Creation Myths - HOPI (in the beginning...)

One of my grannie clients loves to consider the people who lived in North America LONG Europeans arrived.  So, I'm putting together a series on the creation stories of our land's native peoples.  It will be similar to one I did on the Louisiana Purchase (she was fascinated by the thought that our nation more than doubled its size without shedding any blood), where the whole story was broken down into five different, stand-alone sections.  

The first discussion prompt describes the earliest part of the Hopi creation myth.  The Hopi - "People of Peace" - lived in northern Arizona. This version of the story was recorded in the 1950s by Oswald White Bear Fredericks and his wife Naomi from the oral storytelling of older Hopi at the village of Oraibi, which tree-ring dating indicates has been inhabited by the Hopi since at least 1150 AD.
   

The Four Creations - in the beginning...

The world at first was endless space in which existed only the Creator, Taiowa.

This world had no time, no shape, and no life, except in the mind of the Creator.

Eventually the infinite creator created the finite in Sotuknang, whom he called his nephew and whom he created as his agent to establish nine universes.

1^st ACT of CREATION ~ Sotuknang gathered together matter from the endless space to make the nine solid worlds.

2^nd ACT of CREATION Then the Creator instructed him to gather together the waters from the endless space and place them on these worlds to make land and sea.

3rd ACT of CREATION When Sotuknang had done that, the Creator instructed him to gather together air to make winds and breezes on these worlds.

THE 4^th ACT of CREATION with which the Creator charged Sotuknang was the creation of life. Sotuknang went to the world that was to first host life and there he created Spider Woman, and gave her the power to create life. First Spider Woman took some earth and mixed it with saliva to make two beings. Over them she sang the Creation Song, and they came to life. She instructed one of them, Poqanghoya, to go across the earth and solidify it. She instructed the other, Palongawhoya, to send out sound to resonate through the earth, so that the earth vibrated with the energy of the Creator.  Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya were despatched to the poles of the earth to keep it rotating.

      Then Spider Woman made all the plants, the flowers, the bushes, and the trees. Likewise she made the birds and animals, again using earth and singing the Creation Song. When all this was done, she made human beings, using yellow, red, white, and black earth mixed with her saliva. Singing the Creation Song, she made four men, and then in her own form she made four women. At first they had a soft spot in their foreheads, and although it solidified, it left a space through which they could hear the voice of Sotuknang and their Creator. Because these people could not speak, Spider Woman called on Sotuknang, who gave them four languages. His only instructions were for them to respect their Creator and to live in harmony with him. 


These people spread across the earth and multiplied. Despite their four languages, in those days they could understand each other's thoughts anyway, and for many years they and the animals lived together as one.

 next - Division & Discord