Tradition of the Flood Among the Pueblo Indians

1905

The children of the Pueblo Indians have a Noah's ark of their own, and some of the animals it contains are very curious indeed — such animals, in fact, as civilized young people are not acquainted with. Among them are mountain goats, queer creatures of the cat tribe and prong-horned antelopes. All of these animals are made out of clay and baked like pottery, after which they are painted in quite an artistic and lifelike fashion.

Like most other peoples, the Pueblo Indians have a tradition of a great flood. The catastrophe occurred long ago, when they lived in the ancient land of their forefathers. One day the earth began to shake and strange rumblings grew louder and louder, until at length an opening yawned in the middle of the central square of the town. Out of the opening gushed a mighty stream of water, overwhelming the houses and flooding the valley, so that the inhabitants fled with their livestock to neighboring mountains.

Presently there rose out of the hole in the earth the head of a gigantic turtle, which towered to the very roof of the sky. Everybody was terror-stricken, but the chief man of the town — whose name ought to have been Noah — plucked up the courage to ask the great reptile what it wanted. The turtle replied that it was hungry and that its appetite could be appeased only by the sacrifice of a young man and a young woman. There was nothing to do but to obey, and so a handsome youth and a beautiful girl were delivered up to the turtle, which took them in its mouth and sank with them through the hole. Immediately all of the water flowed away and in the place where the reptile had appeared there rose up a large black rock, which, according to the myth, may be seen at this day, testifying to the truth of the story.

Unfortunately, the deluge left things in such a damp and uncomfortable condition, after destroying all of the houses and most of the portable property, that the people thought it wisest to go away. So they started on a journey northward, the whole tribe of them, and the crane, which is a sacred bird, flew ahead to pick out the driest route. At length they came to the region which their descendants now inhabit, and which is so extremely dry that the water supply is always a subject of anxiety.