title: Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute (Steward)
aliases: [Steward 1936, Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute]
tags: [resource]
kind: Oral literature
author: Julian H. Steward
year: 1936
summary: A collection of Owens Valley Paiute oral narratives and myths recorded by Steward, including stories of Isha' (Coyote).

Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute (Steward)

Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute (1936) is Julian H. Steward's collection of OVP oral narratives: creation stories, animal tales, and the trickster stories of Isha' (Coyote) and his kin. It is a window into the storytelling tradition of the Nüümü and a source of cultural vocabulary and figures that recur throughout the language.

As with Steward's other work, the texts were collected and rendered by an outside observer in the 1930s. They are meant to be exact translations, but readers should keep in mind the context of the time and the limitations of the ethnographer's perspective.

Read the myths

The 47 numbered myths are reproduced here, transcribed from Steward's original publication. Because these are Nüümü oral narratives, the myth texts are gated to signed-in members. Steward's Introduction and his "Literary aspects" essay (below) are his own scholarly framing and are public.

Steward's introduction (1936)

The myths presented in this paper were collected from the Indians of eastern California. These people have been mentioned in the literature both as Northern Paiute and as Eastern Mono. Both names have linguistic connotation, but the former seems preferable because these Indians are most closely related linguistically and culturally to the tribes of the Great Basin. The Northern Paiute language apparently varies through slight differences in dialect from the Owens Valley Paiute to the Paviotso-Bannock of northern Nevada, southern Idaho, and eastern Oregon. The Indians of eastern California, moreover, speak of themselves as Paiute (in their own language, nü'ma, the people), whereas the term Mono seems to be unknown to them. The name Eastern Mono is useful mainly in distinguishing them from the Western Mono, who speak another Shoshonean dialect.

In the following paper these Indians are referred to as Paiute, qualified according to location, as Owens Valley Paiute, with the understanding that the relationship suggested is with the Northern Paiute or Paviotso-Bannock, not with the Southern Paiute (Shivwits, Moapa, etc.).

These myths were collected in the course of ethnographical research in the summers of 1927 and 1928. The majority are from Owens valley, Inyo county, especially from the present towns of Big Pine and Bishop, which were formerly points of aboriginal concentration, and maintain the largest Indian communities today. A few myths were obtained from the Mono Lake Paiute and several others from the Shoshoni of Lone Pine, Owens valley.

Myths 1, 4, 6, 28, 29, and 34 were told at Big Pine by Jack Stewart, George Collins interpreting; 2, 5, 10, 12, 13, 31, 33, and 35 at Bishop by Mose Wayland, Harrison Diaz interpreting; 3, 14, 15, and 37 at Bishop by Ed Lewis, who was reared at Independence; 7 and 20 at Bishop by Roy Lewis; 8, 16, 30, 32, and 38 at Big Pine by George Collins; 9, 11, 17 to 19, 21 to 27, and 36 at Bishop by Tom Stone; 39 to 42 at Mono lake by Bridgeport Tom; 43 at Mono lake by Joe McBride; and 44 to 47 at Lone Pine by Frank Bellas.

Literary aspects of the myths

Three aspects of these myths are analyzed: the native literary pattern; the diffusion of plots, episodes, and characters; and the individual ability of the narrators.

Literary pattern. The pattern of the Owens Valley Paiute myths is similar to that of the myths of other Great Basin peoples. The stories are developed by direct narrative, with characterization subordinate to action except in the Coyote cycle. The action is presented through description. Dialogue is used as in the European novel and, in a myth told by a skillful narrator, contributes greatly to characterization and somewhat to action. The plot, however, is rarely anticipated in dialogue. In the tale of Tuhuki'ni'i, the warnings given to the hero by his relatives concerning the gambler's tricks suggest anticipation but do not reveal the climax. Some narrators, especially Tom Stone, were unusually adept in the use of dialogue.

Demonstration of magic is the favored theme and scarcely a myth, irrespective of type, is without it. Magic is used in the creation of things, appears in Coyote's inglorious failures, and is exhibited in the clashes of great men who have supernatural powers.

The concrete situations are generally those of hunting and gambling, both favorite occupations of these people. Half the Coyote stories, for example, relate hunting incidents. Themes of love are conspicuously absent. Tuhuki'ni'i's display of conjugal devotion in recovering his wife, in number 29, is scarcely a romantic love lyric. Accounts of lust, however, are very common, Coyote usually being connected with libidinous adventures. Tales of war are rare, for the Owens Valley Indians were on the whole a peaceful people.

The characters are generally animals. Coyote, the inveterate trickster of Western mythology, is the most important figure. Such literary characteristics as unity of plot and successful motivation vary with the type of story and the narrator's individuality. These, with other aspects of the literary pattern, will be considered below.

Diffusion of elements. The Owens Valley Paiute drew from a large stock of Great Basin mythological material. Fellow Shoshoneans supplied them with a large number of plots, episodes, and characters, whereas the tribes of California exercised comparatively little influence. The available myth elements constituted a large stock-in-trade from which tales could be constructed, and provided material for unlimited variations. Some tales were borrowed in their entirety, for example, Coyote and His Daughter, number 23, which occurs in substantially the same form and detail as far north as the Columbia river¹ and as far east as southern Nevada.² Others vary considerably even within a small area. Thus, Creation of the Earth is told differently at Bishop, Big Pine, and Independence in Owens valley (numbers 1, 2, and 3), despite the intimate connections between these communities.

There are probably few myths or even myth elements which demonstrably originated with the Owens Valley Paiute. The distinctive characteristic of their mythology is its synthesis of elements, which probably is produced by the narrators themselves.

Ability of the narrators. The Indians of Owens Valley, like the other Great Basin peoples, had unusual freedom in story construction because their myths, properly speaking, were all folktales. There was no religious association to prescribe exact adherence to a theoretical norm.³ On several occasions I pointed out to the narrator that his tale was told differently by another person. He merely replied: "Well, it is that way. Some people tell it differently." There was no question of conformity to a standard. The raison d'être of the myth lay in its telling: its appeal rested on the skill of the raconteur. The permanence of a version depended upon the narrator's success in creating a literary entity and in transmitting it to someone who had regard for its qualities.

The narrator exercised a large amount of choice, probably both conscious and subconscious, in constructing his story. His individual taste, memory, and imagination remodeled the borrowed myth. Frequently he utilized only the plot, filling it with novel episodes and characters. Compare, for example, the content of the Owens valley plot of Tuhuki'ni'i and the Gambler, number 28, with that of the same story told at Mono lake, number 41. Most often the narrator remembered only episodes, for these were the most stable elements, and placed them in novel contexts.

Individual differences in literary skill and their great effect in myth building are well exhibited here. Several men were exceptionally good storytellers and immensely enjoyed their own talents. Chief among them were Tom Stone and George Collins. Others frankly considered themselves poor narrators and consequently often abridged and distorted the tales they attempted to relate. When an interpreter was necessary, the original version, though fully and well presented, was frequently reduced to little more than a synopsis. This accounts for the difference between the two versions of Origin of the Paiute, numbers 4 and 5. The latter was condensed by the interpreter because he lacked knowledge and narrative skill. The differences between the two epics of Hai'nanü, numbers 30 and 31; the two accounts of Race to Koso Springs, numbers 32 and 33; and the two narratives of Wolf and Roadrunner, numbers 34 and 35, may be explained in the same way. Unfortunate as this is in the recording of mythology, it demonstrates how modified versions may be diffused. The skilled narrator may create variation by embellishment, and the unskilled transmitter of a myth may distort it through his very lack of cleverness; the seeds of change are provided by both.

The myths from Owens valley have been arranged in three groups: etiological or origin myths, the Coyote cycle, and epics and miscellaneous myths. This classification has more literary than ethnographic justification because there are no legends pertaining specifically to social, ceremonial, or religious groups, in contrast to mere folktales. Each myth, although undoubtedly accepted as Gospel truth, is related for its own sake and by any person who knows it. The main difference between these categories is motivation, a literary quality. The etiological myths hinge on a desire to explain the origin of the earth, people, natural phenomena, and culture. The appeal of the Coyote cycle centers in the blundering character of Coyote, the motif being his folly. The epics are long narratives each of which carries certain characters through a series of adventures which are frequently disconnected but are told as one tale. With the epics have been included several short tales that are not classifiable.

The distinction between the three groups is not, of course, absolute. Although explanations of origins occur primarily in myths of the first group, etiological episodes may be found in any of the others; indeed, few myths wholly lack them. Thus in Coyote, Magpie, and Dove, number 24, Coyote's payment to Mud-hen is used to explain certain peculiar features of the mud hen's bill. A frequent terminal pattern is to describe the transformation of the people into animals, the character of each prehistoric anthropomorphic animal explaining the nature of the present animal. Coyote also appears outside his cycle, but always with the same characterization. In the etiological myths his blundering accounts for many things in the world, especially evil, and his mistakes motivate various episodes in the epics.

The etiological group. Although the myths of this category purport to explain various phenomena, their style does not differ from that of the others. The first three accounts of creation, numbers 1, 2, and 3, for example, are brief, pithy, direct narratives based on the widely distributed flood legend. They contain a minimum of characterization because it is generally irrelevant to this kind of story. The Flood, number 12, is built on the same theme and most closely resembles number 1, but so combines episodes lacking in the others—for example, Coyote's difficulties—as to destroy its unity.

A composite myth is well illustrated in the two forms of Origin of the Paiute, numbers 4 and 5, which incorporate a number of widely spread themes. The vagina dentata concept is the central feature. The magic flight is suggested in the pursuit of the woman by Coyote. The successive appearance from the same source of many different people to populate the earth is a widely distributed theme. The ultimate motivation of this myth is the origin of people, which is accomplished through the wisdom and later folly of Coyote.

An ensemble similar to the last narrative occurs throughout the Great Basin, but all tribes have not been equally successful in unifying the elements. In the Shivwits version⁴ the vagina dentata episode is related substantially as in the Owens Valley tale, but the people emanate from a sack instead of from the woman. There is no causal relationship between the events of intercourse and spontaneous generation from the sack, so that this myth would have more literary excellence from a European point of view if it were split into two distinct tales. The Paviotso version⁵ is similar to that of the Shivwits except that a jug is substituted for the sack, and the origin story is followed by an account of the draining of the lake and the destruction of fish by Coyote, an entirely irrelevant episode. Another Pyramid Lake version⁶ is even more incoherent, for it combines a whole series of etiological elements with the account of the origin of people. The Moapa tale⁷ is better but far from perfect, for in this version the woman of the vagina dentata theme drops her children into a bag as they are born—an action which is insufficiently motivated—and afterward Coyote releases them. Not content with the unity of the tale thus far, however, the Moapa introduce further disparate etiological episodes such as the theft of fire, and the creation of the sun. An apparent unity is achieved by relating these as the adventures of an old woman and her daughter, but interest obviously is in the origin tales, not in the fate of the characters. It appears that narrators unsuccessfully grope for unity in this story. The Southern Ute⁸ have produced a better piece of literature by limiting their origin story to the sack episode, omitting the vagina dentata.

The Owens Valley Paiute version of this myth is particularly fortunate in making the vagina dentata theme account for the disappearance of all men except Coyote. He and the previous husbands of the woman are the fathers of the various people borne by her to populate the world. This suggests that Owens valley may be accredited with introducing the vagina dentata theme into the origin story. Coyote's children, the Paiute, are born last. The two Paiute accounts are similar except that one informant preferred to preface his tale with a brief statement of the situation.

The variants of Origin of Death, numbers 6 and 7, are told widely throughout the West, and are good literary efforts. Coyote's folly underlies the misfortune of death, in which he involves not only himself, but all mankind besides.

The sharpness of characterization in an etiological myth depends at least partly on the narrator. In George Collins' account of the Origin of Fire, number 8, Coyote is the central figure but gets through the story without a single blunder. Tom Stone, on the contrary, who took every opportunity to depict Coyote's rodomontades and blunders, utilized this narrative, number 9, to delineate Coyote's foolishness.

As related by the Lone Pine Shoshoni, Origin of Fire, number 45, closely parallels number 9 in plot but contains little characterization. In fact, the characters differ greatly from those of the Paiute story. The Shoshoni add several etiological episodes, such as the acquisition of Rat's burned spot and the placing of fire in sagebrush wood, without destroying the myth's unity.

The Theft of Pine Nuts is a legend which was greatly broken up by borrowings. As told at Mono lake, number 42, it closely resembles the Lovelocks and Fallon Paviotso cognates.⁹ The Owens Valley people did not borrow this plot, but an episode of the Lovelocks version—Beetle carrying the cane to the inconvenience of the other runners—was incorporated in Race to Koso Springs, number 32, and in the Lone Pine Shoshoni equivalent, number 47.

In the myths of this first group, time, place, and characterization are clearly subordinate to the etiological purpose. Therefore, in this category literary excellence, as we judge it, is likely to be rare and is achieved only by an exceptional narrator who is conscious of his art.

The Coyote cycle. These legends center in Coyote as a trickster and comprise a series of excellently unified tales. It is indeed debatable whether Origin of Death, numbers 6 and 7, Origin of Childbirth, number 14, How the Deer Were Let Out, number 13, The Theft of Pine Nuts, number 42, and even Race to Koso Springs, numbers 32 and 33, should not have been placed in this category. Undeniably, these myths make Coyote a character of major interest, but they have been omitted from this group because, in them, Coyote's blunders affect others than himself; in the etiological group, his mistakes influence the well-being of mankind. However, Coyote and the Ducks,¹⁰ number 16, is included in the cycle in spite of the closing remark that Coyote caused the difficulties of present-day duck hunting, because the interest in recent hunting difficulties is clearly subordinate to Coyote's misfortune and seems to have been added as an afterthought.

Coyote's own adventures dominate this group. Each myth gives a facet of his character, developing it through direct narrative and dialogue. Coyote, it should be noted, is not the ambivalent personality of Californian mythology. He brings mankind abundant woe, but no benefits.

His boastful, vainglorious character is shown by a number of typical recurrent devices. Through sheer persistence he gains his ends: in number 17, Wildcat, yielding to Coyote's repeated entreaties, lends him the bow and arrow; in number 22, Cottontail gives Coyote his song to stop the trickster's wearisome begging; and in number 19, Trap releases Coyote in answer to his long importunities. This device is also employed in Origin of Death, number 6, in which Wolf is wearied into agreement by the insistence of Coyote.

Greed and disobedience are two other dominant traits of Coyote's character that frequently bring him grief. For example, in number 16 he wants more ducks than the magic permits, in number 17 he attempts to shoot more rabbits than Wildcat has specified, and in number 42 he swallows the pine nuts instead of blowing them out of his mouth to plant the seeds of trees. Attempting that which he cannot possibly accomplish brings Coyote further misfortune; he tries to imitate the Pakahi'to'o, in number 21; to doctor Magpie, in number 24; to produce light, in number 32; and to outrun rain, in number 20. Often, to emphasize Coyote's blundering nature, the narrator causes him to repeat one mistake over and over. This may be very tiresome to white men, but is never tiresome to the Indian. In number 18, for example, Coyote attempts many times to head off and kill Badger, and in number 25 he several times exchanges deer with Owl in an effort to get the better of him.

The epics. Plot rather than characterization dominates the epic myths. Unity is not always achieved, but some of the epics have all the virtues of an excellent short story. Tuhuki'ni'i and the Gambler, number 28, shows consummate literary skill. The plot pivots on the hero's desire to kill the villainous gambler and recover his lost relatives. Two powerful men are to clash, pitting magic against magic. The story opens with a statement of the situation, then describes Tuhuki'ni'i's preparations. His visits with his relatives on the way to the gambler's home provide situations for the development of minor characters who later help to determine the outcome of the climactic race. The hero reaches the gambler's home, and the great contest starts, moves to an intense climax, and closes with the defeat of the villain and the restoration of the hero's lost relatives. Small wonder that this should have been a favorite story! Its one irrelevant character is Tuhuki'ni'i's wife, who plays but little part in the development of the plot. The ensuing account of her capture and recovery, number 29, is well related as a separate myth.

Not all credit for this masterpiece may be given to the Owens Valley narrator, however, for he received it substantially in its perfect form from elsewhere. The Lovelocks and Fallon Paviotso variants of The Centipede¹¹ are very similar to the Owens Valley version, bearing witness to the stability of a comparatively perfect literary creation. The Moapa equivalent, The Gamblers,¹² adds a synopsis of this plot to a tale to which it is totally unrelated and destroys its literary qualities by this unsuccessful synthesis. The plot reached Mono lake with little modification as number 41, but several novel characters appear in it. Among these, the bear dog who guards the gambler occurs in totally different settings in the Moapa Bear Dog¹³ and the Owens valley Moon and His Dog, number 38.

The two tales of Race to Koso Springs, numbers 32 and 33, unsuccessfully combine two episodes: the race and the extinction of the sun, and Coyote's consequent wanderings. There is sufficient motivation for the action, but at least three climaxes occur: first, the victory in the race; second, Coyote's return after wandering in the darkness; and third, the restoration of the sun.

Hai'nanü, numbers 30 and 31, a favorite among the Owens Valley Paiute, achieves popularity through plot and characterization rather than through other literary merits. Hai'nanü is, in fact, the only personality of Paiute mythology besides Coyote. Even such heroes as Tuhuki'ni'i serve merely to carry the action. Hai'nanü is the proverbial rogue and, unlike most of the Paiute mythological characters, is not an animal. It does not matter who he is. The important point is that, as soon as the narrative gets under way, his vicious nature motivates a series of episodes in which he and his brother are the principal actors. This epic is badly wanting in unity, however. Each episode might constitute a separate tale. It is as though the Coyote cycle were presented as a single myth. The motivation, moreover, is inconsistent. At the beginning Hai'nanü is a very decent chap, in fact, more admirable than his brother, Pa'makwa'jü, but in the second part of the narrative, when the two brothers start on their journey, Hai'nanü's rascality unfolds. These defects result from the composite nature of the myth, which is a bad synthesis of two distinct plots.

The other versions of the story are no better unified. The first part of the Owens Valley tale, which includes the seduction of the mother, the birth of the sister and brother, the dispute over the sister, and the incidents of the trip to the strange camp (itself a rather incoherent passage), is closely paralleled by the first section of the Shivwits story, The Three Siblings.¹⁴ At this point both stories should end. But the Owens Valley tale continues in a new vein, carrying the brothers through various adventures which hinge upon Hai'nanü's baseness. His characterization definitely begins with the episode of the tüpusi diggers. "That is Hai'nanü, all right," the people say, after witnessing his wanton actions. He is extricated from each difficulty by his patient brother in order that the adventures may continue. In this section there is an approach to a negative sort of moralizing. The novelette ends with a third plot, which is not logically connected with the others. Hai'nanü dwindles in importance, finally disappearing to become the "mountain man," and Pa'makwa'jü has a series of encounters with Coyote which unfold Coyote's usual character. The Shivwits narrative also changes abruptly after the two brothers and the sister arrive at the strange camp. The story then is of Coyote's lust, his fight with enemies, and the recovery of the sister from her captors. Incoherent as this is, it ranks superior to the Owens Valley tale. The Moapa version, however, weakly combines the initial plot of the Three Siblings with an unrelated second plot.

The myths of Wolf and Roadrunner, numbers 34 and 35, center in Wolf's desire to steal his brother's (Roadrunner's) intended wife.¹⁵ This is the theme of an unusually intricate plot in which Wolf becomes involved in much warfare and fails in his purpose. Splendid bits of humor are introduced, such as the quarrel over kinship terms resulting from Roadrunner's incestuous marriage with his sister, Coyote's inevitable escapades, and the murder of the villainess.¹⁶ This well-unified story is exceptional because it definitely localizes most of the events.

This discussion is not an attempt to compare exhaustively the myths of this collection with those of the Great Basin, but merely an analysis to demonstrate the composite nature of the Owens Valley myths. Diffusion with recombination of elements resulted in novel syntheses of plots, episodes, and characters, except in those few tales which had already acquired a certain measure of literary perfection and stability. For this reason, Tuhuki'ni'i and the Gambler, number 28, and Coyote and His Daughter, number 23, were borrowed with little modification, but diffusion jumbled the legends incorporated in the Hai'nanü of the Owens Valley Paiute, The Three Siblings of the Shivwits, and The Two Brothers of the Moapa. Only the units in the narratives maintained their integrity during repeated borrowings; if the entire story lacks cohesion, it breaks down in transmission from one place to another.

Songs. A unique feature of the Owens Valley myths, so far as I know, is the frequent introduction of a character by a song on an important occasion. The leading person frequently sings before he speaks, his song being short and generally a mere repetition of his name. The rhythm and combination of intervals are simple, conforming to the pattern of Owens Valley music.¹⁷ Of limited distribution elsewhere¹⁸ and only slightly used in Owens valley, this literary device is perhaps an incipient culture trait. All but one of the songs herein presented were recorded on a phonograph by Tom Stone.

Citation

Steward, Julian H. 1936. Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 34(5): 355–440. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Source: steward_paiute.pdf