Native American Mythology A to Z SECOND EDITION MYTHOLOGY A TO Z African Mythology A to Z Celtic Mythology A to Z Chinese Mythology A to Z Egyptian Mythology A to Z Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z Japanese Mythology A to Z Native American Mythology A to Z Norse Mythology A to Z South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z MYTHOLOGY A TO Z Native American Mythology A to Z SECOND EDITION 8 Patricia Ann Lynch Revised by Jeremy Roberts [ Native American Mythology A to Z, Second Edition Copyright © 2004, 2010 by Patricia Ann Lynch All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lynch, Patricia Ann. Native American mythology A to Z / Patricia Ann Lynch; revised by Jeremy Roberts.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. e-ISBN: 978-1-4381-3311-9 ISBN 978-1-60413-894-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Indian mythology—Juvenile literature. I. Roberts, Jeremy, 1956– II. Title. E59.R38L85 2010 398.2'0973—dc22 2009047833 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Text design by Lina Farinella Cover design by Alicia Post Map by Patricia Meschino Composition by Mary Susan Ryan Flynn Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Date printed: June 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. Contents 8 Introduction vii Timeline of North American Cultures xviii Map of Native American Culture Areas xx A-to-Z Entries 1 Selected Bibliography 128 Index 131 Introduction 8 When the first European explorers arrived on the North American continent in the late 15th century, they did not find an empty land. More than 2 million Native Americans representing at least 1,000 different tribes were living in North America. Native Americans inhabited regions ranging from the frozen Arctic to subtropical Florida, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. They lived on the tundra, in the mountains and woodlands, on the plains and prairies, in the swamps of the Southeast and the deserts of the Southwest. Far from being the single culture labeled “Indian” by Europeans, Native Americans represented a multitude of highly developed cultures and spoke hundreds of different languages. Wherever they lived, Native Americans of North America developed lifestyles, worldviews, religions, traditions, and mythologies as varied as the environments they inhabited. In the Arctic, where people depended on the creatures of the sea for sustenance, myths identified the powerful beings that controlled the supply of these animals, who needed to be honored and obeyed. Along the Northwest Coast, people who fished for salmon developed a mythology in which salmon played a primary role. In the Southwest, where a corn-based agriculture predominated, legends about corn were prominent. Groups whose lives depended on hunting told stories about the origin, loss, and recovery of game animals. The climate, the weather, the geography, the sources of food, and the people’s way of life all influenced the legends people told. Humans use mythology and ritual to establish a sense of community and identity and an understanding of their place in the universe. These tools maintain the traditions of a culture and reflect what is most important in people’s lives. We read myths not only to learn about the culture in which the myth originated but to discover the hearts and minds of the mythmakers. This book explores the surviving mythological traditions of Native North Americans (referred to in this book simply as Native Americans) ranging from the northern border of what is now Mexico into the Arctic Circle and from the earliest known myths to the most recent. The myths of Native Americans give us a glimpse into the ways of life and worldviews of North America’s first people. NATIVE AMERICANS: A BRIEF HISTORY In the history of a people lie the roots of the people’s culture, religion, tradi- tions, rituals, and mythology. Little, however, is known about the early history of Native Americans. Native Americans were not native to the North American continent. Fossil remains of dinosaurs dating back millions of years have been found in North America. However, no fossil evidence has been found of human presence in North America earlier than about 38,000 years ago. Details about the vii viii Native American Mythology A to Z first Americans’ arrival are lost in prehistory. Through various scientific methods, however, a picture has begun to develop. Radiocarbon dating of artifacts and sites where animals were killed, DNA studies comparing Native Americans to other population groups, and studies by linguists of similarities and differences among Native American languages have led scientists to conclude that the first humans in North America began arriving from Asia about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. (These findings conflict with the religious and cultural beliefs of some Native Americans who dispute this conclusion.) During the last Ice Age, which lasted until about 10,000 years ago, enough of the planet’s water was locked up in glaciers to lower the level of the oceans as much as 300 feet. Land that is now submerged was above sea level. Between Siberia and Alaska a bridge of land called Beringia stretched across what is now the Bering Strait. Based on radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites in the Yukon and along the Pacific coast, it seems likely that bands of Paleolithic hunters migrated across this land bridge. Another theory suggests that some groups crossed the Pacific by boat before the land bridge existed. A site in New Mexico dating back 38,000 years and one in Chile dating back 33,000 years support this theory. People migrating on foot across Beringia could not have reached these sites so quickly. Signs of human habitation on some Pacific islands dating back 20,000 or more years indicate that early humans were capable of crossing long stretches of open sea. According to evidence based on the length of time sites have been occupied, the most recent arrivals—the Inuit and Aleut—migrated across the Bering Sea from Siberia in skin boats and wooden dugout canoes between 2500 and 1000 b.c., after the ocean waters again covered Beringia. Archaeological, DNA, and linguistic analysis suggests that some waves of people migrating onto the North American continent settled where they first arrived. Others continued on, migrating across the continent and continuing south into Central and South America. They followed the paths that opened up as the ice sheets that covered North America melted and withdrew. As various passageways developed, the first Americans migrated south along the Pacific Coast, east across what is now Canada, and southeast into the heart of the continent. These migra- tions became part of the mythology of later cultures. For the first arrivals, called Paleo-Indians, the dominant way of life was nomadic and consisted of foraging and big-game hunting. Paleo-Indians hunted mammals of the Pleistocene epoch that later became extinct in North America: woolly mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, American lions, camels, dire wolves, long-horned bison, horses, and giant sloths. Archaeologists and anthropologists have learned a great deal about the lives and migrations of these early people from artifacts and bones found at campsites and kill sites. Over the centuries, the Paleo-Indians improved the weapons they used to hunt their prey. Spear points chipped from stone, now identified as Clovis and Folsom from the sites in New Mexico where they were first found, are among the best known of Paleo-Indian artifacts. Clovis points have been dated as 12,000 to 15,000 years old and have been found throughout North America. Other spear-point cultures were the Sandia (ca. 9100–8000 b.c.), which was also centered in the Southwest, and the Plano or Plainview (ca. 8000–4500 b.c.), which was primarily associated with the Great Plains. Between 10,000 and 8000 b.c., the Ice Age ended with the final retreat of the northern glaciers. During this time, the big-game species that had been the primary prey of Paleo-Indian hunters became extinct. As the climate warmed, new animal and plant species filled in the gaps left by those that died out. The Clovis and other spear-point cultures began to give way to regional variants generally called Archaic cultures, which flourished from about 5000 to 1000 b.c. The Archaic, or Foraging, Introduction ix This 1876 illustration reveals a wide range of dress and facial features of more than two dozen different Native American tribes. (Original art first published in 1876 edition of Nordisk Familjebok) Period was characterized by migratory hunting, trapping of small game, fishing, and gathering of edible wild plants. As animal prey became scarcer, people became more dependent on plant foods.