Raz Rasmussen

LBST Indigenous Religions

March 25, 2017

Cosmogony myth of the Apache Native American Tribe

The San Carlos apaches are a specific Native American tribe that has an

indigenous religion. In their religion is a serious myths, which are profoundly true stories.

The mythology that describes the origins and beginning of the world are called creation

myths or cosmogony.

In the first version of the San Carlos apache creation myth there was no earth or

sky in the beginning but there were some persons with no parents. Of these person there

was old man, big spider, whirlwind, and mirage. There were four of them in the

beginning and they came together deciding what should be since they had no place to

dwell. It was determined that they should dwell in the sky and that the earth should be

made beneath. Then whirlwind took his thumb and finger over his breast and removed

some of the cuticle there. With this cuticle he formed the earth and pressed it four times

using a white whirlwind, yellow whirlwind, blue whirlwind, and finally a black

whirlwind, which was determined, would hold the earth in place. Then they four persons

decided what should live on the earth and they made coyotes and birds that were like

human beings but because they were not good the earth was covered in water. Then

grandmother came and went into a turtle shell floating on the water and took seed and

stone with her. From this she made clay and when she emerged the shell was on a great

plain and not water. The earth now had land but nothing was there, it was barren with not
even a bush. Now grandmother went up to the mountain and went down on her knees and

pleaded with the sun to shine. She did this four times and on the fourth time the sun rose

and shined over the earth. Then grandmother was happy and became pregnant, giving

birth to a girl. When the girl came of age she told her to go out and find someone to

connect with. The girl then went out and came to a waterfall and got down on her knees

letting the water rush between her legs. The girl did this four times in vain and on the

fourth time the water entered her and she gave birth to a boy. This boy was formless with

no joints or hair on his body with hands and feet unformed. The boy then asked his

grandmother where his father lived and grandmother would not tell him. The boy asked

four times and on the fourth time grandmother still refused and the boy went out on his

own to find the place where his father lived. When he came to where he could see his

fathers house but it could not be reached big spider came out and told him to wait. As he

waited big spider made a thread going up to his fathers house so the boy could climb

there. When the boy came to the inner room of the house a woman stopped him and

asked what he was doing there because anyone who says her husband is their father they

are killed. When he persisted she had him hide in a cloud and waited for the sun to come

home who was her husband. When the sun came home he asked his wife if she had seen

anyone, he asked four times and on the fourth time the woman took him to where she

hided the boy. When the boy was discovered and told the sun that he was his child the sun

took him to the east where there was tobacco that killed people. He had the boy take up

the pipe and smoke the tobacco, which lit by it, and the boy was alive. The sun then took

him to the north, south, and west repeating the same smoking of tobacco and the fourth

try the boy still did not die so the sun said you must be my sun. Then the sun took the boy
to the black sky fire and push him in with the black rod and the boy simply turned into a

feather and floated safely down. The sun then took him to the white, yellow and blue fire

again pushing him down and again the boy floated safely as a feather. So on the fourth

time the sun was now for certain that this was his child. Then the sun took the boy to the

other persons and asked them to form his child. So the made a sweat lodge with four

stones piled with wood for the fire. They took the boy into the bath four times and he was

formed with hair and joints and hands and feets as we now have today. Then the sun told

the persons to train the boy and they clothed him and gave him a club and he went out to

make a bow and arrow. Then the boy asked grandmother where he might find flint for his

arrow and grandmother replied a dangerous place, to which he went off to. There he

found a being approached him and he stabbed it with a dagger, which then made the flint

go into pieces with which he used to make arrowheads. Then he asked grandmother

where the persons are that kill people and grandmother replied a dangerous place. With

this he went off again and took with him a blue fox and a yellow snake and came to the

person that kills people on cliffs. Four times he jumped past the person without falling

down the cliff with the blue fox and finally threw the yellow snake at him and clubbed

him killing the person the kills people on the cliffs. Again he went to grandmother and

asked where to find the persons who kill people by looking at them and he went off and

killed them by exploding shards in the fire blinding and killing them. Then he went to

grandmother and asked where to find a deer to hunt, and she replied in the plains and to

not butcher the deer under the pinon tree. The boy went off killed the deer and began to

butcher it under the pinon tree despite what grandmother said and there in the tree

dripping on him was a girl calling him husband. When she climbed down and lifted her
skirt she had teeth between her legs so the boy ran to grandmother. But the girl found him

and told hi to hurry, to which he replied that he would only lay with her on a grass bed in

a house of four Douglas tree poles at nightfall. So as the girl went off to make the bed and

house the boy made tools of rock, sand, pitch, and wax. When the girl had done

everything he requested and lay on the bed he inserted the tools into her vagina and

finally took a rock, breaking all the teeth saying that this is how woman should be with

no teeth. Finally the boy asked grandmother where the animal lived with no cover and

grandmother replied in a dangerous place. So the boy went off to this place and a person

showed him how to kill the animal by digging four tunnels and clubbing the animal in the

heart. Once the animal was killed the boy took its pelt and made a war coat rubbing the

skin with a stone and used all of its body for tools and uses for living. At last while he

was on the plain and heard a noise and he looked all around but saw nothing in sight.

The apaches have a unique imago mundi or image of the world, which revolves

mainly around nature. Their axis mundi or sacred center would be the their unique

relationship and sense of spirituality with birds. In this version of the creation myth birds

are considered people and used in many different ways for the teaching and ways of this

world. Other very important points in apache cosmogony is the number four for

completion which then correlates with north, south, east, west and the colors black, white,

yellow, and blue. Their origins story not only describes how the earth was made but also

how people came to be and the important teachings and customs they need to know and

adhere to live a spiritual life and survive. Myths are very essential to indigenous religions

and gives the truths of life, explaining how each tribe came to being and what hold as

ritual.
 Works Cited

"Creation Myth." Indian Mythology Stories, Tales, and Legends. N.p., n.d. Web. 25
Mar. 2017.