I'itoi

I'itoi, called Se'ehe or Elder Brother (and Siuuhu among the Pima), is the pivotal figure of O'odham religion. He completes the shaping of the world begun by Earth Doctor, creates or perfects human beings, and gives the O'odham their songs, ceremonies, and desert way of life, including the saguaro-wine rain ritual. In the great chronicle he is slain through the sorcery of Buzzard and the earlier people, but he revives, descends into the underworld, and brings up from below the ancestors of the present O'odham, who emerge to overcome the Hohokam. Elder Brother is believed to live still, withdrawn within a labyrinthine cave on Baboquivari Peak, the axis of the O'odham homeland; the emblem known as the Man in the Maze depicts him at the mouth of the winding path of life. Sources differ on his exact relation to Earth Doctor, some casting the two as independent creators and others as kin.

Domains

• culture hero
• creation

Powers

• lead the people up from the underworld
• rise again after being slain
• give the people songs and ceremonies

Epithets

• Se'ehe
• Siuuhu

Relations

• ally: Jewed Maakai
• companion: Ban
• enemy: Nui
• enemy: Ho'ok
• enemy: Ba'ag

Sources

• Ruth M. Underhill, Papago Indian Religion (New York: Columbia University Press, 1946)
• Donald Bahr et al., The Short Swift Time of Gods on Earth: The Hohokam Chronicles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994)
• Bernard L. Fontana, Of Earth and Little Rain: The Papago Indians (Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1981)
• Frank Russell, The Pima Indians (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908)