Yuma Creation
© 1995-2001 Untangle Incorporated
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 14, 2001
In the beginning there was only darkness and water. The water sloshed around, splashing and making foam. The foam coalesced into the sky, Kokomaht. Kokomaht is the Creator. He is of two parts, the other part is called Bakotahl. Kokomaht is good, and Bakotahl is evil. When Bakotahl came out of the water he asked aloud "Did you, Kokomaht come out of the water with your eyes open or closed. Kokomaht in order to hinder evil said, "With them open". And when Bakotahl came from the foam his eyes were open. But the dark from the sky filled his eyes which is why blind peope are 'bakotahl" those whose eyes are filled with the dark.
The two stood on the waters, as there was no land yet. Kokomaht said I must make direction now so he would know where to place things relative to each other. He asked Bakotahl to point to the main direction, which Kokomaht was going to call north. When Bakotahl pointed Kokomaht turned in the exact opposite direction and call that direction North.
Then Kokomaht told Bakotahl that he would scoop some foam and water up make earth from it. And he did. He liked the earth so he created a vast wind and had it come swirling out of the north. As this twister spun above the water it sucked the water up beneath it and everywhere that happend dry land was formed. Kokomaht walked and sat on the land. His brother followed. Bakotahl started to play with with the clay and said he would make humans which he tried to do but because he was blind they did not look right to Kokomaht.
So Kokomaht began to shape the clay and made a male. He shook the male four times into the North, and four times into the south, and it came alive. Then he made a female and did the same so it too came alive. Meanwhile Bakotahl was still busy making creatures. Kokomaht said they were not human and stamped his foot so they fell into the waters where they became geese and ducks. Bakotahl did not make creatures with hands. But he got angry at the action of his brother and said he did not like the humans that Kokomaht had made, that he would hurt them, like Kokomaht had hurt him and his creatures. So he made pestilence and disease of every kind. And then he went to live underground where he could not see Kokomaht.
Kokomaht left with his humans decided to make more humans, of several differnt kinds and shapes. When he had many types he put them in different parts of the world, and then taught them all to reproduce themselves. He then made himself a son, Komashtam'ho, and he taught him everything he knew. In fact it was Komashtam'ho who was playing around one day creating things who made the sun. He spit into his hand and rolled the spit into a ball and through it into the east where it became the sun, and where that sun is first seen each day. Then Komashtam'ho flicked his hand into the sky and the remaining spittle flew into the heavens and became the stars.
Now one of the human groups that Kokomaht created was Hanyi, the Frog people, and they decided that Kokomaht was too dangerous to live, They burrowed beneath him and using their combined spirit drew the breath out of him, and Kokomaht died. As he died he taught people to path of the dying. But the people were afraid. So his son Komashtam'ho said that he would burn his father upon a pyre and teach them how to help the dead find their way to the sky. He taught people how to perform funerals.
Now Kokomaht had once told Coyote to 'take my heart, be good to all people'. But Coyote misunderstood what Kokomaht meant, and Coyote took it literally. So Coyote planned to steal and eat the heart of Kokomaht while the body was on the pyre. Komashtam'ko knew what Coyote was planning and sent him east to get the fire from the sun. Just as he returned, Komashtam'ko used the fire to light the pyre. But the badger jumped on the pyre and stole the heart and ran away and then went underground and no one could catch him or the heart.
Kokomaht was incensed and said 'the badger shall always lived underground, and the Coyote will always chase it and eat it when he can. But the Coyote wanted to steal the heart of my father so it will always sneak around trying to find its food when it is near us or humans. ' Still andgry Kokomaht said, 'if my father had lived then everyone, every creature would live forever too, but that would make the world too crowed so people will die as my father died. They will lose their breath and only their spirit will live on. ". Then he stoked the fires so hot that the land all about dried up and became the desert where the Yuma live today.
Because Kokomaht is good, his son is good and so Komashtam'ko said also "The spirit when released will join the spirits that it loved." And so it is today. And Kamoshtam'ko stays to protect the good things in life, and Bakotahl twists and turn in anger, creating earthquakes and disasters to hurt mankind to this very day.
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