NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS: A FISH STORY: A TEWA LEGEND

There occurred in those days a great drought. Rain had not come for many, many days. The crops were
dying and the water in the lake was going down and down. Prayers had to be offered to the Great Spirit.
This was the duty of the fish people, so they all assembled in the kiva to pray and offer sacrifices to the
rain gods.

The custom was to fast and say in the kiva until the rain came. A woman by the name of Fee-ne-nee was
given the duty to feed the fish people, which she did each day at noon. Since the men were fasting, she
served them only a small amount of food and a few drops of water.

On the third night of the third day, however, one of the men could no longer stand the isolation. When
the other went to sleep, he sneaked out of the kiva and ran to a nearby lake. There he drank and drank,
swallowing all of the water he had been thinking about for three days.

After filling his body with water, he returned to the kiva. He entered slowly and stepped quietly down
the stairs so that he would not be heard. Midway between the roof and the floor, however, he burst.
Water poured out of his head, eyes, mouth, arms, body and legs. When this happened, the people who
were inside turned into fish, frogs, and all kinds of water animals, and the kiva was filled with water.

The next day at noon, the woman who was in charge of feeding the men went to the kiva. She could not
believe what she saw; water was gushing from it straight up into the air, and suspected in the torrent
were fish, frogs, eels, snakes and ducks.

Sadly, with her basket still in her hand, she slowly returned to the village. The first house she visited was
that of an untidy old couple. She placed her basket in the center of the room and silently say by the
grinding stone. After making one stroke of the stone, she too turned into a snake.

Seeing this, the old man and his wife both said, “Something terrible has happened at the kiva. The man
ran to find out what was wrong and at the kiva he saw ducks, beavers, and frogs swimming in the water
at the bottom.

The old man knew that this was a bad omen for the people of the village. When he reached home, he
told his wife, “One of the men failed us, and all of them turned into ducks, frogs, eels, snakes and
beavers.”

“We can no longer live here,” his wife replied. “You must let our people know. We must also make
preparations to take this snake, out friend Fee-ne-nee, where she belongs.”

The old woman prepared a basket filled with blue cornmeal and placed the little snake inside. Her
husband took the basket and headed toward the east, where there was a snake burrow. At the home of
the snakes, he fed them blue cornmeal, and one by one all kinds of snakes wiggled through the meal.
Then he places Fee-ne-nee among the others and said to her: “I have brought you to live here. You are
now a young lady snake, and with the help of the Great Spirit you will live among your own kind. I give
you my blessing.”

To the other snakes he said, “I have brought you a sister; take her into your arms.”

As the other snakes curled around Fee-ne-nee, the man walked away with tears in his eyes.
At homes the old couple cried again and told their people that the law required them to move from
their home, O-Ke-owin, and seek another place to live. Now you know why we live where we do. The
tragedy that occurred at O-Ke-owin forces our people to move to Xun Ochute, which is now San Juan.

QUESTIONS
This story represents native American culture because it enforces good morals. Rejecting certain rules
would cause for consequences to occur hurting not only the self but also innocent victims such as how
the man who drank the water in the lake made the kiva into a pool and turned everyone else in the kiva
into sea animals including Fee-Ne-Nee who was turned into a snake. The impact of victimhood is deeply
concerned by the native Americans who idolize beliefs including fairness to other people, they work to
avoid conflicts within multiple groups of people. Native American culture is shaped by this story because
it provides a scenario through myth creation to frame morals.

The spiritual significance in the story is existent through the native American’s connections to the Great
Spirit, a superior being. A lot of framework of morals was based off of pleasing the superior beings by
native American in this story being the rain gods. This impacted the spirituality of the natives through
religious studying, done to shape their goals and morals.

The Europeans changes this through a religious shift, they made the natives practice mainly Christianity
and abandon their original religions therefore not having a ground to shape their own morals and goals
by lack of creative thinking. This made the native Americans closer resemble the Europeans leading to
forced conservatism, forced lifestyles and even forced language utilization. A lot of lessons were lost by
restricted pedagogy through spirituality causing for the native Americans to rapidly lose power and be
conquered by the Europeans.