Story 1—
First Creation

When there was no earth, no heaven, nothing but darkness, the only person that was here was Jeoss.^[b] Jeoss had no form, no flesh, no bones, and was nothing but pure spirit, like the wind. This Jeoss planned out a way that he could form an earth on which to rest his soul. This earth that he formed was really the heavens (damkatchim ,^[c] something over above).

[Juan Smith says, William Smith translates,] It is a great pleasure to me to be here with you tonight. I have looked into your face, you have looked into mine, and we know each other now. I'll do my best. It seems I ought to know the story clear through because I was raised among some of the old Indians that know it clear through, but I was young at the time and was like most young people, running around and paying no attention to what I was doing. For that reason there are places in the story that I have forgotten. But this is the way the story begins.

He made a person up in damkatchim who was nothing but light.^[1] The next person that Jeoss created was a man who came down and made the world where we now are.

Now here's what this Jeoss was singing:

Earth Doctor, Earth Doctor  (Juut makai)^[d
]You make the earth now
And started it going .^[2]

Now, this Earth Doctor thought he might make another person and thought to call his name Siuuhu.^[e]

[b] Jios^[*] , from Spanish dios , 'god'.

[c] Da:m ka:cim , 'on top lying', 'sky', 'heaven'.

[d] Jewed Ma:kai.

[e] S-e'ehe.

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While he was thinking of making another person, he sang:

Siuuhu doctor, Siuuhu makai^[f
] You've made the mountains
And placed them around.
And you started it going .

Earth Doctor was just thinking about this, while he sang.

Now the earth and heavens came closer together and connected, and in that Siuuhu came out, son of the earth (mother) and of the heavens (father).

Now this Earth Doctor and Siuuhu made another man, from whom the Pimas came. They made some clay and from that formed a man. While this clay figure lay with no life, they sat around it and were looking at what they had made. Then they formed the insides of this clay. But it still had no life. Then they breathed life into the form, and it moved around and was living.

This first one was made as a man, and the next was a woman, made in the same manner as the man. When they finished the two persons, these three, Jeoss, Earth Doctor, and Siuuhu, were living with the same spirits that they have now. At that time there was no sun. All was dark, but after everything was completed, it was good. The thing the man and woman needed was sleep.

Then later, Jeoss, Earth Doctor, and Siuuhu worked to create the dawn, and it began to dawn in the east.

[f] Ma:kai , 'doctor', 'medicine man', 'shaman'.

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Morning came and the two persons woke up. When everything came out as the three wanted, they sang a song:

I have made the morning
I have made the morning
I have set it in the east
And the morning came out of the east
And began to light the earth .

Then they worked and made the sun and made it follow the dawn, and it came out and began to shine on the earth. They placed it where the dawn came out, and it followed the dawn. Then they sang:

I have made the sun
I have made the sun
I have placed it in the east
And it is coming out and lighting the world .

By this time the two persons they had made were waking up, and now the three worked to make the food that these were to live on. They made the deer, which a person must kill and eat, and they sang:

This gray deer that I made for you,
Whenever the mountains in the distance look dusty,
As if in a dust storm,
Then the deer comes out .

Then they worked on the next animal, the jackrabbit, which people must also kill and eat for food. Another song:

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The grey jackrabbit, the grey jackrabbit,
This is for you, this is for you.
The earth looks like a mirage,
Water all over .

This meant that the jackrabbit was to live in desert spaces without water for many months. The jackrabbit would have the water of the mirage for its drinking water.

On singing songs, sing it once clear through, then repeat the last half; or sometimes twice clear through, and the last part twice.^[3] At dances, you dance in one direction while the whole verse is sung, and when the half verse is sung, you dance in the opposite direction. At the beginning the singers go through the whole verse very softly to make sure they all know it. Then they sing it loud for the dancers to dance.

Then they worked and made the wind storm and clouds, and it began to rain. When the rain stopped, grass came out. Certain kinds of grass [neantum ]^[g] the people used for their food. The woman went out and picked some of the grass and took it and cooked it and ate it. When through eating, the man went out with bow and arrow and killed a deer, and they had it for supper that evening. At that time, the sun went down, and darkness fell over the earth, as it had been before. This was the end of the first day.

Then they worked and made the moon, and it came out at night and lighted the earth a little bit. When it went down in the west, darkness fell over the earth, just as it was before.

At that time, the sun and moon got very close together and touched, and another person came out. They called him Coyote—not an animal but a person. The moon was his mother and the sun his father.

The creators saw that at night when the moon goes down there is nothing but darkness on the earth.

[g] Ñiadam , malva, an annual, not actually a grass, whose leaves are boiled to make liquid for pinole "in time of famine" (Russell 1908: 76). The flat round seeds are also eaten (Mathiot n.d.: 130). This word and the English plant name "malva" are absent from Saxton and Saxton's 1969 dictionary.

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They decided to make smaller lights in the heavens. They sang:

We're going to make the stars
We're going to make the stars
And we're going to place them in the skies.
We're going to make everything,
And place them in the skies
To light the earth
To light the earth.^[4]

After they created all three lights in the skies, they thought that that would be all, but seeing that there would not be enough light, they decided to make the Milky Way (Tomuk).^[h]

All these things were created with a decision of some kind. This means that people living on earth must not be like Jeoss and know what they are going to make and what they are going to do. But they [Jeoss and his godly ancient companions] make everything in a way that we might not be able to understand, and today whenever we try to do anything, we always have trouble before we succeed. Meaning: there is a rule from the beginning that man has to learn [things], that man cannot be God, cannot understand these things.

Coyote spoiled it with his breath. That's why there are dim spots in it.

They are going to make the Milky Way so that when a man goes to an unknown place, he could guide himself by the Milky Way. They sang a song before they made it:

We are going to make the Milky Way
We are going to make the Milky Way
And it is made
And it is stretching in the sky
From one end to the other
Grey Coyote, our cousin, was breathing in
     the Milky Way.

After they completed the Milky Way, they threw darkness in the east. That is why night begins there. Before they threw the darkness, they sang a song:

[h] To:mog.

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I am acting one of the great earth doctors
And I have thrown the night toward the east
Which goes over all the land
Down to the setting sun in the west.

Now the sun was setting, and the dark was beginning to fall.

Jeoss is absent. Only Siuuhu and Juut makai [Earth Doctor] are doing all this. Jeoss had made them and given them power to do these things.

After they completed these things, the earth wasn't still but was shaking. When Siuuhu saw that the earth was shaking, he had a hat with a gold hatband. He reached for his hat, took the hatband off, and broke the band into pieces. He scattered this gold and put it in the mountains so its weight would hold the earth down. He reached his [right

] hand way back in the east and held the earth down, and with his right foot he reached toward the west and put the foot on the earth and held it down. He sang two songs:

He has reached way back in the east
And felt that the land was shaking over there.

Away down in the west
Where I set my foot
I found out that the mountains were shaking
Which I have found out.

Then the land was still, and everything was all right.

At that time the earth was all level, no hills, no low places. Everything was even. The mountains, too, were all even and smooth. Now it was Earth Doc-

The reason he made this Buzzard was to make low places in the land and peaks in the mountains. He gave

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authority to Buzzard to make these things. The reason was, by the signs of these low places and peaks, there was a guide to human beings. If they should get lost and then come home, and anyone asked anything, they could tell what kind of mountains they saw and what kind of ground they traveled through, and that would be a guide to the people.

tor's turn to make something. He was sitting with streams of light coming out of his eyes, with which he sees everything. He reached and got some of this light and made a buzzard (Nui)^[i] with it.

When this was made, Juut makai and Siuuhu sang two songs together:

Buzzard bird, buzzard bird,
You have made the land just right

Buzzard bird, buzzard bird,
You have made the mountains just right.

Then they sang two more songs:

The land is still now
And on it everything seems to be all right
Everything is made perfect.

The mountains were shaking
But now they are still
And on them everything is perfect.

Now they have completed everything, and everything is perfect for their people. Now he's [Jeoss

] going to talk to the two [Earth Doctor and Siuuhu] that created human beings and tell them they must not have any separation, jealousy, or foolish talk, and they must bring up children in the same way, and they were perfect.

That is the way it was from the beginning with these two persons [first man and woman]. They were perfect in everything.

Earth Doctor picked up his two children. He picked up the woman with his left hand and the man with his right.

This demonstrates that the woman is weak, for the left hand is weak, and the man is stronger, for the right hand is stronger. This means that the man is more understanding and ahead over [beyond] the woman.

[i] Ñu:wi.

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So they lived together happily, for a certain period, in the ways Earth Doctor told them to live. Then the evil spirit got into the woman. Then Earth Doctor saw that what he had made perfect didn't come out the way he wanted, so he made a rule for women. From [after] twelve years, she must have sickness every month, and in pain she must bring out her children, and that would be all right for her. Since then this sickness was upon the female, and they multiplied from then on.

[Comment by William Smith] Juan says he has forgotten this story. The only thing he remembers is that the woman did wrong in here, and from here on the wicked ways kept growing and spread far and far [wide], and the people got so wicked that a great flood destroyed them, and something happened again, and all the people were destroyed again, and a third time they were destroyed. Here he takes up the story—and there will be fourth destruction of the here and now, when you and me and everybody is going to be destroyed, maybe by wind.

Then they [man-gods] got a stick and made a shallow hole in it and placed another stick in the shallow hole they had carved and twisted it and made fire from that wood. They also got a stone and got fire from the stone. That was the way they should get fire and cook their food with it.