Yomumuli

Yomumuli is the primordial woman of the Surem, the small, peaceable first people of the hiakim homeland. When a great ash-colored tree began to hum in a strange tongue, none of the Surem leaders could construe it; only Yomumuli understood that it prophesied the coming of the Spaniards, of Jesucristo, and of long strife. Having delivered its meaning she is said to have rolled up the Rio Yaqui and carried it away northward, and to have withdrawn with those Surem who would not face the changes to come. Sources differ on whether she is a single figure or one of a pair of twin sisters with Sea Hamut, and on the full roster of peoples reckoned as her descendants.

Domains

• creation
• prophecy

Powers

• understands and interprets the prophecy of the talking tree
• brings forth the Surem and the neighboring Indian peoples

Relations

• twin: Sea HamutIn tellings that split the interpreter into two figures the pair are named as twin sisters.Native Languages of the Americas, 'Yaqui Legends,' summarizing variants in which Sea Hamut and Yomumuli are twin sisters who interpret the talking tree. (secondary)

Sources

• Yomumuli is the primordial Surem woman who alone understood the talking tree and from whom the peoples descend.: Ruth Warner Giddings, Yaqui Myths and Legends (1959), 'Yomumuli and the Little Surem People'. (primary); David Delgado Shorter, We Will Dance Our Truth (2009), ch. 'Yomu'muli and the Talking Tree'. (secondary)