From San Bernardinos Native Creation Area and Mega-Glyphic Art: Luiseño In Constance Goddard Du Bois book written in 1908, The Religion of the Luiseño Indians of Southern California: Traditional Knowledge; Star Lore and Calendar; pgs. 120-123, she explains Coyote’s importance in the star history of the Luiseño tribe. Du Bois describes the star constellations, showing how complex celestial thought was among the local Native peoples. This importance was also described to me by Soboba Reservation Native elder Bunny Silvas of the Wolf Clan. Her grandfather Leandro (Lee) Silvas Sr. 3-13-07 to 5-13-73 “God Rest His Soul” explained the importance of the Ursa star constellations to her as a child. This combination of reference and ancestral source helps when matching the mega-glyphic art to the stars, intertwined with the native local history. “The stars were those of the First People who went up into the sky in the attempt to escape from death when it became known that the death of Quiot had brought death to all upon earth. In the old times much more was known about the stars than at present. Songs remain containing the names of stars which cannot be identified. It is possible that the motion of the planets were recognized, but today Venus seems to be the only one distinguished by a special name. Venus is Aylucha (Eluchax), that which is left over from evening till morning, food or anything of the kind. Only the most important stars have names. They were the chiefs among the First People, and they took their parties of adherents of relatives with them, which are now the stars grouped about the chief star, but without individual names. The associated stars form much larger groups than those which we have adopted from antiquity; and when the Luiseño system is understood, there is something more impressive in it than in the haphazard arrangement of the Greeks and Romans. The oldest and most important star-chiefs, those most of then mentioned, are Nukulish, Antares, and Yungavish (buzzard), Altair. The right hand of Antares, Nukulish po-ma, Nukulish his-hand, is Arcturus. Rising always in advance of Antares, it heralds his coming. All the other stars grouped around and between are the people of Antares, a large following. In the same way Yungavish po-ma, the right hand of Altair, is Vega. The feather headdress of Altair, Pecheya Yungavish (Yungavsh po-eheya, buzzard his-headdress), is a star close to and immediately above it. The Luiseños regard the Milky Way as the spirit, the home of our spirits, to which they are sent when leaving the earth. The long series of songs of Kwinamish define their belief concerning the spirit. These songs are extremely difficult of interpretation and explanation, for they include words unused in ordinary life, and ideas that would have been puzzling in the old days to any but the initiated. The instruction concerning the things of the spirit given to the candidate in the toloache ceremony, as explained by the symbol Wanawut, has already been refereed to. The exact character of this can never be discovered; nor in just what manner it symbolizes these ideas. One of the songs of Kwinamish, already given, begins: Tomamik Yula Wanawut poponakala ponyarakala auma, to the north the spirit in carefully woven strings remained tied. The striking peculiarity in the Luiseño use of sacred terms, the doubling of the word, has been referred to. Wanal Wanawat has been explained. Yula Wanawut has almost the exactly same significance. Yula means spirit, and literally head or hair. It is possible that in ancient times the object Wanawut was made of hair, as were the bracelets and anklets used in the girls’ ceremony. In the creation myth one of the first states of existence, out of which Earth and Sky came by successive transitions, was called Whaikut Piwkut, explained as something silvery grey, like the glimmering of dawn or the grey hair if old age. In one of the earlier notes made, the explanation identifies Whaikut Piwkut with the Milky Way, which in that case would have preeminence over Earth and Sky. Its silvery glimmer is suggested by the term; hut all this is involved in uncertainty. The other chiefs of the first people now seen as stars of the first magnitude are Waonesh (Waunish, a star.), Spica; Nawiwit Chawachwish (Ngoiwut chawochmush, a star.), Fomalhaut; and Tukmishwut (Tukmi iswutum pomshun, or tukmi iswut, the north star.), the North Star. Hulaish (Hula’chum, the three stars of Orion.) is Orion, and Chehaiyam (Chehaiyam, Pleiades) the Pleiades. These two are always named together. Tukmishwut, the North star (His finger was bitten off by a rattlesnake.), remains motionless, and all his people, the members of his “party,” move in a circle about him. This is the reason the dancing and marching are in a circle around the sacred enclosure, the fire, and so on. His hand and heart are both to be seen in the sky. The outlines of these figures, traced in tiny sixth magnitude stars, are only to be seen in an atmosphere entirely free from posture as well as from clouds. Three fingers are outlined, the blunt one having been bitten off; and the heart is placed among them, its point reaching to the horizon beneath. Albanas’s grandfather taught him the outlines of this constellation of the North Star in the evenings when the little boy sat by the hearth fire, tracing the figure in the sparks of little live coals upon the earth floor of the hut. At the time when the stars went up into the sky to escape death, the Pleiades, Chehaiyam, were seven young women, sisters; and when they went up a rope was let down for them to climb on. Coyote came along, and as there was no man with them he said,” I will go with you, girls.” They did not answer him, but he took hold of the rope and kept going up after them. But when they were safely up, they cut the rope and Coyote fell backwards. There is always a star following them, Aldebaran, and this is Coyote. Orion went up at the same time. The eclipse of the moon is the physical manifestation of Ouiot’s sickness when he counted the months expecting to die. When the eclipse clears off, Moyla, Ouiot, gets well again. At the time of the eclipse they sing the songs of Pikmakvul. The moon was sent up into the sky to watch the people and regulate everything, and all goes according to the moon. Especially is this so in regard to women who have their menses, but men are also affected by it, and become strong or weak as the moon waxes and wanes.”
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 02:20:22 +0000
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