A Navaho Creation Myth

IN THE BEGINNING-2

After Begochiddy had created the mountains he began to create the insects. He created the red ants, wółáčí·’; the ants with a red head and black body (who stop and listen and then go on), wólážíní; the yellow ant, wóláčí·łcoi; the black ant; the tiny black ant, wólážiní ’átc’ísígí; and a black bug which flies around. The yellow ant had been created in the beginning by Yellow Twilight.

Begochiddy named the insects as they were created and when he had finished he said to all of them, “Go to the White, Blue, Yellow, Black, Wide Belt, Sounding, Trample Down, Ragged and Red Mountains. There and within the world you will live. You people will live on the earth and have homes and children. However, if you have too many children, there will be no room for the Earth People, the Navaho. So if you increase too much, you will turn into flies, yellow bees, black bumble bees, flying ants and all different kinds of insects. This will decrease the number of ants upon the earth, for many of you insects will fly around and make room upon the earth. In the summer when it rains, some of you will get wings, fly away and go into holes to turn into caterpillars or big black flys. Even though you are small people, you will have to work to make your own homes. Ants will live in an ant hill or a mountain hogan.” That is why they build small houses now.

After the insects had been created, First Man and First Woman began the creation of the plants. Upon the top of water floated sea weed which the water had made itself. From ponds First Man and First Woman took these water weeds and rolled them into small balls. These were planted as seeds and First Man and First Woman spoke to the water weeds saying, “You will become a Wide Weed,” or “This will become a cat-tail.” First Man would dig a hole and First Woman would drop in two seeds, one for him, and one for herself. First Man made the first plant and First Woman the second one, and then each took turns creating the plants.

First Man planted the Big Bamboo in the center of Red Mountain. First Woman also planted a reed and another green plant called Wide Reeds or dó‘ƛ’iž. Another reed about one-half inch in diameter and green in winter called ’ałtˣi·n žik·a·ší, was also planted by First Man. First Woman then planted another reed one and one-half to two feet high called Reeds. First Man planted a water reed fern called tˣáká·, then First Woman planted a water reed called tˣáłkái daxi’ka’ł. A five leaf plant called a Vine Creeping was planted by First Man; then a Narrow Grape, č’ilna·aƛ’oi, was planted by First Woman, followed by a Big Sunflower created by First Man.

In each hole was dropped two kinds of seed. In each hole was dropped a seed of the small Sun Flower and a seed of the Big Sunflower. After First Woman had planted this she began to plant all of the plants, evergreens, firs, pines and all things that had been created and are on the earth today. From a clayey material were created the other plants and trees. After the ascension this vegetation turned into rocks and was washed up here as petrified wood. The seeds were thrown into the wind which carried them and buried them beneath the sand. The earth at this time was very small so First Man threw the seeds all over the earth very easily. Upon each of the mountains First Man planted trees.

Now the four Begos began to make seeds. First they made beans, which are different than those used now. The beans had yellow, red, blue, and white blossoms from one-half to three-quarters of an inch long. These are the type which are found in the Cliff Dwellings. Begochiddy (Bego Yellow) created and planted cotton. To the east he planted white cotton, to the south was planted blue cotton, to the west was planted yellow cotton and black cotton was planted to the north. Tobacco was made by the Gila Monster. This tobacco had white, blue, black and yellow blossoms. At that time Chipmunk stole some of the tobacco and his fingers dryed up because of this. The pumpkins and melons were made by the striped, black, green and other colored lizards. That is why the pumpkins and melons look like that now. One of the plants has a light yellow and orange blossom. If you have the right kind of designs on these plants you will be lucky and raise plenty of pumpkins and squash.

After all the plants had been made, the creation of the animals took place. The four Begos took various colored clays and earths and molded them into the shapes of the various animals. After each was formed, one of the Begos would say to the figure, “you will be a -------, Begochiddy.” Deer, antelope, elk, rabbits, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, blue fox, yellow fox and all the animals, except the cattle, were created in this way. The plants that had been created were to be used for food by the animals. The four Begochiddys made all the birds in the first world and the birds talked from then on. All four Begochiddys created the Humming Bird, Oriole and Morning Dove. Other birds were then created with white birds being born from Dawn, the Blue Twilight bearing the bluebirds, and so on. This was where Dawn was created.

An eggshell nowadays is of white bead, turquoise, jet, yellow oyster shell and red stone.

There are different kinds of eggs or shells and so blue eggs were made of turquoise. The Dawn Gods laid the eggs and then they hatched them. The eggs were hatched at the same time they were laid. The eggs were laid by the gods making them into shape (no red was used). The birds after this first time began to lay eggs as they do now. These five different kinds of eggs were turned into different kinds of birds. From turquoise were made small blue (or green) birds; from the white bead came a small white bird, the chickadee; then a black small bird was made from jet; from yellow stone was made the canary; and from the red stone a small red bird was made (there are only two of these left upon the earth and they are very small).

While the Begos made all the game the other gods were making the sheep, horses, goats and other animals. They were having a hard time making the animals come alive so Black Begochiddy went over and said, “What is the matter here? Why don’t you make the animals come alive?” He then said, “Bego” and they became alive and stood up. After

Bego did this, all the gods could make the animals become alive themselves. One of the Begos said, “One of those jackasses will be my horse.” All of the animals were very jealous because of this. Each jackass was very big with large hoofs, a long mane and tail. To keep the animals happy, Black Begochiddy said, “If one of you animals will run way around the horizon and win, I will give you a special name.” The animals agreed to do this.

Bego laid rainbow people under the feet of the two jackasses. Bego then made their feet very narrow and said, “I have to do something about you. This will bother you while you run the race.” So he pulled out part of their tails and left a little one. Then he began to take the hair from the mane. Each time he did this he said, “Some of this hair will be in your way, so I will tear it off.” The jackasses’ ears were still long, but the race was ready to start. The animals ran off while the jackasses walked along smelling the ground and the others went far ahead. When the race was half way finished, the jackasses began to run. While the other animals were half way finished, the jackasses came to the finish line running with their noses in the air. The two had won the race so they reached across and chewed each other like animals should. Bego was happy because his animals had won. They had won because they had the rainbow spectrum underneath their feet.

That is how the Navahos race horses now. They race their animals according to the Good Way and Bego Way so no witchcraft will be caused.

When the various animals, sheep, horses, deer, were made, Begochiddy said that some of the animals were to have more than one child. There was a law made at this time called the Basic Law. After the Begos had created the animals, Bego Yellow said, “You will greatly increase in numbers. You will become so numerous that you will eat up too much of the food. To stop this some of you will disappear (not die or be killed, but disappear).” As he said, the animals did increase but they also disappeared, for each time they increased the food decreased. Begochiddy looked and saw the animals had disappeared and said, “It doesn’t look right to have them all gone.” Then he had them increase more rapidly by there being two or three animals born at one time. This is the reason for this happening today.

The First Law, sa·d łá’i·, happened when the separation of the sexes took place. The Second Law took place later when the animals grew numerous again after the ascension up the cane. The Third Law took place still later with the same things happening. The Fourth Law has been invoked recently, but this fourth time Bego did not let the animals disappear. Each of the four laws were identical but took place at different times. It is Begochiddy who makes the animals disappear and makes the rules. With each law there was an additional child born so that with the First Law only one child could be born. With the Second Law two children could be born. With the Third and Fourth Laws, three and four children could be born respectively.

In the old days it used to rain frequently. When the government cut down the number of animals the Navaho were to have, there was no more rain. If there were many sheep among the Navaho people there would be much rain. In the early days the whites made no rules about the livestock and there was much snow in October and November in Utah. Now there is little snow until January.

Supreme Sacred Wind with the help of the other gods now had created many things upon the earth. Even though there were gods, animals, birds, insects, plants and trees upon the earth, there were still no gods for the future Earth People. Supreme Sacred Wind then decided to create people. He took His fingernail paring and molded it into a figure. Because of this we lose fingernails today. A prayer was said over the figure as to whether it was to become male or female and Supreme Sacred Wind breathed into it. Thus were created the gods of the Indians. The Zuni had four gods created for them, one which was called yé’i· nézí. He is to the Zuni what Talking God is to the Navaho. These later went up the cane and emerged with the other created people. Other gods were created as Supreme Sacred Wind had created the others. All of the gods were created in pairs. Here is one of the songs of Talking God:

Song of Talking GodI am the Talking God.

I am going towards the east.

My shoes are white corn.

My legs are white corn.

My clothes are white corn.

My face is pollen.

White corn is my feather

By means of pollen, beauty (or happiness) will extend from me.

By means of pollen, beauty will extend from me.

By means of pollen, beauty comes towards me.

By means of pollen, beauty goes over me.

Immortal, Happiness, towards the east.

I am the Calling God.