Creation Stories of the Hopi Tribes












© 1995-2001 Untangle Incorporated
Last Updated: Thursday, March 01, 2001

Traditional in the San Francisco Mountains:
Kachinas, the Cloud People, are the spirits of living things. Taiowa, the one and only creator created the first world created and he called it Tokpela, endless space. There nothing existed neither time nor space. All was in the mind of the creator. So the creator created the finite and the helper, Sotuknang. He is considered the first power. Sotuknang then created Spider Woman.

Spider Woman is also known to other pueblo people as the creator. She was given control over the newly-created Earth. The Spider Woman took some of the earth and mixed it with saliva and created two beings. Then with a cape made of a white substance that was creative wisdom itself she covered the beings and sang the song of creation. These first people could not speak and they had a soft spot on their heads. They were perfect until evil came. The medicine men cured these evils and the people were happy again.

Then Taiwa made the second world, Tokpa, where some people went and were fruitful. These second people soon forgot the commands of the Spider Woman and began to see differences in one another. The people divided and started different languages and turned different colors. Sotuknang said the separation was bad and ordered the first people to go live under ground with the Ant People. Then the second people were destroyed. When this was done the first people emerge from under the ground and were given the third world, Kuskera.

This world was quickly populated. These people gathered knowledge and created great cities. They became involved completely with their earthly plans. Only some people once lived by the creators rules. The others forgot the ceremonies and began to fight for power. So Sotuknang told the Spider Woman to get some tall hollow stems and seal the faithful people inside. Then he flooded the world.

This lead to the fourth world, Tuwaqachi, the present world, the "World Complete". It has heat and cold, height and depth, good and evil. When it was formed the people were told to spread out and claim the land for the Creator. The great spirit Masaw was appointed by the Creator as the guardian of the fourth world. Masaw warns that if people again become evil, he would take over the Earth. So the task of the people on earth is to obey the rules of the Creator and live in peace and harmony.

Chictah:

Way back in time all men emerged from a single hole in the earth. There was a mockingbird there at the entrance to the hole. He gave each a name and a language. To one he would say, "You shall be a Hopi and speak that tongue." To another, "You shall be an Apache and speak that language." And so it went for all who came from the hole, including the White People. The earth was still covered in darkness in those days so the peoples came together and decided to change things. They made the sun and the moon and placed them in the sky. With light and warmth things got easier for the people so the chiefs of all the races and tribes got together and decided to break up and go to different places. They decided to go eastward to where the sun rises and that whoever got there first was to cause a shower of stars to fall from the sky, and then everyone would see this and stop where they were. The Whites, always impatient, soon grew tired. Their women rubbed flakes of skin from their bodies and molded them into horses. Thus, mounted on these speedy animals, the Whites were first to arrive in the east. Thereupon a shower of stars fell to the ground and all remained where they were at the time.

Hawna:

In the beginning there were only two: Tawa, the Sun God, and Spider Woman (Kokyanwuhti), the Earth Goddess. All the mysteries and the powers in the Above belonged to Tawa, while Spider Woman controlled the magic of the Below. There was neither man nor woman, bird nor beast, no living thing until these Two willed it to be. In time they decided there should be other gods to share their labors, so Tawa divided himself and there came Muiyinwuh, God of All Life Germs and Spider Woman divided herself and there came Huzruiwuhti, Woman of the Hard Substances (turquoise, silver, coral, shell,etc.). Huzruiwuhti became the wife of Tawa and with him produced Puukonhoya, the Youth, and Palunhoya, the Echo, and later, Hicanavaiya, Man-Eagle, Plumed Serpent and many others. Then did Tawa and Spider Woman have the Great Thought, they would make the Earth to be between the Above and the Below. As Tawa thought the features of the Earth, Spider women formed them from clay. Then did Tawa think of animals and beasts and plants, all the while Spider Woman formed them from the clay. At last they decided they had enough, then they made great magic and breathed life into their creatures. Now Tawa decided they should make creatures in their image to lord over all the rest. Spider Woman again formed them from clay. Again the Two breathed life into their creations. Spider Woman called all the people so created to follow where she led. Through all the Four Great Caverns of the Underworld she led them, until they finally came to an opening, a sipapu, which led to the earth above.


Tewa:

Way back in the distant past, the ancestors of humans were living down below in a world under the earth. They weren't humans yet, they lived in darkness, behaving like bugs. Now there was a Great Spirit watching over everything; some people say he was the sun. He saw how things were down under the earth, so he sent his messenger, Spider Old Woman, to talk to them. She told them that the Sun Spirit wished better for them than what they had, and that she would lead them to another world. When they came out on the surface of the earth, that's when they became humans.

Banner Graphic


 Click here if you want to drop us a line or two.

Return to main page

Banner Graphic