Cihcipistikwân, the Rolling Head

Cihcipistikwân, the Rolling Head, opens the sacred-story cycle of the Cree. A married woman kept serpents as lovers; her husband killed them and then beheaded her, and her severed head remained alive and rolled in pursuit of her two fleeing sons, who threw behind them gifts from their father that became obstacles across her path. The elder of the boys grew up to be Wîsahkêcâhk, the transformer and trickster, and the younger became the Wolf; the head itself was at last destroyed at a river crossing. Recorded from Plains Cree tellers by Edward Ahenakew in the 1920s and studied comparatively across the Algonquian world, the Rolling Head remains one of the most widely told of the âtayôhkêwina, and places in Saskatchewan are still associated with her story.

Domains

• vengeance

Powers

• to live on as an animate severed head
• to roll across the land in relentless pursuit of her fleeing sons

Relations

• mother of: WîsahkêcâhkThe Rolling Head is the slain snake-wife whose elder son grows up to be Wîsahkêcâhk; her severed head pursues the fleeing boys in the opening sacred story of the trickster cycle.Ahenakew, Edward. 'Cree Trickster Tales.' Journal of American Folklore 42, no. 166 (1929): 309–353. (secondary); Granzberg, Gary. 'The Rolling Head Legend among Algonquians.' Anthropologica 36, no. 1 (1994): 3–33. (secondary)
• mother of: Wolf, the Trickster Younger BrotherHer younger son, carried on his brother's back during the flight from the pursuing head, is the boy who later becomes the Wolf, the trickster's younger brother.Ahenakew, Edward. 'Cree Trickster Tales.' Journal of American Folklore 42, no. 166 (1929): 309–353. (secondary); Stevens, James R. Sacred Legends of the Sandy Lake Cree. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971. (secondary)

Sources

• Cihcipistikwân, the Rolling Head, is the beheaded snake-wife whose animate head pursues her sons in the opening sacred story of the Cree trickster cycle; she is the mother of Wîsahkêcâhk and of the boy who becomes the Wolf.: Ahenakew, Edward. 'Cree Trickster Tales.' Journal of American Folklore 42, no. 166 (1929): 309–353. (secondary); Granzberg, Gary. 'The Rolling Head Legend among Algonquians.' Anthropologica 36, no. 1 (1994): 3–33. (secondary)