Warmbaby / Process Diary

Yerington Paiute Myth ‘Cottontail’s Ecounter with Sun”

It is easy to think that the sun is strong today, but according to Shoshone and Paiute Indian creation stories, it was once far more potent.  They recount a time, long ago, when the “sun wasn’t like it is today” because it ‘didnt just go across the sky’ and ‘didnt set in the evening.’  Instead, as related in the Paiute story “Cottontail’s Encounter with Sun,” it stayed motionless in the sky: at that time, “the land was very hot… too hot” and the sun “burned the earth.”  To rectify this situation, Cottontail Rabbit shot his arrows into the sky hoping to hit - and kill - the sun.  A first, the arrows were burned up, so the enterprising Cottontail “shot a fire stick,” which killed Sun.  Cottontail then found the dead sun lying on the ground, cut its heart out, and “threw it high into the sky.”  Perhaps realizing the gravity of his actions, Cottontail told the sun that he hadnt actually hilled him, but rather caused him to behave: “I have shown you the way to go.  Now you go  that way.”  As a result, the sun always rises in the east.  It always sets in the west.  It is now “High in the sky” and so “ it doesnt burn the earth.”