While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
White Moon knew little if anything of the tradition of tribal emergence
from cave or underground230 which Caddo and other Southeasterners
have in common with Southwesterners; but familiar to White Moon was the phrase,
d'qki haiyano kin'aota, six human (peoples) out came231 a
reference to the emergence from the earth of the traditional six tribal
divisions of the Caddo.
kwikiwawa
dashkui
nihaia
where we used to live
darkness
when it was
which is translated by Dorsey as "old-home-in-the-darkness" is perhaps
another reference to the emergence or pre-emergence period. "They claim that it
used to be dark all the time," said White Moon. According to Pardon, the Caddo
came from a hole, underground.
Several of the tales recorded by Dorsey contain such phrases as "when the
world was new."
ninukihai'ya
hasaku
when it was
green or new, not ripe232
is a regular tale opener, which is followed up sometimes by "it was a
dangerous place to live in."233
hashdanah kinhai'ya
hasaku
nihai'ya
dangerous when it was
green
when it was
Dangerous, because there were dangerous things (hacdana'diGahai),234
perhaps monsters abroad.
Horned snakes (kika kiokahųni, snake with horn) still exist. The
snake is black, the horn, green .235 It is a water snake and if it
comes out on dry land, it will be killed by lightning. This horned snake is
dangerous; to get power from it is too dangerous .... There was a horned snake
in Florida. He stayed under a coral reef, which was his house, because of the
lightning he was afraid of. One time he went up from the ocean which followed
him, by this giving Florida the shape of a peninsula .... Around here (Oklahoma)
the lakes dried up and the horned snakes left (Pardon).
The following tale was summarized by White Moon in reference to something
with horns, kiu`k'ahhonih'(kiu`, horn or spoon), translated
"devil."
A woman went for water to the creek. She did not return and so her
husband went after her. Something told him that his wife was down under the
water. He went and gathered some sunflower seeds and pulled up some bamboos and
out of them made arrows. Then he threw the seeds into the air and shot up the
arrows, which turned into birds. The devil in the water shot up water and
drowned some of the birds. This he did five times, but the birds kept on flying
and the sixth time the arrows fell down and hit the water. The water began to
shake all over. Soon the woman came up out of the water. The devil also came
floating up. They built a big fire and burned him, for six days.
Dorsey records tonin as a term for Jesus. According to White Moon,
Tonin was a Caddo, "a real man," who "lived in Louisiana before the people moved
away from there," at the period 1700 to 1812 when Caddo tribes were under
Catholic missionary influence .236
Tonin had a very small horse and a saddle with buffalo-hide straps for
stirrups. He was very poor, he dressed in rags.237 One day he
disappeared, he was gone for some time, for how long I don't know. They said he
went around the world, which I think meant the United States. Finally he came
back. When he came back he told his tribe that he had met the White soldiers
somewhere and had had a little talk with them.
In those days they had their tipi in rows, all made of buffalo hides. They
used to have a man who got up at 4:30 in the morning and would start calling
from one end of the village to the other for every one to get up. So one morning
the caller (crier) came through the village calling out for everybody to get up
and dress and
_______________________________________ 230See Mooney, 1093-1094. They came
up from under the ground through the mouth of a cave in a hill which they call
cha'kanĭ'nă, "the place of crying," on a lake close to the south bank of
Red River, just at its junction with the Mississippi. In those days men and
animals were all brothers and all lived together under the ground. But at last
they discovered the entrance to the cave leading up to the surface of the earth,
and so they decided to ascend and come out. First an old man climbed up,
carrying in one hand fire and a pipe and in the other a drum. After him came his
wife, with corn and pumpkin seeds. Then followed the rest of the people and the
animals. All intended to come out, but as soon as the wolf had climbed up he
closed the hole, and shut up the rest of the people and animals under the
ground, where they still remain. Those who had come out sat down and cried a
long time for their friends below, hence the name of the place. Because the
Caddo came out of the ground they call it ină', mother, and go back to it
when they die. Because they have had the pipe and the drum and the corn and
pumpkins since they have been a people, they hold fast to these things and have
never thrown them away.--Note striking resemblances with Pueblo emergence myth:
leaving behind or, through an animal mischief maker, losing members of the
tribe, who are bewailed; and bringing up the precious things, "what we live by." 231 Pardon corrects: d'onki hayanu kinayaoaha (kin'aota,
singular form) nawadat, six people come out the ground. 232 Raw as of any kind of fruit or corn. Compare the Pueblo Indian
concept of the beginning of the world, a sunless, unhardened, dangerous place. 233 See Dorsey 2: 46. 232 Cannibals (Dorsey). 235 Shawnee and other eastern tribes tell of a horned snake or
monster, one horn green, one horn red (Voegelin). Compare, too, the horned water
serpent of the Southwest. The Shawnee horned water serpent may be brought out
and killed by powerful doctors. See below. 236 Mooney, 1094. 237 This element of the poor and miserable little boy hero is very
characteristic of Pawnee tales, and it figures in Kiowa and Pueblo tales. Also
it occurs in a Shawnee tale, where an orphan boy (or two orphan boys) are sent
out to get power, and maltreated. They gain power and accomplish heroic feats
(Voegelin). 238 Shawnee also say axes and hoes were used first as decorations
(Voegelin). 239 Told White Moon by his grandmother, ChuŽ'uu.-Perhaps
Tonin is comparable with Poshaiyanki-Montezuma of the Pueblos and with
Motzeyeuff of the Cheyenne.
