Story 36—
End:
Stop the War, Split the Water, Depart the God
The Wooshkum started back to where they came from. When the people who lived there [cold ocean shore] saw this, they came from their houses and yelled and made fun of them, saying many things in their language that the Wooshkum did not understand because their languages were different.
The Wooshkum moved back this way sadly and came to a place where the ground was boiling.[3] They said they would fight this land, and that might make them happy. They sang:
I have gotten this far
With a shining rock
I have gotten this far.
And I have now folded the land.
I have gotten this far
With a shining rock
I have gotten this far
I have folded the mountains.
The bravest people tried to destroy the boiling water, but it acted very dangerous. It boiled, and all around it hot water splashed at a certain distance so no one could get close to it. Then the Coyote got his shield and tomahawk and went near to it. It splashed on him and turned into arrowheads which went all over into his flesh. He came out and said, "I did this so the people can learn how to kill their enemies with the shield and tomahawk."
Then he went to the ocean to doctor himself, singing:
Don't you think
That I am a real man
I have gone to the edge
Of a large body of water.
I met a medicine man.
Am I
A real, true medicine man
On the edge of a large body
Of water
I met a Nassya (White Eater).[4]
After this happened, Siuuhu sang to state that the war was all over:
I have placed myself
And I saw.
I have killed the enemy
I am carrying it across.
Let us run and see
It was Siuuhu who killed
And he has brought it.
The people moved on down this way. They came to the red river [story 34], and its waters were now very high. They couldn't go further. They camped there. Then they talked to a man who understands his arrows thoroughly. They asked him to help them get across.
He stood up and got one of his arrows and sang:
You called me
That I have the power
Of an arrow.
I have put my arrow
In the water.
And with [it] I am going
To break the water
In two.
This man couldn't do anything, so they stayed there all night. The next morning they went to a man with the power of thunder. He went and stood at the edge of the water, told the people to get ready, and sang:
You called me
That I have the power
Of thunder.
I am now standing in the middle
and with this
I am breaking the water
In two.
This thunder exploded and he went down into the water, and the water split in two and made a road. But just about the time the people were ready to go through, it came back together again.
So the thunder man couldn't do anything, and the people stayed there all night. The next morning they asked Siuuhu to try for them. He went down and stood at the edge with his cane in his hand and sang:
A bright morning cane
With it
I am breaking the water
In two.
He hit the water with his cane, and sure enough the water rolled back on both sides and made a road for the people who went down and came out on the other side. But among the people was a small child who was naughty. He cried and started back for the other [far] side, and his relatives went after him.
When the waters closed ahead of them, they were left on the other side.
Siuuhu looked back to the people who were left on the other side. He told them it would be all right to make their home there, and they would become relatives of the Yumas. Then he told the rest of the people [who had crossed] that they must go to the land that they had won and make their home there. He also told them about the trees in this [present Pima-Papago] land, that when the trees get old they must chop their limbs off so they might start a new life again.
He also told the people that the Wooshkum and Hohokam must love each other and work together. He said that the five kinds of people ["sibs"] must get together and fight their enemies together, and he spoke especially about the Apache Indians who would be their enemies in the future. Then he spoke about the time when the war between Apaches and Pimas would stop, and they would make friends.
After he told them these things, Siuuhu went back to his home which is called Chok we cum (the place where the olla is, in which Siuuhu enclosed himself during the flood).[n] The people lived and made war with the Apaches until one time when this was
stopped and they made friends with each other. Apaches would [at one time in the past] come to visit the people here and eat with them here with whatever they raised on their farms.
So at one time a [Pima] woman was gathering mesquite beans somewhere, and she had a baby somewhere [with her]. The baby was crying, and just at that time some Apaches were close by and heard it. They went where it was and tried to nurse it to stop it from crying. They didn't mean any harm.
The mother came and was scared and went to where the Pimas were and told them that the Apaches got her baby. The Pimas went over and killed the Apaches, and they began to fight one another again.
They went on fighting, and finally a chief of the Apaches and a chief of the Pimas met together, talked things over, decided to stop the fighting, and did stop the fighting. From that time, the Apaches did come every once in a while and made friends with the Pimas and shared the things that the Pimas raised over here. Everything went on in peace.
At another time, there was a white man living at a place called "Vow pek" (Many wells, Maricopa Wells).[o] The Apaches stole some mules from him. He told the Pimas about it, and the Pimas went and
killed the Apaches. From then on they began to fight again. Then it came down to where the Government stopped the fighting, and the Apaches are our friends again.
That is why the old people say that this story is all true, what Siuuhu has done and said to the people from the beginning.