Their Celebration Song Fired the Sun,
Called to Our World to Be As One …
Our Chumash Cosmology revolved around a nightly celestial gambling game between the teams of Sky Coyote (Polaris, the North Star) and Alishaw, Sun (moving month by month around the entire Zodiac). Morning Star was on Sky Coyote’s team, and Evening Star (Slo’w or Eagle) was on Sun’s team. The scorekeeper or umpire was Auwhay (Alahtin), the Moon. [Swordfish, 'Elye'wun, did not play on either side.]
The outcome of the game, known as Peon in the later Mission Era, was tallied by the Alchuklash Astrologer/Astronomer on the day of the Winter Solstice, and the three-day prayer-gathering to welcome the returning Sun and new year. The victories by both teams, Sun and Sky Coyote, for the nights of the past year were added up — and the winner announced to the assembled elders and families.
If the team of Sky Coyote had been victorious, “the coming year would be a rainy one, with an abundance of food (acorns, deer, islay, chia seeds, ducks, geese, and so on) … but if Sun’s team won, the victor’s spoils would be human lives” caught up in the drought and famine.
(cf. “Crystals In The Sky: An Intellectual Odyssey Involving Chumash Astronomy, Cosmology and Rock Art,” Travis Hudson and Ernest Underhay, 1978, Ballena Press)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I meant to ask where these beautiful coyote photos were taken…it is such a thrill to catch a glimpse of them…but recently at sunset have had to really restrain (leash)my alpha dog from catching up with them…and the other evening she saw one before I did and took off like a bullet…from a distance could see the coyote deliberately showing himself, standing still and facig her, daring her to follow him into the wild…I screamed for my dog to come home till I was hoarse…to no avail…my dog knows very well to come when called but she ignored my frantic pleas for about 15 minutes …at one point she started to run toward me but the call of the wild was too strong and she turned around and again chased the coyote…very dangerous as it could lure her into a whole pack…I was so relieved when she came back safe…did not know whether to hug her or scold her…
haku, Suza
thank you for the story.
one can see why the aboriginal peoples had so many songs of the ‘Trickster’ personality of Coyote … of which I am just beginning to learn. most times they get out of my sight rapidly when I meet them walking or bicycling or driving … yet at times they can’t be bothered, and just stand still and regard or ignore you.
Wednesday morning, Megumi and I were just a little past halfway through our half-hour sunrise walk when our pack started their calling/chasing game out here on the wildlife preserve. maybe ten minutes later, as our walk finished, they still were going strong, after one of our Deer friends perhaps. as I was dressed for a walk, and had my camera, I followed their calls for 5-10 minutes, hoping to see and photograph them as a full pack.
turned out they were MUCH much further away than the immediate-sounding vicinity of their loud calls, and so when I finally did get to see them, after having finished their chase and returning to their silence, they were a couple hundred yards away and I was pressed to be able to capture them with maximum zoom, and to even find and focus them in the viewfinder.
fortunately they were not walking too fast, and didn’t care that much that I was observing/shooting them at a distance. for all the loudness of the pack, there is only three of them so far this winter. the pack was much larger last winter, but by the time summer had come around, with the drought, they had all vanished … I assume towards the vicinity of the River Bottom, or closer to the housing tracks near there, to find more water, and more opportunities for a successful hunt.
the photos are grainy, but seemed filled with the beauty of the morning and the meadow, of all sacred creation,
and somewhat of that infinite personality of Coyote …
Enjoyed reading all this… Ojai really ought to have an illustrated book on our Coyotes…it would be good on so many levels!
truly Suza,
WE are the fun returning, the GrandMother’s Wisdom Ways, of the Harmonies (Divine Living Landscape) of All Our Relations, the PachaMama, Earth … Shup, Shupa, Hutash, in the Language of the Chumash.
note correction to story above, which soon I will amend, apparently TWO Stellar incarnations of Coyote were part of the Chumash pantheon — Earth Coyote, who oft-times visited the Skies, was Aldebaran (between Orion and the Pleiades) … the Immortal Sky Deity however was Sky Coyote who was Polaris, the North Star … Shnilemun.
Shnilemun is for us Matilija, translated as river cleft or division, the North-South birth-waters which bisect the East-West body of our Valley Divinity — and mark the line and birth canal for the Winter Solstice return of the Sun, flowing from Sky Coyote, Polaris, to the North …
The Ventureno Chumash looking at the Mouth of the Matilija (Ventura) River in Mission Era times still described the Mountains there as configured as the Head and Jaws of a Coyote!
Still popular among Native Southern Californians, peon or ‘alewsa is an ancient game commonly played by the Chumash. There are two teams of two-or-more players per side. Each of the players of one team has one black and one white small bone, which they hide in their two separate hands. After hiding the bones, the closed hands are brought in front and the arms folded.
The purpose of the game is to prevent the opponent team from guessing which hands the white bones are in. The opposing team has a ‘killer’ and it is up to the ‘killer’ to guess by bending their head in the direction of the hand thought to hold the white bone. The ‘killer’ does this for all of the players. For right guesses the umpire gives the team a counter stick. That team then hides the bones for the other side to guess. No counter sticks are received for guessing wrong. The game is played until all the counter sticks (as many as 15) are in the possession of one side, which is then declared the winner.