Obscure Mythology Chapter 6: First Made Man, A Native American creation story

      Welcome back to my research into obscure or forgotten Mythology. We have reached Chapter six, which is of course the letter F. I noticed I hadn’t done a Native American myth yet so while perusing through the plethora of entries in the Mythology Dictionary under F, I narrowed my search to just Native Myth. I found quite a few and although it was difficult I chose First Made Man, a story from the Tewa people. The Tewa were a pueblo tribe like the Hopi and lived in the American Southwest. The pueblo tribes had a deep connection with the earth, as did most if not all Native tribes, and a long and colorful history, passed down from generation to generation. I must admit I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the Tewa or any pueblo tribe for that matter, any research I’ve done on Native myth had been concentrated on the Northern Plains Native cultures, like the Souix and the Ojibeway. I have about an eighth grade level of knowledge on the pueblo tribes so anything I find is new and exciting to me. Today’s entry has to do with the Tewa’s myth of early humans and repopulating the Earth.  Without further ado, I give you Chapter Six’s entry: First Made Man.

First Made Man: North American, one of the early humans in the lore of the Tewa pueblo people.

It appears that men existed before the earth dried out from the primordial ocean, living in two caves, the bright home of Summer Mother and the gloomy abode of Winter Mother. These beings sent First Made Man to the surface from time to time to see the state of the world and he continually reported that it was not fit for humans. Finally he went up again and was attacked by various animals but his wounds healed and the animals gave him symbols to take back to his people. He led his people up from the cave of Summer Mother and settled them in the plains and then brought up those from the Cave of Winter Mother and settled them along the shore lines. He then went off to live among the animals where he was made Hunt Chief. ( the Dictionary of Mythology an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes, J.A. Coleman)

 First Made Man comes up gets attacked by animals gets symbols from them and brings everyone else above ground again. My first observation when reading this was the fact that the humans had been underground after some sort of natural disaster. It speaks of the primordial ocean drying up and although I don’t know about this particular myth but it does share a connection to the flood myth, even if it is reversed (the Ocean drying up, upon reflection though I suppose it could refer to the Ice Ages). The second thing that caught my attention was the reference to living underground. There have been quite a few underground “cities” found all over the world including Turkey, China, Egypt, etc. It seems as if ancient humans may have had a reason to live underground in the not so distant past. This makes me think of the Toba eruption (volcano that erupted about 70,000 years ago almost obliterating Homo Sapiens all together) and how the residual effects of a super volcano eruption could have forced mankind underground during the “nuclear” winter phase of the after eruption. Those are just my thoughts. When I got to the part about them sending First Made Man up to check if it was safe, I instantly thought of the movie 12 Monkeys, when the rulers of the underground humans sent Bruce Willis’ character up to check on the world above. After being attacked and healing the animals give our hero symbols to take back to his people, animal symbolism is a very large part of Native American culture and spirituality. Each tribe having their own animal guardians, many idolized in what we know as Totem poles. It is neat how this myth explains these people’s connection to the animals of the earth. When he does bring his people up from the underground he sends Summer Mother’s people to the Plains while Winter Mother’s people were settled on the shore lines, this seems to being explaining how the Native peoples migrated when they arrived in North America. One tribe dominating the Plains, while the other dominated the shore lines, this was much the same way the Native tribes were interspersed throughout North America. So, there you have it, the myth of First Made Man and how it connects to most other Native people and some global myths as well just like I figured it would. I hope you enjoyed this Chapter and I cannot wait to share the next chapter with you very soon. Until then have a pleasant day and as always: PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!