"From 'The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on the excerpts of The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca that are presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

"Dedication"

• Cabeza de Vaca dedicates the work to Emperor Charles V.  In this dedication, he asserts that it is his duty to relay his experience with the flora, fauna, and natives of the New World so that others who seek to conquer the lands may benefit.
• He also asserts in this dedication that he will be truthful and use understatement in throughout the narrative rather than employing hyperbolic language and creating fictitious events.

"The Malhado Way of Life"

•  Malhado: Galveston Island/The Island of Doom
• In this section of the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca writes about the Capoques and the Hans of coastal Texas.
• They are a tall, well built people who use only bows and arrows.  Additionally, they pierce their nipples and hips.  The women of the two tribes "toil incessantly" (42).
• They eat roots and fish from October to February.
• They have great love for their children and treat them well.
• The funeral practices of this group of people include great mourning for those who die young, but no mourning for those who die in old age.  Additionally, mourners are provided by their neighbors with food for three months because they do not leave their homes for that period of time.
• Men have only one wife each, with the exception of the medicine men, who may have three or four wives who live in harmony with one another.
• Men have no relationships with their in-laws, but women have relationships with their parents and the parents of their husbands.
• For three months of the year, the people eat only oysters and 'bad' water.  
• To this effect, Cabeza de Vaca notes that he sometimes went three or more days with no food during this time.
• This excerpt of Cabeza de Vaca's narrative ends with a description of the island and how the Capoques and the Hans are different from one another.  He also notes how the two groups interact with one another.
• There is a brief note about how April is a time of fiestas and dances for these people.  The excerpt of the section ends abruptly at this point.

"Our Life Among the Avavares and Arbadaos"

• This section of the narrative discusses the Avavare and Arbadao people who are located in inland Texas, beginning with his time with the Avavares.
• The Avavare people do not keep time by sun or moon and do not measure time by months.  Instead, they acknowledge seasons and keep time by reading the position of stars.
• This group of people also suffer more want than the Hans and the Capoques because they lack corn, pecans, acorns, and fish.
• Cabeza de Vaca notes that six of the eight months he spends with this group are based in hunger.
• From the Avavares, Cabeza de Vaca and his group venture one day's journey to the Maliacone people and travel with them looking for food while they wait for cactus pears to ripen for harvest/eating.
• The Maliacones meet up with the Arbadaos, who are weak, emaciated, and have a swollen look to them.  Cabeza de Vaca and his men leave the Maliacones and stay with the Arbadaos in their village.  Here, they suffer more want than they have to date.
• During his narrative about his time with the Arbadaos, he confides that he is naked, sun-burnt, and often cut and bloodied by thorns.  He states that this state of being leads him to take solace in the sufferings of Christ.
• Also during this time, he and his three fellow survivors subsist on scraps of raw meat which they find when cleaning hides.  They also earn some food by trading with the Arbadaos when they can.

"Pushing On"

• This section of the narrative discusses Cabeza de Vaca's journey onward from the Arbadao people.
• From the Arbadao, they leave and head for another group; however, they become lost along the way, so they pause to harvest and back some prickly pears before continuing on.  They are able to find their way, and eventually arrive at the village.
• At this village, the people ask the visitors to bless their sick.
• When the time comes for Cabeza de Vaca and his men to leave, the village expresses unease at his leaving to go with another group, but the explorers leave the Native Americans crying for them to stay.

"Customs of that Region"

• In this section of the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca describes the practices and customs that are shared by all the groups with which he has spent time.
• Child bearing:
• Men cease sleeping with their pregnant wives as soon as it is known that she is pregnant.  He continues to not sleep with her for two years after the child's birth.  The child is nursed for 12 years in order to keep him/her nourished enough in times when food is scarce or absent.
• Marriage:
• Childless men may leave their wives and reconnect with another woman.
• Men who have children never leave their wives.
• Arguments:
• Married men fist-fight with one another if an argument arises; during these fights, only women may attempt to intercede.  The men then have a cooling off period during which they go live in the scrub wood until they can be friends again.
• Single men leave to neighboring people for their cooling-off period and return rich and happy and thus willing to be friends.

"The First Confrontation"

• This section of the narrative describes Cabeza de Vaca's excursion into Mexico.
• Cabeza de Vaca describes nearing Christians.  Because he knows they are close, he and one of his party along with eleven of his Native American followers go to find them.
• Once he finds the Christians, he is taken at his request to their captain, who turns out to be Diego de Alcaraz.  Alcaraz tells Cabeza de Vaca that he is in trouble because he cannot find and capture Indians to be slaves.
• At this revelation, Cabeza de Vaca infroms Alcaraz that he is traveling with an envoy of natives.
• Alcaraz sends riders for Cabeza de Vaca's other two companions and the Native Americans who have followed him.
• Cabeza de Vaca notes that all of this occurs approximately thirty leagues from San Miguel.

"The Falling-Out With Our Countrymen"

• After Cabeza de Vaca's following of Native Americans feed and supply Alcaraz and his men, the two groups of Spaniards argue about Alcaraz's intentions to take Cabeza de Vaca's Indians as slaves. 
• Cabeza de Vaca repeatedly attempts to send his Indians home; however, they will not leave him without securing him in the hands of another group of natives.
• Cabeza de Vaca's Native Americans refuse to believe that Alacraz and Cabeza de Vaca are countrymen becaues the two men are so different.  The main differences that are noted in the text are that Alcaraz came from the sunset, kills men who are sound of body, wears clothes, is horsed and has lances, and robs others while bestowing nothing in return.  Conversely, they see Cabeza de Vaca as having come from the sunrise, as a healer to the sick, as one who is naked and barefooted, and as one who covets nothing but reciprocates all.
• Cabeza de Vaca is eventually able to entreat the Native Americans to return to their homes and resume their normal lives.
• Cabeza de Vaca closes this section by exalting the land and its people as blessed and provides a brief description of his arrest after he liberates his following of six-hundred Indians.

My Thoughts:

The thing that I find most interesting in this whole text is the dedication.  This is because Cabeza de Vaca makes it clear that he believes his knowledge is something that he should share with others who may find themselves in similar situations to those he experienced.  This is quite the opposite of what Columbus describes in his "Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage" in which he adamantly rejects the idea of others benefiting from his work.

The only other thing that I really have anything to say about in this narrative is from the section, "The Falling-Out With Our Countrymen."  This is because I find this section particularly confusing.  According to the author headnote, Alacraz seized the six-hundred Native Americans who were with Cabeza de Vaca when he went into Mexico.  This is not, however, illustrated in the narrative.  Instead, Cabeza de Vaca portrays the occurrence as though he liberated the Native Americans and, in doing so, angered Alacraz to the point that he arrests him.  Perhaps, since Cabeza de Vaca was sympathetic to the Native Americans and did not wish for them to be seized and made slaves he wished to seem a champion of them in his narrative; however, it rings untruthful and goes against the "Dedication" in which he pledges to tell things as they happened.  To me, this creates a question of truthfulness elsewhere in the narrative, though overall, I am inclined to believe the majority of what Cabeza de Vaca writes.

"Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca"

This blog post is comprised of my notes on the author information heading for Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca as it appears in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.  

"Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca"

•  Lived 1490-1558
• Cabeza de Vaca fought in battles in both Italy and Spain before sailing on an expedition led by Panfilo de Navárez, which was to Florida in 1527.  
• On this expedition, Cabeza de Vaca served as provost marshal and treasurer.
• Cabeza de Vaca and his fellows experienced extreme disaster on their expedition because Navárez was a poor leader; they wound up stranded at Sarasota Bay, Fl where the local Native Americans were hostile towards them.
• In order to escape from Sarasota, the men built barges, but shortly after initiating escape, Navárez declared an 'every man for himself' situation and he and others fled to sea never to be seen or heard from again.  Cabeza de Vaca and three others were the only survivors who continued on after wrecking their barge on Galvaston Island.
• From this point, Cabeza de Vaca kept a detailed itinerary of his North American exploration.
•  His adventure is as follows:
• spent 2 years as a prisoner/slave to the Han and Capoque clans of the Karankawa tribe
• progressed North and attained both status and power with the Caddos, Atakapas, and Coahuiltecans who revered him as a healer and a merchant
•  1535 - encountered the Jumanas and the Conchos in New Mexico, then headed into Mexico with a host/following of Pima and Opata peoples
•  Once in Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca encountered Spanish slavers who ultimately arrest him and seized six-hundred of his followers for slaves.
• From Mexico, he returned to Spain in order to speak out against the cruel and illegal slaving practices in the New World.  This occurred in 1537.
• Cabeza de Vaca returned to South America with the intent to create better policy for relations between the Spanish and the Native Americans, but he was sent back to Spain in chains in 1545 before ultimately being exiled to Algeria in 1551.
• Cabeza de Vaca's text recounts his sufferings and brushes with death in an understated way, but it also explores his feelings towards the Native Americans and about the Spanish treatment of them.

"From 'The Very Brief Relation of the Devestation in the Indies'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation in the Indies,  by Bartolomé de Las Casas.  There are subheadings within the text for "Hispaniola" and "The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad" for the two sections from the book that are included in the anthology.  The notes are from the excerpts given in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

From "Hispaniola"

• In this excerpt, Casas relays what he asserts to be a mere portion of all that he has seen.
• Casas states that Christians began by subjugating women and children and by taking them for ill-use as well as by taking food which was earned by the labor/toil of Indians for themselves.
•  In this, he attacks the vast amount that Christians eat as compared to his Indian counterpart.
• These acts lead to the hiding of food, women, and children as well as the flight of some Indians into the mountains.
• Christians proceeded to other acts next, Casas asserts.  The next step is that Christians attack Indians until they got to the village nobles, who they also misuse.
• The Christians are described by Casas as behaving with "temerity and shamelessness" (37).
• Casa also states that these actions lead the Indians to want to expel the Christians from their lands.
•  Though they desired to throw the Christians out, Casas writes that the Indian weapons are ineffective against the Christians because they are "very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense" and that it is for this reason that "the wars of Indians against each other are little more than games played by children" (37).
• See the thoughts section below for what I think is the purpose of this statement by Casas.
•  Casas next gives the reader a myriad of examples of the Christian "massacres and strange cruelties" (37).  These cruelties include the following:
• hacking them to pieces
• betting on various violent modes of death
• killing babies
• burning them alive in groups of thirteen to represent Jesus and his apostates
• burning people alive wrapped in straw
• cutting off people's hands and stringing them around their necks
• roasting people (particularly nobles) alive on grids of rods and forked sticks
• this particular method is given in much detail and with a specific example that Casas claims to have seen personally, thus lending authority to the whole list. 

From "The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad

•  This excerpt deals directly with the human trafficking of Indians as slaves and brifly describes the capture, shipment, and enslavement of the Indians.
• Spaniards take Native American captives and bring them to Hispaniola and San Juan.
• On the passage, they throw the dead overboard; those who die do so primarily from starvation and dehydration.
•  Once the Indians are put ashore, theya re sorted "like sheep" and separated from families, then distributed among the Spaniards.
• Those Spaniards who receive old or sickly slaves actively assert that they are displeased by the age/illness, and thus illustrate "the divine concepts of love for our fellow man as laid down by the prophets," Casas asserts (39).
• The passage ends on a specific example of the pearl diving slaves.  This group, Casas expresses, has the most "infernal and desperate" jobs in the world (39).
• Divers must hold their breath for minutes at a time.
• Marine life -and sharks in particular - attack, kill, and/or eat them.
•  They suffer problems associated with being constantly in and under water and cold.
• Mistreatment of them is overlooked because they are so good at the diving and it brings such profit.

My Thoughts:

In the first excerpt from the book, I think it is both interesting and important that Casas only refers to those performing the atrocities as "Christians" rather than Spaniards.  In the second excerpt he calls the people Spaniards.  Because of this distinction, I wonder if there is a particular reason for it. I, however, cannot fathom what that reason is, given such a small excerpt from the work.  Perhaps it is that the people that Casas discusses in "Hispaniola" are not only Spaniards, but other Europeans as well, while those discussed in "The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad" and solely Spaniards.  More research would need to be done to determine whether there were more than just Spaniards committing the cruelties and atrocities discussed in the first excerpt.

The second thing I think about the first excerpt's use of "Christian" is that there is an extremely unsubtle moral/religious persuasion going on there.  Perhaps because Casas himself developed the moral misgivings about slavery through religion, he believes that others shall also develop the misgivings if presented with the evidence and the use of the term "Christian" over and over again.  There is also a fun (ok, not fun in the usual sense, but interesting, to say the least) little juxtaposition of the common connotation of "Christian" for a reader and the acts being committed in the text.

As for the part when Casas states that "wars of Indians against each other are little more than games played by children" (37), I think that this is done with extreme purpose.  By likening the Native Americans to children, there is an extra level of horror added to the idea of European settlers battling them.  While it might seem today that Casas is demeaning the prowess of the native people, I believe that it is done intentionally as an additional bit of moral persuasion for his contemporary readers.

I think that the second excerpt is gutsy for Casas to have written.  Now, this isn't because it's some expose of an atrocity that people didn't know about, but because he specifically calls out that there are Spanish judges who allow the pearl diving to continue despite the inhumane mistreatment of the slaves because they were so good at swimming and gathering pearls, which undoubtedly made for great wealth for some.

"Bartolomé de Las Casas"

This blog post is comprised of my notes on the headnote about Bartolomé de Las Casas in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

"Bartolomé de Las Casas"

• lived from 1474-1566
• Casas was an apologist for Native American rights.
• His initial beliefs were created because of the injustice of seizing Native Americans and creating a pageant of them, which he witnessed at the Spanish court when Columbus returned from one of his voyages.  Though he didn't understand the moral implications of the act at the time, he later developed deep feelings about it.
• Cases writes that even he initially had a moral blindness to the wrongs and that he participated in them while serving as a member of the new royal governor's party in the New World.
•  It was after becoming a priest that Casas renounced the slave system because he felt that it ran contrary to religious (Christian) teachings.
• He took his beliefs and a case to Spain, where he was appointed the 'protector of Indians' and allowed to found a peaceful colony in Venezuela, meant to be an example of what he believed.  This venture was, however, unsuccesfull, so Casas retreated to a monestary and remained there from 1522 until 1529.
•  In the 1530's, Casas returned to political activism and was able to initiate widespread effect when Pope Paul III forbade all enslavement of people.  This then spurred Emperor Charles V of Spain to create the New Laws, which protected Native Americans and forbade their enslavement.
• Casas tried to enforce these New Laws from 1544 until 1547 as a bishop in Chiapas, Mexico; however,  when Charles V revoked the laws because of the resistance settlers put forth against them, Casas returned to Spain and instead wrote about his crusade against the treatment of Native Americans in the West Indies.

"From 'Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on "Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage" as presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A. 

Text Notes:

• Written by Columbus on Jamaica on July 7, 1503
• Columbus opens his letter by stating that he weeps for his great and beautiful discoveries that he sees are "in an exhausted state" with infirmity that is "incurable or very extensive" (33).  He goes on to assert that people who were originally against his exploration should not be able to currently benefit from it.
• Columbus next indicates that he was originally given leave by the Spanish monarchs to rule all that he discovered in the West Indies, and says that he wanted this at the time as a means to avoid other people benefiting from his vision and his work unfairly.  
• Columbus describes the length of his service to the Spanish crown next, stating that he began his work when he was twenty-eight years old and that presently he has grown so old that he only has grey hair over his body.  He claims that all that he possesses has been stolen from him and puts forth a plea for the "restitution of [his] honor, the reparation of [his] losses, and the punishment of him who did this" (34).  He asserts that the monarchs doing this will spread word/fame of their nobility.
• The final argument that Columbus puts forth is one for his soul.  He asserts that his service to the crown has resulted in a lapse of proper religious devotion and offerings in his life.  He begs the crown to return him to Europe and allow him to perform various pilgrimages to Rome and other places in order to save his soul.

My Thoughts:

As much as Columbus gets a bad rep as someone who came in and totally ran over the native population on the islands he discovered, I can't help but feel bad for him.  By this point, the reader knows that he has been shipwrecked in Panama and is now shipwrecked again on Jamaica.  The way the letter is written is much more difficult to connect with and understand than his letter to Santangel about his first voyage, and one must wonder whether this letter was written before or after he had his mental breakdown.  

Though he is often not seen as sympathetic, I think that some of his arguments that he puts forth are ones that are sympathetic.  He is saddened by what is happening to his discovered islands and by who is benefiting from them.  I believe that this is not a sentiment that is unknown to the common reader.  In general, a person does not want Naysayer-X to benefit after all his nay saying in the first place.  Columbus is putting forth that exact sentiment.  He would probably not mind of people like Santangel were benefitting in the way Mister Naysayer-X over there was.  After all, supporters believed in his vision and supported his discoveries rather than saying that he was silly for believing in the endeavor.

The religious ending to the letter also strikes me as something with which I can sympathize.  I do not believe that it is Columbus claiming a sudden, inexplicable desire for religion.  Rather, it is a realization that he has strayed away from the religious fervor he had before his began his voyages.  I think this for two primary reasons.  First of all, he did not name any of his original islands after himself.  Instead, he named the first land he found San Salvador, after the saint he credited with his success.  The second island he named was after the Virgin Mary.  Only then did he begin naming after the monarchs and country of Spain itself.  Thus, it is my belief that Columbus did fervently adhere to the Catholic religion in his early career.  It does not seem unlikely to me that he wanted to reestablish that religious connection later in his life when he realized his religion had suffered during his voyages.

"From 'Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage'"

This post is comprised of my notes about "Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage" as presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

• This letter was written at sea on February 15, 1493
• The letter details the islands that were discovered by Columbus on his first voyage to the West Indies.
• He begins his description at the Canary Islands.
• From there, it is 33 leagues, he states, to the island which the natives refer to as 'Guarahani' and which he names San Salvador.
• He then proceeds on to find and name Isla de Santa Maria de Concepcion, Fernandina, Isabela, and Isla Juana (which the foot note informs us is today's Cuba).
• He continues on to find what he first believed was China but later learns is yet another island.
• Finally, Columbus finds Hispaniola, which he believes to be the finest island of them all.  He notes it as being "beyond comparison" with the Canary Island, Tenerife.  
• The details that Columbus includes are not all that numerous; however, he notes that there are "people innumerable" on the islands and that he receives no opposition in claiming them for Spain.
• The other details included by Columbus focus on the beauty and wonder of Hispaniola.  He touches on its majesty, the fertility of the land, its harbors and coastline, the tallness and ever greenness of the trees, the birds, the fruits, and the availability of metal to be mined inland on the island.

My Thoughts:

 The idea that Columbus puts forth about receiving no opposition from the native people of the islands when he puts down a banner to claim the land for Spain is kind of silly to me.  It's nice and all for Columbus and Spain, I suppose, but as he is the first explorer (presumably) to find these islands, of course there are no Europeans to dispute Spain's claim.  And as for the natives?  Well, what experience do they have that would allow them to understand that the placing of Spain's banner on the land thus claimed it for the country?  None.  Still, it's a nice sentiment to send back to Spain to be sure.  No opposition for the claim means that there won't be any fighting to keep it from somebody else who wants it (at least for the time being). 

My other primary thought on the letter is that there must be purpose for the great detail that Columbus goes into about Hispaniola.  To me, it seems clear that the reason is all told in the footnote and the Christopher Columbus headnote.  He spends such a great amount of time discussing the island most probably because he is writing the letter to Luis de Santangel, a man who "helped secure financing" for his voyage (32, footnote).  Because of Santangel's backing, Columbus is telling all the best parts of the voyage to him in order to illustrate that his faith and backing was well-placed and that the discoveries being made are worthwhile and will make money for Spain and Santangel. 

Finally, the headnote about Columbus let's the reader know that it is the island of Hispaniola on which Columbus establishes settlements.  This suggests one of two things in terms of an either/or scenario.  On one hand, Columbus may have settled Hispaniola because it had the most obvious resources, space, and general awesomeness for said settlement.  On the other hand, it could be because Columbus was so taken with the island and liked it the most.  Either way, Hispaniola seemed to be Columbus's favorite of the islands discussed, based on this letter alone.

"Christopher Columbus"

This blog post is comprised of my notes on the headnote section on Christopher Columbus in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

"Christopher Columbus"

• Lived 1451-1506
• Won the support of Ferdinand and Isabella for his 'enterprise of the Indies' in 1492 and had a series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504.
• Over the course of his voyages, Columbus's feelings shifted from that of wonder, to being gripped with the disasters he experienced, and finally ended in great disappointment.
•  1492:  friendly relations with the Taino Indians on Hispaniola --> Columbus then leaves Hispaniola --> The settlers who remain at Hispaniola demand gold and sex from the Taino Indians --> 1494: Columbus returns to find no living Europeans on Hispaniola
• From there, Columbus establishes another settlement --> He leaves once again -->1496: He returns to Spain to clear his name of charges brought against him by other Europeans in the Indies in the aftermath of total disorder in the second settlement he left.
• In 1498, Columbus begins his third voyage during which he found the South American mainland, which he believed to be near Paradise on Earth.  Unfortunately, his illusions of Paradise fall apart when he returns to Hispaniola to find his Spanish settlers openly rebelling against his authority.
•  Columbus is able to squash these rebellions by creating a truce in which he allows the Taino Indians to be enslaved by the settlers, though he is not happy about the enslavement.
•  In 1500, Columbus is arrested again and brought to Spain to face more charges brought against him..
• Finally, he heads a fourth voyage with the intent of clearing his name after the charges brought against him.  His intentions to reclaim his reputation falls short as he becomes shipwrecked and stranded in Panama and then in Jamaica before he finally suffers a breakdown and is saved and returned to Spain where he dies shortly thereafter.
• Writings from Columbus's voyage exist, but the journal from the first voyage was written by a cleric rather than by Columbus himself; therefore, the letters that Columbus wrote to the king and queen, to a royal officer, and to a woman of the Spanish court are the most authentic writings available for study.

"The Story of the Flood"

This blog post is comprised of the notes on the Pima "Story of the Flood" as found in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. A.

"The Story of the Flood"

• Juhwerta Mahkai likes to watch Seeurhuh/Eeeetoy (hereafter only referred to as Eeeetoy) create things, and one of Eeeetoy's creations is a man to whom he gives a bow and turquoise-looking earrings from the quah-wool weed (which is called a Squaberry shrub, the footnote informs the reader).
• Eeeetoy tells this man to propose marriage to a girl's family if he finds one he likes, and so the man does, and he is accepted by her family, so they are married.  Neither he nor his wife have names that have been remembered.
• The footnote mentions that the original story generally includes a long list of wives and children that Eeeetoy's creation had over the course of time, thus explaining the alarm that his actions create.  The unnatural number of children being born throw off the balance of nature.
• It is knowledge of this unnaturalness that leads Eeeetoy to gather gum from the greasewood tree to prepare himself for the coming flood.
• This young man's succession of marriages and children frightens the beautiful daughter of Vahk-lohv Mahkai (South Doctor) so that she cries and cries because she believes the man will come to marry her as well.
• Vahklohv Mahkai creates a magical element to protect his daughter by winding a lock of her hair around the thorn of a 'haht-sahn-kahm' (white cactus).  He then creates a plan in which his daughter finishes any corn broth that the man does not drink when he finally comes.  After this occurs, if the man injures himself on the thorn she wears, he will turn to a woman and mother and Vahklohv Mahkai's daughter will turn into a man.
• By morning, the young man is a woman and mother, so he is afterwords referred to as the 'young man-woman'.
• The young man-woman then returns to Eeeetoy's house but hides his baby before entering.  When the man-woman goes to retrieve the baby in order to show it to Eeeetoy, both he and the baby turn into birds.  At this time, the previously foreseen water begins to flood the world.
• In the midst of the Vahklohv Mahkai story line, there is a detail of what every creator-being is using to protect themselves during the flood.
• Eeeetoy is using a vessel of gum from grease bushes.
• Juhwerta Mahkai is going to float around in his walking stick.
• Toehahvs is going to float in a canetube.
• Nooee and all the birds plan to fly above the flood and hang onto the sky by their beaks.
• When the flood starts, people flee to Juhwerta Mahkai, and all those who flee to him are able to escape through a hole he creates with his staff.  He then gets into the staff and floats.  Eeeetoy's vessel takes the longest to begin to float because of its vast size.
• All of the people who did not flee to Juhwerta Mahkai flee to Gahkatekih (Superstition Mountain). On the mountain, a mahkai marks a place where the water will not pass four separate times, but each time his prediction fails.  Finally, he uses his doctor-stone to turn all the people to stone and thus prevent them from drowning (but not save them from death).
• The birds hang onto the sky by their bills, and Nooee flies about continuously over the great flooded world.  Woodpeckers' tails are striped because of where the water rose up on them hanging from the sky. 
• When the birds begin to sing, the waters begin to wane until the flood is over and all venture from their vessels in different places because they have floated all over the world.
• Once out of their vessels, Juhwerta Makai goes south, Toehahus goes west, Eeeetoy goes north, and they all pass one another four times before finally Eeeetoy and Juhwerta Makai meet and argue about who is the 'elder', and though Eeeetoy was the last to come from his vessel, Juhwerta Makai allows him to call himself Seeurhuh (the eldest).  
• The same argument about the eldest breaks out again when Toehahvs joins the two, and another time when the birds convene with them.  Eeeetoy wins each time.
• The next order of business for the group is to find the middle/naval of the world.  This is determined by sending the hummingbird and the woodpecker flying to the edge of the world and back.  On the fourth try, the two birds return at the same time, so they know they are in the middle of the earth.
• At this point, Eeeetoy creates ants to make dry ground to sit on. He then creates two snakes to part the remaining water into rivers.
• Next, the group agrees to make dolls in secret so that they can choose one to be the new people.  Of the dolls, Eeeetoy makes the best and Toehahvs makes the worst.  Juhwerta Makai chooses not to make good dolls because he does not want to make anything better than the men he saved from the flood. 
• Toehahv's dolls become ducks and beavers.
• Eeeetoy destroys Juhwerta Makai's dolls entirely, so they don't become anything.
•  The destruction of his dolls angers Juhwerta Makai, so he begins to sink into the ground.  When Eeeetoy tries to stop him, he is only able to keep the excretion and waste from Juhwerta Makai's skin, which becomes the reason for illness and death in the world.
• Toehahvs and Eeeetoy build a house for the dolls to keep an eye on them, and when the people begin to talk, it is the Apaches that speak first.  This is not what Eeeetoy intended, so he compensates by giving the Pimas extra strength because the Pimas and Apaches are natural enemies (but he clearly favors the Pimas).
• While all the people live together for a time, eventually - when they are playing a game in which they kick one another - the Apaches get mad and leave the naval of the earth in order to settle elsewhere, thus explaining various settlements around the earth.

Some Thoughts:

One of the things that strikes me most about the creation story and the flood story is the fact that they are translations of an oral tradition.  This accounts for the variance of this text versus a different translation or a different original story-teller.

Oral tradition also accounts for the fact that the stories seem a bit choppy in places.  For example, in the story of the flood, the plans that the creator-beings make for their preservation during the flood comes right in the middle of the story about the South Doctor and his daughter's distress at the thought of marrying the young man.  If one was hearing this story aloud, it might not seem so strange that the person telling it veered off into another part of the story.  Perhaps he remembered it in a different order one time than he did on a different occasion of telling the story.

The final thing to consider when discussing these tales is that they are translated by a Christian, so one must take pause and wonder how much of the tale has been tweaked to a purpose of aligning the Pima beliefs and traditions to the Christian beliefs and traditions of the translator and the intended audience of the time.

"The Iroquis Creation Story"

This blog post is comprised of my notes on the headnote to "The Iroquois Creation Story" as well as the text of the story itself as found in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology to American Literature Volume A.

Headnote:

•  The Iroquois nation was comprised of the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora (only as of the early 19th century on the Tuscarora) Nations.
• The region inhabited by this nation extends from the area northeast of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, the Saint Lawrence River, and the Ottawa River, to the area south of the Great Lakes, and then continues on east almost as far as the Hudson River.
•  David Cusie was the first person to transcribe and translate these stories in the 19th century. 
• He was born around 1780 and was raised Christian.
• He was also an important leader to the Tuscarora people and wrote Sketches, which was a notable account of the Iroquois culture.
• Modern readers might see Creation stories of the Native Americans as being 'myths'; however, it is referred to as a ‘history’ by Curie.
• Part I of the myth is comprised of the foundation and establishment of the Iroquois world.
• Parts II and III are depictions of the ancient Iroquois winning battles against monsters and rival tribes.
• The order of the story and what each part contains may have been carefully chosen as a means to some end.  In particular, this could be true given that the story was transcribed and translated at a time of an expanding America in which there was already an intention to relocate Native Americans further west.

Text Summary:  "The Iroquois Creation Story: A Tale of the Foundation of the Great Island, Now North America; -- the Two Infants Born, and the Creation of the Universe"

•  There are two worlds of existence.
• The first is the Lower world, which is great darkness and is possessed by a great monster.  It is later also noted as being a great lake later in the story.
•   The second is the Upper world, which is inhabited by mankind, or humans.
•  The footnote tells the reader that the ‘humans’ referred to in Curie’s translation are also called ‘sky women’ and are, in general, not to be considered synonymous with the current idea of what a ‘human’ is.  I.e. these are not beings like us, they are clearly something more.
•  In the upper world, a woman conceives twins (the foot note here tells us that the woman is, in fact, a sky woman and that this is an asexual conception) while residing in the Upper world, but the bed in which she lies to rest late in the pregnancy drops her into the Lower world.
• While the woman is descending, the monsters of the Lower world create a safe spot for her to land on upon the back of a great turtle with earth put on his shell.
• After the woman lands safely, the turtle grows larger and appears to be an island with bushes upon it.  
• Within the womb, the twins fight because one of the two has the inclination to burst forth from the parent’s side, rather than being birthed traditionally.  The fight is lost, and one twin bursts forth, while the other is born normally.
• The normally birthed twin is called “Enigorio,” which means good mind, and he has a gentle disposition.  Conversely, the burster twin is called “Enigonhahetgea,” which means bad mind, and he has an insolence of character.
•   The footnote that Norton provides the reader at these names states that they are not the ones traditionally used for this Creation story.  Rather, Enigorio is traditionally called Tharonhiawagon, or Sky-Grasper, Creator, and Upholder of the Heavens.  Enigonhahetgea is traditionally called Tawiscaron, or Evil-minded, Flint, Ice, and Patron of Winter and other Disasters.
•  Enigorio acts as the primary creator on the island by using the parent’s body.  He creates the sun from the parent’s head and the moon from the parent’s body, then creates stars in addition in order to mark and regulate nights, seasons, and years.  He also creates animals and bodies of water, and plants (and forests, of course) and people, which are called Ea-gwe-howe.
•  Enigonhahetgea also creates, but he creates mountains and falls (which Enigorio goes behind and fixes).  He also attempts to make people, but they turn into apes instead.
•  Upon Enigonhahetgea’s second attempt to create people, Enigorio helps him and more people are successfully created.
• These people that Enigonhahetgea has a hand in creating are said to be people who have the most knowledge of good and evil.
•  Each twin wants to rule their creations and the Universe, so Enigonhahetgea proposes that they have a contest in which the winner becomes the sole ruler of the Universe.
•  After a date and time are set for the contest, Enigorio attempts to reconcile with his twin, and he mentions that he has a weakness to being whipped with reeds/rushes, which will kill him.  Enigonhahetgea goes on to say that deer antlers are his weakness.
• The footnote mentions that it is unusual that Curie transcribes Enigorio’s admission of weakness to rushes as a deception.  It is usually simply written as an honest admission.
•  When the contest comes to pass, Enigonhahetgea is defeated and claims control over dead souls before he sinks down and becomes the Evil Spirit (which a footnote mentions is an obviously Christian-influenced translation/ideal).
•  After the contest, Enigorio fixes up the battle ground, visits with the people, and retires from Earth.
• The footnote mentions that in other versions Enigorio teaches the people to grow corn and to pray in order to avoid ill happenings.