Mountain Lion, the Hunt Chief
Tewa Pueblos · demigod · Tewa Pueblos traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
In the Tewa emergence narrative recorded by Ortiz, the Corn Mothers, still in the underworld at Sipofene, send one of the men to explore the world above. Attacked by the predatory animals and then accepted by them, he is given a bow, wrapped in buckskin, and has his face painted; he returns to the people transformed as Mountain Lion, the Hunt Chief, the first of the Made People, the category of ritual leaders who thereafter guide the pueblo. As prototype of the Hunt Chief he stands at the head of the sacred priesthoods that emerged with the people from beneath Sandy Place Lake, and his story fuses the person of the first ritual leader with the Mountain Lion, patron predator of the north.
Domains
- hunting
- priesthood
Powers
- becomes the first Made Person and Hunt Chief
Sources
- In Ortiz's emergence account the Corn Mothers send a man to the world above who is transformed into Mountain Lion and becomes the first Hunt Chief and first of the Made People.: Ortiz, Alfonso. 1969. The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 16-18. (secondary)