Along the coast, around San Juan Capistrano and north,
they say human beings were made this way:
After Wiyot’s ashes and bones were ground and buried,
the First People gathered in a council at Povungna,
the village in Long Beach where some say Wiyot died.
They were talking about how to solve the problem of gathering food and eating it.
White clay no longer nourished them and they were tired of it.
While they talked, some human beings wandered in,
sat down at the council
and asked what they were discussing.
Children of Tamaiyowit, the humans had been wandering the earth for a very long time
until they made their way to Povungna
and found the First People.
They told the council that they had the power to create food.
The human beings gave new powers to the First People.
Some would cause rain and weather.
Some would cause grains, greens, and roots to grow.
Others would cause the animals to flourish.
They would do these things by singing new songs
taught to them by the human beings.
As they sang their powerful songs, the First People turned into the new world,
transformed into whatever they dreamed of eating.
This is the world where the human beings live and what they eat.
Among all the people, the human beings are the ones who have the power,
through their songs,
to affect and balance the world.
***
Reprinted by permission from University of Nebraska Press.
Read more of this in Ensemble Anthology no. 1
