Origin Myths of the Grand Canyon

John Wesley Powell, the “discoverer” of the Grand Canyon, was one of the first non–Native Americans to hear a mythic tale of its origins and record it.

The Paiutes believed that long ago there was a great and wise chief of the Utes who mourned the death of his beloved wife. Day and night he grieved and would not be comforted. And all the people were sad.

At last, Tavwoats, one of the Native American gods, came to the chief and told him his wife was in a happier land, and offered to take him there so that he might see for himself. But the god made the man promise that, if he saw this, he would cease to mourn upon his return. The chief vowed to do this.

Then Tavwoats took a magic ball, like a globe of fire, and rolled it before him. As it spun, it parted the Earth and mountains, crushing the rocks, and making a path through the mountains from the hunting grounds of the living to the joyous land beyond death. This trail was the canyon gorge of the Colorado. He guided the chief through it, until they came at last to the Spirit Land. There the great chief saw his wife was happy in the blessed abode of the spirits, where all was plenty and all was joy. And he was glad, and saw no more reason to mourn.

Now, when they returned, Tavwoats made the chief swear that he would never travel this trail during his life, and that all his people should be warned not to walk the path. Yet still he feared they would attempt it, so he rolled a mad, raging river into the gorge made by the globe of fire, which would overwhelm any who might seek to enter there and prevent them from leaving the woes of the present world for the pleasures of the next.

The Havasupai, who still live in the canyon, told how the canyon came about as the result of a conflict between two brother gods: Tochapa, the embodiment of goodness, and Hokomata, who was evil. Hokomata learned that Tochapa wanted his daughter, Pukeheh, to become the mother of all living beings and so populate the Earth, which had been created for this purpose. Hokomata, ever his brother’s rival, was determined to prevent this. He caused a great flood that drowned the Earth. Rain poured down from the heavens, as though rivers and waterfalls were poured out on the Earth.

But Tochapa, learning of his brother’s plot, saved his daughter by felling a great piñon tree, hollowing it out, and placing his daughter inside, with food and water. In this makeshift boat, she floated safe upon the waters. In time, the down-pours stopped. When the flood waters finally receded and the mountain peaks emerged, rivers were created. The mightiest such river cut an escape channel, which remains today as the Grand Canyon.

The log holding Pukeheh came to rest on the new, empty Earth. When the land became dry, the Sun rose to warm the Earth. He became the father of her first child, a son. Later, a waterfall became the father of her second child, a daughter (for this reason, Havasupai women are still called “Daughters of the Water”). Pukeheh’s children, who were the first mortals, became the parents of all the people on the Earth.

The Havasupai were the firstborn, followed by the Apaches, Hualapais, Hopis, Paiutes, and Navajos. Tochapa spoke to the Havasupai and told them to live forever in peace in the canyon, where the good earth and pure water would provide for all their needs. And they remain there to this day.

The Hualapai, however, who dwelt within the canyon, said that the river was the runoff from an Earth-covering deluge like the one Noah knew. Once there had been a big flood, and the world was covered with water. The canyon had begun, they said, when a cultural hero named Packithaawi had struck deep into the water-covered Earth with his knife. He then drove it deeper and deeper with his club. He moved it back and forth as he forced it deeper into the earth. Finally, the canyon was formed, through which all the water rushed out into the Sea of the Sunset. When the Sun came out, it dried the ground until it became the hard and solid walls of the Grand Canyon.