Hopi

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This myth is from Hopis of the Third Mesa.

The people repeatedly became distant from Sotuknang, the creator. Twice he destroyed the world (by fire and by cold) and recreated it while the few people who still lived by the laws of creation took shelter underground with the ants. When people became corrupt and warlike a third time, Sotuknang guided the ones who had retained their wisdom to Spider Woman, who cut down giant reeds and sheltered the people in the hollow stems with a little water and food. Sotuknang caused a great flood with rain and waves, and the people floated in their reeds for a long time. Finally, they came to rest on a small piece of land, and Spider Woman unsealed their reeds and pulled them out by the tops of their heads. They still had as much food as they started with. They sent out birds to find more land, but to no avail. They grew a tall reed and climbed it, but they saw only water. But guided by their inner wisdom (which comes from Sotuknang through the door at the top of their head), the people traveled on, using the reeds as canoes. They went northeast, finding progressively larger islands. The last of these was large and fruitful, and people wanted to stay there, but Spider Woman urged them on. They went further northeast, paddling hard as if going uphill, until they came to the Fourth World. The shores were rocky with seemingly no place to land, but by opening the doors at the tops of their head, they found a current that took them to a sandy beach. Sotuknang appeared and told them to look back, and they saw the islands, the last remnants of the Third World, sink into the ocean.

Waters, Frank, Book of the Hopi (New York: Penguin Books, 1963), 12-20.

Spider Clan, Blue Flute Clan, Fire Clan, Snake Clan, and Sun Clan traveled together on the Hopi migrations. On their northward journey, they were blocked at the Arctic Circle by a mountain of ice and snow. This was the Back Door of the Fourth World, which Sotuknang said was closed to them. Spider Woman and the Spider Clan, however, urged them to go on, and all the clans used their powers to try to melt and bread down the mountain. They tried four times but failed. Sotuknang told Spider Woman that if they had succeeded, the melted snow and ice would have flooded the world. He punished her by letting her grow old and ugly, and Spider Clan became breeders of wickedness.

Waters, Frank, Book of the Hopi (New York: Penguin Books, 1963), 39-40.

After their emergence and wanderings, the Hopi people lived happily, bringing rain with their few simple rituals. But Palatkwapi, the two-hearted maiden, taught others her sorcery, until the great water serpents flooded and destroyed her town. A few people survived, who spread their evil art to other villages, causing disease, enmity with other tribes, and other troubles to come to the Hopis.

Vecsey, Christopher, Imagine Ourselves Richly (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 38-39.

This myth comes from Walpi, a Hopi settlement east of the Grand Canyon, on the First Mesa.

Long ago, there was a man who lived with the people in Pa-lat Kwa-bi to the south. He would spit in the faces of anyone he met and do all kinds of evil. Baholihonga got angry at this and turned the world upside down. Great chasms formed in the earth. Water came up through the kivas and through the fireplaces in the houses. It covered everything except one narrow muddy ridge. The Serpent-god told all the people to travel across this. As they walked across, the feet of bad people slipped, and they fell into the dark water. The good people, after many days, reached dry land.

The old people got on top of the houses as the water rose around the village. They thought they could not struggle across with the young people. But Baholihonga clothed them with the skins of turkeys. Spreading their wings, they floated in the air just above the water and got across to dry land. This is why old people use turkey feathers at religious ceremonies. There is white on the turkey's tail because the turkey dragged its tail in the water.

The Water people, Corn people, Lizard, Horned-toad, Sand, Rabbit, and Tobacco peoples were saved.

Katharine Berry Judson, Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 92-93.

The origin story from First Mesa Hopis tells of emergence up through successive underworlds. In this story, from the Reed clan, the world which the people emerge onto is flooded. This story is told during the December war ceremony.

When the Hopi had come forth, the many rains which had been sent made a great sea which filled the valleys and covered the earth. The people had no place to stay except upon the hills, and they were hungry, for they had nothing to grow.

Pyüükoñhoya and Paluñhoya, two twin brothers, heard their lamentations and felt moved towards the people. Taking their bows and arrows, they went north. In their medicine bowl, they prepared a medicine water from the urine of virgin kachinas. One of the brothers saw a hawk reflected in the water and shot the reflection. The hawk fell at their feet. This was a good omen, and Pyüükoñhoya took the wing feathers and fixed them to their arrows. Then they made a large arrow and shot it into the earth. Immediately the water flowed towards the spot where the arrow was shot, and in a few days a canyon formed. A ridge of rock at the foot of San Francisco Mountain interrupted the flow, so the brothers shot another arrow, splitting open a gorge through which the water flowed. In a few days dry land appeared.

But now the people turned to Pyüükoñhoya again, complaining that the land was too dry, and nothing would grow. Pyüükoñhoya said nothing, but the next day he and Paluñhoya went to the mountain top and cried to Shotukinunwa to give the people what they want. They pulled out their hairs and cast them to the winds, calling each handful by the name of something growing in the ground, such as pine, cedar, oak, grasses, etc., but they made no mention of edibles such as corn, wheat, or melons, for at that time only Shotukinunwa knew those. When the people should become thirsty, they should pull up grass, and water would come up where the roots were, and when they had used what water they needed, they should replace the grass to preserve the water.

Alexander M. Stephen, "Hopi Tales," Journal of American Folk-Lore 42 (1929), 50-51. See also Frank Hamilton Cushing, "Origin Myth from Oraibi," Journal of American Folk-Lore, 36 (1923), 163-166; Wilson D. Wallis, "Folk Tales from Shumopovi, Second Mesa," Journal of American Folk-Lore, 49 (1936), 2-11; both of which speak of a wet earth after the emergence but do not mention active flooding.