Buzzard, or Vulture (Ñui), is a great shaman of the early world. While the newly made earth still lay soft, he is said to have flown low across it, and the drag of his wingtips carved the mountains, ridges, and valleys of the Gila country. In the saga of Elder Brother he is the being commissioned to kill the culture hero after Elder Brother's rule has become unbearable; drawing down the concentrated heat of the sun, Buzzard succeeds where others have failed. He is closely associated with the sun's course and with the shaping powers of the sky.