The First Women: The Power of Women In Native American Mythology
Artwork: Emily Montague
By, Emily Montague, The Fem Word Senior Editor
Since the beginning, women have world-makers and world-shapers. We are teachers with wise hearts and warners clothed in the colors of blood, of famine, and of war. There are times when we take the forms of goddesses, divine and cloaked in mystery; there are other times when we are tricksters, spirits who use mischief and cunning to humble the hearts of wayward heroes, or to defeat monsters who threaten our people.
If you look back at the mythologies that shaped our oldest human societies, you’ll find women everywhere. Over time many of our cultures supplanted women-centered stories with male-centered ones. With the advent of patriarchy, especially the variety that took root in the Western world, the voices of female characters were increasingly made subordinate to those of male heroes and gods. City-states and kingdoms were born from patriarchal roots, and their myths were forged, by and large, by men. Oftentimes those myths were used to establish and propagate the messages that patriarchal rulers used to justify their authority.
As a result, women heroes were sidelined or even vilified. The goddesses who had once been at the very center of creation were relegated to supporting roles, and their authority over the cosmos was given over to gods. The divine feminine became synonymous with wifehood and motherhood, or in other cases it was subverted and turned into the death-dealing — rather than life-giving — forces of chaos. People learned to see women as the collateral of humankind’s quest for knowledge, civilization, and higher purpose. We became the tragic victims of male hubris or the doomed monsters that turn unwary heroes into stone. In places like Mesopotamia, ancient Athens, or the lands of the Abrahamic faiths, women were told that we could either be pure-hearted victims or perverse, seductive villains meant to test the god-hero or chosen male while he went about the business of being, well, heroic.
Of course, this is only part of the human story.
Woman the Storyteller
Across the Atlantic, hundreds of different nations and kingdoms were also forming in what would one day be called the “New World” — but to the indigenous nations of North and South America, theirs was the first world, as well as the oldest.
Many of these peoples named themselves the first people or simply the people. Their mythologies were and are incredibly diverse, and their core stories are as varied as they are profound. Western colonization and the genocides that followed in its wake threatened to erase many of these complex mythologies from the record; the voices of First Nations people, and especially those of First Nations women, ensured that this did not happen.
These figures are heroes in their own right, and they were — and are — one hundred percent real. Among them are devoted medicine women like Gladys Tantaquidgeon of the Mohegan Nation in Connecticut and present-day teachers like Evereta Thinn of the Western Diné (or Navajo) nation. Their efforts to preserve the languages, cultures, customs, and stories of their respective peoples have been tireless. These women and their predecessors have faced enormous hurdles while working to keep their identities alive, and those stories deserve to be told right alongside the countless myths and sacred songs they’ve helped to protect.
That’s an article in and of itself, however — and it’s one we fully intend to write in the coming weeks. For now, we want to focus on the power of women within the stories that form First Nations’ most integral worldviews. These are the creation myths and symbolic allegories that define who a nation is, where they came from, and how they relate to the world. They are lessons and warnings, far-sighted prophecies, and collection points for information that was vital to both physical survival as well as the survival of a community’s moral identity. Many of these stories are borne on the backs, heads, and shoulders of women.
With immense gratitude to all the storytellers, medicine women, chieftesses, historiennes, and survivors who remembered and told these stories throughout centuries of struggle, The Fem Word invites all of you into what is, for many of us, a new world. This is a world where women remain women — individuals with immense personal power, unique purpose, and a sacredness all their own. We welcome you to a women-honored world that is and has always been just as real as the one depicted by male-centered god-myths of patriarchal priesthoods and their warrior king patrons.
It is in many ways a more dynamic world, and it is not defined by any one nation or tribe. It is a place of many forms, where one might encounter a wise and cunning grandmother and, in the next instant, find her unmasked as a divine and lovely maiden, her arms full of corn.
We must enter it as listeners, as those receiving a gift, and each of us will take from it a different set of lessons to be learned and interacted with long after we re-enter our day-to-day realities. Let’s start at the very beginning: the creation of the world.
Woman The world-maker
Awenha'i —The woman who fell from the sky
In the land of the Great Lakes, the People tell of how the world formed itself out of kindness. That kindness was recieved and made fertile by Skywoman, whose name is Awenha'i or Atsi'tsiaka:ion or Awenha:ih, depending on who you ask.
In the earliest days of creation, the world was all dark waters, and all the people were spirits who lived on a shining island in the sky.
One day a beautiful woman went too close to the edge of the sky-island, or perhaps she was dropped down through a hole in its center. She fell for a long, long time, and as she fell she grasped at the plants of her home — the tobacco and the strawberries, the apple trees and the maples — and brought their seeds down with her.
She plummeted endlessly, this spirit-daughter of the Great Spirit himself, and soon the animals below took notice of her descent. “Let us soften her fall,” said the swans and geese. They flew up and cushioned her with their feathers. “She will need a place to land,” said the water animals, who had initially feared the woman but were now worried for her safety. A number of the swimming animals went to try and find some earth for her to stand on once she reached the water. Beaver, Loon, and finally, Muskrat all dove down deep under the sea to gather up some mud; all of them died during the attempt, but Muskrat’s body floated back up with some earth clasped in its paws.
“We will build her a home on Turtle’s back,” said the other animals, and so they began to pat and smooth the mud on top of Turtle’s shell. As they did this, Turtle grew, and so did the ball of mud Muskrat had gathered. The result was a vast island that floated on top of the sea.
Eventually, Skywoman landed softly on the island — thanks to the kindness of the birds — and from here, there are different paths her story can take. Some people say that she planted the seeds she’d brought and made a life for herself there on the vast island (which is North America, or “Turtle Island” in the original language of the Great Lakes region). Eventually, she made children and they became the First Nation.
Others say she was already pregnant when she fell, and she gave birth to twins as soon as she landed on Turtle’s back. After her death — possibly during childbirth — her head became the sun and the rest of her became the moon, the stars, and the fertile soil from which all things grow.
Mother Earth — The Woman Who became our home
Another story — and this one belongs to the Anishinaabe Nation and its ancestors — tells of how all things sprang from Grandmother Moon and her husband, Grandfather Sun. Together they made their daughter, Earth, who came before humanity and all of the other animals, too.
Earth was beautiful and full of potential. The Creator, Gitchi Manitou, who is neither a man nor a woman, saw this potential and named the Four Sacred Directions. Singing birds flew the seeds of life in all four directions, planting them as they went. Earth housed swimming creatures in her waters and walking creatures on her land. The Creator blessed all of these creatures with life, then gathered up some of the power of the Four Directions and blew into a shell from one of Earth’s shores.
This breath became the first human, and he lived on the Earth and was in harmony with her.
Woman the world-Changer
Asdzaa Nádleehé— The Woman Who Changes
Among the Dine' people, there is a woman named Asdzaa Nádleehé, and she is the “Changing Woman” who embodies all of the beautiful impermanence that accompanies life on Earth.
After she was born from the powers of Creation, Changing Woman was given the first Sacred Bundle. It contained the elements of creation and was a source of tremendous medicine. Asdzaa Nádleehé was powerful in her own right, for she possessed immortality. Every time she aged and died, she was born again and resumed the cycle of life.
With her bundle and her own powers of renewal, Asdzaa Nádleehé undertook the creation rituals and began to improve the chaotic, primordial Earth by defeating the monsters that ran rampant across it. She made the soil fertile and ready for new life, and when it was done, she welcomed the First People to this new, hospitable place and they made it their home. These became the Dine' or Najajo people.
Asdzaa Nádleehé taught her people the sacred songs, the Blessingsways, and told the people never to forget them, for these songs maintain the balance of all life and keep chaos at bay. She then departed, or perhaps she simply returned to someplace people can’t see with their eyes.
In some stories, Changing Woman makes men and women by crafting them from pieces of her own shed skin. She is also credited with the creation of maize, or corn, which is the most vital of all crops for both the Dine' and many other nations. When it is time for a girl to become a woman, it is through the power of Asdzaa Nádleehé that she transforms. It is also her power that turns the seasons and guides people through all the different kinds of change that take place in their lives, especially the kinds of changes that relate to the female power of life-giving.
Koyangwuti — The woman Who Wove Our Story
The Hopi and their sister nations tell many stories about a wise woman named Kokyangwuti, or “Grandmother Spider.” She was among the first living beings on earth, along with Tawa the Sun, and it was she who suggested that the gods give souls to the creatures they had created.
Kokyangwuti holds all the sacred knowledge that defines us as human beings, and she has shared this knowledge with us from the very beginning. Along with Tawa, she guides living things through the various stages of life and helps them to become better — that is how humans became human and reached a higher state than the other animals.
It was Kokyangwuti who led the first people up through the three lower worlds or caverns and brought them up into the fourth and highest world, which is the one we live in now. After changing form in the first and second worlds, the almost-humans reached the third and were taught how to weave and make pottery. Some say that most of the people forgot their religious duties while here in the third world, and Kokyangwuti had to remind them. Those who remembered her and Tawa were brought to the highest and best fourth world, where they were left to establish themselves and live in harmony with creation.
Whenever people forget their sacred knowledge or get lost in life, Grandmother Spider can be called upon to share her wisdom and advise them. She has been a reliable guide throughout periods of upheaval and change; her very existence is perseverance-through-change and remembrance-through-forgetting.
Ptesáŋwiŋ—The woman who fed the people
The Lakota Sioux remember the most sacred of their women, Ptesáŋwiŋ, who is also called “White Buffalo Woman” or “White Bison Calf Woman.”
A long time ago, humanity was starving because of a terrible famine. Two warriors went out to look for food in order to save their people. As they wandered the land, they saw a pure white cloud — in this cloud they saw a beautiful woman clothed in white buffalo skins.
One man was lustful and wished to claim this woman as a wife for himself. The other man was wiser and warned him that this was wrong, and that this woman was clearly more than human. The first man was foolish and did not listen. He strode up to the woman and was immediately enveloped by the cloud. When the cloud parted again, only his bones remained.
The second man saw the sacred woman beckon to him and was frightened, but she told him that he had nothing to fear so long as he approached her with respect. Thus, the second man was received by her as a pupil or a brother. White Buffalo Woman was a holy spirit possessed of immense medicine. She had knowledge that could end the famine and promised to share it with the people if they would receive her as an honored guest.
The second man returned to his nation and they prepared a welcome for Ptesáŋwiŋ. She was pleased and taught them seven ceremonies for restoring Mother Earth and gave them the sacred pipe, or chanunpa. She performed wonders amongst the people and blessed them.
After she left, the buffalo returned, and the earth was fertile again. The terrible famine was ended.
Woman the world-shaker
The duality of deer-woman — the warning woman
From the peoples of the eastern woodlands — and those that went west from among them — we learn of the mysterious, shapeshifting Deer-Woman.
Deer-Woman is both a giver of blessings and a terrible spirit of vengeance, depending on who you decide to be when you encounter her. Women, children, and men who cherish women and children can count Deer-Woman as an ally and friend. She bestows fertility on loving couples, aids women in childbirth, and blesses sacred dances when she visits (often in disguise).
For those who are unscrupulous toward others, and most especially toward vulnerable women and girls, Deer-Woman is a terrifying specter who guarantees a painful death. Appearing in the form of a maiden, she lures lustful men in with her astounding beauty and then tramples them to death. She is notably violent towards rapists and abusers, and she protects women and children from them by taking on her more vengeful forms.
In some stories, Deer-Woman appears as an omen of imminent change. In other stories, those who are sinful but still redeemable may encounter her as a warning rather than a death sentence. In such cases, her vengeance can be withheld when the man looks down and recognizes her by her nonhuman hooves.
If you encounter Deer-Woman, you should demonstrate both respect and humility. She is fearsome but, by all accounts, just toward those who demonstrate proper behavior toward their spouses and children.
Splinter-foot girl — the one who humbles pride
Look up at the sky on a clear night: you will see the Pleiades constellation. The Arapaho tell the story of how these stars came to be.
Once, there was a group of hunters, seven in total. During their long hunt, one of them was injured by a thorn. The wound soon became swollen and red. He could go no further, and so he and the others made camp near a river. To everyone’s shock, the swollen wound soon burst open and birthed a girl-child from the hunter’s leg!
The hunters quickly made swaddling clothes from their own garments and a cradle from the hide of a panther. They doted on the baby and were all like fathers to her. She grew up and became a beautiful girl, and she was called Foot-Stuck-Child or Splinter-Foot-Girl. The men dressed her in fine robes adorned with elk teeth and gave her a belt woven with beads. Soon she was noticed by a fearsome bison warrior named Bone-Bull. He wanted her for a wife.
He sent a magpie to ask her fathers for Splinter-Foot Girl’s hand in marriage. Three times he asked, and three times they refused, saying that their daughter was too young to marry and they could not give her up. Finally Bone-Bull said he would come for her himself, and because of his reputation Splinter-Foot Girl decided it was better to go to him willingly. She wore a buffalo robe and lived among his people for a year.
After a year passed, her fathers missed her terribly and tried to think of some way to get her back. They sent flies and then birds, but Bone-Bull drove all of them away. Then Magpie told the hunters to ask Mole and Badger for help, for these animals were very cunning and hard to spot. These two agreed to help, and they dug their way under the ground until they came up where Splinter-Foot Girl was sitting beneath her robe.
“Your fathers want you to come back,” they said. She was frightened but agreed to flee. Her fathers had sent arrows to her, and she used these to prop up her robe and make it look as though she was still sitting in her usual place. She went to her fathers and then they fled. Bone-Bull was angry when he discovered the deception and gave chase to the men and Splinter-Foot Girl. They ran for a long time. Eventually, they came to a big cottonwood tree. The tree told them to circle its trunk seven times and climb into its branches. They did so. The buffalo came and tried to knock the humans down, but each time they tried, they failed. Some got stuck or knocked themselves out.
Finally, Bone-Bull snorted and tossed his head and said he would knock the tree down. “Try, then,” said the cottonwood. “You will break your horns.” Bone-Bull charged and, sure enough, broke his horns and was felled by the blow. The hunters came down and shot him full of arrows. They then covered his body in broken pieces from the tree, who told the buffalo, “Now you will be pursued by men and hunted by them.” Their horns were half broken and short, and they fled into the plains.
Splinter-Foot Girl was soon approached a second time. Her suitor was Merciless-Man, a warrior who took the form of a huge stone. He treated his wives badly and they were all bruised or bent from it. The fathers refused this suitor until he threatened to come and take their daughter. Again, they turned to Mole and Badger for help.
Splinter-Foot Girl hatched a clever plan with them. She went to Merciless-Man and sat with her legs out. Mole and Badger had dug a hole, which she was hiding. When Merciless-Man came to her, she moved and he fell into the hole and was buried in the earth. He still pursued her, and she and her fathers could hear him rumbling after them. They fled over a canyon and watched as Merciless-Man fell down the embankments and into the ravine. Still, he would not give up.
“I am done with this,” said Splinter-Foot Girl. She took her favorite ball and tossed it up, using her medicine and saying, “Go with my father.” When she kicked the ball up, one of her fathers rose up with it. She repeated this until all her fathers had risen up into the sky. Then she went up, too, and said, “You have been through a lot of trouble on my account, so now I will make you a beautiful home here in the sky.”
She revealed herself to Merciless-Man, then cursed the rock to be stuck in the hills forever. She then established a beautiful tent of stars for herself and her fathers, and they became the constellation we call the Pleiades. In this way, Splinter-Foot Girl and her helpers humbled her arrogant suitors and blessed mankind by defeating them.
Women, The People
Storytelling is more than entertainment. It is identity-making, and when we tell a story we are telling the world about who we are, what we believe, and how we came to be. By listening to a people’s stories, you are engaging in an intimate form of cultural exchange. It connects you to them in a way that transcends all physical boundaries and allows you to share things that would otherwise be completely intangible.
Women have always been storytellers. We have always been characters, be they goddesses, warriors, or human metaphors that represent something important to our culture. We have always been important, central to our collective lives. In the stories of North America’s First Nations, we find women filling all kinds of roles and representing all sorts of themes, moral lessons, and deeper truths.
But women aren’t just storytellers or metaphors. For hundreds of years, colonizers and other “outsiders” have viewed First Nations and their stories through the lens of otherness. This has often led us non-natives to take specific elements of specific stories and use them to define entire demographics. This reductive way of seeing others’ cultures leads to stereotypes, which are in many ways the evil twin of genuine mythologies.
Through this lens, First Nations women become caricatures in their own cultural contexts, forced to occupy one or another role without any nuance. They are either the wise woman or the weaver, the mysterious spirit-guide or the clever young girl. We do this to other cultures, too, including our own. For a long time we’ve been told that women can be mothers or breadwinners. A woman can be feminine or break the norms of femininity. We get pushed into false dichotomies that limit us, and this limitation flies in the face of what stories like the ones you’ve just read truly represent.
So yes, women are and always have been Storytellers, World-Makers, and Change-Enacters. The First Nations are diverse – the women within them are equally so. When we are privileged enough to hear a culture’s stories about women, we should listen for clues and possibilities, not straight answers. We should listen not to define, but to learn.
If you are lucky, you won’t merely learn about the culture being shared with you; if you listen with the right state of heart, you’ll also learn about yourself.
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