How the Earth was Created

By: Heather Becerra

The Creation Story

• Two twin brothers, Mukat and Temayawet, are the believed to be creator gods in the Cahuilla tribe

• Mukat and Temayawet created the earth, ocean, sun, tobacco, animals, and even the Cahuilla people(red people) and people of different colors from clay colors in the Earth

• The story tells that the twin brothers argued about who is oldest

• Mukat teaches his people how to shoot rocks using sticks during the day also known as arrows

Creation Story Continued

• The moon lady and plays a big part of the myth aswell and taught mostly women how to dance

• Some of Mukats people decide that they want to kill Mukat because he was seen as dangerous

• After Mukat’s death his heart was eaten by a coyote

• Mukat’s people have a mourning ceremony for him

What the Creation Story Means

• The creation story tells us that the Cahuilla people believed in life after death

• Also, that in the after life, there is no pain or sickness

• Mukat taught the young to work slowly and carefully to complete their tasks

• Elders are considered the most important, along with age comes respect

• Explains the relationship between the Cahuilla people and their environment around them

What the Creation Story Means Contuined

• The creation story is similar to that of Christian’s belief in god

• Tradition is very important to the Cahuilla people• The people of different color means that the

Cahuilla have an explanation for the Europeans that came

• Shows the consequences of death (ex. The need for death for social values etc.)

• Explains why the Cahuilla have mourning ceremonies

Cahuilla People

The Coyote

• Even though it was the coyote that ate Mukat’s heart, it is still looked at as a powerful and important animal

• In the Creation Story the coyote is one of the fist animals that was created by the twin brothers

• When the coyote ate Mukat’s heart it gained power

Similar Myths To the Mukat Creation Story

• Serrano- tells of the first people who tended to their creator Kruktat as he laid ill and dying high in the mountains. When the creator died, the people began to mourn and in their grief turned into pine trees. The nuts and acorns these trees scattered became food for the Serrano clans who would follow these first people.

• Luiseno- Tamaiawot, the Earth, was a woman, the mother of all people. She was a person (atakh). Her feet were to the north, her head to the south. Dupash, the Sky, was a man. He was the younger brother of the Earth. All the people were born from the Earth.

• Cupeno- In the beginning Mukat and Temayawit appeared. In the water . . . from there they went outside through the door . . . bringing their tobacco, their canes, their head sticks. They appeared where it was bare, where there were no relatives. They made their children. Mukat made the people who live today. Temayawit made those who

dwell in the water.

How The Creation Story Has Helped Keep Cahuilla’s

Culture Alive• The Creation Story reminds the Cahuilla of their past and their

identity• World View: “The Cahuilla believed that they lived in a

systematic, but unpredictable, universe, in which one could maintain existence only by being able to access and use "?iva?a," or power, which was also unpredictable, and potentially dangerous. They accordingly were constantly in a state of apprehension about the future, an attitude that was realistic in the desert environment of their homeland” (Bean 1972:161-164).

• These beliefs keep the Cahuilla people centered around their religion and traditions

Works Cited

• http://www.accmuseum.org/page9.html• http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/indian/ca/ch01.htm• http://mojavedesert.net/cahuilla-indians/03.html• Bean Lowell John, Mukat’s People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern

California, University of California press, 1974 • http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/jotr/history6.htm• http://www.sanmanuel-nsn.gov/culture.php• http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/tmmi/tmmi03.htm• https://eee.uci.edu/clients/tcthorne/anthro/patencio.html