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Rock House: Why the Sun Follows the Moon a Southern Maidu Oral Narrative Re-Told by Barbara Shining Woman Warren

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Rock House: Why the Sun Follows the Moon a Southern Maidu Oral Narrative Re-Told by Barbara Shining Woman Warren Rock House: Why the Sun Follows the Moon A Southern Maidu Oral Narrative Re-told by Barbara Shining Woman Warren Flesch-Kincaid level 4.3 DRA 34 Goldbelt Heritage Foundation 3200 Hospital Drive Juneau, Alaska 99801 Department of Education Grant Award T365C110007 Lingit Tundatanee: Language, The Pathway to Multi-Literacy Rock House is the Southern Maidu name for Copyright Paines Peak. The twelve hundred foot high Permission was granted by Barbara Shining Woman Warren t to reprint this story solely for educational purposes connected to the unit published by Goldbelt Herit- Paines Peak is a jagged out-cropping of vol- age Foundation. canic rock. It is located within a circle of the Photo Credits foothill roads of Old Marysville, Fruitland, The following images are located on Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikipedia.org Loma Rica and Scott-Grant in northern Yuba The authors of these images are in no way affiliated with Goldbelt Heritage County. Foundation. Use of the following files within this document does not qual- ify as an endorsement of GHF by the authors. Cover Image The Plane of Ecliptic. This image is the work of The Clem- entine Project, commissioned by NASA. This image in in the public domain. Page 6: Black-Tailed Jack Rabbit. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or em- ployee of the United States Government as part of that person’s offi- cial duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. Page 7: Pocket Gopher, by LeonardoWeiss, January 29, 2011. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Rock House License. Page 10: Map of Maidu Language. This file is licensed under the Crea- tive Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License. In 2009 Barbara Shining Woman Warren was Page 10: Maidu Basket © Justin Smith / Wikimedia Commons, CC-By- SA-3.0. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution able to return this story to a descendant of 3.0 Unported License. Page 11: Rock House. Courtesy of Barbara Shining Woman Warren. the Edwards family still residing in Yuba County. Previously unaware of the story, this descendant is telling the story of "Rock House" once again. 2 11 Maidu territory Rock House: Why the Sun Follows the Moon A Southern Maidu Oral Narrative The Maidu are a Northern-Central Valley Re-told by Barbara Shining Woman Warren tribe of California. Originally their territory encompassed both sides of the Sacramento River. The Maidu are among the most gifted basket makers in the world. Maidu baskets 10 3 Barbara Shining Woman Warren About This Story This story was collected in Yuba County by Don May, a Cherokee, and told to Barbara Warren in 1990. Don originally heard this story in 1980 from his eighty year old Southern Maidu friend, Frazier Edwards. Frazier had lived in this area all his days; this was the home of his ancestors. 4 9 When they reached the top of the peak, Gopher began to dig quietly so Father Sun and Mother Moon would not be alarmed. Father Sun and Mother Moon lived in- side the huge hollow rocks of Rock House. As soon as Gopher backed out of the Their light did not shine from the sky, so the hole, Coyote and Rabbit shook the bags of People and the Animals lived in darkness. fleas down the opening. Then they plugged up the hole and ran away feeling very pleased with themselves. The fleas soon covered Father Sun and Mother Moon. When Mother Moon could no longer stand the fleas, she flew out of Rock House and began to circle the Earth. Father Now Coyote, who was always playing Sun followed Mother Moon out of Rock tricks, thought it would be great fun to House. They raced around the Earth trying dump some fleas on Father Sun and Mother to get rid of those fleas. Moon. So he began to gather the fleas and place them in bags. That is why, to this day, the Sun fol- lows the Moon across the sky. 8 5 On his way to Rock House he met Rab- Rabbit liked Coyote's idea of taking the bit. When Coyote bragged about his bags of fleas to Rock House. So together they fleas, Rabbit would not believe him. They be- trudged up the peak to Rock House carrying gan to argue. the bags of fleas. As they walked they tried to think of a plan to get the fleas inside of Rock House. Between them, Rabbit and Coyote be- gan to tug on one of the bags. As Rabbit yanked it from Coyote's grasp, the bag opened and the fleas spilled out on the Along the path they found Gopher dig- ground. ging a hole. They decided to include Gopher And to this day, Rabbit and Coyote in their trick. Gopher could dig a hole down are always scratching fleas. through the soil to Rock House. 6 7 .
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