Nautsiti
Keresan Pueblos · deity · Keresan Pueblos traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nautsiti is the elder of the two primordial sisters of the Keresan emergence, the companion of Iatiku from their nurture in the underworld through their arrival in the light. In the Acoma origin myth the sisters differ over their share of seeds and living things, and after this parting Nautsiti travels away, most often eastward, becoming in many tellings the ancestress of peoples other than the Keres and the origin of their separate languages and customs. Where Iatiku remains as the Corn Mother of the pueblo, Nautsiti stands for the wider and more distant world of other nations. Among the eastern Keres of Sia she appears as Nowutset, matched with Utset.
Parentage
- parent: UchtsitiStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 1-2. (primary)
Domains
- creation
- wealth
Powers
- becomes ancestress of peoples other than the Keres
Epithets
- Nautsiti — the elder sisterStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), p. 6. (primary)
Relations
- parent: UchtsitiStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 1-2. (primary)
- sibling: IatikuStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 2-10. (primary)
- companion: TsichtinakoStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 2-6. (primary)
Sources
- Nautsiti is the elder of the two emergence sisters, who parts from Iatiku after a disagreement and becomes ancestress of peoples other than the Keres.: Stirling, M. W., Origin Myth of Acoma, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 2-12. (primary)
- At Sia the corresponding elder sister is Nowutset, paired with Utset.: Stevenson, M. C., The Sia, 11th Annual Report BAE (1894), pp. 34-40. (primary)