Storyteller

by Leslie Marmon Silko

Out of love for this earth

  cottonwood

  sandstone

  and sky.

  She had been with him

  only once.

  His eyes (the light in them had blinded her)

  so she had never seen him

  only his eyes

  and she did not know how to find him

  except by the cottonwood tree.

  “In a canyon of cloudy sky stone,”

  he told her (he was describing the Sun House then

  but she did not know that)

  “Colors—

  more colors than the sun has

  You will know that way,

  you will know.”

  “But what if

  the colors have faded

  the leaves fallen already and scattered

  the tree lost among all the others

  their pale branches bare

  How then will I find you?”

  She had to outrun the long night

  its freezing

  approaching steadily

  She had to find the place

  before the winter constellations

  closed around the sky forever

  before the last chill silenced the earth.

  “Kochininako, Yellow Woman, welcome,”

  and he came out from the southeast to greet her.

  He came out of the Sun House again.

  And so the earth continued

  as it has since that time.

  Cottonwood,

  cottonwood.

  So much depends

  upon one in the great canyon.

  Cottonwood Part Two: Buffalo Story

  In those days

  sometimes the people didn’t have very much meat.

  When it got dry

  the deer went too high on the mountains

  and the people only had a little rabbit meat

  if they were lucky.

  When it got so dry

  nothing was growing

  none of the plants

  and there was no corn

  or beans

  they would be hungry then

  the children would cry

  but still there was nothing to eat

  no food.

  It was one of those times

  one of those times when

  there had been no rain for months

  and everything was drying up.

  It was at this time

  long ago

  Kochininako, Yellow Woman went searching

  for water to carry back to her family.

  She went first to the spring

  near the village

  but the water had dried up

  the earth there

  wasn’t even damp when she touched it.

  So she had to walk farther

  much farther toward the east

  looking for water.

  And finally

  when she had gone a long distance to the east

  she found a pool at a sharp curve

  in an arroyo.

  But when she got to that pool

  the water was churning and muddy.

  She was afraid

  because she knew something had just been there

  something very large had muddied the water.

  And just as she turned to hurry away

  because she didn’t want to find out

  what giant animal had been there

  she saw him.

  She saw him tying his leggings

  drops of water were still shining on his chest.

  He was very good to look at

  and she kept looking at him

  because she had never seen anyone like him.

  It was Buffalo Man who was very beautiful.

  “Come with me,”

  he said, and he smiled at her.

  “No, I must carry this water back home.

  My family needs this water,” she said

  but she was still looking

  at him.

  “You shouldn’t have gone so far away

  from your village,”

  he said

  “Because now you are here

  and this is where we are—

  the Buffalo People.”

  So he grabbed her

  and he put her on his back

  and carried her away.

  They went very fast

  and she couldn’t escape him.

  Back at home

  they started to worry

  because she always came back right away

  and they wondered what happened.

  Her husband Estoy-eh-muut, Arrowboy

  waited all night for her

  he sat on the east edge of the village

  and watched for her

  but she did not come.

  Right before dawn

  the Big Star

  the Morning Star came and said to him,

  “Ahmoo’uut, you are looking for Kochininako.

  Well, I saw her this morning

  as I came up from the East.

  Buffalo Man has taken her over there.”

  So Estoy-eh-muut went to find Spider Woman

  because she knew many things

  and maybe she could help him.

  She was sitting in her place

  at the base of a bee weed plant.

  When she saw him she said,

  “Ahmoo’uut, grandson, how are things?”

  And Estoy-eh-muut said,

  “Oh Grandmother

  the Big Star told me

  Buffalo Man has taken Kochininako.

  He has taken her away to the East country.”

  “My, my,” old Spider Woman said

  “Now Grandson, don’t worry.

  I have something that will help you.”

  Then she gave him

  a buckskin pouch

  full of red clay dust.

  “Those Buffalo People

  will not easily give her up.

  They’ll chase after you

  and try to trample you.

  And when they do

  you take this dust

  and throw it in their eyes.”

  So he gave her sweet corn pollen

  and he thanked her for her help

  and he started traveling East.

  He went a long distance

  and finally he came to the wide plains

  where the buffalo grass was growing

  as high as his chest.

  Off in the distance

  he could see the Buffalo People

  and there were four big bull buffalo

  standing guard.

  Estoy-eh-muut crawled very carefully

  through the tall grass

  and when he got close enough

  he threw the red clay dust

  and he blinded each one of the buffalo guards.

  As fast as he could

  he found Kochininako.

  She was sleeping in the tall grass

  some distance from the buffalo.

  “Hurry!” he told her,

  Run as fast as you can!”

  She seemed to

  get up a little slowly

  but he didn’t think much of it then.

  He took her hand

  and they started running

  because by this time

  the Buffalo People knew what had happened

  and they were looking for them,

  in a big herd the Buffalo People

  were chasing after them.

  Buffalo Man sent hail storms

  in big clouds

  trying to slow them down

  but Estoy-eh-muut blew the red clay dust

  at the hail storm clouds

  and stopped them.

  Finally Estoy-eh-muut noticed

  that Kochininako was running slower and slower

  so they stopped to rest

  at a cottonwood tree

  growing by itself

  on the plains. />
  About that time

  Estoy-eh-muut saw a big cloud of dust

  raised by the buffalo feet

  and he knew they were coming

  so he and Kochininako climbed the cottonwood tree.

  Very soon the buffalo came

  one after another

  they galloped

  right under the cottonwood tree.

  The very last one

  was a young buffalo calf

  who was tiring from the long chase.

  He stopped under the cottonwood tree

  to rest.

  Her urine sprinkled down on his back

  and the buffalo calf looked up

  and he called to the others

  “Come back! Come back!

  Our sister-in-law is here

  sitting up in this tree.”

  The buffaloes turned and came running back.

  They stood around the tree in a big circle

  and Buffalo Man lowered his head

  and went running at the cottonwood tree.

  He was going to butt down the tree

  and get Estoy-eh-muut and Kochininako.

  But just as Buffalo Man was running at the tree

  Estoy-eh-muut shot him with an arrow

  and Buffalo Man fell dead.

  Then Estoy-eh-muut killed all the others—

  all those buffalo standing around the tree

  he shot them with his bow and arrows.

  “Go home,” he told Kochininako.

  “Go home and tell the people to come.

  Now we have plenty of meat

  and no one will be hungry anymore.

  Go tell them to come.”

  But Kochininako

  wouldn’t come down

  out of that cottonwood tree

  He saw she had tears in her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?

  Why are you crying,” he asked her.

  “Because you killed them,”

  she said.

  “I suppose you love them,”

  Estoy-eh-muut said,

  “and you want to stay with them.”

  And Kochininako nodded her head

  and then he killed her too

  and he carried her body to her sisters

  and they went with him to their father.

  When their father saw that Kochininako was dead

  he started crying and shaking his head

  and calling her name

  Estoy-eh-muut told him

  “I killed her

  because she wanted to stay with the Buffalo People

  she wanted to go with them

  and now she is with them.”

  The old man, her father, cried

  “A’moo-ooh Kochininako

  A’moo-ooh, my daughter.

  You have gone away with them!”

  Then they all left the village

  all the people went toward the East

  and they found the cottonwood tree

  where all the dead buffalo were lying.

  They cut up the meat and dried it—

  they made buffalo jerky

  and they carried it home.

  This meat lasted them a long time.

  So that was the beginning—

  the hunters would travel

  far away to plains in the East

  where the Buffalo People lived

  and they would bring home

  all that good meat.

  Nobody would be hungry then.

  It was all because

  one time long ago

  our daughter, our sister Kochininako

  went away with them.

  The Time We Climbed Snake Mountain

  Seeing good places

  for my hands

  I grab the warm parts of the cliff

  and I feel the mountain as I climb.

  Somewhere around here

  yellow spotted snake is sleeping on his rock

  in the sun.

  So

  please, I tell them

  watch out,

  don’t step on the spotted yellow snake

  he lives here.

  The mountain is his.

  When I was thirteen I carried an old .30-30 we borrowed from George Pearl. It was an old Winchester that had a steel ring on its side to secure it in a saddle scabbard. It was heavy and hurt my shoulder when I fired it and it seemed even louder than my father’s larger caliber rifle, but I didn’t say anything because I was so happy to be hunting for the first time. I didn’t get a deer that year but one afternoon hunting alone on the round volcanic hill we called Chato, I saw a giant brown bear lying in the sun below the hilltop. Dead or just sleeping, I couldn’t tell. I was cautious because I already knew what hours of searching for motion, for the outline of a deer, for the color of a deer’s hide can do to the imagination. I already knew how easily the weathered branches of a dead juniper could resemble antlers because I had walked with my father on hunts since I was eight. So I stood motionless for a long time until my breathing was more calm and my heart wasn’t beating so hard. I even shifted my eyes away for a moment hoping to see my uncle Polly or my cousin Richard who was hunting the ridges nearby.

  I knew there were no bears that large on Mt. Taylor; I was pretty sure there were no bears that large anywhere. But when I looked back at the slope above me, the giant brown bear was still lying on the sunny slope of the hill above patches of melting snow and tall yellow grass. I watched it for a long time, for any sign of motion, for its breathing, but I wasn’t close enough to tell for sure. If it was dead I wanted to be able to examine it up close. It occurred to me that I could fire my rifle over its head but I knew better than to wake a bear with only a .30-30. All this time I had only moved my eyes, and my arms were getting numb from holding the rifle in the same position for so long. As quietly and as carefully as I probably will ever move, I turned and walked away from the giant bear, still down wind from it. After I had gone a distance down the slope I stopped to look back to see if it was still a giant brown bear sunning itself on one of the last warm afternoons of the year, and not just damp brown earth and a lightning-struck log above the snow patches. But the big dark bear remained there, on the south slope of Chato, with its head facing southeast, the eyes closed, motionless. I hurried the rest of the way down the ridge, listening closely to the wind at my back for sounds, glancing over my shoulder now and then.

  I never told anyone what I had seen because I knew they don’t let people who see such things carry .30-30’s or hunt deer with them.

  The Buffalo Dancers commemorate the transformation of the Buffalo Spirit Being into human form and the alliance that existed between humans and buffalo.

  Two years later, on the north side of Chato, my Uncle

  Polly was rewarded for his patience by the “old man

  of the mountain” as my uncle had called him—the mule

  deer whose antlers were as wide as a gun rack. As soon

  as the big buck had gone down, Uncle Polly signaled

  so those of us close by could go help.

  As I cut across the south slope to reach my Uncle

  I realized it was middle afternoon almost the same

  time of day as before, except this year no snow

  had fallen yet.

  I walked past the place deliberately.

  I found no bones, but when a wind moved through the

  light yellow grass that afternoon I hurried around the

  hill to find my uncle.

  Sleeping, not dead, I decided.

  Rain clouds and the rainstorm in the distance with the natural sandstone rain cistern in the foreground represent two fundamental elements of human survival on this high desert plateau in New Mexico. The scene might be from a thousand years ago. Water has always been scarce here, and the sandstone cisterns of rainwater are precious and sacred to the Laguna and Acoma people.

  My sisters, Gigi and Wendy, stand behind me with the pottery water jars balanc
ed on their heads as the Laguna women did in the old days when they carried water. We are at the edge of the Laguna village rainwater cistern, which is still revered by the people. Our cousins Rachel Anaya and Esther Anaya Johnson from Paguate loaned us the traditional Laguna Pueblo clothing and moccasins as well as the beautiful old turquoise and silver to wear for the photograph.

  Aunt Alice told my sisters and me this story one time when she came to stay with us while our parents had gone up to Mt. Taylor deer hunting. I was seven years old the last time I had to stay behind. And I felt very sad about not getting to go hunting. Maybe that’s why Aunt Alice told us this story.

  Once there was a young Laguna girl

  who was a fine hunter

  who hunted deer and rabbits

  just like the boys and the men did.

  You know there have been Laguna women

  who were good hunters

  who could hunt as well as any of the men.

  The girl’s name was Kochininako and

  she would go out hunting

  and bring home rabbits

  sometimes deer

  whatever she could find

  she’d bring them home to her mother and her sisters.

  This one time

  she had been hunting

  all morning

  south of Laguna village

  a distance past the sand hills

  and she thought

  she would start toward home.

  She was just coming past

  Tchi mu yah a mesa

  when she met up with

  a great big animal

  called Estrucuyu.

  Estrucuyu was some kind of giant

  they had back in those days

  The giant Estrucuyu saw the rabbits

  Kochininako had hanging from her belt

  she had four or five big rabbits

  she had gotten that morning.

  And he asked her

  if she would throw him one of the rabbits.

  So she did

  and he just gobbled it up

  in a minute’s time

  because he was so big.

  He had a great big head

  and he asked for another one

  and another one.

  Pretty soon

  she threw

  every one of the rabbits

  she had

  to this Estrucuyu

  and he just swallowed them

  like they were little crumbs.