Cultural Heroes

Most of the oral traditions of the North American Indians describe the mysterious beings who created the cosmos from nothing in very imprecise terms. They modeled an empty and informal world in which then the drama of life arose. When the universe began to exist, the most well-known and easy-to-reach beings transformed the yerma earth into a habitable place. Western anthropologists call these individuals "cultural heroes" or "transformers", and often have human or animal personalities and characteristics. They endowed the landscape with its physical form, flora and fauna, and protected the first humans from monsters. They actively participated in human affairs and transmitted the light, fire and tools and techniques of their traditional cultures to the peoples.

Some transformers were generous and heroic beings who protected the first people and their descendants. For example, the penobscot of the northeast tell that the hero Glúskap killed a monstrous frog that caused the drought because he drank all the water in the world. The Northern Attapasks refer to a hero commonly called Castor Man (who some groups call Old, Wise, or Navigator), who fought several cruel giants -- Bear, Gluton, and others -- who intended to devour the early humans. Man Castor always made up his minds to escape the monsters trying to catch him.

Other transformers were the "timers", who were unpredictable, selfish, and perverse people who often caused change in the world due to their risky actions. In the stories of the northwest coast, it is mentioned that the timer Vison faced constant difficulties due to his insatiable sexual desire. It is important to note that most of the transformers of Indian traditions, such as the horn, coyote, white-tailed rabbit and many others, had characteristics of heroes and timers.

According to Native American beliefs, these individuals lived in a sacred past that was not a distant and primordial time, but a living and invisible environment. Westerners find it difficult for us to understand this concept, as it implies that, although they occurred in a linear sequence, the events described in the myths, such as the tsimshian account of the theft of the moon by Cuervo, have not disappeared from the past, but continue to exist, like Cervvo, "out there".

This world of the “present past” houses societies similar to those of animals and humans. They can talk to each other and change shapes according to their preferences. For example, in some tsimshian stories, the Cuervo is a man (or humanoid) who wears the garment of a horn and can remove it to show his human form. In some Apache versions, Coyote, the famous timador hero, appears dressed as an apache, speaking and acting like human beings, although sometimes running cats. Only humans and animals have clearly defined fixed forms in the visible world.

Indians perceive the evidence of this “present past” through visions, dreams and memories perpetuated by oral tradition. Often, the individuals of that age make their presence felt in the material world. For example, a traditional Native American can see lightning as the blinking of a being they call the Thunderbird, and the wind as the roaring whirlwind of their wings every time a storm occurs.

In many native traditions, the Thunderbird is considered a cultural hero, for example, for killing dragon-like aquatic animals or for catching whales to feed needy populations.

The word keeps the stories of heroes and timers alive. The stories are presented in religious and secular contexts, and although they refer to a sacred time, they are not a rigid liturgy in form and content. Different versions may vary significantly. Sometimes, two completely different myths describe the same phenomenon. According to a story by the Californian Washos, a figure known as the Woman of Creation created the tribes of California from sword seeds. According to another story of these Indians, the three sons of the Creation Man argued and fought like the ancestors of the Californian peoples.

Native mythology has been very flexible and open, allowing strong external influences, such as Christianity, to introduce new characters into ancient stories. For example, some stories of timers and transformers of the Northwest Coast salish included Jesus the Traveler in the early twentieth century. This character cultivated the thorns of the fish and taught the village how to make haches, hammer and traps to fish salmon.

Ancient traditions may have been weakened by external factors, but this has not prevented the emergence of new native cultural heroes. The Indians do not distinguish between what Europeans call “mythological” and “historical”, so they could be human beings. Dull Knife (Roman Knife), leader of the Northern Cheyenne, is one of the most recent cultural heroes. Dul Knife opposed the relocation of his village to Oklahoma in 1877 and returned to his homeland with 383 sick and almost unarmed Cheyenes. Until he surrendered with his followers in late October 1878, he abandoned the United States army. They were confined to a former Fort Robinson headquarters in Nebraska, and there, on January 9, 1879, Dull Knife began an astonishing escape. Later, many Cheyen were killed, but Dull Knife and his family survived. They were subsequently granted a reserve on the banks of the Tongue River in Montana. Today’s northern Cheyenne enthusiastically remember Dull Knife as the savior of the country. They consider their victories as significant and magical as those of Coyote, Cuervo and other heroes who fought against the enemies of the people.