am...
The Sky Brothers : THE SKY BROTHERS (Death Valley, California. Shoshoni) Many people had camps where they were hunting mountain sheep. Their chief went ahead and made fires (when they hunted). There were two brothers in the sky (tugumbi, "sky"; duwitc, "boys"). They traveled along shooting arrows in competition with...
Next. Coyote Learns To Fly : COYOTE LEARNS TO FLY (Lida, Nevada. Shoshoni) Coyote and his brother Wolf had a camp in the Shoshoni Mountains. They had no baskets. Wolf asked Coyote to get some willows and make a basket. Coyote found the willows, cut them down, and rolled them up in a bundle. He heard a noise like singing, but...
Coyote Learns To Fly : COYOTE LEARNS TO FLY (Big Smoky Valley, Nevada. Shoshoni) Goose said to Coyote, "I'll give you wings. See those two sharp mountains? One is farther away. If I give you wings, you can fly up to that hill." Coyote said, "All right." Goose pulled some of his feathers out and stuck them along Coyote's...
Rat And Mountain Sheep : RAT AND MOUNTAIN SHEEP (Saline Valley, California. Shoshoni) Rat (Kawa) had a home on the top of a mountain, 29 where he was building a dance corral. When he finished the corral, he went out to hunt Mountain Sheep. Rat stood on a mountain, calling in his own language, "Nikadawa piwiavi, nikadaw...
Origin Of Death : ORIGIN OF DEATH (Big Smoky Valley, Nevada. Shoshoni) Wolf said, "When people die, they must die twice." Coyote said "That isn't right. I don't want people to die twice. They must die once and be buried." Wolf bewitched Coyote's boy and wished that he would die. Coyote knew that he had done this...
