Part 9—
The Conquest until Buzzard
There are three more parts in the mythology, two on the conquest and a final one in which the victorious Pima-Papago experience their first individualized death and then meet an insuperable enemy to the west of Hohokam country. They return to the land of their victories, and, after a brief dash to the present, the Smith-Allison text ends. These introductory remarks concern the structure of the conquest according to Smith-Allison (parts 9 and 10) and how that conquest compares with other versions of the end of the Hohokam.
The table in the appendix (see page 283) compares the chiefs and places given in Smith-Allison's text with the chiefs and places in one or another of Thin Leather's long conquest narratives. Thin Leather is the only other narrator of record to give an account of numerous battles in the Gila and Salt River valleys. As will be seen, Smith-Allison and Thin Leather, while not identical, are really quite similar.
Not entered in the table but excerpted at the end of this part is a longish conquest account by the Papago Mattias Hendricks (Densmore 1929: 25–34). I call this account "longish" because it covers greater distance in space—greater than Smith-Allison or Thin Leather. But this account seems incomplete and even garbled, as if it was given or taken too hastily. Geographically, where Smith-Allison and Thin Leather describe a generally east-to-west march down the two river valleys by the Pima-Papago, Hendricks gives a quadrangular march to the north, west, south, and then east. The points of the quadrangle are not perfectly clear (they correspond to mountains of partly uncertain location), but the area within them surely includes both the territory covered in Smith-Allison and additional land to the south (appropriate for a Papago-based text).
Also given at the end of this part is a short, complete, and reliably recorded single battle version of conquest. This was collected by Dolores and is actually the continuation of the Dolores text on the killing of I'itoi given at the end of part 8. This text teaches us how modestly the conquest can be conceived. Interestingly, the single battle occurs in Pima country at a place called Rattlesnake House, that is, at a place that might well be Snaketown, the location of the archaeological excavations and the telling of the Smith-Allison narrative. Also of interest is the fact that I'itoi (the equivalent of Siuuhu) gathers most of his army on the surface of the earth. It is literally as if he has been killed by one Hohokam chief (called Siwañ; see my remarks on this term in introducing the Font text), and he carries out his vengeance by means of neighboring chiefs (called "ones-made-big"—ge 'ejig —not sisiwañ ).
With Hendricks and Dolores to remind us of the diversity in conquest narratives,[1] let us now review the key points held in common by the two longest and richest versions, Smith-Allison and the various renditions of Thin Leather. These points are three, and they occupy a physical space of about sixty miles along the course of the Gila River. From east to west, the points are (1) the ruin at Casa Grande National Monument, that is, the home of Font's Siba and Thin Leather's Morning Green Chief, (2) a ruin thirty miles to the west of Casa Grande, near the present Pima village of Casa Blanca, and (3) a location without a known ruin about thirty miles to the west of Casa Blanca. The Casa Blanca location is the home of a "chief" (siwañ) who is identified by Thin Leather as "Black Sinew Chief" (Cuk Tataikam Siwañ). The final, most westerly location is the home of Buzzard, who is more a god than a man. Like Siuuhu, he does not have a normal home and family. He lives alone in a house where, according to Thin Leather, he performs most exceptional acts of cosmic, not sexual, creation (Thin Leather's account of these is given at the end of the previous part). My impression is that no Pima in Thin Leather's or Smith-Allison's time and area could point to exactly where Buzzard had lived,[2] but many, like Thin Leather, were confident that he lived not far from the Gila River where that river traverses south of the mountain
called "Greasy" (Muhadag) in Pima and "South Mountain" in English. (According to these Pimas, Siuuhu lived on that mountain. He was Buzzard's godly neighbor.)
We have, then, two identifiable ruins and one mysterious location. Before pursuing the complexities of the names of the chiefs associated with the two ruins, let us note how the three places fit in the overall story of the conquest. Simply, Buzzard is an important conquest because it is he who has previously killed Siuuhu. His conquest is the climactic act of vengeance in the mythology according to both Thin Leather and Smith-Allison. In Thin Leather, Buzzard is dealt with after the conquest of the chief and great-house at Casa Blanca, but in Smith-Allison he is dealt with before (see the Appendix). Following Smith-Allison, our part 9 ends with the conquest of Buzzard, and our part 10 ends with the fight against the chief who lived near Casa Blanca.
Now, who is this other chief, and how was his killing also climactic
Now a complication—but not a contradiction. The master of the great-house at Casa Grande National Monument was called Siba by Font, and although the published texts do not show it, some Pima-Papago call the master of this place Chief (Siwañ), and they call the place Chief Great-house. (Thin Leather locates Morning Green Chief at this place, and Smith-Allison put a pair of brothers there.) In short, these other narrators use the same names for this chief and place as Smith-Allison use for the chief and great-house at Casa Blanca. Some may do so in awareness of the fact that the same names are used for both chiefs and places, but some, I am sure, use the name strictly for the national monument, without knowing of any mythic battle
at Casa Blanca. Thus, some Pima-Papago think of Casa Grande great-house and its master as the premier, even the sole, Hohokam great-house and chief (see n. 1).
From this we could either conclude that Thin Leather's distinction between Morning Green Siwañ and Black Sinew Siwañ is an elaboration on a simpler and earlier myth or that the simpler versions are contractions from an earlier complexity. The Font text implies the former, since it only deals with one great-house and chief, but we must suppose that Font's narrator knew stories about Casa Blanca and other locations. It is just that we do not know what Font's narrator would have said. The conversation broke off prematurely, as Font himself noted.
Thus, something equivalent to the complexity of the Thin Leather and Smith-Allison texts must have existed in Font's and Manje's time, for all of the places mentioned by the later narrators existed then, and the places should have held fresher memories than in 1900 and 1935—fresher but still three hundred years old. I cannot, and we may never, guess this earlier mythic or oral historical complexity. Let us revert to what we can do and assess the importance of Casa Grande National Monument, the easternmost place, in the mythologies of Thin Leather and Smith-Allison. The assessment is simple. This place and its ruler are of lesser importance than the two westerly places and rulers. According to Thin Leather, Morning Green Siwañ, the subject of several pre-conquest era myths, lived there and was defeated without difficulty early in the Pima-Papago march of war. According to Smith-Allison, two brothers, Wing-feather Running and Down-feather Running, lived there, and they were defeated early and without difficulty. I conclude then that Casa Grande National Monument is of secondary and possibly demoted importance within Thin Leather's and Smith-Allison's conquest mythology. It is obviously secondary, but we cannot say it was demoted because we have no earlier conquest myth in which Casa Grande National Monument is prominent (save possibly Manje's, if Apache pressure counts as a conquest). And I note for emphasis that the secondary importance in the conquest does not mean that Casa Grande National Monument is secondary in Thin Leather's and Smith-Allison's
narratives of preconquest Hohokam times. In those myths, Casa Grande is the most important great-house and Morning Green was the most talked about chief.
What historical conclusions or hints can we draw from Smith-Allison's and Thin Leather's myths of the Hohokam conquest
Story 14—
Siuuhu's Journey Back
When the people saw the sticks, they agreed it was all right for them to go to these (upper) people and make war on them. The four sticks meant that when four days were up, they must be ready to go and make war. They must prepare the food to use as they go along.
Siuuhu spoke to them and said that his white people are out of this question. He meant that the white people were not against him.[5]
They asked one man to go over the [underworld] land and find out what it was like toward the east. He went and found four places where there was good water, so they could stop at those places to drink.
When the four days were up, the people started to come, not only the men but also the women and small children, and so their journey was started. In their carrying baskets they took their fighting weapons such as bows and arrows and everything they must fight with. With the power of Earth Doctor, these carrying baskets walked by themselves. Earth Doctor spoke to Siuuhu and told him, "If you get to a place where it is impossible, you must remember me and I'll help you out."
When they started their journey, they had a broad road. When Earth Doctor saw this road, he sang:
Toward the morning
Bright roads have been made.
And bright carrying baskets
Are being set.
They went on and came to the first place where there was good water to drink, and they camped there. They started and came to the next water hole and camped there, and the third and camped there, and the fourth water hole and camped there. From this place they sent the same man who had found the water holes, and he came out over the edge of the earth and was looking out into the west.
He returned back, and when he got to the people he said, "When I looked over the earth, I saw many wahpo ki (houses, called "ki " now),[a] and it seems that they extend right across to the setting of the sun."
He told that among these [upper] people were old and young, and men and women, who talked wisely and bravely, so it seemed impossible [to defeat them], and [he said,] "If we go there, the only thing we can do is take a shot at those people and go back home." But this [same
We are going to kill them.
We are going to kill them.
It sounds like we
Are going to burn them up.
And another song:
We are going to get them,
We are going to get them.
It sounds like we
Are going to like it.
[a] Wa 'aki (sing., pl. wa:paki ), 'great-house'; ki: , 'house' (of present-day people). Notwithstanding the first emergence in Europe (below), this seems to be a vision of the Hohokam great-houses soon to be conquered in today's central Arizona.
[b] Wu:skam[*] , 'emerger', 'something-that-came-out'. Later in the mythology, Hayden spells this word as "Wooshkum." I retain his spellings.
[c] Huhugkam , 'finished-ones', 'those-that-are-ended'.
So they kept coming this way, and as they were coming over the top [edge] of the earth, they sang:
The earth is grey in which
I am coming out
And the earth is getting damp (means that they were
coming out with clouds).
So this is the way the songs were sung and is why they call them wooshkum, that is, "coming out":
A song with unknown [forgotten
words that speaks of mountains coming out
someplace.
Another song, not understood, that speaks of the
people coming along some mountains.
When they first came out, they settled way back east, farther than the [Atlantic] ocean. Then they sang:
I'm coming out of the east
We are getting closer to the
People we are mad at (vay pay shut[d] —Hohokam).
Another song:
I'm going now to the other side of
The setting of the sun.
From the place where they last camped [somewhere in Europe], they were getting ready to see what was
[d] Vipisat[*] , 'great-grandparents', 'great-grandchildren', an alternative name for the Hohokam, that is, for the prehistoric dwellers of Pima-Papago country.
going on over here. They put one of their medicine men to look as far as the ocean was and find out what was there, and they sang:
You have done a sad thing to me
You have fixed the earth
And in this earth
You have put me down.
And I'm looking ahead
And I'm seeking everything right.
He was sitting. Then he arose and was standing, and he sang:
You have done a sad thing to me
You have fixed the earth
And in that earth
You have made me stand.
And in front of me
I have learned the mountains.
Story 15—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Sofch Kah and the Water Crossing
The medicine man looked as far as the ocean and saw that there was no danger up to there. They [he
the people who lived beyond them. They came [to them] and arrived at the [Atlantic
Siuuhu came out and stood at the edge of the ocean[10] with his cane in his hands. He said he would strike the water with his cane. Then he remembered what Earth Doctor had said, and he thought that Earth Doctor would help as they went through this great water. The ocean turned into a large river, and the water didn't reach as far as it did as an ocean. It became narrow because Earth Doctor had made the ocean [shrink]. Siuuhu sang:
The river is getting low.
I am striking the water with my cane.
When he finished the song, he hit the water with his cane, and the water gathered on two sides and made a path for the people to pass through.
Story 16—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Omens at Mesquite Vahki
After crossing the ocean, the people settled down just where they had come out, and they sang:
The land is getting closer,
And my enemy is getting closer.
And:
The mountains are getting closer,
And our enemies are waiting for us.[11]
The man who was sent to look over the land worked like a gopher, and he sang:
Yellow Gopher is going and comes out.
Four times
My enemies' arrow feathers
He chewed up, which makes them go straight.
Then he sang:
Yellow Gopher is going and comes out
Four times.
My enemies' bow strings he has chewed up
Which makes them go straight.
When the [upper world] people [who were to be attacked
When the sun rose, they [attackers; see below] put something with it which is called the medicine man's stone, and the brightness of this stone shone all over the earth in different colors. At that time there was a man living somewhere northwest of Glendale [Arizona] at a place called Vahki[e] in the
[e] Va'aki , 'great-house'.
Mesquites, and this man's name was Sivain,[f] a strong medicine man. He found out that some enemies were coming to destroy them, so he was sad and afraid.
He told one of his sons to go to a man who lived at Casa Blanca and ask if he felt or knew anything about what was going to happen. The boy got to the man and told him what he was sent to find out. The man said, "I am well and happy here at my home, and there is only one thing that I know that is happening, which I think must be good luck. When the sun came up over my house, there was a bright pink light. I believe it's a sign we'll have plenty of saguaro fruit and squaw berries (qua wult )[g] to eat, and so will you."[12]
The boy returned and told what he'd been told. Sivain said there was some kind of trouble behind those signs. He felt sorry because his brother [at Casa Blanca] didn't understand them. Then he sang:
The sun is coming up
And it is shining
Through the houses.
The sun is going down
And the lights are shining
In blue streaks.
[f] Sivañ , 'chief'. Note the use here as a personal name. For Smith there was only one Sivañ.
[g] Kwawul , a shrub (Licium fremontii ) that seems to grow particularly well in Pima rather than Papago territory and is a popular Pima wild food item.
While he sang, one of the Wooshkam[h] dreamed what he was singing about. These Wooshkam were divided into two parts, called Ap p ki kan and Ap pa pa kan.[13] These people[14] lived together close to the ocean for one year.[15] During that year they practiced how to shoot and how to use their shields for protection, and they practiced a power called chu dun ki[i] which is more powerful [than bows or shields], and their medicine men also used lightning (weu pa ki )[j] and thunder (Wee hun ).[k] The man [must be Siuuhu] who was taking care of these people, who had brought them up to fight the earth people, watched and sang these songs:
In the rising of the sun
We are coming out
And the sound of our weapons
Sounds frightening.
Toward the west
We are shooting
And the sound of our shooting
Is frightening.
[h] Wu:skam[*] , 'emerger', 'emergent', the people brought by Siuuhu from the underworld.
[i] Unknown word, probably related to ceden[ *] , 'to thump', 'to hit'.
[j] Wepgi 'lightning'.
[k] Wuihom , usually also considered to be a kind of lightning, especially the crashing, flashing, white lightning that strikes things in rainstorms, as opposed to the glowing red lightning (normally called wepgi ) that one sees in the distance.
Story 17—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Apaches
While they stayed there [by the ocean], they told one of their medicine men to look over this way and find out the shape of the land and mountains. The medicine man sang:
I am now sitting down
And ahead of me
Is the land that looks like day
And in that are our enemies
That looks like babies.
I am now standing up
And in front of me
I saw the mountains dark
And among them our enemies
Looked like women
And I have found out what I have found out.
When his work was done, they told a second medicine man to look and see if he could see anything. He sat and looked and saw an Apache in a certain place. He could see them plainly leading a dog. He sang:
Coyote is running
It seems to be him
Waving his tail.
When the Coyote heard this, he was all excited and started running around. Then the medicine man sang:
It is the Coyote's road
It seems to be true
Waving his tail.
The Coyote was ready to kill, but he couldn't do anything because the songs were about the dog and not him. So two of their [emergents'] young boys came over here [to the present Pima country] and killed the Apaches. Then they were going to get everyone to start, and they sang two more songs:
I am coming out
And I am going
And the sound of my moving
Is terrible (frightening).
I am now jumping out
And running
And the sound of my running
Is frightening.
After he saw the people start out, one of the medicine men made some kind of plume, out of some kind of feathers, which meant that whoever wore it would die. Song:
I am a medicine man
And sadly my understanding.
My nephews are wearing the plumes.
I have an understanding
And my nephews are sadly wearing
Hats of peacocks' tails.
Story 18—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Jackrabbit Eaters
They moved on and made camp at four places. At the last one they asked the medicine men to look over this way. He sat down and saw some Jackrabbit Eaters (do a quoi duk ).[m] He saw one of their sharp-shooters go out and kill a deer, and he sang:
Who was this man that
Killed the deer
It was the man wind
Who is coming
In a black shadow.
Who was this man
Reached the deer
[l] Possibly baiyoka , 'bead', 'pendant', 'necklace'. In any case, this does not look like any word that I know for feather, plume, peacock, or parrot. Recall, however, that Thin Leather's story of the Witch has both turquoise and a parrot in its preliminary portion; and turquoise would be the prime material for beads, pendants, and necklaces.
[m] Probably Tua Kuadag, 'White Eaters', because one kind of jackrabbit is commonly called "white jackrabbit" (tua cu:wi ). These people, commonly called Cu:wi Kuadam, 'Jackrabbit Eaters', are a kind or subgroup of Hohokam, that is, a subgroup of the prehistoric inhabitants of Pima-Papago country. Another possibility for this expression is To:bi Kuadag, 'Cotton-tail [rabbit] Eaters', but Allison's translation negates this.
It was the cloud man
And there he shines.
Among the Jackrabbit Eaters was a medicine woman as powerful as the medicine man [of the emergents] who saw them. She knew that trouble was getting closer, so she worked to make wind to make trouble for them. She sang:
I am calling the wind
And that wind
Is going to twist them.
I am calling the clouds
And that cloud
Is going to dampen their arrows.[16]
It is true that wind and rain came, and everything was soaking wet. Then the woman gathered all her relatives and went toward the south. One of the Wooshkam medicine men saw this and told his boys to go for four days; inside of four days they might be able to meet them. He sang:
Right now you are going
Where the sun is right
Above our heads.
You are going to meet
The enemies.
Right now you are going to run
And find out.
And before the setting of the sun
You will find the enemies.
So they tried to catch the enemies, but they disappeared and were saved. Some others [searchers
When they had destroyed all the [contacted Jackrabbit
Story 19—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Buzzard
The older [emergent] people held a meeting because some [Jackrabbit Eaters] had escaped. They worked and made a Kal da kum ,[18] a bird, something like a nighthawk, and sent him over here [present-day Pima-Papago country]. They did so because it was this bird's habit to land in the winter and lay there for the year [season
The Kal da kum bird
Is going
And he is going
To lay for my enemies.
The Kal da kum bird
Is running
And he is going
To lay for my enemies.
The bird came here among the [enemy] people, and they heard him singing this song at night. When winter came he lay down, and the same happened to these people. They all wanted to lie down because the bird held down their strength.
Another Wooshkam [emergent] made a bird called gi i sop ,[n] a small bird that makes a nest like a basket with a hole in the side. He sent him here, and he sang:
Blue oriole
You are going
With some understanding
To have found the enemies
And are putting them to sleep.
When this bird got here, he made a nest before sundown and went in the nest and went to sleep. So it was with the people, everyone went to sleep.
[n] Gi:supi, 'black-phoebe-bird'. See footnote j, part 3, on Thin Leather's Corn and Tobacco story. These birds are like orioles in that they build mud nests, but in my experience Pima-Papago have a different word for orioles, wajukuk. The latter are yellow and black, while the phoebes are gray and black. Smith's song, however, is about a blue "oriole/phoebe," which, I take it, is a mythical magical bird that we cannot see.
Meanwhile the Wooshkam planned to split into four companies. They would not go all together this time. They sang:
We are now going
We are going to split up
Into four companies
You see the lights
And you call it a whirlwind
Though you don't know.
The Wooshkam came down this way and asked another medicine man to look ahead and find out what was going on. He sang:
Now I am seeing you
I am now holding a soft feather
And I can clearly see
My enemies
And with this
I am lighting the earth.
I am seeing my enemies
I have strung out some beads
And with these beads
I am running
I am looking at my enemies.[19]
The medicine man looked over here. He saw the men go out, and he saw Buzzard go out and straight up in the air. The medicine man sent some people
with the power of eagle and hawk to catch Buzzard in the air, for he knew he was headed for a hole in the sky and liberty.
Meanwhile Sivain [not Buzzard] created fog to cover the earth, so the Wooshkam got another medicine man who had power with his cane. The cane man pointed this way [toward Siwain's settlement], but he couldn't see anything for the fog. He sang:
My bright cane
I am pointing
And it could not shine.
He rubbed the cane with his hand and pointed it again, but he still couldn't see. Then they asked another medicine man to try. This man made an owl which he sent this way to the [enemy] people, and he sang:
The grey owl
Who is a medicine man
He went
And found our enemies
And he don't feel like sleeping.
The grey owl is now running
And he found our enemies
And he spoilt your memory.[20]
So it was true, the owl came close to the Hohokam houses making a noise that they didn't know. They
were superstitious because the owl didn't belong there.
The Wooshkam traveled and made a camp at sunset. They asked for another medicine man. This one looked and saw some people and saw their chief [Sivain
After I got here
And from here I looked over
And I saw my enemies.
Hohokam kotam I see.
After I got here
From here I looked over
And I saw my enemies
Hohokam nom-tam [not "nom kam," as above
see.
They moved down and came to these people and destroyed them all and made their home there.
They decided to spare some of their [present] enemies' lives, but they would make them fight for them. So, Buzzard had been traveling up, but just before he reached the hole in the sky, his enemies
[o] The "soan kam" of the first phrase could include s-uam , 'yellow'; and the "nom kam" of the second could be namkam , 'meeter', 'one-who-meets-something', but these are just guesses.
[Wooshkam Eagle and Hawk soldiers] caught him alive.
They brought Buzzard to the Wooshkam camp, and tied his hands and feet together, and set him among the people. All the people made fun of him and called him a powerful medicine man to make fun. The women came and spit on him and burned him and called him names. (They burned a wooden splint and stuck it in his flesh.) They sang songs for him:
(First word not understood),
Why are you going to die
We are going to hang the skin on your head.
(Next song is hard to say. It means the same as
before, and mentions Sivain and curses Buzzard.)
Meanwhile the elder people held meetings to discuss the punishment of Buzzard. Some wanted to drown him, and others wanted to burn him alive. Buzzard prayed to the people who asked them not to punish him too hard. He said, "If you leave me alive, I might be of some use to you." The majority of the people agreed because they knew of his great understanding, but some still wanted to kill him.
They argued for four days, and those who didn't want his death won. So they set Buzzard in the middle [of the ground] and cut around his head. The skin slid down to his neck and that is why his head
is red today. They cut his head [hair or feathers] and hung it on a stick, that is, the top of his head was skinned and put on a stick. They gave Buzzard a rattle and told him to sing to the skin of his head. This was his punishment for killing Siuuhu.
Buzzard did not really mean to help the people, and he had a plot against them. He breathed on his hand and put it on the rattle, and the breath was the sign of his wicked scheme. Then he stood up and rattled the rattle and sang two songs (which are not understood or translatable).
Buzzard sang for four days and nights. This was a great joy for the Wooshkam. They did not give him food or drink for eight days, four days of arguing and four days of dancing. He sang and danced all that time without any rest. This was to suffer for what he had done.
The people dancing with Buzzard took turns to eat and rest. At that time it was the same month as now [when this story is told, April 1935], and the squawberries were plentiful for food. It happened that a young woman went to her home to eat berries. When she finished, she got up and returned to the dance. Her husband asked her if she was going to dance again, and she said that she was.
Her husband thought that maybe she didn't do right at the dance but might be going with another man. This thought came from the breath that Buzzard
had made on the rattle handle, which caused jealousy. So the husband said bad things about his wife. The language was so bad that it must not be repeated.
One of the chief medicine men found out that Buzzard did something, and he told Siuuhu. Siuuhu said he knew what Buzzard had done, and he remembered that Earth Doctor said he must give permission before something is done to Buzzard. He remembered because Earth Doctor had promised to help him. So Earth Doctor gave Siuuhu something with which to take away all of Buzzard's power. It made him into something useless that must eat rotten stuff for food and that is easy for anyone to kill.
Supplement
A Short Conquest (Dolores)
[I'itoi had gone to a series of earth surface chiefs to ask for aid in revenging himself against Siwani.] The last chief, to the south, sent word to "the people below" [who will now emerge from the underworld to conduct a short conquest of Siwani under I'itoi's direction and on his behalf]. There were two gopher boys who guarded the doorway [to the earth's surface] of the people below. They went down [tun-
neled to the underworld], and before long they returned saying, "You [in the south] must weaken the enemy by singing. Four days from now the people from below will come to help you."
So in four days these gopher boys opened the doors and many people came out. I'itoi began to lead them.
But Siwani found out that there was going to be a big battle, and he invited the people to help him. Not many came, but Coyote came and Siwani sent him to go and find out how many people were going to help I'itoi. Coyote ran and climbed up Baboquivari [a tall mountain in Papago country, 80 miles south of the Gila River], and from there he saw the earth open up in the south and many different people come out. Coyote also had this power, that if something displeased him he would laugh at it and it would change. So he was watching them. The number of people was increasing greatly, and he said, "Ha, ha, ha! Oh, won't the peoples' tail ever break off
So the opening closed right up on the rest of them. But many people had already come out and gone on. Coyote ran back from there and returned to Siwani's house and said, "The land opened in the south, and many different people came out. Who knows how many would have come, but I laughed at them and the earth closed up. However, many had already come out and are coming this way."
I'itoi led the people, and wherever there were a lot of [earth surface] people they would immediately go along to help. So the people increased and reached quite a number by the time they arrived near the house of Siwani and camped.
I'itoi said, "In the morning Siwani will come out and whoever kills the first man, I will let him choose whatever land pleases him to be his home." When Rattlesnake heard this, he went in the evening and sat in Siwani's road. In the morning the people [of Siwani] came out and Rattlesnake was the first to kill someone. Then they wrecked Siwani's house and destroyed his people, and Rattlesnake chose the land for himself which is now called Rattlesnake House.[22]
Those who now live along the [Gila] river lived far to the south [in today's Mexico] and were farmers. So they took the land along the river. From that time on we call them to River People. Those that were hunters took the land below Baboquivari because there were many mule deer and plenty of other food there. From that time on these were called the Desert People. (Saxton and Saxton 1973: 163–168)
Supplement
The Conquest (Hendricks)
The people emerged from the east and traveled toward the north, then to the west, and south, some completing a great circle and returning to the east. On this journey they continually fought the earlier inhabitants of the land. From time to time groups of people left the company and settled down, the Papago remaining in the Sacaton Valley. As they journeyed Elder Brother gave names to the mountains. He would listen to the people as they talked about the beautiful mountains, then he would tell the name of the mountain in a song.
It was said that the people saw a little cloud on top of a mountain and said, "We thought we had everything with us. We thought we had all the clouds. What can be the name of that mountain that has a little cloud inside
Here we are on our way and see the distant mountain.
See, the mountain far away from us that has the cloud
is Raven Mountain.
[p] Hawan Duag, 'Raven [or Crow] Mountain'.
A mountain at each of the cardinal points was named from some circumstance on the journey. When they were journeying in the north a man had his lunch in a frog skin and threw it away on a mountain which is called Frog Mountain to this day.[23] When they were in the west they named the mountains "Crooked Mountains." When they were in the south a man killed a big bird, cut off the head, and left it there. This mountain is still called Head Mountain. A mountain to the east of the present site of Tucson was named Turkeyneck Mountain.[24] One of the men cut the skin from around the neck of a turkey, turned it inside out, and put his lunch in it. He finished his lunch when on this mountain and threw away the skin of the turkey neck, from which the mountain was named.
A beautiful picture of the multitude is suggested by the words of the following song. The people were looking for a good camping place. Some favored one place, and the others said, "Come, we have found a better place," so they swayed from place to place. Elder Brother looked upon the swaying crowd, and in a song he told them what they resembled.
Downy white feathers are moving beneath the sunset
and along the edge of the world.
(Densmore 1929: 25–27)
Supplement
The Capture of Buzzard (Hendricks)
The fourth incident [of conquest that Hendricks recalled] was the encounter with Brown Buzzard. When the Papago came to Brown Buzzard's house they caught him and were going to kill him, but he said, "Do not kill me. I will do something so that your evenings will pass pleasantly." He removed his scalp and fastened it at the end of a pole. When evening came he held up the scalp and sang all night. This was the beginning of the custom of taking scalps and dancing the scalp dance. This is also the reason why the buzzard has no feathers on top of his head. (Densmore 1929: 33)
Supplement
The Capture of Buzzard (Thin Leather)
And they went on again to the place where Noo-ee lived, called Wuh-a-kutch. And Ee-ee-toy said, "When you come there, you will know the man who killed me by his white leggings, and when you find him, do not kill him but capture him and bring him to me, and I will do what I please with him."
And Ee-ee-toy had the Eagle and the Chicken-hawk go up in the sky to look for Noo-ee, for he said he
might go up there. And the Eagle and Chicken-hawk found Noo-ee there, and caught him, and brought him to Ee-ee-toy who took him and scalped him alive. And Nooee, after he was scalped, fell down and died, and the women came around him, rejoicing and dancing, and singing, "Oh why is Seeven dead!" And after a while he began to come to life again and lay there rolling and moaning. (Lloyd 1911: 159)