Milky Way Mythology: Often a Path to the Afterlife, Souls of the Dead on the Milky Way

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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The Milky Way, as the Path of the Souls

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1. “Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw/ Kwakiutl people speak Kwakiutl, a Wakashan language spoken by Kwakwakaʼwakw people around Queen Charlotte Strait in Western Canada. It has shared considerable influence with other languages of the Pacific Northwest, especially those of the unrelated Salishan family.” ref, ref 

2. “Oglala people (pronounced [oɡəˈlala], meaning “to scatter one’s own” in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires).” ref

3. “Shoshone people speak the Shoshoni language, part of the Numic languages branch of the large Uto-Aztecan language family.” ref

4. “Lakota people speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.” ref

5. “Cheyenne people speak Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family.” ref 

6. “Pawnee people speak Pawnee language belongs to the Caddoan language family.” ref 

7. “Apache people speak Southern Athabaskan language and are linguistically related to the Navajo. Athabaskan languages are a large branch of the Na-Dene language family connected to Dene–Yeniseian is a proposed language family consisting of the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dene languages of northwestern North America.” ref, ref, ref 

8. “Seneca people speak Seneca, a Iroquoian language and were part of the Six Nations or Iroquois League(Haudenosaunee). It is most closely related to the other Five Nations Iroquoian languages, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk(and among those, it is most closely related to Cayuga).” ref 

9. “Aztec people speak Nahuatl language part of the Uto-Aztecan language family.” ref, ref, ref 

10. “Maya people speak Mayan languages used in Mesoamerica, both in the south of Mexico and northern Central America.” ref, ref 

11. “Tucano people speak Tucanoan languages, a language family of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.” ref, ref 

12. “Inca people speak Quechuan languages used throughout the central Andes Mountains including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.” ref, ref

THE MILKY WAY AS THE PATH TO THE OTHERWORLD: A COMPARISON OF PRE-COLUMBIAN NEW WORLD CULTURES

“The recently defined discipline of Archaeoastronomy has drawn attention to how PreColumbian New World peoples viewed the night sky. Countless studies now exist on the importance of sky-watching to Native American life. Like their European counterparts, early man in the New World had many myths about the planets, the stars and the universe. Indigenous-built structures from Chile to Alaska have been demonstrated to be observatories and models of the universe in miniature. The application of archaeoastronomy to the studies of New World cultures has greatly aided in the understanding of the customs of those groups. Cross-cultural comparison using archaeoastronomy has proven more difficult, and few attempts in the literature exist. The 1990 National Geographic article entitled “America’s Ancient Skywatchers”, by John Carlson, is one notable exception. The article compares the cosmologies of four New World cultures, the Inca, Maya, Aztec, and Navajo, and demonstrates that each believes in a three-planned universe: the earth plus an upper and underworld. This paper compares the role of the largest of all-sky phenomena, the Milky Way, from the perspectives of eleven New World cultures. The following culture groups will be discussed: Inca, Tukano, Maya, Aztec, Apache, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Sioux, Shoshone, Seneca, and Kwakiutl.” ref

“This group of cultures was picked for a number of reasons. First, the group is meant to be a representative sample of the three New World areas: North, Central, and South. Second, there are many ethnographies of New World cultures but few breach the topic of sky watching. Fewer still speak of the Milky Way. Many cultures are now vanished from the earth or changed to such a degree as to retain little of their Pre-Columbian customs. For those people, early ethnographies are the only source left that records their customs and beliefs. Thus, the cultures included in this study were also chosen due to the quality of ethnographic information regarding them. There are countless other cultural groups that should be included here but cannot due to lack of surviving information. Unfortunately, information concerning the Milky Way cannot be found for every New World culture. This should not be construed as a lack of beliefs regarding the Milky Way.” ref

“The examples given in this paper are simply the beliefs that have made their way into the written record. Each group discussed has their own myths regarding the creation and character of the Milky Way. They involve local animals and geography. The Milky Way is spoken of in terms of metaphors that have special meaning to each individual culture. However, if one looks beyond the metaphors, to the meaning and function of the Milky Way in those same cultures, continuity emerges. Each of the cultures discussed here regards the Milky Way 1 as the Path to the otherworld, traveled by spirits, deities, and shamans in trance. The following compilation of ethnographic information will demonstrate the existence of this belief in eleven cultures, starting with the Inca and moving northward. Moche, Navajo, and Eastern Greenland Eskimos will be tangentially discussed. Finally, a possible explanation for the continuity will be offered.” ref

In Ancient Egypt, The Milky Way Was A Ladder To The Afterlife

“The galaxy was seen as a conduit for the souls of the dead in many other ancient cultures.” ref

“The ancient Egyptians are famous for their reverence of celestial bodies, yet the role that the Milky Way played in their cosmology remains poorly understood by Egyptologists. However, according to a new analysis, the band of stars that streaks across the sky may have had a number of mythological functions, acting as a path to the underworld while also guiding birds along their annual migration route.” ref

“Penned by astrophysicist Dr Or Graur from the University of Portsmouth, the new study examined the idea that the Milky Way was represented by the sky goddess Nut, who is often depicted as a star-studded woman arching over the Earth in order to protect it from the menacing waters of the abyss, known as Nun. According to the Book of Nut, also known as The Fundamentals of the Course of the Stars, the sky woman’s primary job was to give birth to the Sun each morning, before swallowing it in the evening.” ref

To help her achieve this task, Nut is perpetually oriented with her rear in the east and her head in the west. The Milky Way, however, changes its position in the sky over the course of the year, running from east to west in the summer months and north to south in the winter. This discrepancy has cast doubt over the idea that Nut represents the galaxy. However, after consulting numerous funerary papyri found in Ancient Egyptian tombs, Graur identified several depictions of Nut with her arms outstretched at 45 degrees to her body.

“Such a pose enables the sky goddess to cover the various alignments of the Milky Way as the year progresses, thus suggesting that she may well have been the embodiment of our galaxy after all. For instance, Graur explains that “in the winter, the Milky Way delineates Nut’s arms, while during the summer months, it sketches out her torso (or backbone).” ref

“Seeking further assurances for Nut’s association with the Milky Way, the study author looked for similarities between her role in Ancient Egyptian mythology and other representations of the star gods in cultures around the world. For instance, according to one Egyptian Coffin Text, Nut is described as a “ladder” by which the souls of the dead are able to ascend to the afterlife, echoing the role of the Milky Way in Native American mythology.” ref 

“Many Native American peoples across North America view the Milky Way as a road along which the spirits of the dead travel to the afterlife,” writes Graur. “The Lakota name for the Milky Way is Wanáǧi Thacháŋku, the Spirits’ Road, which the Lakota follow to heaven when they die.” Similarly, he explains that “The dead of the Yucatec Maya travel along the Milky Way at night,” with the dark band of the Milky Way’s Great Rift envisioned as a highway leading straight to the underworld.” ref

“Yet another passage from the Book of Nut describes how birds appear from the goddesses’ northern end each winter as they migrate south from Europe to Africa. In isolation, this does little to prove that Nut represents the Milky Way, although such a link becomes clearer when one considers the associations between the band of stars and bird migration in other Indigenous cultures. “This link still exists today in the name given to the Galaxy by Finland, Estonia, and several Baltic states: ‘Birds’ Path’ (e.g., Linnunrata in Finnish or Paukščių Takas in Lithuanian),” writes Graur.” ref

“Overall, Graur’s findings shine a light on the mystery of Nut and her relationship with the Milky Way, indicating that different parts of her body are capable of representing the stars at different times of year. “My study also shows that Nut’s role in the transition of the deceased to the afterlife and her connection to the annual bird migration are consistent with how other cultures understand the Milky Way,” he explained in a statement. The study has been published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.” ref

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Cosmic Hunt: Variants of Siberian-North American Myth

“The mythological motif of the Cosmic Hunt is peculiar to Northern and Central Eurasia and for the Americas but seems to be absent in other parts of the globe. Two distinct Eurasian versions demonstrate North-American parallels at the level of minor details which could be explained only by particular historical links between corresponding traditions. The first version (three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters and the dipper itself is an animal; Alcor is a dog or a cooking pot) connects Siberian (especially Western Siberian) traditions with the North-American West (Salish, Chinook) and East (especially with the Iroquois). The second version (the Orion’s Belt represents three deer, antelopes, mountain sheep or buffaloes; the hunter is Rigel or other star below the Orion’s Belt; his arrow has pierced the game and is seen either as Betelgeuze or as the stars of Orion’s Head) connects the South-Siberian – Central-Eurasian mythologies with traditions of North-American West – Southwest. Both variants unknown in Northeast Asia and in Alaska probably date to the time of initial settling of the New World. The circum-Arctic variant(s) (hunter or game are associated with Orion or thePleiades) are represented by neighbouring traditions which form an almost continuous chain from the Lapps to the Polar Inuit. This version could be brought across the American Arctic with the spread of Tule Eskimo.” ref

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Milky Way as tracks of Cosmic Hunt

Many cultures see the Milky Way as related to the Cosmic hunt.

“The Cosmic Hunt is an ancient and widely distributed family of cognate myths. The story involves a large animal pursued by hunters; the animal is wounded and transformed into a constellation. Variants of the Cosmic Hunt are common in cultures of Northern Eurasia and the Americas, and include the story of Callisto in classical sources. The prey animal is either a bear or an ungulate, and the associated constellation involves the four stars of the bowl in the Big Dipper asterism of Ursa Major. In some variants blood or grease may fall from the wounded animal; in an Iroquois version the blood causes leaves to change color in autumn. Sometimes the hunters are also placed in the firmament, represented by the stars of the Big Dipper’s handle. The original prototype of the myth likely originated over 15,000 years ago, and diffused across the Bering land bridge. It has been suggested to provide evidence for punctuated equilibrium as a system for myth evolution.” ref

 The Mythology & Folklore Database

“Found 344 results in total for Milky Way. Database matches were found in the sections for Books (2), Folktales (3), Berezkins Database (339).” ref

Books results (2):

Metamorphoses – Ovid Metamorphoses
Read Chapters: 1, 13, 6, 9

Rig Veda – The Rig Veda trans. by Ralph T.H. Griffith (1896)
Read Chapters: Indra – Book: 2 Hymn: 13, Indra – Book: 8 Hymn: 13, Press-stones – Book: 10 Hymn: 94, Soma Pavamana – Book: 9 Hymn: 70, Soma Pavamana – Book: 9 Hymn: 86

Folktale results (3):

Folktales assigned an ATU Category:

(ATU 300-749) Tales Of Magic  

(ATU 400-459) Supernatural Or Enchanted Wife (Husband) Or Other Relative  

(ATU 425-449) Husband  

Title: The Enchanted Pig – Read it
Summary: Cf. also Types 430, 432, and 441. I. The Monster as Husband. (a) A monster is born because of a hasty wish of the parents. (b) He is a man at night. (c) A girl promises herself as bride to the monster, (c1) to recover stolen clothes or jewels, (c2)…
AT Motif Title: The Search for the Lost Husband
Other AT motif variants: 425A. Search for the Lost Husband*** 425B. The Disenchanted Husband: the Witch’s Tasks *** 425C. Beauty and the Beast*** 425D. Vanished Husband Learned of by Keeping Inn*** 425E. Enchanted Husband Sings Lullaby*** 425G. Recognition When Heroine Tells Her Story*** 425H. Short form of the tale*** 425J. Service in Hell to Release Enchanted Husband*** 425K. Search in Men’s Clothing*** 425L. The Padlock on the Enchanted Husband*** 425M. Bathing Girl’s Carments Kept *** 425N. The Bird Husband***

Thompson Motifs that align with ATU :
_______________________________

Folktales without ATU Category:

The Enchanted Pig – Read it

The Girl without Hands – The Girl without Hands – Finland (Wuokkiniemi) – Read it

Berezkin’s Database results (339):

Or click here to view results sorted by Number of Traditions

The Sun and Moon
A1. The ancient sun (59 traditions).
A2A. Several suns are scorching the earth, A720 (106 traditions).
A2b1. The Last Sun (26 traditions).
A3. The Sun is a man and the moon is a woman, A716 (346 traditions).
A4. Sun-woman, A736 (253 traditions).
A5. Sun and Month are men, A711 (339 traditions).
A10. The sun finds its eyes (6 traditions).
A11C. Sun, moon, and monster eyes (4 traditions).
A12. Eclipses: monster attack, A737 (299 traditions).
A12A. A predatory beast overshadows the stars (94 traditions).
A13a1. The raven extracts the sun (29 traditions).
A14. Eclipses: the relationship between the sun and the moon, A737 (105 traditions).
A17. Afternoon sun rest (46 traditions).
A19C. The Sun Horse (24 traditions).
A19c1. Solar cart (17 traditions).
A20. The childhood of the Sun and Moon (47 traditions).
A21. The stars are thrown into the sky, A700 (65 traditions).
A22. To the sky from the fire (30 traditions).
A22C. Sacrifice to the Sun (17 traditions).
A22D. When burned, it turns into a constellation (4 traditions).
A24. First sunrise (49 traditions).
A29B. The Torn Month (10 traditions).
A31. A Month in Love (103 traditions).
A32D. Man on the moon, A751 (296 traditions).
A32H. Moon tree, A751 (73 traditions).
A32J. A shaman on the moon (6 traditions).
A34. The fox and the moon (23 traditions).
A35A. Dirt thrown into the face (29 traditions).
A37. The sun is under attack (73 traditions).
A42. Phaeton (Sun Simulator), A724 (20 traditions).
A42A. A sun simulator falls from the sky (8 traditions).
A46. The sun and moon come from the creature’s eyes (24 traditions).
A47A. A lizard finds the sun (0 traditions).

The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
B1. Two creators, A50 (78 traditions).
B2A. Earth is a female being, A401 (295 traditions).
B2D. A marriage between heaven and earth, A625 (102 traditions).
B2E. Earth is a man (55 traditions).
B6. When they meet halfway, they marry (18 traditions).
B9. The water is in the tree (51 traditions).
B12. Snake rivers (61 traditions).
B16. Salt water: body secretions, A1115 (0 traditions).
B20. Expedition to the Upper World (7 traditions).
B21. The destruction of the world tree (8 traditions).
B22. An offended tree is knocked down (9 traditions).
B27. Variants of metamorphosis (36 traditions).
B28E. The month is a world organizer (9 traditions).
B36. Color, voice, form: one is divided among many (69 traditions).
B36A. Bathing in blood (52 traditions).
B42. The Cosmic Hunt – Hunters, their dogs, and animals running away or killed can be seen in the sky in the form of stars and constellations (F59) (128 traditions).
B42B. Hunting for ungulates (70 traditions).
B42D. Tapir hunting (5 traditions).
B42E. Nandu hunt (6 traditions).
B42F. The Big Dipper is an ungulates (55 traditions).
B42H. Orion’s belt is game, hunter is another star (38 traditions).
B42I. Cassiopeia is a deer (6 traditions).
B42K. Space hunting — Pleiades (23 traditions).
B42L. The bucket is a beast, the handle is a hunter (23 traditions).
B42M. The second hunter has a bowler hat (11 traditions).
B42N. Orion is one person (72 traditions).
B42P. The Big Dipper is a bear (32 traditions).
B42Q. The Big Dipper is a wagon (62 traditions).
B42T. The seven stars of the Ursa Major are animals (61 traditions).
B42h1. An arrow pierced the animal (17 traditions).
B42m1. Ket, Selkup, and Evenk (8 traditions).
B42mn. One hunter chases the Big Dipper (23 traditions).
B45. Winter and Summer Wedding, A1153 (26 traditions).
B45A. Winter versus summer (0 traditions).
B46. Seven star brothers (78 traditions).
B46C. Big Dipper — seven characters (101 traditions).
B47. Pleiades and cold (16 traditions).
B57. Bloody sunset (37 traditions).
B71. Dancing flashes (38 traditions).
B75d. The sounds of the era of creation: the sound of foliage (6 traditions).
B77. Low sky, A625 (213 traditions).
B77C. The serpent pushed the sky away (4 traditions).
B79. Space egg (40 traditions).
B82. White Raven, A2411 (137 traditions).
B87A. Alcor is a dog (19 traditions).
B87B. Harnessed wolf (10 traditions).
B87C. Rider (15 traditions).
B93. Meeting in heaven once a year (13 traditions).
B93A. Bird bridge over the sky river (5 traditions).

Disasters
C1. The fall of the sky (37 traditions).
C2. Flood and fire (147 traditions).
C8. Brother and sister give birth to people (95 traditions).
C9. God is helping to survive the disaster (0 traditions).
C14. Monsters destroy people (60 traditions).
C18A. The sun lures the rooster (36 traditions).
C19. Finding the sun (195 traditions).
C19A. The child is playing with the sun (31 traditions).
C20. A drunken cannibal (0 traditions).
C25. Eschatological expectations (0 traditions).
C25C. The Big Dipper and the End of the World (12 traditions).
C38. People are coming soon (15 traditions).
C39. Repairing the sky (12 traditions).

Fire and Laughter
D2. The birth of the sun/fire (10 traditions).
D2A. A mother dies when she gives birth to fire or the sun (5 traditions).
D4A. Fire theft, A1415 (294 traditions).
D9. Vultures and fire (65 traditions).

The origins of people and culture
E5C. People from heaven (133 traditions).
E8. Wooden people (58 traditions).
E8A. Coconut women (8 traditions).
E9. Unknown hostess, N831 (271 traditions).
E9H. The magic wife is a dove (79 traditions).
E13B. Rituals from another world (0 traditions).
E30B. Pygmalion (7 traditions).
E32. Progenitor plants (85 traditions).

Gender and sex
F1. A transformed man (44 traditions).
F2. Birth from a leg T541; V52 (101 traditions).
F9A. Toothy womb (104 traditions).
F9B. Piranha in the vagina (18 traditions).
F27. Girls and water perfumes (49 traditions).
F32. The snake son is collecting fruit (29 traditions).
F41. Husbands kill wives (15 traditions).
F50. Children born many times (35 traditions).
F64B. An incestuous woman (31 traditions).
F66. A false house (10 traditions).
F88. The smell of women (18 traditions).
F90. Tragic incest (17 traditions).
F96. He became handsome (17 traditions).
F98. God and the cow (9 traditions).

Fertility and Agriculture
G2. Mr (58 traditions).
G3. The Rock of Plenty ( (15 traditions).
G6. The First Tree (142 traditions).
G15. Corn girls (28 traditions).
G16. Ants find cultivated plants (15 traditions).
G21. Coconut head (28 traditions).
G23. Multiple objects from the same creature (192 traditions).

Paradise Lost
H4. Skin change as a condition for immortality, D1889 (130 traditions).
H5. Humans and snakes (145 traditions).
H11. Call of God (48 traditions).
H12. Orpheus: Journey to the Underworld, F81 (190 traditions).
H12C. Get your dead wife back (73 traditions).
H16B. Milk pond (50 traditions).
H24A. A bag with stars (11 traditions).
H27A. A hole in the ground (16 traditions).
H28. The creature turns into mosquitoes, A2034 (152 traditions).
H28A. The ashes of the burned person turn into mosquitoes (36 traditions).
H34B. The river flows in both directions (27 traditions).
H50. Heavenly god and mistress of the dead (11 traditions).
H54. Veci Viya, F571 (58 traditions).

Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
I1. Thunder birds, A284 (174 traditions).
I3. Thunder Weapon (194 traditions).
I4. Thunder travels across the sky (43 traditions).
I5A. Thunder tapir (6 traditions).
I6. Birds carrying a storm (47 traditions).
I7. Cloud Serpent (77 traditions).
I8A. Peace pillars: anthropomorphic characters (0 traditions).
I8C. Suspended ground (30 traditions).
I8D. Peace pillars: pillars, mountains (0 traditions).
I8G1. A giant at the base of the world (0 traditions).
I8I. At first, the earth swayed (38 traditions).
I14. Creatures without anus, F529 (104 traditions).
I15. Creatures without mouths (37 traditions).
I17. Bodily anomalies of inhabitants of another world 19 (96 traditions).
I24. Snake Bridge (30 traditions).
I26. Dangers to souls (18 traditions).
I27. Dog of the Land of the Dead (104 traditions).
I27A. Dog villages and pathways (20 traditions).
I27D. The mouth of a black dog (3 traditions).
I39. Rainbow Bridge, F152 (107 traditions).
I39A. The souls of the dead walk across the rainbow (22 traditions).
I41. Rainbow serpent, A791 (195 traditions).
I41B. The rainbow is drinking water (58 traditions).
I41C. The heavenly object is the reflection of a snake (9 traditions).
I43A. Space serpent (48 traditions).
I43B. The Milky Way is a snake, a fish (37 traditions).
I44. Chthonic serpent (45 traditions).
I45B. Don’t point your finger at the rainbow, C843 (157 traditions).
I45C. It is forbidden to count stars (23 traditions).
I46. Rainbow belt (93 traditions).
I47. The rainbow is like a stream of secretions (38 traditions).
I50. The multi-legged beast, B15 (49 traditions).
I51B. Earth is an animal (23 traditions).
I56. Spirits don’t see the living (34 traditions).
I58. The Milky Way is the birds’ road (35 traditions).
I59. The Milky Way is scattered straw (48 traditions).
I59A. A thief in heaven 15 (50 traditions).
I59B1. The Milky Way is a road to a distant city (31 traditions).
I59B2. The Milky Way — St (20 traditions).
I59B3. The Milky Way is the road for those carrying salt (7 traditions).
I59B4. The Milky Way — snow, frost (8 traditions).
I60. The Milky Way is a celestial seam (14 traditions).
I60A. The Milky Way is a stripe on the belly (5 traditions).
I61A. The Milky Way is a belt (12 traditions).
I62. The Milky Way is a river, A778 (103 traditions).
I64. Animal trail on the Milky Way (42 traditions).
I64A. Racing on the Milky Way (11 traditions).
I65. The souls of the dead on the Milky Way (94 traditions).
I66. Ash on the Milky Way (22 traditions).
I67. Emu and nanda on the Milky Way (14 traditions).
I68. Opening the sky (50 traditions).
I71. Stars are roots (10 traditions).
I72. Stars are people (271 traditions).
I72A. Stars are children of the moon, A764 (61 traditions).
I74. Stars are stones (25 traditions).
I75. Previous worlds (30 traditions).
I81. The waters fall into the abyss (20 traditions).
I82A. Venus is a man (136 traditions).
I82B. Venus is a woman (157 traditions).
I83. Bird sky (59 traditions).
I84. The Milky Way — ski trail (30 traditions).
I84A. The frozen son of God (8 traditions).
I85. The North Star is a stake or a nail (61 traditions).
I85B. The North Star is a person (25 traditions).
I86. Fluff in birds, scales in fish (14 traditions).
I87F. Sledge suicide (6 traditions).
I93. The Milky Way is the backbone of the sky (21 traditions).
I93A. The Milky Way is the heavenly tail ( (0 traditions).
I95B. Orion is a rocker (12 traditions).
I98A. Pleiades — chicken with chickens (58 traditions).
I99. Pleiades are boys or men (91 traditions).
I102. The Milky Way is a tree (9 traditions).
I103. Dog star (30 traditions).
I107. Stars are nails (10 traditions).
I108. The Pleiades are one character (75 traditions).
I109. The Milky Way is the road of heavenly bodies (10 traditions).
I110. Heavenly farmers (60 traditions).
I110B. Orion — kostsy (31 traditions).
I115. Orion and the Pleiades (0 traditions).
I116. The Milky Way is the border of seasons (12 traditions).
I120B. Get the animal out of the ear (19 traditions).
I121. Paired constellations (65 traditions).
I124. The Big Dipper is a boat (18 traditions).
I125. Hyades are the animal’s jaw (16 traditions).
I126. Funeral stretcher constellation (19 traditions).
I128. Big Dipper — bucket (24 traditions).
I129. Heron constellation (4 traditions).
I130. Celestial network (26 traditions).
I133. A constellation all over the sky (14 traditions).
I134. Long neck on the Milky Way (13 traditions).
I135. Celestial skin (9 traditions).
I140. A jaguar and a deer in the sky ( (3 traditions).

Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
J6. The murdered woman’s children grew up in an antagonist house (37 traditions).
J12. Girls looking for a groom (114 traditions).
J15A. The Jaguar has a woman (40 traditions).
J16. Refuses to eat insects (14 traditions).
J22D. Animals cut in half (11 traditions).
J23C. It flies through the body of an ogre (3 traditions).
J25. Babies hide and come back (86 traditions).
J27. Discarded and homemade, Z210 (62 traditions).
J28B. Hot cake (36 traditions).
J37. The bird carries away the antagonist (37 traditions).
J40A. Avenged captives (0 traditions).
J43. A bait for enemies (13 traditions).
J44. The collapsed bridge (100 traditions).
J45. The leg serves as a bridge, R246 (60 traditions).
J47. The stalker falls from a height (111 traditions).
J50. An attempt to resurrect the deceased (27 traditions).
J51. A piece is missing, E33 (72 traditions).
J52. Children are killing children in avenging their parents (42 traditions).
J53A. Inviting you to play kills (16 traditions).
J57. Son of the Sun (27 traditions).
J58. A chain of arrows, F53 (82 traditions).

Adventures: Acts of heroes
K1A. Trap: A boy or a man will leave (0 traditions).
K8A. Ion: swallowed by an aquatic or chthonic creature (237 traditions).
K10. The fight with the bird (164 traditions).
K10i. An open tree (5 traditions).
K13A. The one-legged rises to the sky (32 traditions).
K19B. The husband is a star (54 traditions).
K22. Cranes and Pygmies, F535 (40 traditions).
K24. The hidden clothes of a supernatural woman, (ATU 413) (252 traditions).
K25. Heavenly Wife, T111 (497 traditions).
K25a1. Clothes found (105 traditions).
K27. Challenges and competitions (532 traditions).
K27F. Get a woman (118 traditions).
K27S. Running, racing (123 traditions).
K27U. Hide, ATU 329 (74 traditions).
K27g1. Task: Clean the barn (16 traditions).
K27g3. One thing falls down, they all fall (6 traditions).
K27g4. Sow, squeeze and bake bread in a day (43 traditions).
K28. A father or uncle is an enemy and a rival (193 traditions).
K29A. Unharmed in fire (192 traditions).
K32. Replaced woman, K1911; ATU 403, 404 (294 traditions).
K32A. The man leaves along the way (18 traditions).
K32h1. They put them in a barrel with nails (15 traditions).
K37. Find out your own among the same ones, H62 (164 traditions).
K47A. A woman and a dog (84 traditions).
K75. Youngest daughter agrees, ATU 433B (258 traditions).
K80. An indestructible woman (109 traditions).
K82. Evil sister-in-law (69 traditions).
K101. Girls Night Dances, ATU 306 (56 traditions).
K101C. In the afternoon in the palace, at night in the sky (5 traditions).
K114. Brothers leave after the birth of their sister, (ATU 451) (35 traditions).
K120a3. Walnut dress (36 traditions).
K121. Knight at the crossroads (53 traditions).
K127. The Swan Brothers, ATU 451 (67 traditions).
K130A. The girl in the brothers’ house, (ATU 709A) (76 traditions).
K137. The sister brings the women to revive her brother (11 traditions).
K153. Grateful beasts and an evil man, ATU 160 (61 traditions).
K175. The wind carried away the flour, ATU 759C (15 traditions).
K176. A man looking for a woman (353 traditions).
K177. A wandering heroine (237 traditions).

Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
L1A. Werewolf: A large predator (41 traditions).
L1E. The character creates monstrous birds (7 traditions).
L4. Assassin Unveiled, ATU 311, 312 (112 traditions).
L5. Rolling head (0 traditions).
L11. Turtle bench (62 traditions).
L13. A raised monster (75 traditions).
L14. Raised snake (80 traditions).
L19b1. The seven-headed dragon (79 traditions).
L19b2. The 12-headed serpent (49 traditions).
L42i. The sister goes to save her brother (swan geese), ATU 480A* (15 traditions).
L43. The cannibal eats garbage (45 traditions).
L48. Demons devour theirs (40 traditions).
L50. Cannibal on the trail, G321 (32 traditions).
L53. Stones in the mouth, K951 (130 traditions).
L66. Underground passage under the monster (26 traditions).
L72. Magical Escape, D672, D673 (284 traditions).
L73B. A drawn feature (7 traditions).
L81. Demon fire (129 traditions).
L81A. The cat extinguishes the fire (22 traditions).
L81a2. A demon comes to drink a girl’s blood, (ATU 709A) (35 traditions).
L85. Half creatures, F525 (179 traditions).
L90. Fall to the sky (51 traditions).
L90A. A hut with chicken legs (27 traditions).
L98. The cannibal owl (54 traditions).
L100. The Unrecognized Fugitive, D671 (74 traditions).
L107. Blanket ears (38 traditions).
L123. The tracks lead in all directions (5 traditions).

Adventures: Tricks and episodes
M1. Dangerous crossing (0 traditions).
M1A. Cayman transports the Pleiades (5 traditions).
M3. Human chain (49 traditions).
M8A. Birds are hammering the rock: release from the trap (58 traditions).
M8D. Extend the hole in the body (10 traditions).
M9. Trapped in a hollow (29 traditions).
M10. Girl and honey (19 traditions).
M16. A cripple healed (48 traditions).
M21. The fugitive hides at the defender (170 traditions).
M27. Returning from Heaven (54 traditions).
M29z1. Anthropomorphic trickster (miscellaneous) (34 traditions).
M30. The trickster falls, (ATU 225, 225A) (237 traditions).
M44C. Food thieves are a young hero (31 traditions).
M46. An imaginary baby (61 traditions).
M46A. A picked up baby (28 traditions).
M46D. The child asks for a toy (27 traditions).
M50. Next to the stars (34 traditions).
M75. Taken from vultures (73 traditions).
M88. Involved in a dance (7 traditions).

https://www.mythologydatabase.com/index.php

Milky Way (mythology)

“There are many myths and legends about the origin of the Milky Way, the crowd of stars that makes a distinctive bright streak across the night sky. In Egyptian mythology, the Milky Way was considered a pool of cow’s milk. The Milky Way was deified as a fertility cow-goddess by the name of Bat (later on syncretized with the sky goddess Hathor). The astronomer Or Graur has suggested that the Egyptians may have seen the Milky Way as a celestial depiction of the sky goddess Nut.” ref

“In the Babylonian epic poem Enûma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval salt water dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her. This story was once thought to have been based on an older Sumerian version in which Tiamat is instead slain by Enlil of Nippur, but is now thought to be purely an invention of Babylonian propagandists with the intention to show Marduk as superior to the Sumerian deities. Another myth about Labbu is similarly interpreted.” ref

“In the Hindu collection of stories called Bhagavata Purana, all the visible stars and planets moving through space are likened to a dolphin that swims through the water, and the heavens are called śiśumãra cakra, the dolphin disc. The Milky Way forms the abdomen of the dolphin and is called Akasaganga which means “The Ganges River of the Sky.” According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu lies meditating on Shesha with his consort Lakshmi, in the Kshira Sagara (Sea of Milk), which is a representation of Milky Way. This “Sea of Milk” is also the (cosmic) ocean referenced in the Samudra Manthana episode of Vishnu Purana, a major text in Indian mythology. The Samudra Manthana explains the origin of the elixir of eternal life, amrita.” ref

“In Eastern Asian and Chinese mythology, the hazy band of stars of the Milky Way was referred to as the “River of Heaven” or the “Silvery River” (simplified Chinese: 银河; traditional Chinese: 銀河; pinyin: yínhé; Korean: 은하; RR: eunha; Vietnamese: ngân hà; Japanese: 銀河, romanized: ginga). The Silvery River of Heaven is part of a romantic Chinese folk tale, The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, of the romance between Zhinü, the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega, and Niulang, the cowherd, symbolizing the star Altair. Their love was not allowed, and they were banished to opposite sides of the heavenly river. Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a flock of crows and magpies would form a bridge over the heavenly river to reunite the lovers for a single day. That day is celebrated as Qixi, literally meaning ‘Seventh Night’ (Chinese: 七夕; pinyin: Qīxī; Korean: 칠석; RR: chilseok, Vietnamese: Thất Tịch, and Japanese: 七夕, romanized: Tanabata).” ref

“Ancient Armenian mythology called the Milky Way the “Straw Thief’s Way”. According to legend, the god Vahagn stole some straw from the Assyrian king Barsham and brought it to Armenia during a cold winter. When he fled across the heavens, he spilled some of the straw along the way. Similarly, in Assyrian Aramaic (Syriac), the Milky Way is called the ܫܒܝܠ ܬܒܢܐ shvil tivna, meaning the way of straw, or ܐܘܪܚܐ ܕܓܢܒ̈ܐ urẖa d’gannave, meaning the path of thieves.” ref

“Aboriginal Australian people had a well-developed astronomy, with much of their mythology and cultural practices relating to the stars, planets, and their motion through the sky, as well as using the stars to navigate the Australian continent. The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains in South Australia see the band of the Milky Way as a river in the sky world. They called it Wodliparri (wodli = hut, house, parri = river) and believe that positioned along the river are a number of campfires. In addition, the dark patches mark the dwelling place of a dangerous creature known as a yura; the Kaurna call these patches Yurakauwe, which literally means “monster water.” ref

“A group of Yolngu people from the Ramingining area in central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory have a Dreaming story known as “Milky Way Dreaming.” In this story, which relates to the land, two-spirit beings in the form of female quolls attacked their husband. The husband becomes a glider possum, gathers his warriors, and returns to kill them with spears. The spirits of the quolls transform into a type of freshwater fish, but they are caught in the creek nearby by the husband’s tribesmen and eaten. Their bones are collected by their brother, Wäk, aka the crow man, and put into a hollow log coffin. The Badurru Ceremony is performed, and the coffin is carried into the sky by the crow and his kin. The bones are then dispersed and form the Milky Way. Aboriginal groups from the Cape York region of Queensland see the band of light as termites that had been blown into the sky by the ancestral hero Burbuk Boon.” ref

“Further south, the band of stars that comprise the Milky Way are seen as thousands of flying foxes carrying away a dancer known as Purupriggie. The Aranda or Arrernte people, who come from Central Australia, see the band of the Milky Way as a river or creek in the sky world. This stellar river separates the two great camps of the Aranda and Luritja people. The stars to the east of this river represent the camps of the Aranda, and the stars to the west represent Luritja encampments, and some stars closer to the band represent a mixture of both. In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the Aboriginal people called the Milky Way “Iowara” and saw in it the presence of a giant emu elongated.” ref

“A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away. He ran away to the north, spilling the cornmeal along the way. The Milky Way is thus called ᎩᎵ ᎤᎵᏒᏍᏓᏅᏱ (Gili Ulisvsdanvyi) “Where the dog ran.” ref

“In Hungarian mythology, Csaba, the mythical son of Attila the Hun and ancestor of the Hungarians, is supposed to ride down the Milky Way when the Székelys (ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania) are threatened. Thus the Milky Way is called “The Road of the Warriors” (lit. “Road of Armies”) Hungarian: Hadak Útja. The stars are sparks from their horseshoes.

“Among the Finns, Estonians, and related peoples, the Milky Way was and is called “The Pathway of the Birds” (Finnish: Linnunrata, Estonian: Linnutee). The Finns observed that migratory birds used the galaxy as a guideline to travel south, where they believed Lintukoto (bird home) was. In Estonian folklore it is believed that the birds are led by a white bird with the head of a maiden who chases birds of prey away. The maiden, the goddess Lindu, was the Queen of the Birds and the daughter of Ukko, the King of the Sky. After refusing the suits of the Sun and Moon for being too predictable in their routes and the Pole Star for being fixed, she fell in love with the Light of North for its beauty. They became engaged, but the inconstant Light of North left her soon afterward. The tears of the broken-hearted Lindu fell on her wedding veil, which became the Milky Way when her father brought her to heaven so she could reign by his side and guide the migrating birds, who followed the trail of stars in her veil. Only later did scientists indeed confirm this observation; the migratory birds use the Milky Way as a guide to travel to warmer, southern lands during the winter. The name in the Indo-European Baltic languages has the same meaning (Lithuanian: Paukščių Takas, Latvian: Putnu Ceļš).” ref

“The Greek name for the Milky Way (Γαλαξίας Galaxias) is derived from the Greek word for milk (γάλα, gala). One legend explains how the Milky Way was created by Heracles (Roman Hercules) when he was a baby. His father, Zeus, was fond of his son, who was born of the mortal woman Alcmene. He decided to let the infant Heracles suckle on his divine wife Hera‘s milk when she was asleep, an act which would endow the baby with godlike qualities. When Hera woke and realized that she was breastfeeding an unknown infant, she pushed him away, and the spurting milk became the Milky Way.” ref

“Another version of the myth is that Heracles was abandoned in the woods by his mortal parents, Amphitryon and Alcmene. Heracles, son of Zeus and Alcmene, was naturally favored by his father, who sent Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, to retrieve him. Athena, not being so motherly, decided to take him to Hera to suckle. Hera agreed to suckle Heracles. As Heracles drinks the milk, he bites down, and Hera pushes him away in pain. The milk that squirts out forms the Milky Way.” ref

“A story told by the Roman Hyginus in the Poeticon astronomicon (ultimately based on Greek myth) says that the milk came from the goddess Ops (Greek Rhea), the wife of Saturn (Greek Cronus). Saturn swallowed his children to ensure his position as head of the Pantheon and sky god, and so Ops conceived a plan to save her newborn son Jupiter (Greek Zeus): She wrapped a stone in infant’s clothes and gave it to Saturn to swallow. Saturn asked her to nurse the child once more before he swallowed it, and the milk that spurted when she pressed her nipple against the rock eventually became the Milky Way.” ref

“Welsh mythology and cosmology derives from the ancient oral traditions of the Celtic Britons, which were maintained by druids and bards until the time of their recording in medieval Welsh literature. Many features of the night sky are named for the “children of Dôn” the ancient mother goddess and sky goddess, with the Milky Way being associated with Gwydion ab Dôn (the son of Dôn), and named Caer Gwydion (“The fortress/city of Gwydion”) or Llwybr Caer Gwydion (“the path to the Castle of Gwydion”).” ref

“In Irish mythology, the main name of the Milky Way was Bealach na Bó Finne — Way of the White Cow. It was regarded as a heavenly reflection of the sacred River Boyne, which is described as “the Great Silver Yoke” and the “White Marrow of Fedlimid,” names that could equally apply to the Milky Way. (Mór-Chuing Argait, Smir Find Fedlimthi).” ref

“Other Irish mythology, names include:

• Ceann Síne—”chief chain”
• Síog na Spéire—”stripe of the sky”
• Earball na Lárach Báine—the White Mare’s Tail. The Láir Bhán (white mare) is believed to a relic of a sovereignty goddess, and processions featuring a white hobby horse formerly took place in County Kerry around Samhain (Hallowe’en).
• Claí Mór na Réaltaí—”Great Ditch/Fence of the Stars”
• Sgríob Chlann Uisnich—”Track of the children of Uisneach.” This name derives from a legend: after the sons of Uisneach fell in battle, Deirdre threw herself into their grave. Angered, the king Conchobar mac Nessa exhumed the bodies and buried them separately, but a tree grew from each grave, and the branches entwined. Again he had them dug up and buried on opposite sides of a lake; but then the great cluster of stars appeared across the sky, connecting the two graves.” ref

“To the Māori the Milky Way is the waka (canoe) of Tama-rereti. The front and back of the canoe are Orion and Scorpius, while the Southern Cross and the Pointers are the anchor and rope. According to legend, when Tama-rereti took his canoe out onto a lake, he found himself far from home as night was falling. There were no stars at this time, and in the darkness, the Taniwha would attack and eat people. So Tama-rereti sailed his canoe along the river that emptied into the heavens (to cause rain) and scattered shiny pebbles from the lakeshore into the sky. The sky god, Ranginui, was pleased by this action and placed the canoe into the sky as well as a reminder of how the stars were made.” ref

“The San people in southern Africa say that long ago, there were no stars, and the night was pitch black. A girl of the ancient race, !Xwe-/na-ssho-!ke, who was lonely and wanted to visit other people, threw the embers from a fire into the sky and created the Milky Way.” ref

The Pleiades as Openings, The Milky Way as the Path of Birds, and The Girl on the Moon: Cultural Links Across Northern Eurasia

“The Baltic-Finnish and the Baltic (Latvian and Lithuanian) cosmonyms mostly coincide while the Baltic and Slavic cosmonymic patterns are different. The Pleiades in the Eastern Baltic are ‘a sieve’, the Milky Way is ‘the path of migratory birds’, and a girl holding water pails is seen on the Moon. Across most of Central, Western, and Southern Europe, the Pleiades are ‘a hen with its chicken’; the Milky Way and the lunar spots have other (and different) interpretations. The Eastern Baltic pattern is identical with the Middle Volgaone where it is widespread among both Finnish-Permian and Turkic groups and probably relates back to the (Proto-Baltic?) culture of the Iron Age. However, parallels for the cosmonyms in question are found across most of Northern Eurasia, and corresponding similarities are found in some parts of North America. ‘Water-carrier on the Moon’ is the most widespread of these motifs, and it is known in Japan and Polynesia. In Eurasia, the Northern Samoyeds noticeably lack all three images. The initial emergence of at least some of the cosmonyms under discussion in the Terminal Pleistocene of northern East Asia and their further dissemination towards the West, down to the Baltics, is a hypothesis to be checked. Areal distribution of the interpretation of the Milky Way as the path of migratory birds.” ref

“The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy’s appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a D₂₅ isophotal diameter estimated at 26.8 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,600 light-years), but only about 1,000 light-years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulge). Recent simulations suggest that a dark matter area, also containing some visible stars, may extend up to a diameter of almost 2 million light-years (613 kpc). The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which form part of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster.” ref

“It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and at least that number of planets. The Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years (8.3 kpc) from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge, and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The Galactic Center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar masses. The oldest stars in the Milky Way are nearly as old as the Universe itself and thus probably formed shortly after the Dark Ages of the Big Bang.” ref

“The Milky Way is visible as a hazy band of white light, some 30° wide, arching the night sky. Although all the individual naked-eye stars in the entire sky are part of the Milky Way Galaxy, the term “Milky Way” is limited to this band of light. The light originates from the accumulation of unresolved stars and other material located in the direction of the galactic plane. Brighter regions around the band appear as soft visual patches known as star clouds. The most conspicuous of these is the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud, a portion of the central bulge of the galaxy. Dark regions within the band, such as the Great Rift and the Coalsack, are areas where interstellar dust blocks light from distant stars. Peoples of the southern hemisphere, including the Inca and Australian aborigines, identified these regions as dark cloud constellations. The area of sky that the Milky Way obscures is called the Zone of Avoidance.” ref

“The Milky Way has a relatively low surface brightness. Its visibility can be greatly reduced by background light, such as light pollution or moonlight. The sky needs to be darker than about 20.2 magnitude per square arcsecond in order for the Milky Way to be visible. It should be visible if the limiting magnitude is approximately +5.1 or better and shows a great deal of detail at +6.1. This makes the Milky Way difficult to see from brightly lit urban or suburban areas, but very prominent when viewed from rural areas when the Moon is below the horizon. Maps of artificial night sky brightness show that more than one-third of Earth’s population cannot see the Milky Way from their homes due to light pollution.” ref

“Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble in 1923 showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.” ref

“In the Babylonian epic poem Enūma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval saltwater dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her. This story was once thought to have been based on an older Sumerian version in which Tiamat is instead slain by Enlil of Nippur, but is now thought to be purely an invention of Babylonian propagandists with the intention to show Marduk as superior to the Sumerian deities.” ref

“In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Hera‘s breast while she is asleep so the baby will drink her divine milk and become immortal. Hera wakes up while breastfeeding and then realizes she is nursing an unknown baby: she pushes the baby away, some of her milk spills, and it produces the band of light known as the Milky Way. In another Greek story, the abandoned Heracles is given by Athena to Hera for feeding, but Heracles’ forcefulness causes Hera to rip him from her breast in pain. Llys Dôn (literally “The Court of Dôn“) is the traditional Welsh name for the constellation Cassiopeia. At least three of Dôn’s children also have astronomical associations: Caer Gwydion (“The fortress of Gwydion“) is the traditional Welsh name for the Milky Way, and Caer Arianrhod (“The Fortress of Arianrhod“) being the constellation of Corona Borealis.” ref

“In Western culture, the name “Milky Way” is derived from its appearance as a dim un-resolved “milky” glowing band arching across the night sky. The term is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, in turn derived from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας, short for γαλαξίας κύκλος (galaxías kýklos), meaning “milky circle”. The Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (galaxias) – from root γαλακτ-, γάλα (“milk”) + -ίας (forming adjectives) – is also the root of “galaxy”, the name for our, and later all such, collections of stars. The Milky Way, or “milk circle,” was just one of 11 “circles” the Greeks identified in the sky, others being the zodiac, the meridian, the horizon, the equator, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle, and two colure circles passing through both poles.” ref

“In Meteorologica, Aristotle (384–322 BCE or around 2,384 to 2,322 years ago) states that the Greek philosophers Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 BC) and Democritus (460–370 BCE or around 2,460 to 2,370 years ago) proposed that the Milky Way is the glow of stars not directly visible due to Earth’s shadow, while other stars receive their light from the Sun, but have their glow obscured by solar rays. Aristotle himself believed that the Milky Way was part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, along with the stars, and that it was a byproduct of stars burning that did not dissipate because of its outermost location in the atmosphere, composing its great circle. He said that the milky appearance of the Milky Way Galaxy is due to the refraction of the Earth’s atmosphere. The Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus the Younger (c. 495–570 CE) criticized this view, arguing that if the Milky Way were sublunary, it should appear different at different times and places on Earth, and that it should have parallax, which it does not. In his view, the Milky Way is celestial. This idea would be influential later in the Muslim world.” ref

“The Persian astronomer Al-Biruni (973–1048) proposed that the Milky Way is “a collection of countless fragments of the nature of nebulous stars.” The Andalusian astronomer Avempace (d 1138) proposed that the Milky Way was made up of many stars but appeared to be a continuous image in the Earth’s atmosphere, citing his observation of a conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in 1106 or 1107 as evidence. The Persian astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) in his Tadhkira wrote: “The Milky Way, i.e. the Galaxy, is made up of a very large number of small, tightly clustered stars, which, on account of their concentration and smallness, seem to be cloudy patches. Because of this, it was likened to milk in color.” Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) proposed that the Milky Way is “a myriad of tiny stars packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars.” ref

• “Birds’ Path” is used in several Uralic and Turkic languages and in the Baltic languages. Northern peoples observed that migratory birds follow the course of the galaxy while migrating at the Northern Hemisphere. The name “Birds’ Path” (in Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Bashkir, and Kazakh) has some variations in other languages, e.g., “Way of the grey (wild) goose” in Chuvash, Mari, and Tatar and “Way of the Crane” in Erzya and Moksha.
• House river: The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia called the Milky Way wodliparri in the Kaurna language, meaning “house river.”
• Emu in the Sky: The Gomeroi people between New South Wales and Queensland called the Milky Way Dhinawan, the giant Emu in the Sky that it stretches across the night sky.
• Milky Way: Many European languages have borrowed, directly or indirectly, the Greek name for the Milky Way, including English and Latin.
• Road to Santiago: the Milky Way was traditionally used as a guide by pilgrims traveling to the holy site at Compostela, hence the use of “The Road to Santiago” as a name for the Milky Way. Curiously, La Voje Ladee “The Milky Way” was also used to refer to the pilgrimage road.
• River Ganga of the Sky: this Sanskrit name (आकाशगंगा Ākāśagaṃgā) is used in many Indian languages following a Hindu belief .
• Silver River: this Chinese name “Silver River” (銀河) is used throughout East Asia, including Korea and Vietnam. In Japan and Korea, “Silver River” (Japanese: 銀河, romanized: ginga; Korean: 은하; RR: eunha) means galaxies in general.
• River of Heaven: The Japanese name for the Milky Way is the “River of Heaven” (天の川, Amanokawa), as well as an alternative name in Chinese (Chinese: 天河; pinyin: Tiānhé).
• Straw Way:In West Asia, Central Asia and parts of the Balkans the name for the Milky Way is related to the word for straw. Today, Persians, Pakistanis, and Turks use it in addition to Arabs. It has been suggested that the term was spread by medieval Arabs who in turn borrowed it from Armenians.
• Walsingham Way: In England the Milky Way was called the Walsingham Way in reference to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham which is in Norfolk, England. It was understood to be either a guide to the pilgrims who flocked there, or a representation of the pilgrims themselves.
• Winter Street: Scandinavian peoples, such as Swedes, have called the galaxy Winter Street (Vintergatan) as the galaxy is most clearly visible during the winter at the northern hemisphere, especially at high latitudes where the glow of the Sun late at night can obscure it during the summer.” ref

1000 to 1100 CE, human sacrifice Cahokia Mounds, a pre-Columbian Native American site

Following The Milky Way Path of Souls: An Archaeoastronomic Assessment of Cahokia’s Main Site Axis and Rattlesnake Causeway

“Abstract: Cahokia was a major Native American city on the east side of the Mississippi River, across from the modern-day city of St. Louis, Missouri. Cahokia flourished from c. 1050 to c. 1250 CE. In this paper, archaeoastronomic and ethnohistoric data, along with computer simulations, are used to explore the idea that the Cahokia site axis and the Rattlesnake Causeway were intentionally aligned to the Milky Way. It is proposed that this alignment accounts for the peculiar 5° ofset of the site from the cardinal directions. Following Sarah Baires, it is suggested that the Rattlesnake Causeway was a terrestrial metaphor for the Milky Way Path of Souls used by the deceased to cross to the Land of the Dead. Rattlesnake Mound at the end of the Causeway is suggested as a portal to the Path of Souls. According to ethnohistoric accounts, the Land of the Dead was guarded by a Great Serpent – suggested here as visible in the night sky as either the constellation Serpens or that of Scorpius.” ref

“Cahokia (Figure 1) was a major city of the Native American Mississippian culture. The site is located on the east side of the Mississippi River in present-day Illinois. It flourished between c. 1050 and c. 1250 CE. The site has more than 100 earthen mounds including Monks Mound, the largest earthen mound north of Mexico. It also features an earthen causeway about 1 km in length known as Rattlesnake Causeway (Figure 2, below). This paper explores the hypothesis that the Cahokia site axis and Rattlesnake Causeway were aligned to the Milky Way Path of Souls. The Path of Souls was the celestial path traveled by the deceased to the Land of the Dead.” ref

“The researcher’s investigation proceeds from the position that if we, as archaeologists, are ever to hope to understand the ancient cultures we study, then we need to open our inquiries to what mattered most to the people who constituted those cultures (sensu Hall 1976, 363). Indeed, this researcher agrees with Susan Alt (2020b, 62): suggesting that opening up our histories to include other sorts of assemblages that include the unseen powers and forces, or the other-than-human persons that many ancient Native American groups interacted with, and the landscapes and places that created the atmospheres and affects that shaped living not only gets us closer to the people in the past but can help us decolonize our thinking as we consider how to better operationalize Indigenous points of view.” ref

“To that end, archaeoastronomy has an important contribution to make, as it brings into play an entire universe of other-than-human entities and relationships that are not typically considered by most archaeologists. A good example is the posited alignment of Cahokia to the Milky Way discussed in this paper. The idea that Cahokia might be associated with the Milky Way was first introduced by Sarah Baires (2014a, 2014b, 2017). Beyond a few intriguing comments, however, the idea has never been fully investigated, and what little mention was made (Baires 2017) was not empirically based. Nevertheless, this researcher believes the idea has merit, and in the present paper, astronomic, ethnographic, archaeological, and iconographic data are offered in support of the hypothesis that the Cahokia site axis and Rattlesnake Causeway were intentionally oriented to the Milky Way at nightfall on the summer solstice.” ref

“Ethnologist George Lankford (2007b, 2007c) has found that many Native American tribes believed that to reach the Land of the Dead, souls of the deceased had to proceed along a celestial path known as the Ghost Road, Spirits’ Path or Path of Souls. This path was seen in the night sky as the Milky Way. Tribes identified by Lankford (2007b, 179–180) as believing in the Path of Souls include the Ojibwa, Fox, Sauk, Menomini, Miami, Delaware, Shawnee, Powhatan, Cheyenne, Huron, Iroquois, Oglala, Osage, Omaha, Quapaw, Saponi, Caddo, Pawnee, Chickasaw, and Creek. In addition to the people noted by Lankford, we can add the Apache (Curtis 1907, 134), Paiute (Mooney 1900, 290), Seneca (Wallace 1972, 245), Lakota (Miller 1997, 304) and Shoshone (Curtis 1926, 82). No doubt there are others. As Lankford (2007b, 175) explains: The mortuary belief complex in question manifests variation in ethnographic details from one tribal group to another, as might be expected, but there is a unifying metaphor that argues for a common core of belief across the Eastern Woodlands and Plains, and probably far beyond that area.” ref

“That unifying notion is an understanding of the Milky Way as the path on which the souls of the deceased must walk. He goes on to lay out a general model of how the death journey proceeds. Details vary, but it is generally agreed that after remaining in the vicinity of the grave for a few days, the soul begins its journey to the Land of the Dead. Existence in the Land of the Dead is similar to life in This World, but things are reversed. When it is daytime in This World, for example, it is night-time in the Land of the Dead. Mostly, existence in the Land of the Dead is pleasant. Not everyone, however, is successful in their journey. The Milky Way Path has its dangers. In some traditions, the Milky Way Path splits into two. Souls that take the wrong path are forever lost. In other traditions, there is an entity along the way that judges the soul (Lankford 2011, table 10.1). Fail the judgment and the journey is ended. In some tradi- tions the soul must negotiate a hazardous log/serpent bridge across an abyss or river. Fall of the bridge, and again, the soul is lost (Lankford 2007b, 182–183).” ref 

“In some cases, crossing the bridge is made difficult as the bridge is actually a shape-shifting serpent (Lankford 2007c, 208). We will encounter this serpent later in the present discussion, in the context of how the Land of the Dead is “protected by the Great Serpent” (Lankford 2007b, 178; 2007c, 214). Given the wide geographic extent of the Milky Way Path of Souls belief, it seems reasonable to infer that it has great time depth. For reasons explained below, this researcher believes the concept was expressed in the design of Cahokia more than a thousand years ago. The Milky Way Made up of billions of stars, the Milky Way looks like a hazy band of white light stretching across the night sky. Unfortunately, modern-day light pollution has reduced the visibility of the star band to where today, the Milky Way “is hidden from more than one-third of humanity, including 60% of Europeans and nearly 80% of North Americans” (Falchi et al. 2016, 1).” ref

“In ancient times, however, the Milky Way was one of the most prominent features in the night sky. The position of the Milky Way relative to a stationary observer changes over the course of a year and over the course of a single night. As Edwin Krupp (1996, 411) explains, the Milky Way “connects one side of the horizon with another by vaulting over the earth, but the angle it makes with the ground depends on where you are located and how the spinning Earth has lifted the Milky Way into the sky.” Importantly, the Milky Way is at its brightest and most visible during the summer months. During the winter the Milky Way is considerably lower in the night sky and often not visible. Kevin Palmer (2016) gives a useful explanation regarding the view in the Northern Hemisphere: The core of the Milky Way is only visible about half of the year. The other half it is located beneath the horizon. In the winter months (December–February) it is not visible at all because it’s too close to the sun. In the spring (March–May), it will first become visible a few hours before sunrise. By June it will rise much earlier before midnight. The summer months (June–August) are generally the best viewing time because it will be up most of the night.” ref

“By fall (September–November), the Milky Way will be best seen in the evening, before it sets. Twilight can brighten the sky up to 2 hours before sunrise and 2 hours after sunset, so you want to avoid those times. Given that the position of the Milky Way is an ever-changing phenomenon, if Cahokians intended to align the site to the Milky Way, their frst task would have been to select a particular time and date. Analysis of the site axis and causeway suggest that the builders chose nightfall on the summer solstice, c. 1050 CE (the approximate presumed date when Cahokia was laid out). This was perhaps guided by two considerations. First, as noted, the Milky Way is easily seen during the summer months. Narrowing down further, the summer solstice marks the beginning of the colder and darker half of the year. From summer solstice to winter solstice, the Sun sinks lower in the sky, days become shorter, nights become longer, and temperatures drop. For many plant and animal species, this half of the year marks the time of their maturity, followed by hibernation or death. Beginning with the summer solstice, the summer-to-winter solstice season can, therefore, be understood as the appropriate time for souls to begin their journey to the Land of the Dead.” ref

“Although somewhat removed from Cahokia, the timing of mortuary rituals to the summer solstice also fnds explanatory power in an interview by Edwin Krupp with Floyd Buckskin, a member of the Ajumawi tribal council. The Ajumawi Indians of northeast California believe that souls of the dead make the transition to the Milky Way Path of Souls at the time of the summer solstice. Krupp (1996, 417) reports as follows: [T]he shadow heads north and soars to the summit of Mount Shasta. From the moun- tain top, the shadow transfers to the Milky Way. The Ajumawi call the Milky Way “the pathway of spirits.” When the Milky Way arcs over Mount Shasta, the shadow is able to travel east and join Hewisi the Creator at sunrise.” ref

“This itinerary has a seasonal aspect, for the Milky Way climbs out of the northeast before dawn at summer solstice. The Ajumawi say the Milky Way is aligned at this time with the trail followed on the Earth by the dead and aligned with the Sun as well. Because these celestial and terrestrial routes are all so congruent, it is easier for those who die at this time to travel to the Creator. Second, as regards the specifc timing on the summer solstice, it should be noted that nightfall is not the same as sunset. Nightfall occurs after sunset and after twilight, and is when night actually begins. Nightfall occurs when the Sun drops to about –18° below the horizon. It is at this time that all the stars that can be seen with the naked eye from any particular location become visible. This includes the Milky Way.” ref

Cahokia Site Axis and Rattlesnake Causeway

“In earlier work, I suggested that Cahokia was designed using squares and rectangles (Romain 2017a, 2017b, 2018). Figure 3 shows the general idea. While other design plans are possible, Figure 3 demonstrates how the overall orientation of the site is along a trajectory of 5° in one direction and 185° in the other (see also Reed 1969, 33). This is the site axis, which in the northern half of the site runs through Monks Mound and bisects the Grand Plaza, and in the southern half shifts to the east where the aforementioned 185° azimuth is established by Rattlesnake Causeway (Moorehead 1929, 104–106; Reed 2009; Baires 2014a, 2014b, 2017). The Causeway bisects the large design square that outlines the southern half of the site (Figure 3). As an aside, in this design, the mounds did not need to be built all at the same time, so long as the presumed master plan was known and more or less followed by later builders. Nor did every mound need to be precisely situated on an ideal design quadrilateral in order to convey the idea of a planned and symmetrical layout.” ref

“Rattlesnake Causeway is a raised earthen feature roughly 800 m (2625 ft) in length, 18 m (59 ft) wide, and between 0.5–1.5 m (1.5–5.0 ft) high (Baires 2014b, 6). It extends from just south of the Grand Plaza to Mound 66 (also known as Rattlesnake Mound). In the late nineteenth century, a railroad spur was built on the causeway, remnants of which are visible today in LiDAR DTMs (Figure 5, below). Radiocarbon dating shows that “the causeway was constructed at the onset of Cahokia’s ‘Big Bang’” (Baires 2014b, 9). As mentioned, the idea that the Rattlesnake Causeway might be associated with the Milky Way Path of Souls originated with Sarah Baires (2014a, 196–197; 2014b, 13; 2017). Specifically, Baires (2014a, 197) argues that “the causeway and Rattlesnake Mound were constructed to cite a possible Path of Souls (which is oriented slightly east of north), directing the dead along the Rattlesnake Causeway, through the marshy, watery realm […] and ultimately to the Realm of the Dead.” ref

“She repeated this interpretation nearly verbatim a few years later (Baires 2017, 113), but did not add any empirical or new data. Expanding on Baires’s idea, Timothy Pauketat (2017, 13) commented that it is possible that the circular mound atop the site’s main pyramid [Monks Mound], if not the entire pyramid itself, was an earthly bundle of the moon itself, perhaps intended to depict the full moon passing through the Milky Way/causeway, with the burial mound at its southern terminus being the point of articulation between earth and sky and living and dead. More recently, Pauketat’s work has been discussed in a news item that was published by the University of Illinois news bureau (Yates 2020). Pauketat is quoted as stating that it “turns out that on the days of the solstices, when the Milky Way is most vertical, if you stand on Monk’s Mound right before sunrise, the Milky Way arises out of the end of the causeway and kind of arcs across the sky and then taps back into a line that the causeway marks.” ref

“The same article appeared on the websites of the Archaeology News Network and the archaeology section of Science X’s Phys.Org (see the reference list for links). Baires was well-positioned to draw conclusions about Rattlesnake Causeway, given that she conducted limited excavations into the structure (Baires 2014b). Archaeoastronomy, however, was not a focus of her work (Baires 2014a, 2014b, 2017), and no real data documenting how Cahokia or the Causeway might be connected to the Milky Way has been provided by either her or Pauketat. Nor did they cite other Mississippian sites (or earlier Hopewell sites [e.g. Romain 2015a]) that have Milky Way alignments. Nevertheless, their comments were prescient. As shown below, the Cahokia site axis and Rattlesnake Causeway are indeed aligned to the Milky Way. However, neither the site axis nor Causeway are aligned to the Milky Way “right before sunrise” on either the winter or summer solstices.

“In the representations, the night sky at Cahokia is simulated using the computer planetarium Stellarium (ver. 0.19.3). The Milky Way one hour before sunrise on the date of the 1050 CE winter solstice (solstice sunrise was on 16th December at 07.21 am LMST). In this figure, in order to better see the Milky Way, the atmospheric effects function for the planetarium simulation has been turned off. In reality, due to atmospheric extinction, the Milky Way would have been even less visible. In any case, there was no alignment of the Cahokia site axis or Rattlesnake Causeway to the Milky Way at this time. The Milky Way was about one hour before sunrise six months earlier, on the summer solstice of 1050 CE (solstice sunrise was on 16th June at 04.36 am LMST; see Stellafane [2021] for date determinations, Stellarium for times). As shown, the Milky Way extends from an azimuth of about 60° in the northeast to about 240° in the southwest. Again, there is no alignment of the site axis or causeway to the Milky Way.” ref

Cahokia and the Land of the Dead

“In many Native American traditions, the Land of the Dead is in the south, west, or southwest (Lankford 2007b, 176; 2007c, 207, 240). If the same was true at Cahokia, then it is appropriate that as the soul moves toward the south or southwest, it also moves deeper into the Land of the Dead. Correspondingly, Rattlesnake Causeway proceeds from a relatively dry area at its north end to a lower and wetter elevation further south. As Baires (2014a, 22) explains: Some areas, like where Monks Mound, part of the Grand Plaza, and Mounds 42 and 41 are located, remain relatively dry as they sit on land higher than the surrounding foodplain, the areas directly south and north of Cahokia’s central core, consistently marshy and swampy were home to neighborhoods, other mounds, and the Rattlesnake Causeway in particular. The area south of the Grand Plaza is one of the lowest in elevation and marshiest landscapes at Cahokia and is home to the majority of identified ridge-top mounds (Rattlesnake Mound, Mound 72, Mound 64, Mound 65).In Native American cosmologies where it is believed there is an Upperworld, This World, and Below World, the Land of the Dead is often associated with the Below World (aka Beneath World or Underworld).” ref

“Theresa A. Smith (1995, 46) explains it as follows: The underworld in this scheme consisted of several layers, including a layer in which earthly rhythms were reversed: “In this [lower] world it is day when it is night on [the] earth and vice versa, for the sun travels above the earth during the day and under it during the [night]” (Hallowell 1942, 6). This mirror world was often understood as the final destination for the dead […]. Also below was the realm of the Underwater and Underground creatures, sometimes said to lie between the earth and the land of the dead. From a cosmological perspective, the southern half of Cahokia, or what might be termed the “Swamp Zone,” corresponds with the underwater region that Smith describes as situated between This World and the Land of the Dead. As Baires (2014a, 157) points out, Rattlesnake Causeway bridges the watery realm. Appropriately enough, a considerable number of burials are found in the Swamp Zone.” ref

“Burial mounds located in this area include Mound 72, as well as Rattlesnake Mound (Mound 66). Iseminger (2010, 80) estimates that at least 300 people were buried in Mound 72. Jay L. B. Taylor, the chief project engineer of the 1927 excavation of the site, estimated that at least 150 burials were found in Rattlesnake Mound (in Moorehead 1929, 74). Indeed, sufficient numbers of burials were found in the Swamp Zone, and Dalan and co-authors (2003, 155) referred to the area as a “mortuary precinct.” Portal to the Otherworld Rattlesnake Mound is one of several at Cahokia that are classified as ridge-top mounds. Its dimensions are impressive: Fowler (1997, 133) records it as 132 m (433.1 ft) long, 51 m (167.3 ft) wide and 7.4 m (24.3 ft) high. As noted above, it is situated at the south end of Rattlesnake Causeway.” ref

“Moreover, it is positioned so that its minor axis extends along the 185° azimuth (Figure 3, above). This places the mound on the Milky Way Path and in align- ment with it. Together, the special location and orientation of Rattlesnake Mound suggest that the mound was a portal to the Otherworld (sensu Knight 1989) and, in particular, a portal to the Path of Souls. Most mounds at Cahokia are square, rectangular, or conical. In plain view, however, Rattlesnake Mound is oval-shaped at its base. As Taylor stated (fieldnotes quoted in Moorehead 1929, 68): “Attention is called to the fact that […] the mound’s peripheral outline is almost a perfect ellipse”. Deviations from an ideal ellipse resulted from damage caused by a farm building foundation at the west end and an “old barn foundation, eighty feet long at the south end of the line through Stn.1” (Taylor’s fieldnotes in Moorehead 1929, 67).” ref

“From its oval base, Rattlesnake Mound rises to a narrow ridge at its top. Figure 10a shows this ridge highlighted in yellow. With its oval base rising to a narrow ridge, I suggest that Rattlesnake Mound and others like it were intended as three-dimensional ogee or barred-oval symbols. In plan view, the base of the Rattlesnake Mound closely resembles the center ogee design shown in Figure 10c, while the ridge along the top of the mound recalls the barred oval design in Figure 10b. The ogee symbol is generally considered a symbol for a portal to the Otherworld (Lankford 2007b, 202; Reilly 2004, 130; 2011, 125; King 2011, 288), and the barred oval likely represents the same concept. The barred oval design is often found on creatures such as the serpents shown in Figure 10d.” ref

“Here, as suggested by Reilly (2011, 122), wings on the serpents likely serve as “symbolic locatives” – meaning they situate the serpents in the celestial realm. Similarly, barred oval symbols identify the serpents with the Otherworld portal they circle around. Diaz-Granados (2011, 90) suggests that “depictions of the ogee bring to mind a version of the vulva form and might serve as a metaphor for a portal.” This would seem to apply to the ogee and barred oval designs in Figures 10b, 10c, and 10d. Specifically, new life comes into This World through female genitalia symbolized by ogee or barred ovals. Correspondingly, it seems appropriate that if a soul is transitioning in the opposite direction – i.e. from This World to the next through death – then the portal to that world or realm might likewise be represented by ogee and barred oval symbols. The shape of Rattlesnake Mound is consistent with these notions. Further support is found in the book D(L) Akota Star Map Constellation Guide.” ref

“The writers are Native American, and the stories they tell are intended to explain Lakota star constellations. Here is part of one story about the Sacred Hoop or Womb constellation (Lee et al. 2014, 26): The buffalo embryo emerges from the Sacred Hoop or Womb constellation – Winter Circle. Notice how the Wanagi Tacanku – Road of the Spirits/Ghost Trail, or Milky Way goes directly through the center of the womb. The teaching is that the spirit comes from the Star World through the Wanagi Tacanku – Road of Spirits/Ghost Trail and then emerges from the Womb going to Oceti/Peta – Fireplace in Leo. Adding to the idea that Rattlesnake Mound is a portal to other realms, Taylor (field- notes published in Moorehead 1929, 72) found in the mound “an almost continuous bed of human skulls, humeri, ulnae, radii, femora, tibiae, and fibulae […] but no other bones appeared.” ref

“Taylor (feldnotes quoted in Moorehead 1929, 73) goes on to note that “femora and other limb bones accompanying skulls usually lay parallel with the minor axis of the mound, although a few bundles were found lying almost at right angles to this”. As already pointed-out and as shown by Figures 3 and 10a, the minor axis of Rattlesnake Mound extends along the 185° azimuth. If this azimuth points to the Milky Way, it follows that the minor axis-aligned bundle burials were also aligned to the Milky Way. If the bone bundles were to stand up, they would appear to be walking through the ogee mound symbol, onto the Milky Way Path of Souls.” ref

Serpents and Serpent Constellations

“Perhaps relevant is that the Cahokia Swamp Zone is sometimes infested with snakes – hence the names Rattlesnake Mound and Rattlesnake Causeway. Taylor (fieldnotes in Moorehead 1929, 70) reported that as a result of rainstorms, the area was “so completely inundated that numbers of blue racers and rattlesnakes sought refuge on the mound where they finally became so annoying that we postponed work in the trench long enough to mow and burn all vegetation on such parts of the mound as we were camped on or working over.” There are a significant number of snake species in the Cahokia area. The most detailed data come from the Shawnee National Forest, roughly 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Cahokia. In that area, Palis (2016, Table 1) identified 17 species, including copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes. In Illinois, both the timber rattlesnake and eastern Massasauga rattlesnake are found. The eastern massasauga is also known as the “swamp rattler” because it favors wet prairies, swamps, and bogs. The massasauga was likely the rattlesnake that Taylor encountered. Given the swampy lowland area occupied by Cahokia, real snakes were probably a common sight for inhabitants, particularly due to fields of maize surrounding the city: maize attracts rodents; rodents attract snakes.” ref

“Snakes were an important feature of Mississippian cosmology and belief. Serpents were Underworld creatures associated with women, horticulture, fertility, night, and water (Emerson 1989; 1997, 205–207; Lankford 2007c). Indeed, Reilly (2011, 119) makes it clear that “The Great Serpent not only dwelt in the Beneath World as the master of beneath and underwater creatures but reigned as Lord of the Realm of the Dead.” Serpent representations are found on Mississippian pottery, shell gorgets, and sculpted stone figurines. The Birger figurine, for example, was found at the BBB Motor site, about 3.5 km (2 miles) northeast of Cahokia (Emerson 1982, 1989). The front view shows a woman using a hoe to till the back of a serpent, while the side view shows its head. Vines and gourds are growing from the tail of the serpent. Thus, the serpent is shown to provide plant resources for humans. However, the serpent’s potentially deadly aspect is also revealed by its impressive fangs and teeth. Indeed, as discussed below, it is the serpent’s deadly potential that makes it ideally suited as a guardian of the Milky Way portal.” ref

“The association of serpents with the Cahokia Swamp Zone is not a trivial matter. Earlier, it was mentioned how various Native American oral traditions tell of a serpent/log bridge that the soul must cross in order to reach the Land of the Dead. This shape-shifting serpent is situated on the Milky Way Path. We do not know if Cahokians believed that the Great Serpent was a shape-shifting serpent on the Milky Way Path, or a celestial guardian to the Land of the Dead. Walking along Rattlesnake Causeway, however, might easily bring one into contact with a serpent; and according to Lankford (2007c, 256), the location of the Great Serpent “at the foot of the Milky Way makes him the guardian of the entry into the Realm of Souls”. In this regard, at Cahokia, on the night of the summer solstice, Rattlesnake Causeway not only points to the Milky Way Path of Souls; it also points to what may have been cognates for the Great Serpent – i.e. the star constellations Ophiuchus-Serpens and Scorpius (Figure 12). Although these names are Western in origin, their serpent forms were recognized in the southern summer sky by certain Native Americans.” ref

“In particular, the Skidi Pawnee of the Great Plains recognized Serpens and Scorpius as celestial serpents. Summarising interview data collected by Fletcher (1903, 15), a 1906 letter by the astronomer Forest Ray Moulton (published in Chamberlain 1982, Appendix 2) concluded that “the Skidi recognized two serpent constellations”. These constellations were “Real Snake” and “Snake-not-Real.” Real Snake referred to Scorpius; Snake-not-Real was Serpens (Chamberlain 1982, 133, 134; see also Weltfsh 1977, 329). Lankford (2007b, 2007c) proposes that in Mississippian iconography, the Great Serpent was seen in the night sky as Scorpius: “The stars comprising the constellation make a clear serpentine shape, and the constellation stretches across the southern end of the Milky Way” (Lankford 2007a, 129). What is interesting about the above ethnohistoric data is that the Pawnee are Caddoan speakers. During the Mississippian culture period, Caddoan sites (e.g., Spiro in Oklahoma) were known to have had contact with Cahokia (Brown 2004, 120), and Caddoan and Middle Mississippian sites shared many cultural traits. Assuming that the Pawnee serpent constellations have temporal depth, it seems entirely possible that Cahokians were familiar with the celestial Caddo-Pawnee serpents. Indeed, it is likely that these serpents were well-known throughout the Mississippian world.” ref

“It may be that the seasonal appearance of the Great Serpent is refected in Missis- sippian-era designs. In Figures 13a and 13b, for example, both designs include opposed serpents. With reference to the Rattlesnake disk found in Alabama and another piece known as the Kersey beaker, Reilly (2011, 124) suggests that the negative space in the center, formed by the two serpents, “may very well designate portals.” To this I would add that perhaps the surrounding serpents represent summer and winter manifestations of the Great Serpent as it rotates around a central portal. As Scorpius, for example, the Great Serpent is visible in the summer night sky, at the southern end of the Milky Way. Slowly, the serpent rotates through the night sky until the fall and winter months, when the constellation disappears as it moves below the horizon. Notably, the winter-time period of invisibility for Scorpius corresponds to the period of dormancy for real snakes. One of the interesting things about the Mississippian serpent representations is that they portray rattlesnakes, with designs invariably showing the rattlesnake’s characteristic rattles.” ref

“It is easy to understand why the rattlesnake might be considered the guardian to the Land of the Dead. Although rattlesnake bites are usually not fatal in humans (even without modern medical treatment [Klauber 1982, 173–179]), there is nevertheless a risk that a bite could speed one along on a journey to the Land of the Dead. It also happens that one of the characteristic features of rattlesnakes is that they coil before striking. This characteristic coiling is perhaps seen in the way the tail end of Scorpius begins to coil. Other Native American groups, in addition to the Pawnee, also recognized serpents in the night sky. One of the best-known is the Cherokee Uktena (Figure 14). This deadly serpent was placed in the sky by the Little People (Mooney 1900, 297–298). Further to the north, the Iroquois (Hewitt 1891, 384) believed “fre dragons” sometimes seen in the night sky were huge serpents having the head of a panther and the wings and claws of an eagle. They lived in large lakes and few through the night as they crossed from one lake to another.” ref

“The Kiowa of the Great Plains (Marriott and Rachlin 1975, 131) believed that solar eclipses were caused by a great serpent that swallowed the Sun (Marriott and Rachlin 1975, 131), and the Lakota tell of a great serpent constellation known as Zuzeca in the southern winter sky (Lee et al. 2014, 26). Returning to Cahokia, it seems appropriate that as one moves along Rattlesnake Causeway from north to south and deeper into the Swamp Zone, one also moves into an area infested with rattlesnakes and other serpents – i.e. living cognates for the Great Serpent at the end of the Milky Way Path. Add to that the occurrence of swamp mists and ground fogs (Alt 2020a, 28), and it is easy to imagine the Swamp Zone as a metaphor for the Lowerworld, or Otherworld – i.e. a place where things are not always as they seem; a place where a log lying in the weeds might, in the blink of an eye, transform into a deadly rattlesnake; a place where shape-shifting serpents are real.” ref

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Siberian/East Asian and North American Afterlife Beliefs, Mortuary Rituals, and Psychopomp Motifs, especially involving the Milky Way, Path of Souls of Deceased, Bird, Dog, Coyote or Wolf, and Reincarnation Version 2, 08 April (2022) by James B. Harrod

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“Siberian/East Asian and North American Geometric Dynamics of Milky Way Spiritual Beliefs: Eight Milky Way Patterns Harrod (2022).” ref

“6 Milky Way mythic/belief elements are based on the literature review: Siberian/East Asian and North American Afterlife Beliefs, Mortuary Rituals and Psychopomp Motifs, especially involving Milky Way, Path of Souls of Deceased, Bird, Dog, Coyote or Wolf, and Reincarnation. The initial purpose of 6 Milky Way mythic/belief elements is to provide a summary ethnographic context for interpreting hypothesized figurative portable art in the Clovis cache at the Anzick Clovis infant burial site, Montana, USA, 13,000 years ago.  However, it not only has relevance to the Anzick site, it may have relevance for any research aiming to reconstruct the afterlife beliefs, mortuary rites or psychopomp motifs for groups peopling the New World from Siberia/East Asia. It also is a set of three tables totally 104 pages. Thus, I post it separately from my research on the Anzick Clovis cache.” ref  

6 Milky Way mythic/belief elements: 

1. “Milky Way (if Milky Way is also a path of souls; birds; dog; or wolf, fox, or coyote.
2. The Path of Souls (if that path is the Milky Way)
3. Birds, as guard of, psychopomp to, or ruler of a path to land of the dead
4. Dog, as sacrifice, guard of, psychopomp to, or condition to reach the land of the dead
5. Wolf, Fox or Coyote, as guard of, psychopomp to, or ruler of the land of the dead
6. Reincarnation” ref

“With respect to 13 Siberian/East Asian tribal groups, all 13 have reincarnation beliefs. 9 have Bird element and 9 have Dog element. These are the most prominent elements. With respect to 19 North American tribal groups, all 19 (if Wintu-Maidu and Yok-Utian ‘ashes’ evoke trail of cremated deceased) have the Milky Way as Path of the Souls of the Deceased.  15 tribal groups have reincarnation beliefs (for the other 4 I could find no information); 8, the Bird element; 11, the Dog element; 7, the Wolf element; and 3 a Coyote element.  With respect to this ‘summary’ table, for North America, excepting Inuit, Na-Dene and Haida, the belief that the Milky Way is a Path of the Souls of the Deceased extends across major language groups: Wakashan, Salishan, Penutian, Uto-Aztecan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, and Muskogean. It is also found in some Hokan tribes (possible influence of Ghost Dance) and Caddoan Pawnee (influence of Ghost Dance).” ref 

Indigenous peoples of Siberia

“Siberia is a vast region spanning the northern part of the Asian continent and forming the Asiatic portion of Russia. As a result of the Russian conquest of Siberia (16th to 19th centuries) and of the subsequent population movements during the Soviet era (1917–1991), the modern-day demographics of Siberia is dominated by ethnic Russians (Siberiaks) and other Slavs. However, there remains a slowly increasing number of Indigenous groups, accounting for about 5% of the total Siberian population (about 1.6–1.8 million), some of which are closely genetically related to Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

• “Ainu people
• Mongolic peoples
• Paleosiberian peoples
  • Chukotko-Kamchatkan
  • Nivkh
  • Yeniseian
  • Yukaghir
• Tungusic peoples
• Turkic peoples
• Uralic peoples
  Ob-Ugrians
  • Samoyeds
• Yukaghir group
• Genetic relationships and links to Indigenous peoples of the Americas.” ref

ref

ref, ref

Uralic languages

“The Uralic languages, are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers above 100,000 are Erzya, Moksha, Mari, Udmurt, and Komi spoken in the European parts of the Russian Federation. Still smaller minority languages are Sámi languages of the northern Fennoscandia; other members of the Finnic languages, ranging from Livonian in northern Latvia to Karelian in northwesternmost Russia; the Samoyedic languages and the others of members of the Ugric languages, Mansi and Khanty spoken in Western Siberia.” ref

(Nganasan) (a Uralic people of the Samoyedic branch native to the Taymyr Peninsula in north Siberia, absorbed a local Paleo-Siberian population and thought to be the direct descendants of proto-Uralic peoples) ref 

Lower World: yes ref

“Shaman is psychopomp, as Polar Bear assists souls to other side via the sea; soul goes to Lower World like this one, then master of souls, reincarnates.” ref

(Finnish, Karelian)

“Drum central sun as concentric circles rhomboids, wheel, rays; 3 tiers, world tree/pillar; Lower World of animals, ancestors, the dead (no reference). Milky Way is path of migratory Birds, like geese, ducks, swans or cranes; soul-birds Duck, Diver, Goose, Swan.” ref

Milky Way: Path of migratory Birds; Trail of cosmic hunt of Moose ref

Upper World: 2nd place of the dead, taken by migratory birds: geese,  crane, swan, duck, diver ref

Lower World: of animals, ancestors and 1st place of the dead ref

(Khanty, Mansi)

“Milky Way is ‘way of the wild ducks’ or ‘way of the birds of the south’, where the Milky Way acts as a guide for migratory birds. ‘Souls of dead first go to Lower World, where they live their life backwards. Then migratory Birds take the souls up to the Upper World Father. After this they may return to Earth and reincarnate.” ref

(Khanty)

“Milky Way is a trail of great hunter, who chased 6-legged Moose out of sky to earth, first meat to people.” ref

(Nenet, Enet)

“Shaman journeys to Lower World on Reindeer, fights its evil spirits who cause disease and its head, Nga; has 3 chums: Master of Mammoths; Reindeer; Heartless Tungu = Evenks; inhabited by dead who live as in middle world, except for evil spirits who kill innocents and they die a second time; (Enet) Milky Way, track of cosmic hunt; (Nenet) ‘spine of the sky’. The spring of the world’s river is in the south in the ‘bog with seven bogholes’. Its mouth is in the north at the cold ‘sea of the dead’ (Nenet) Drovyanoy-3, shaman cache sledge burial with paraphernalia, spirit-figurines; 9 rocks of unusual colors, shapes, textures, one like a ‘dancing man’, another with salt and pepper coloration; perforated Polar Bear canine (such as Nenet herders wear as talismans on their belts); scraps of Reindeer bone and Fish vertebrae may have been remains of ritual meal; sledge parts and ritual ‘toys.’ Shaman is psychopomp, as Polar Bear assists souls to other side via the sea; soul goes to Lower World like this one, then master of souls, reincarnates.” ref

Milky Way: ‘spine of the sky’ trail of cosmic hunt ref

Lower World: sea of the dead; (shaman journeys to Lower World on Reindeer), (sledge burial, Polar Bear canine) ref

(Sel’kup)

“(S. Sel’kup) Ob’ River mouth is portal to Lower World; headwaters > Upper World; Middle World river is earthy continuation of Milky Way (‘the stony river’). An island in the sea the land of the ancestors; Lower World river goes to the sea of the dead. (N. Sel’kup) Milky Way is smoke or sparks of hearth fire of Celestial Old Woman who lives at highest Upper World layer, ‘the night rainbow (bridge)’ keeping away and blocking the way against every evil that comes at night. (Sel’kup) Air burial rite; transition to world of spirits 2-3 days, during which a soul revisits places visited in life; way to Lower World down and to west; souls live as in life; grave goods torn, broken or ruined. (S. Sel’kup) Souls after death ascend, some turn into stars, some into birds. (Tym, N. Sel’kup) soul (keji) had 2 parts, ‘the great soul’ ruled all the souls in the body, dwelt in the head or heart (werqi keji); the ‘free soul’ (quwterge, lit. ‘soul which has left the person’) settled in a cult tribal storehouse with spirits of kin; a wooden-effigy twin held it; the ilintil’tika (lit. ‘a living shadow’), the shadow soul after death lived under the ground; (N. Sel’kup) ilsat/ilsa/ilsan <*i.- to live), the vital soul, evil spirit takes it to Lower World upon death; = Tym ‘free soul; or it moves into a Bear and continues to live on earth; Mammoth-Bear guards land of the dead near portal to Lower World. Souls travel to roots of World Tree, up to the sky in form of a Spider (mezgir’) from there reincarnate. Every morning Celestial Mother sent souls on tips of sunrays (il’sat, ‘ray’, ‘soul’) down to people. A tree or river fork is where different worlds interact; a tree fork was placed on the grave of shamans. A sea of bloody water described for shamanic travels. Dog as a guardian of the land of the dead.” ref

Milky Way: ‘stony river’ > Upper World or hearth smoke of Old Woman of Life ‘night rainbow (bridge)’ against evil; ‘ski track’ of hunter of Moose, whose arrows stopped.” ref

Upper World: > stars or birds, souls to roots of World Tree, up to sky as Spider. ref

Lower World: shadow or free soul; In the middle world free soul  > in doll in store-house  or  > sea island of  ancestors;  wood, Y-fork  on graves of shamans ref

Yeniseian language

“The Yeniseian languages are a family of languages that are spoken by the Yeniseian people in the Yenisei River region of central Siberia. As part of the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, the Yeniseian languages have been argued to be part of “the first demonstration of a genealogical link between Old World and New World language families that meets the standards of traditional comparative–historical linguistics.” The only surviving language of the group today is Ket. From hydronymic and genetic data, it is suggested that the Yeniseian languages were spoken in a much greater area in ancient times, including parts of northern China and Mongolia. It has been further proposed that the recorded distribution of Yeniseian languages from the 17th century onward represents a relatively recent northward migration, and that the Yeniseian urheimat lies to the south of Lake Baikal.” ref

(Ket)

“Every person possesses 7 spirits, of which most essential is the ulvei (water-wind; ‘soul’), which can only animate a human being or a Bear (a lost human relative). When a person died, his ulvei passed into Sky or Lower World, in state of limbo awaiting reincarnation; or originally Ket cosmos N-S, down or up river, and ascent/descent from Altai Turkish shamanism. Milky Way, path left by hero Alba as he drove Hosedam N to Arctic Sea; or the trail of the first shaman, Doh. A tree fork was placed on the graves.  Dog and Reindeer sacrifices; buried their dead in the earth, along with personal possessions, which were broken up before being put in the tomb; sometimes dogs were also killed and placed with the deceased’; Ket and Other Yeniseian Peoples.” ref

Milky Way: path of Alba, driving Hosedam to Arctic Sea or the first shaman Doh’s Trail. ref

Lower World: at mouth of Yenisei realm darkness, cold and death as well as Hosedam who devours lost souls; conflated with fuzzy notion of Lower World; wooden Y-fork on graves, dog sacrifice at grave. ref

Yukaghir language

“The Yukaghir languages are a small family of two closely related languages—Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir—spoken by the Yukaghir in the Russian Far East living in the basin of the Kolyma River.” ref

“The relationship of the Yukaghir languages with other language families is uncertain, though it has been suggested that they are distantly related to the Uralic languages, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family. Michael Fortescue argued that Yukaghir is related to the Eskimo-Aleut languages along with Uralic languages, forming the Uralo-Siberian language family.” ref

(Yukaghir)

“A shaman on way to retrieve a patient’s soul encounters an Old Woman with a Dog barking, and then proceeds to a river, crossing in a boat, and on the other side finds in a tent the sick soul, and returns with it. Relatives of a shaman who died, separated flesh of corpse from the bones, placed dried flesh in larch tent, and killed Dogs as offerings, not bad dogs, only good ones. 3 souls aibi or ayibii (‘shadow’): 1 in head, head-soul can cause illness, but loss not entirely life threatening; 1 in heart, heart-soul, integral to life, (analogous to breath-soul, mechanism of animation); 1 in whole body, shadow-soul; all living things possessed all three, even inanimate objects possessed one, presumably the shadow-soul. The ancestor-name-soul reincarnates in womb, and newborn gets name when it begins to speak and announces its name. 3 souls: 1 stays with corpse, 1 journeys over to shadow realm also realm of soul-loss, 1 ascends to sky. Dead is carried to other world by his Reindeer. The condition to reach other world is having treated actual Dogs well during one’s lifetime; Soul reincarnates in human and animals.” ref

Upper World: 3rd soul ascends. ref

Lower World: shadow soul to shadow realm, of soul-loss and the 2nd soul stays with corpse in the middle world. ref

Altai area (Altai Mountain range)

“The Altaic (/ælˈteɪ.ɪk/) languages are a group of languages comprising the Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic language families, with some linguists including the Koreanic and Japonic families. These languages share agglutinative morphology, head-final word order, and some vocabulary. The once-popular theory attributing these similarities to a common ancestry has long been rejected by most comparative linguists in favor of language contact, although it continues to be supported by a small but stable scholarly minority. Like the Uralic language family, which is named after the Ural Mountains, the group is named after the Altai mountain range in the center of Asia. The core grouping of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic is sometimes called “Micro-Altaic,” with the expanded group including Koreanic and Japonic labeled as “Macro-Altaic” or “Transeurasian.” ref

“Ural-Altaic, Uralo-Altaic, Uraltaic, or Turanic is a linguistic convergence zone and abandoned language-family proposal uniting the Uralic and the Altaic (in the narrow sense) languages. It is now generally agreed that even the Altaic languages do not share a common descent: the similarities between Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic are better explained by diffusion and borrowing. Just as in Altaic, the internal structure of the Uralic family has been debated since the family was first proposed. Doubts about the validity of most or all of the proposed higher-order Uralic branchings (grouping the nine undisputed families) are becoming more common. The term continues to be used for the central Eurasian typological, grammatical, and lexical convergence zone. Indeed, “Ural-Altaic” may be preferable to “Altaic” in this sense. For example, J. Janhunen states that “speaking of ‘Altaic’ instead of ‘Ural-Altaic’ is a misconception, for there are no areal or typological features that are specific to ‘Altaic’ without Uralic.” Originally suggested in the 18th century, the genealogical and racial hypotheses remained debated into the mid-20th century, often with disagreements exacerbated by pan-nationalist agendas. The Ural-Altaic hypothesis had multiple proponents in Britain. Since the 1960s, the proposed language family has been widely rejected.” ref

“(General Tengrist) Lower World of lakes, rivers and seas, source of evil disease spirits, Realm of the Dead, dwelling of Erlik Khan; entered via a river. For soul-retrieval or psychopomp, a black shaman makes difficult journey on Horse, enters it through hole to the Lower World, across a bridge the width of a hair, and despite guard Dogs, pays off the porter with gifts and gets Erlik drunk, who blesses him with promises of multiplying cattle, and finally returns to yurt riding Goose), (Altaic Turks) In Erlik’s Lower World is a lake filled with tears of mourners, a red lake filled with blood of victims of murder and suicide, and those who accidentally cut themselves and bled to death. Erlik’s palace lies at the joining of 9 rivers into a single river of human tears. Two black Dogs under a ‘7-jointed’ poplar tree guard the way to the world of Erlik (master of the dead) and back. (Turkic-Tatars) Sky is a tent; Milky Way the “seam”; stars “holes” for light; however, ‘In most Turkic languages, the name of the Milky Way is associated with a bird; (Bashkir) ‘the Bird’s way’; (Kazakh) ‘Crane Route’; (Kirghiz) ‘the path of wild birds’; (Tatars) ‘the way of wild birds’; (Kipchak, Bashkir, Kazakh) ‘Way of Bird’; (Tatar) ‘Way of Goose’, ‘Goose-way’, ‘Way of Wild Goose.” ref

Milky Way: path of birds ref

Transeurasian languages

“Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic”

“Triangulation supports the agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages: The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages—that is, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic—is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history. A key problem is the relationship between linguistic dispersals, agricultural expansions, and population movements. Here, we address this question by ‘triangulating’ genetics, archaeology, and linguistics in a unified perspective. We report wide-ranging datasets from these disciplines, including a comprehensive Transeurasian agropastoral and basic vocabulary; an archaeological database of 255 Neolithic–Bronze Age sites from Northeast Asia; and a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu islands and early cereal farmers in Japan, complementing previously published genomes from East Asia. Challenging the traditional ‘pastoralist hypothesis’, we show that the common ancestry and primary dispersals of Transeurasian languages can be traced back to the first farmers moving across Northeast Asia from the Early Neolithic onwards, but that this shared heritage has been masked by extensive cultural interaction since the Bronze Age. As well as marking considerable progress in the three individual disciplines, by combining their converging evidence, we show that the early spread of Transeurasian speakers was driven by agriculture.” ref

“Recent breakthroughs in ancient DNA sequencing have made us rethink the connections between human, linguistic, and cultural expansions across Eurasia. Compared to western Eurasia, however, eastern Eurasia remains poorly understood. Northeast Asia—the vast region encompassing Inner Mongolia, the Yellow, Liao, and Amur River basins, the Russian Far East, the Korean peninsula, and the Japanese Islands—remains especially under-represented in the recent literature. With a few exceptions that are heavily focused on genetics or limited to reviewing existing datasets, truly interdisciplinary approaches to Northeast Asia are scarce. The linguistic relatedness of the Transeurasian languages—also known as ‘Altaic’—is among the most disputed issues in linguistic prehistory. Transeurasian denotes a large group of geographically adjacent languages stretching across Europe and northern Asia, and includes five uncontroversial linguistic families: Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic (Fig. 1a). The question of whether these five groups descend from a single common ancestor has been the topic of a long-standing debate between supporters of inheritance and borrowing. Recent assessments show that even if many common properties between these languages are indeed due to borrowing, there is nonetheless a core of reliable evidence for the classification of Transeurasian as a valid genealogical group.” ref

Turkic languages

“The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic languages originated in a region of East Asia spanning from Mongolia to Northwest China, where Proto-Turkic is thought to have been spoken, from where they expanded to Central Asia and farther west during the first millennium.” ref

(Tofalar)

“On way to the land of Erlik-Khan, the deceased has to cross a precipice on a rope as hin as a human hair and to pass through a Dog village where dogs end up after their death. If the man has beaten dogs in his lifetime he needs to bring bones with him. Condition for receiving Dog’s help to reach land of dead or not be punished there, is having treated actual dogs well during one’s life.” ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Tuvan)

“In land of Erlik, the hero encounters the Black Dog he killed previously, who now helps him. During funeral avoid pointing corpse toward Mouth of the Black Dog (Kara Yt Aksy), associated with Milky Way, Ursa Major, Cholbon [Venus], etc. If falls into its Mouth, it must be fed meat, sheep or horse, etc., so it does not drag relatives to land of the dead.” ref

Milky Way: yes ref

Lower World: yes ref

Tungusic languages

“The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu–Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the dozen living languages of the Tungusic language family. The term “Tungusic” is from an exonym for the Evenk people (Ewenki) used by the Yakuts (“tongus”).” ref

(Evenki-S)

“Sym) hero cosmic Bear-Man on skis chased Elk, Sun-Elk (Moose)-Mother, but his arrow stopped by Eksheri, master of Upper World; Milky Way is ‘ski track of the hero’; via Engdekit upstream, S and E, to Upper World. Shaman’s Engdekit River flows from Upper World in E; its lower half falls into Lower World in N, bukit (lit. ‘the place of death’), abyss of everlasting darkness and cold; Engdekit the boundary between Upper/Lower Worlds. Helper spirits dispatch soul’s omi to a clan world of the dead. Upper World is lodge of souls of unborn omi, souls of dead children, and good people; souls lived the same life as on earth. Reindeer carried souls of dead to another world. SShaman takes soul on raft along lower Engdekit, with tributaries for each clan; Old Women, mistresses of the dead at each camp; khanyan (‘shadow soul’) gets new substance, becomes an omi (from omi, meaning ‘to do, to create, to originate, to initiate’). Shamanic séance: Kalir, guardian of  clan-river journey; depicted with Moose or Maral antlers + (Mammoth) + Fish tail; or Reindeer antlers with ‘Salmon trout’ on its back that guarded approaches to clans’ soul houses on Lower Engdekit; Pike, guarded doors to Upper and Middle World; Spirit-Birds on poles, Loon, Goldeneye, Goose (Mallard), Owl, clan road to Lower World; Eelpouts (Burbots) barred exit of evil spirits from Lower World; large weir-like structure trapped evil spirits: Moose, with Maral on each side, Salmon trout, and Spirit-Birds atop; and in air at head of clan rivers watchman Spirit-Birds.” ref

Milky Way: a shaman journey via Engdekit upstream south and east, above head-waters, up to Upper World  [implied use of Milky Way since same route Milky Way is ski track of cosmic hunt of Moose] ref

Upper World: omi souls waiting to reincarnate; the good and souls of dead children ref

Lower World: bukit, place of death, abyss of darkness and cold forever (evil spirits, that cause illness or death) ref

(Evenk-N)

“(Ilimepya, Turin) Hero Main is master of the upper world. Hero Main purses Cosmic Elk > Ursa major, 4 stars are her hooves, 3 stars of tail are Main and 2 arrows, 1 miss and 1 killed her. (Evenk; Dolgan; Nivkh; Nanai) Old Woman psychopomp and mistress of the land of the dead; (Yerbogachen) also mistress of the universe; Engdekit River to Lower World of the dead.” ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Evenk-E)

“(Vitim-Olyokma) shaman conducted annual psychopomp ritual for deceased. Milky Way ski track of Changit who cut off head of Elk with pole-knife; rest of body turned into a constellation;  (Urmi) ski track of Mangi chasing Elk and fawn, got away to sea, bone from hind leg of fawn brought to earth, Elk appeared.” ref

Milky Way: ski track of cosmic hunt of Moose and fawn ref

(Even)

“Upper World Hevki created Middle World, humans, animals and birds. Lower World Arinka, hairy, one-eye and one-horn, kidnaps people to Lower World, causes diseases, incites people to evil. (B) In past only Mother Earth, her three children: Hare, Moose and Bighorn Sheep. Because of disobedience they were dispersed, deprived of speech and given defective appearance. (C) Arinka sent 3 heroes of Earth to Heaven because they killed everything on earth; 3 Bighorns became 3 stars, perpetually pursued by the 3 hero hunters. (D) A maiden expelled from heaven for refusal to marry an old man, descended to sea, riding 8-legged reindeer. On its advice she threw reindeer fur on water, turned into logs; she made a raft. At reindeer’s, request she sacrificed it; skin turned into earth; skull, bones, mtns.; hair, forests; lice, wild reindeer. (F) Originally land covered with ice; melted all was water, heroes floated on raft, animals, fish appeared; Loon dove retrieved fleck of clay; Hevki put it on raft edge; raft landed on island. Summer Solstice reindeer sacrifice to Hevki (Seveki), old year and sun, dies at solstice; ‘Reindeer-Sun’ revives from blood of sacrificed reindeer; bones not broken, put on platform after ritual meal. Between 2 larch trees a rope strung with many-colored shreds of cloth and holy reindeer’s hair; symbolizes ‘gate into the heaven, to heavenly beings’ country; where sun rises, a new day born, and ‘ancestor’s land, land of the dead’; a soul could get to this land of ‘happiness, abundance and common bliss’ only June 22-24. Even reincarnation belief conflicted. Upon death, relative made wood figurines smeared with blood of sacrificed dog and placed around the fire. The upper world njanin ‘sky’, n’älbän endless expanding space, the middle world tör ‘earth’, bug ‘earth, homeland’, the underworld horgidä tör‘ lower earth’ or buni ‘the world of the dead’. Even called the Milky Way häväk hotaranni ‘trace or way of the Superior god of the Even’ [JBH. i.e., Hevki], the Dog’s-tail is associated with hare’s tracks D’öläkäčän ud’an, the Big Dipper – as by the Evenki – with hunter and big game tracks, the Pole Star was known as Sanarin, Venus as by the Evenki and the Yakut Čolbon.” ref

Milky Way: ‘trace or way of superior god’, i.e., Hevki ref

Upper World: sunrise land of ancestors ref

Lower World: buni land of the dead ref

(Oroqen)

“(Middle Amur Evenki) Milky Way is path of migratory birds (Oroqen, Nanai) Enduri (‘spirit, deity, god’) the supreme spirit, entrusts creation of world and humans to hero Hadau, teaches humans fire, clothes, gives them Dog; later kills 2 of 3 suns; in a dream sees a spirit who advises how to make shaman accessories to escort souls of the dead to Lower World (buni). Newborn receives èrga (life-breathing) from parents, omi (soul, self) from omos’i, reproduction and growth energy (later belief); has an’an (shadow) (oldest belief), which can leave at any moment; when stabilized (child becomes conscious) the sus’i (soul) (latest belief) settles, and of 3 parts: 1st departs only if loss of consciousness; 2nd only a short time, or else death and goes to world of the dead forever or be reincarnated; 3rd stays until body decomposed, then goes to remain with family members.” ref

Milky Way: Path of migratory Birds, trail of cosmic hunt of Moose ref

Lower World: required  2-headed Eagle ref

(Udege)

“2 souls: chalini banya, stays with owner’s body, protects from evil spirit attacks; banya, shadow soul, vulnerable to attack, disease; after death banya leaves for land of the dead; chalini banya stays in this world, turns into good or evil spirit depending on how its owner did during lifetime;  shaman accompanies soul of the dead to Lower World (Buni), descends through hole in the earth. Shaman takes souls to hole in the west, gives them over to mistress of the other world; her Dog guards entrance, prevents souls from escaping. Ski path of hunter turned into Milky Way, typical of W. Siberian, Tungus, Negidal, Udege-Oroch stories. Paired/double curve design on boxes (Udege, Oroch).” ref

Milky Way: ski track of cosmic hunt ref

Lower World: banya shaman psycho-pomp Mistress of realm of the dead ref

(Oroch

“At death, soul goes to Buni, if avoids village of Dogs; after 5 generations goes upriver, at source turns into Worm, slides into Celestial Realm, enters Moon Land, chooses one of 2 rivers, Tiger Old Woman or Bear Old Woman, nourished with charcoal, then falls to earth rebirth. Shaman assists; flies through 3 cloud levels as Swift, Bat, Dragonfly, Grasshopper on Moon; Dog is guide to realm of the dead; Dog village. Milky Way is ski path of hunter, typical of W. Siberian, Tungus, Negidal, Udege-Oroch. (Oroch, Nanai) paired/ double curve design on garments.” ref

Milky Way: ski track of cosmic hunt ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Manchu)

“3 Goddess Creators, Woman of Heaven, Woman of Earth and Woman of Light, create all living things, including men and woman, and more goddesses; battle the demon Yeluri who tries to destroy creation, with help of Hedgehog, Eagle and Mouse/Rat goddesses; and later Eagle raises on earth the first shamaness; Hedgehog pre-eminent in shamanic offerings; praised as most able and most offensive and defensive invincible of all animals, with its dazzling spines of light, ability to extend and contract, rule over course of Sun and Moon, gave souls to all living beings and protect souls. 8-sided Upper World of 9 layers where deities of nature and ancestral spirits dwell; humans dwell in Middle World; the dead, Lower World; linked by world-tree or pole.  Clan shaman conducts sacrifices to Heaven and ancestors. Dog is guardian of realm of the dead and it escorts soul to it.  Milky Way (sunggari) is a ‘river’, as in Sunggari River; (eye.re usiha) ‘flowing star’, meteor, usiha (star). Tucin Usiha (‘stars of the starting-point, where to go out’ (= stars of Virgo, Coma Berenices, and Canes venatici), said to represent a goddess sitting on the earth. She functions as a celestial staircase to help the souls ascend to the sky.” ref

Milky Way: a river [cf. Koryak, Chukchi] souls ascend stars of Tucin Usiha, goddess sitting on earth who is a celestial staircase to help souls ascend to the sky. ref

Upper World: ancestral spirits ref

Lower World: the dead ref

(Nanai)

“Milky Way ‘ski track’ Shaman is psychopomp; shaman required ‘spirit-Bird’ to return from Lower World journey. Shaman wears bird costume; Manchu headgear made of feathers imitates bird; tutelary spirit Ayami. Uilta mythical bird kori, and Nanai, an Eagle, lives in Lower World; shaman uses it to carry souls of the dead.  Old Woman psychopomp and mistress of land of the dead. Deceased’s soul put in wooden doll panyo; then large wooden figure (mugdeh) and  onto a ritual dog sled (ochio) led by shaman to Lower World (Buni). (Amur Nanai) panya/fanya shadow soul conducted to land of the dead; incarnated uksuki mortal soul; (Gorin Nanai) 3 souls, pania/panya vital soul; zulemzi, spirit on earth after death; morso twin tree soul; Dog takes soul to realm of the dead. Children who died before age 1 were special, considered to be birds; and so that they could ‘fly away’, not buried, but wrapped in cloth, feathers attached, placed in tree hollow or on tree limbs not far from the house, which would transfer power of growth and viability to the soul, which would return to their mothers after a certain time.” ref

Milky Way: ski track of cosmic hunt ref

Lower World: panya shadow soul ref

(Ulchi)

“Upper World has 3 (iron, silver, gold) or more layers, inhabited by star people, ancestors, deceased shamans and ebaha, beautiful vampiric female spirits who kill living people) and the Sun and Moon). Middle World Siberian (‘Amur’) Tiger and (‘Ussuri Black’) Bear rulers, land spirits, water spirits and Mtn Goddess.  Souls of the dead traverse to the Lower World of Buni, live a thousand years, die again, to be reborn. Lower World is water; Squirrel, Fox, Polecat or other special spirit escorts soul to realm of the dead.” ref

Milky Way: each clan has a Celestial World Tree of souls of their ancestors in the form of birds on its branches and shaman can contact them.” ref

Upper World: ancestors deceased shamans ref

Lower World: ancestors ref

(Uilta)

“Shaman psychopomp journeys on sacred river with Dog; this river cf. Evenk Engdekit, origin Upper World, west, north, into Lower World sea buni (‘place of death’).  [JBH. The origin = geometric small circle in center of a diamond in a diamond?] Ritual meal with meat of sacrificed Dog, Dog protects the soul of the hunter on its way to the other world; canine other world at entrance leading to the human other world.” ref

Upper World: Evenk Engdekit, origin ref

Lower World: via Engdekit like river, north into Lower World sea (‘place of death’). ref

Mongolic language

“The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongol residents of Inner Mongolia, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.” ref

“All Mongols descend from the Grey Wolf and White Maral Doe. Wolf a favorite mount of shamans. (Alak Erdene, Mongol) Bariada, female shaman, cloak with Bird feathers, Snakes, Stoat (M. erminea) skins, Tiger bells, hat with Owl feather tuft; carved Horse inside drum (horse psychopomp), beater covered with Deer (?) and Ibex hair; Bear’s paw; wooden felines (probably Lion and Tiger), 2 pieces of Lynx fur, amulet stuffed Triangles of red fabric shaman had Owl and day bird feathers, mainly Eagle, on hat; mirror around neck to see, keep track of harmful, destructive spirits. At birth shamans get Raven helping spirits, up to 9 for most powerful shamans. Most important helpers, Raven and Dog; Raven is messenger sent to make shaman’s wishes known; Dog, to find enemy spirits, defend its owner. (Kalmyk Mongol) Milky Way ‘Heavenly Seam’; (Mongol) ‘collapsed piece of the sky’; ‘Heavenly Path. (Mongol) Souls of deceased travel to an “other-world” (parallel world), often imagined at the borders of the realm of the living. Kalmyks, e.g., imagine it to be to west of realm of the living. Prior to Buddhism seem not to have had reincarnation belief. (Balagan and Alar Buryats) one soul (carrier of moral character) goes to Upper World after death, later can return as ancestral soul, reincarnate. Burial wrapped, on ground, under trees/wood or stone mound, near predators, so soul departs quickly to ancestors; infant sacred air burial, in birchbark on birch tree to ascend as Bird to Upper World, then descend, enter wombs; people not buried but placed in countryside to be scavenged by dogs.” ref

(Mongol / Buryat)

Milky Way: a seam; heavenly path (not related to afterlife) ref

Upper World: Buryat: soul departs to realm of ancestors good soul ascends to Esege Malan (in west) later becomes ancestral soul and returns to earth infant wrapped in birch bark, attached to birch tree (World Tree), soul flies from there as Bird to Upper World, later descends to earth, enters a woman’s womb.” ref

Nivkh languages

“Nivkh; occasionally also Nivkhic; self-designation: Нивхгу диф, Nivhgu dif, /ɲivxɡu dif/), or Gilyak, or Amuric, is a small language family, often portrayed as a language isolate, of two or three mutually unintelligible languages spoken by the Nivkh people in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun (a tributary of the Amur), along the lower reaches of the Amur itself, and on the northern half of Sakhalin. “Gilyak” is the Russian rendering of terms derived from the Tungusic “Gileke” and Manchu-Chinese “Gilemi” (Gilimi, Gilyami) for culturally similar peoples of the Amur River region, and was applied principally to the Nivkh in Western literature. Nivkh is a dialect continuum. There is a high degree of variability of usage among Nivkhs depending on village, clan, and even the individual speaker. Varieties are traditionally grouped into four geographic clusters. These are the lower-Amur variety, the North Sakhalin variety (spoken on the coasts around the Amur Liman, including the mainland and west Sakhalin), the East Sakhalin variety (including populations around the Tymy River), and the South Sakhalin variety (spoken around the Poronay River). The lexical and phonological differences across these varieties is great enough that specialists describe them as falling into two or three languages, though for purposes of language revival among a small and already divided population, Nivkh is generally presented as a single language, due to fears of the consequences of further division. Nivkh is not known to be related to any other language, making it a language isolate. For convenience, it may be included in the geographical group of Paleosiberian languages. Many words in the Nivkh languages bear a certain resemblance to words of similar meaning in other Paleosiberian languages, Ainu, Korean, or Tungusic languages, but no regular sound correspondences have been discovered to systematically account for the vocabularies of these various families, so any lexical similarities are considered to be due to chance or to borrowing.” ref

“Lexical similarities among Nivkh, Mongolic, and Tungusic, likely due to lexical borrowings.” ref

(Nivkh)

“Milky Way trail of ruler of Sea, Orca, who sends fish and seals to the Nivkh. (Nivkh; Nanai, Evenk) Old Woman is mistress of land of dead and psychopomp; she guards portals to Lower, Upper Worlds; sled burial with Dog pryski, kept alive, kindly treated, sleeps on deceased’s bed; sled and tools smashed; deceased cremated, other Dogs sacrificed, meet shared; child who dies before age 5 or 6, cremated, buried near path the mother frequents calling for it to reincarnate in her womb; others go through narrow hole/passage, obstacles, Old Woman, final river crossing; get guidance from soul of a Dog(s) slain during funeral, thread of hair as guide line, wood figurine to make bridge across the river; if survive 3-4 generations, emerge as grasses, or bird-cherry bush, or Cuckoo, rich become Dogs; entire dog sled team killed on grave; a canine other world, but certain exactly where situated.” ref

Milky Way: trail of Orca, Ruler of the Sea ref

Upper World: if died by lightning, fire, Bear, drowned, or twins & mother > ancestors benefactors, mediators ref

Lower World: underground, duplicate status reversal plenty food ref

Ainu language

“Ainu (アイヌ イタㇰ, aynu itak), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (Japanese: 北海道アイヌ語), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate with no academic consensus of origin.” ref

“Okhotsk culture played a role in the formation of the later Ainu culture. The origin of the Okhotsk culture itself is subject to research. While Okhotsk remains display affinity to the modern Nivkh people of northern Sakhalin, both also display affinities to the Jōmon peoples of Japan, pointing to a possible heterogeneous makeup of Okhotsk society.” ref

(Ainu)

“Sakhalin Ainu dog sacrifice to Bear and occasionally during shaman rites. Soul goes to Lower World, reaches 3-road fork: to Upper World, happiness, the good; or back to Middle World; or bad to Damp Underworld, punishment; reincarnation; Dog leads soul on one of two paths; Dog escorts soul to realm of the dead.” ref

Milky Way: “The Ainu believe in a supreme Creator, but also in a sun-god, a moon-god, a water-god and a mountain-god, deities whose river is the Milky Way, whose voices are heard in the thunder and whose glory is reflected in the lightning.” ref

Upper World: realm of the deities ref

Lower World: damp, punishment; reincarnation ref

Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

“The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers traditionally were indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders. While the family is sometimes grouped typologically and geographically as Paleosiberian, no external genetic relationship has been widely accepted as proven. The most popular such proposals have been for links with Eskimo–Aleut, either alone or in the context of a wider grouping.” ref

(Chukchi)

“Chukchi mortuary ritual has affinity to an ideal reindeer sacrifice. 1^st burial, special burial garment, with a ‘tail’ to erase its tracks and reversed boots and mittens, women raven-talk to protect themselves; and add charms to protect from ke’let, and personal belongings: knife, spear or walking stick, old-fashioned fire tools, resin (to chew and close mouth so as not to gossip with ancestors about the living), bells (to scare off the ke’let), sewing equipment for women, a cup, and sometimes a ‘dog’ in form of a stone kept and fed for years). Also, some dried salmon to feed the many Dogs he will encounter at edge of the world of the ancestors, which if he mistreated in life, would tear him apart unless ‘softened’ with this food, all to assist the deceased on its long journey. Traditionally two reindeer pulled the sledge and were ritually slowly killed; the body was placed on a cremation pyre with substitute sledge (2 long poles) and zioziat (stuffed reindeer stomach) ritually cut in half, each half placed under the runners; plus 3 river stones representing eyes and mouth of the deceased. 2nd burial, ashes and bones and 3 stones gathered and encircled with a lasso-ring, offerings into it, and originally a reindeer sacrifice, now substitute. New 3rd burial, annual collective reindeer sacrifice. ‘Milky Way commonly referred to as the Clay River by the Koryak and the Pebbly River by the Chukchi’; Koryak shaman dancing coats depict summer and winter Milky Way. Dead believed to exist in Upper and Lower world and various regions of the sky, where they lived lives similar to living, but abounding in reindeer, walrus and otherworld oddities. Name-soul from ancestor to child us’ Soul must pass other world land of dogs. Whoever beats a dog on earth, attacked and severely bitten by the dogs there. Maritime Chukchi sacrifice Dogs, sometimes to the new moon (392), or to the sea, for good luck in hunting and safety wandering over unstable ice-floes (388), if requested by a spirit in a dream (491) and at a funeral (535-536). Reindeer Chukchi sacrifice both Reindeer and Dogs frequently, but poorer people sacrifice mostly dogs and puppies.” ref

Milky Way: ‘Pebbly River’ flows W invoked to tame wild reindeer; shaman calls Raven to bring water from to cure patient’s pain; MW is shaman’s assistant to bring back patient dying, patient becomes rapids, cleansed, returns home.” ref

Upper World: yes ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Itelmen)

“Some Dog sacrifice May be Koryak influence, since performed in Koryak language territory?]).  ‘No dog sacrifice mentioned’ ref

(Koryak)

“Each person has 2 souls. At death one ascends to the Supreme Being, who later sends it back to earth placing it in the womb of a married woman related to the deceased; the husband using a divining stone to discover which relative has entered his child. The process is incessant: souls of the dead rise to the upper world and return to earth to be reborn. Other soul descends to ‘country of the shadows’, continues to interact with living relatives as ancestors, exchanging food, rewarding good behavior and punish wrong-doers on earth by sending evil spirits (kala). Land of the Dead, ‘the Other Side’ (nganenka), also the Upper World, in the east, where sun rises; no underground world; cremation, deceased’s best dog sacrificed, to lead the way and drive off evil spirits who might block the way. Condition for receiving Dog’s help to reach realm of the dead or not be punished there, is having treated actual dogs well during one’s lifetime. Pole with fork (’Y’) protects and mediates between people and spiritual forces. Maritime Koryak) Y-shaped wooden figures attached to fire-boards, serve as assistants to ‘master of the herd’. ‘Habitation guardians, okkamak (‘wooden kamak’), wooden post tapering at the top, sometimes forked, the thinner branch representing the arm of the charm, usually located on a hill overlooking it, or no a rock over the sea; serves as intermediary between the inhabitants of the village and the rules of the sea or hunting-grounds. The lower part of the guardian-figure is girded with sacrificial sedge-grass’; smeared with blood or fat after a hunt; also offered sacrifices of horns and antlers and whale vertebrae; and given dog-sacrifices; ‘little kalaks’, string or bundle of small figures made of willow branches, Y-forked for legs, head and face very crude; charm amulets usually attached to belt when travelling or hunting alone and as Guardians of the Skin Boat. (Maritime Koryak) dog and reindeer sacrifice and compare dog sacrifices of Iroquois and Sioux Milky Way is commonly referred to as the Clay River’; Koryak shaman/dancing coats depict summer (horizontal belt) and winter (vertical false belt) Milky Way, and other important stars and constellations; glossary, Milky Way (‘pebbly river’, ‘clay river’, ‘muddy river’, ‘river’).” ref

Milky Way: ‘Clay River’ shaman’s belt is and vertical are summer and winter Milky Way ref

Upper World: Souls in upper world reincarnate ref

Lower World: dogs guard entrance to Lower World; can be bribed, e.g., with fish fins dog sacrifice of deceased’s best dog to lead the way, drive off evil spirits who block the way/ shadow and deceased himself goes to land of shadows > ancestors.” ref

ref

“The map shows the origin of the first wave of humans into the Americas. Involved are the ANE (Ancestral Northern Eurasian, which represent a distinct Paleolithic Siberian population), and the NEA (Northeast Asians, which are an East Asian-related group). The admixture happened somewhere in Northeast Siberia.” ref

Genetic relationships and links to Indigenous peoples of the Americas

“The earliest Indigenous peoples of Siberia were hunter-gatherers distantly related to modern Europeans, and diverged from a shared ancestral population around 38kya before populating Siberia. In Siberia, they received gene flow from an East-Eurasian population, most closely related to the 40,000-year-old Tianyuan man (c. 22-50%), representing a deep sister lineage of contemporary East Asian people, giving rise to a distinct Siberian lineage known as Ancient North Eurasian (ANE). By c. 32,000 years ago, populations carrying ANE-related ancestry were probably widely distributed across northeast Eurasia. Around 36,000 years ago, an Ancient East Asian population diverged from other East Asians somewhere in Southern China and migrated northwards into Siberia, where they encountered and interacted with the Ancient North Eurasians to give rise to the Paleo-Siberians and the Ancestral Native Americans. The Ancestral Native Americans would become isolated in the Beringia region, and subsequently populate the Americas.” ref

“The last historical population movement can be associated with the Neo-Siberian expansion outgoing from Northeast Asia (15,000 years ago), and contributed ancestry to Indigenous groups throughout Siberia as well as to Native Americans, associated with the expansion of Paleo-Eskimo, and Eskimo-Aleut groups. Modern Indigenous peoples of Siberia derive varying degrees of ancestry from these three layers, although the Ancient North Eurasian like ancestry has been largely replaced. Indigenous Siberians and other Northern Asians form a distinct cluster within wider Eurasian genetic diversity, with their closest relative affinity towards Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Eastern Asians. Modern Indigenous Siberians also show some affinities with ancient Eastern European populations, such as the Yamnaya and Pitted Ware Cultures, although this affinity is more significant for western Siberians than eastern Siberians. Both western and eastern Siberians also have strong affinities with the Ust’-Ishim man.” ref

“Early Native Americans are thought to have crossed into the Americas through the Beringia land bridge between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago from modern day Siberia. Certain modern Indigenous Siberians are closely related to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with whom they share a common origin. Analysis of genetic markers has also been used to link the two groups of Indigenous peoples. These studies focused on looking at markers on the Y chromosome, which is always inherited by sons from their fathers. Haplogroup Q is a unique mutation shared among most Indigenous peoples of the Americas, less among Siberian populations. Studies have found that 93.8% of Siberia’s Ket people and 66.4% of Siberia’s Selkup people possess the mutation, while it is largely absent from other populations in Eastern Asia or Europe. The principal-component analysis suggests a close genetic relatedness between some North American Amerindians (the Chipewyan [Dënesųłı̨ne] and the Cheyenne) and certain populations of central/southern Siberia (particularly the Kets, Yakuts, Selkups, and Altaians), at the resolution of major Y-chromosome haplogroups. This pattern agrees with the distribution of mtDNA haplogroup X, which is found in North America and the Altaians of southern central Siberia, but is absent from eastern Siberia.” ref

ref

Eskaleut languages

“The Eskaleut (/ɛˈskæliuːt/ e-SKAL-ee-oot), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent, and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of what are now the United States (Alaska); Canada (Inuit Nunangat) including Nunavut, Northwest Territories (principally in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region), northern Quebec (Nunavik), and northern Labrador (Nunatsiavut); Greenland; and the Russian Far East (Chukchi Peninsula). The language family is also known as Eskaleutian, or Eskaleutic. The Eskaleut language family is divided into two branches: Eskimoan and Aleut. The Aleut branch consists of a single language, Aleut, spoken in the Aleutian Islands and the Pribilof Islands. Aleut is divided into several dialects. The Eskimoan languages are divided into two branches: the Yupik languages, spoken in western and southwestern Alaska and in Chukotka, and the Inuit languages, spoken in northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Inuit languages are divided into several varieties. Neighboring varieties are quite similar, although those at the farthest distances from the center in the Diomede Islands and East Greenland are quite divergent. The proper place of one language, Sirenik, within the Eskimoan family has not been settled. While some linguists list it as a branch of Yupik, others list it as a separate branch of the Eskimoan family, alongside the Yupik and Inuit languages.” ref

(Inuit W. & E. Canada)

“(Western) 2 souls: inua (life-force, at quickening or 1st breath), name-soul guardian spirit; taganinga (shadow soul, leaves at death); (Eastern) Shaman gets ‘power’ or ‘light’ from Moon-Man, or Mother-of-Caribou, bears in human form and deceased persons;  3 afterworlds: 1st sky, for hunters, abundant game; 2nd underworld for hunters and tattooed women, fishing, hunting good, happiness, abundance; seasons reversed; 3rd underground just below the earth’s crust for lazy hunters, women who did not undergo pain of tattoos; all perpetually hungry and apathetic, (W. & E.) reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: Raven searching for daylight, snow-shoe tracks made Milky Way ref

Upper World: duplicate plenty food ref

Lower World: duplicate reversed seasons, plenty food ref

(Inuit Greenland)

“(E. Greenland) 2 souls (tarnik), the breath-soul and name-soul (atekata). (Labrador) The path to the underworld lies along a long dark passage guarded by a creature (probably a Dog) that looks after souls. (W. Greenland) Soul arrives at house, in front of which a watch is kept by terrible animals, sometimes described as Seals, sometimes as Dogs. Within the house-passage itself, the soul has to cross an abyss by means of a bridge as narrow as a knife edge. ‘Sila represents the fundamental embodiment of the natural world, from wind to weather to the preternatural, undefinable forces of change; silanngajaarpoq indicates one has fallen out of equilibrium with nature and literally gone crazy. “sila… is manifest in each and every person. It is an all-pervading, life-giving force connecting a person with the rhythms of the universe, and integrating the self with the natural world”. Reincarnation

Lower World: yes ref

(Iñupiaq)

“Man in Moon tunghat releases game animals. 3 souls: (a) poklihm taghunuga, life-giving warmth, departs at death, inua (‘shade’, breath-soul), inner, human face within ceremonial masks, whose outer face depicts an animal; can suffer soul-loss; (b) taghunugak, invisible shade, form like body, sentient, enjoys afterlife, may denote ghosts, malicious spirits, that do not journey to afterlife; (c) ilitquasuk, free-soul, goes to afterlife, acquired by child at naming, a guardian soul; reincarnation, human and animal; names of deceased (name-soul) given to newborns. Reincarnation; shaman visited land of the dead, returned on Milky Way, came back to life on his own grave.” ref

Milky Way: a shaman visited land of dead, returned on Milky Way, came back to life on own grave Raven searching for daylight, snow-shoe tracks made Milky Way.” ref

Upper World: yes ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Yup’ik)

“(Nunivak) 2 souls, cucix, leaves body in soul-loss, frights, death; tunax, outside body, kind of shadow, becomes ghost, goes to afterlife realm or reincarnates, also (Chugach) (Central Yupik) Soul going to land of the dead, first arrives at village of Dogs, abused like a dog to have empathy, then crosses the river of tears over bridge of dry grass, rubbish floating; to village of the dead Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: Raven searching for daylight, snow-shoe tracks made Milky Way ref

Upper World: ? ref

Lower World: ? ref

Haplogroup D (mtDNA)

“In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup D (mtDNA), is a descendant haplogroup of haplogroup M, thought to have arisen somewhere in East Asia, between roughly 60,000 and 35,000 years ago (in the Late Pleistocene, before the Last Glacial Maximum and the settlement of the Americas). In contemporary populations, it is found especially in Central and Northeast Asia. Haplogroup D (mtDNA)  (more specifically, subclade D4) is one of five main haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the others being A, B, C, and X.” ref

“D1 is a basal branch of D4 that is widespread and diverse in the Americas. Subclades D4b1, D4e1, and D4h are found both in Asia and in the Americas and are thus of special interest for the settlement of the Americas. D2, which occurs with high frequency in some arctic and subarctic populations (especially Aleuts), is a subclade of D4e1 parallel to D4e1a and D4e1c, so it properly should be termed D4e1b. D3, which has been found mainly in some Siberian populations and in Inuit of Canada and Greenland, is a branch of D4b1c.” ref

“D4 (3010, 8414, 14668): The subclade D4 is the most frequently occurring mtDNA haplogroup among modern populations of northern East Asia, such as Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, northern Han Chinese (e.g. from Lanzhou), and some Mongolic– or Tungusic-speaking populations of the Hulunbuir region, such as Barghuts in Hulun Buir Aimak, Mongols and Evenks in New Barag Left Banner, and Oroqens in Oroqen Autonomous Banner. D4 is also the most common haplogroup among the Oroks of Sakhalin, the Buryats and Khamnigans of the Buryat Republic, the Kalmyks of the Kalmyk Republic, the Telenghits and Kazakhs of the Altai Republic, and the Kyrgyz of Kyzylsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture. It also predominates among published samples of Paleo-Indians and individuals whose remains have been recovered from Chertovy Vorota Cave. Spread also all over China, the Himalayas, Central Asia, Siberia, and indigenous peoples of the Americas, with some cases observed in Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Europe. Khattak and Kheshgi in Peshawar Valley, Pakistan.” ref

• “D4* – China, Mongol from Heilongjiang and Hebei, Korea, Japan, Thailand (Lisu from Mae Hong Son Province), USA, Russia, Georgia, Iraq, Turkey, Greece

• D1 – America
• D1a – Colombia
• D1a1 – Brazil (Surui, Gavião)
• D1a2 – Guaraní
• D1b – United States (Hispanic), Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico
• D1c – United States (Hispanic), Mexican
• D1d
• D1d1 – United States (Hispanic), Mexican
• D1d2 – Mexican
• D1e – Brazil (Karitiana, Zoró)
• D1f – Colombia (incl. Coreguaje), Ecuador (Amerindian Kichwas from the Amazonian provinces of Pastaza, Orellana, and Napo), Peru, Mexican, USA
• D1f1 – Venezuela, Brazil (Karitiana), Tiriyó, Waiwai, Katuena
• D1f2 – Colombia
• D1f3 – Mexico, USA (Native American)
• D1g – Southern Cone of South America

• • D1h1 – Mexican
  • D1h2 – Mexican
• D1i – Peru, Mexican, United States (Hispanic)
  • D1i1 – Mexican
  • D1i2 – Mexican
• D1j – Southern Coneof South America (incl. the Gran Chaco in Argentina)
• • • • D1j1a1 – Argentina
      • D1j1a2
    • D1k – Peru, Mexican, United States (Hispanic)
    • D1m – Mexican
    • D1n – United States (Hispanic), Mexico
    • D1r – Peru
    • D1u
      • D1u1 – Peru.” ref

“Anzick Clovis burial, MT (Blackfoot/Crow territory) ~12,740-12,656 years ago D4h3a; genome close to Anzick-1 genome close to Late Southern Channel Islands and California. [However, Anzick seems to have admixture from North American SW Ontario; Algonquin; Splatsin; etc.?].” ref

“On-Your-Knees Cave, AL (Tlingit territory) ~10,500-10,250 years ago D4h3a; Lucy Islands, BC (Tsimshian territory) ~6,260-5,890 years ago D4h3a7; Prince Rupert Harbor, BC, n=4, (#939) 6075±185 years ago D4h3a7; (#302) 2498±142 cal years ago A2p; (#443) 1750±70 years ago A2d. #302 and 443, sister clade with the Tsimshian, though both exhibit a close nuclear DNA relationship with Shuká Káa; and #939 shows affinity with Shuká Káa and the A2p and A2d samples. ‘These results indicate that [D4h3a and A2b,d] were already present in the ancestral population and are not result of later gene flow in the area.’ ‘These data support a shared ancestry for the indigenous peoples of the NW Coast dating back at least ~10,300 years ago. ‘Shuká Káa on a different lineage than Anzick-1, which leads to the southern lineage, including populations from Central and South America, and Kennewick Ancient One.” ref

Na-Dene languages

“Na-Dene (also Nadene, Na-Dené, Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit, Tlina–Dene) is a family of Native American languages that includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. Haida was formerly included but is now considered doubtful. By far the most widely spoken Na-Dene language today is Navajo, also the most spoken indigenous language north of Mexico. In February 2008, a proposal connecting Na-Dene (excluding Haida) to the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia into a Dené–Yeniseian family was published and well-received by a number of linguists. It was proposed in a 2014 paper that the Na-Dene languages of North America and the Yeniseian languages of Siberia had a common origin in a language spoken in Beringia, between the two continents.” ref

“Athabaskan is also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene language family.” ref

“The human spirit was called the yega and upon death, the yega had to be properly guided to the afterlife. Athabaskans believed that human and animals were very similar in the past and their spirits communicated directly. If an animal was mistreated, then its respective spirit would wrack havoc on the lives of the offending Athabaskan. The lines of communication between spirits and Native Athabaskans were kept open using the shaman to translate. There are still spiritual beliefs about the connection between animals and humans prevalent in the Athabaskan culture. The raven is the most popular animal followed by the caribou, wolf and bear.” ref

(Haida) could somehow relate to Na-Dene, or is a language isolate.

“After death a soul journeys across a bay on a raft sent by a person carrying a red walking-stick on the farther shore, to the Land of Souls. After some time, it launches its canoe and passes through five soul lands and returns to earth as a blue-fly; or is reborn after each land. Deceased’s body put in a grave-box, then a grave-house.” ref

(Deg Xit’an)

“Soul goes down a wide path, narrow paths branch to settlements of various animal souls; passes that of human souls, then Dog souls, a dangerous place guarded by 2 dog souls, then crosses a black river and then a clear river of tears. Reincarnation typical of Alaskan Athabascan.” ref

(Tlingit)

“The Tlingit language is an Indigenous language of the northwestern coast of North America, which is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Tlingit is currently classified as a distinct and separate branch of Na-Dene, an indigenous language family of North America.” ref 

“Milky Way tracks resulting from a hunt/chase, e.g., Raven story, an unidentified animal; Dog sacrifice, dog helps soul to reach realm of the dead; Dog heaven in clouds Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: Raven searching for daylight, snow-shoe tracks made Milky Way ref

(Tutchone)

“(Southern Tutchone) Milky Way marks the path of the Loon who had cured the blind hunter. Reincarnation typical of Alaskan Athabascan.” ref

Milky Way: Path of Loon who cured blind hunter ref

(Hupa)

“(Hupa) Spirits of shamans and singer go to pleasant world in Sky, others, to ‘damp, dark Lower World’; soul ‘choice between 2 paths, one of roses leading to Happy Western Land beyond the great water’. Reincarnation (Tsnungwe) A person has 2 souls, one evil, active and powerful, ranges about on evil errands; one good, passive and within, their better nature or conscience. At death, if the person was good, a little bird captures the soul and takes it to the spirit land; if bad, a hawk swoops down and eats the little bird and the soul.” ref

Upper World: shamans and singers to sky or W to land beyond great ocean ref

Lower World: bad to damp dark lower world or hawk eats the little bird and the soul ref

(Mattóal)

“Afterworld lays southward in the Great Ocean; souls of the bad to not journey there, but were turned into a Grizzly Bear.” ref

Upper World: good go to a great ocean ref

(Apache)

“Departed makes its way or is led by other ghostly kin to the Lower World, ‘a beautiful place beneath the ground, where a nice stream of water flows between banks that are lined with cottonwood trees, and everything is green. The way is through an opening in the ground ‘cut out like a window’, hidden by tall grass, and must be guided to find it. An individual who had a NDE stated there people dance, eat and sleep; stay the same age as when they died; a place with no sickness, pain, sorrow or death. Fear ghosts, which they believe to cause death; this in contrast to Lakota Sioux who keep and feed them and help it along the ghost road to the spirit world.” ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Navajo)

“Afterworld is shadowy, uninviting place, like this world, but located in the north just below earth’s surface. Soul travels down a trail, reaches a sandpile at the bottom, and there deceased kin guide it to the afterworld; the Lower World neither of pleasure nor beauty or pain, but only dreary; or the individual becomes universal in the cosmos; ‘returns to be among living’ (element list)  Have intense fear of ghosts; no matter how good the person was while alive, their ghost is always dangerous; any slip in burial rites offends it; causes it to hover around the grave or home to take revenge; best one can do is drive them off or avoid them; drumming also protective.” ref

Upper World: ? ref

Lower World: yes ref

Penutian languages

“Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian stock or phylum has been the subject of debate among specialists. Even the unity of some of its component families has been disputed. Some of the problems in the comparative study of languages within the phylum are the result of their early extinction and limited documentation. Some of the more recently proposed subgroupings of Penutian have been convincingly demonstrated. The Miwokan and the Costanoan languages have been grouped into a Utian language family by Catherine Callaghan. Callaghan has more recently provided evidence supporting a grouping of Utian and Yokutsan into a Yok-Utian family. There also seems to be convincing evidence for the Plateau Penutian grouping (originally named Shahapwailutan by J. N. B. Hewitt and John Wesley Powell in 1894) which would consist of Klamath–Modoc, Molala, and the Sahaptian languages (Nez Percé and Sahaptin).” ref

(Tsimshian) (isolate, or Penutian languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California) ref

“Traditionally cremation was practiced, secret society regalia burned with the body; bodies of shamans were placed in caves or special grave houses. Reincarnation into lineage grandchildren; a person’s baby song and mourning dirge are the same song (Gitxsan) One soul can be reincarnated simultaneously as multiple people. Cremation, and also burial in a large box placed on a tree; a prince in a grave-box erected on four strong poles to protect against wolves; mourning and weeping; burnt offerings at the grave, e.g., husband’s tool box, a boy’s favorite food. Ghosts live in a village of their own on the other side of a river, crossed on a bridge; and is led into the house of the chief of the Ghosts in the middle of the village.” ref

(Chinook) (Maritime Penutian > Tsimshian + Chinook etc)

“Milky Way is ‘Big River’; big canoe (Orion’s belt) and small canoe (Orion’s dagger) race to be first to catch a salmon in it. Person has 2 souls, large and small; when sick, small leaves, if shaman retrieves, will recover. After death corpse water burial in canoe or in canoe above ground on posts, similar to Eskimo box burials.” ref

Milky Way: river ref

(Yakama) (Inland ‘Core’ Penutian >  Plateau Penutian > Sahaptian > N. Sahaptin > Yakama etc)

“Mortality: Coyote and Eagle went to the land of the dead, killed Frog, then when spirits were dancing at night, Coyote swallowed the moon; in the darkness, Eagle put the spirits in Coyote’s basket, but they wanted out; Coyote let them out thinking they were so far now they could not return, but they did. Eagle scolded Coyote, saying let’s try again in spring, but Coyote said no; so now after people die they stay in the land of the dead forever; (Wasco and Wishram Chinookan) variant as an Orpheus myth, Coyote and Eagle have lost their wives; Eagle leads the way to the Lodge of Spirits, and return with their wives and all the other spirits in a box. Canoe burial, 1 broken in pieces, or buried in pit, or sometimes cremated.” ref

(Nez-Perce) (Inland ‘Core’ Penutian >  Plateau Penutian > Sahaptian >)

“Coyote and the Shadow People [e.g., Indian Orpheus myth, and as Yakama variant, origin of mortality]; the land of the dead is a morally neutral place; a lodge of shadows, a basically earthly life, with its day/night, other reversals.” ref

(Klamath Modoc) (Inland ‘Core’ Penutian >  Plateau Penutian >)

“(Klamath) Milky Way is a river; (sometime or for a few) land of the dead at end of Milky Way trail, but not at all for Tenino. (Tenino) Land of the dead ‘where the sun sets’; not across a river; (Klamath, Tenino) there life same as on earth. Believe Frog is a medicine-woman, associated closely with pond-lily seeds. Klamath associated the frog and rain. (Klamath; Modoc) Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: river, for a few is trail of the dead ref

(Kalapuya Willamette Valley) [isolate? or Oregon Penutian > Takelma-Kalapuyan]

“Coyote takes water from the Frog people. The Frog people had all the water. Coyote tricked them, dug a hole in the dam, which collapsed, and water made creeks, rivers, waterfalls and all the creatures could get a drink, water for cooking, and swim.” ref

(Yokuts + Miwok Ohlone) (formerly Costanoan) (Inland ‘Core’ Penutian > Yok-Utian > Yokuts and Utian  + Maidu {or Wintuan-Maidu} + Plateau Penutian (Sahaptian, Molala, Klamath {or + Wintuan)  (Wintuan = Wintu + Patwin + Nomlaki)

“(Yokut) Milky Way is dust from race or travel, Elk vs. Deer; Deer vs. Bear (Bear’s road), Elk vs. Frog; Rabbit spilt pinole;  tracks or dust of a race between Antelope and Deer; Yokut glossary, wa-kai (Milky Way, ‘stream’). (Miwok) glossary, sik-ke (Milky Way, ‘ashes’); ‘ashes, dust’, sik•a-tv ‘to singe hair’. Southern Sierra Miwok, waka’lmū 𝚃o (Milky Way). waka ‘creek, stream, river’; Plains Miwok mu•k ‘trail, road’. Northern Sierra Miwok, waŋaɂ hos•ok•enaɂ (Milky Way, ‘lots of stars’; waŋa ‘many, lots, a lot’ + hos•ok•enaɂ ‘star; falling star, meteor’). [ ‘Ashes’ seem symbolic of hearth fire out and only ashes and/or cremation ashes? If so, evokes Milky Way as path of departed souls?].” ref

Milky Way: tracks of race between Elk and Deer, Bear or Frog (Yokut) ‘stream’ (Miwok) ‘ashes, dust’, ‘creek, stream, river’, trail, road ref

(Wintuan Central California) (Inland ‘Core’ Penutian > Yok-Utian > Yokut + Utian + Maidu {or Wintuan-Maidu} Wintuan = Wintu + Nomlaki + Patwin) Wintuan arrived CA from OR 1,500 years ago, pronomial system closely resembles Klamath)

“(Wintu, Maidu, Nisenan) deceased corpse interred in earth, not among rocks, head east; (Nisenan) also, cremation; Mtn. Maidu, rare; personal property burnt, if burial, implements broken; communal mourning ceremony; reincarnation not reported. (Wintu) Souls of the dead go first to Mt. Shasta, then to the Milky Way; [but] Wintu received the Earth Lodge cult; not the Ghost Dance proper; the Earth Lodge preached cataclysmic end of the world and all people, then return of the dead old people to start over; the cult lasted only 1 year, conversion failed. Then 1875-95 local dream dances arose, mostly led by shamans, who drew on ghosts of dead relatives, with songs, e.g., ‘we shall go / along the Milky way / along the flower path … down west … where weeping ghosts dance’, and may end with the sick running naked into the river for a cure. Milky Way is ‘ghosts’ road, dead person’s trail’ but not Maidu or Nisenan; [but] Wintu and Foothill Maidu. Shooting stars or shower of meteorites were believed to be the spirits of shamans who had died and were traveling to the afterlife. Souls of the wicked return as a Grizzly Bear, Dogs killed at death of owner, Trinity Wintu, Mountain Maidu; Yurok, Karok, Hupa, Nogatl, Sinkyone; Lassik and Kato, W and E Shasta’, and Foothill Maidu.” ref

“Falling stars, spirits of shamans on way to afterlife. Souls of wicked return as Grizzly Bear.” ref

Milky Way: to Mt. Shasta, then along Milky Way the flower path to the West (Wintu)  (Patwin) trail of single animal, Antelope or ‘scatter of ashes’ ref

Wakashan languages

“Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As is typical of the Northwest Coast, Wakashan languages have large consonant inventories—the consonants often occurring in complex clusters. As first proposed by Edward Sapir and Leo J. Frachtenberg, and later elaborated by Morris Swadesh, the Wakashan languages were grouped together with Salishan and Chimakuan languages in a “Mosan” macrofamily. This proposed macrofamily is now generally rejected as a genealogical grouping. Structural similarities and shared vocabulary are best explained as the result of continuous intensive contact; the Mosan languages thus represent a sprachbund within the wider Pacific Northwest typological area. In the 1960s, Swadesh also suggested a connection of the Wakashan languages with the Eskimo–Aleut languages. This was picked up and expanded by Holst (2005). Sergei Nikolaev has argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between the Nivkh language of Sakhalin island and the Amur river basin and the Algic languages, and a secondary relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages.” ref

“Preposed systematic relationship between the Nivkh language of Sakhalin island and the Amur river basin and the Algic languages, and a secondary relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages.” ref

(Haisla)

“One entity, hzig, was both soul and ghost; dangerous after death as it could kill others and take their souls. It also could be reincarnated.” ref

(Heiltsuk)

“A person has ‘realness’ = power, self-containedness, immutability and connection to place; and 3 components: body, persona (the title-name, social rights and privileges), and soul, which is life. Souls come from Upper World of ancestors, creator beings; or Lower World, villages, mirror living, except reversals. Reincarnation common. Twins reincarnate as salmon, with healing powers. Dead soul can visit living as guardian spirit, supernatural clan animal or simply as a ghost. Milky Way (loa´x•loag•eli´s) [JBH. cf. loEwaya, ‘sky’; loa´q, ‘hemlock sap; logwa´s, ‘hemlock tree’; loa´l, ‘ghost’; lo´lolla, ‘belonging to ghosts’? Note hemlock used for purification].” ref

Milky Way: Milky Way in glossary next to words for sky, ghosts, hemlock ref

Upper World: ancestors ref

Lower World: like living, but reversals ref

(Kwakwaka’wakw)

“Trade between internal Kwakwakaʼwakw nations, as well as surrounding Indigenous nations such as the Tsimshian, Tlingit, the Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish peoples. The Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw shared many cultural and political alliances with numerous neighbors in the area, including the Nuu-chah-nulth, Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv and some Coast Salish.” ref

“Cannibal Dance, said to consume human flesh; head ring of hä’mats’a represents the Milky Way; the dance house cannibal pole ‘the Milky Way [q’a´nq’aqa´waleits] of our world… the right-hand side of our world’, in other cases, ‘the rainbow’; depicts top to bottom, devourers: Eagle, Man-Eater, Raven, Grizzly Bear, Wolf. Bird (dancers) fly away, as bird souls ascending to the sky, the source of sacred power; while Ghost (dancers), who live underground, on earth have power to revive a person killed. ‘The axis mundi, seen in the sky as the Milky Way, in the dance house the sacred pole, trunk of a cedar tree, 30 to 35 feet high, over half of which projects through the roof. The pillar confers a cosmic structure on the house. In the ritual songs the house is called ‘our world’ and the novices, who live in it, proclaim: ‘I am at the Center of the World… I am at the post of the World!…’ (Eliade, 1958:35-36); … Among the Cannibals, the door to the back partition represents a bird’s beak. When the novice enters, he is swallowed by the Bird. In other words, he flies to Heaven, for bird symbolism is always connected with ascension. The sound of the flutes and other sacred instruments which have such a considerable role in the Kwakiutl and Nootka see rituals represents the voices of birds. A ghost, visible just before death, fetches soul; so, ghosts feared; afterlife in Lower World, of reversals; but ‘soul of sea-hunter goes to the home of the Killer Whales; a hunter’s to home of the Wolves; twins to the Salmon country; and common people “the owl mask”, i.e., become Owls)’; corpse in bentwood box atop a tall spruce tree some distance from their village; no mention of burial goods; sometimes items burned so the deceased has access to them in the spirit world; reincarnation. Relevant or not, for semantic meaning of q’a´nq’aqa´waleits, ‘Milky Way’?] PWS qaX, ‘to die; dead’ > Nootka qah, ‘to die’; PAW *q’änV, ‘dog’; NiA qan, NiS qan-ŋ, ‘dog’; Wiyot waɫəl, ‘road, trail’; Yurok la:, ‘road, way.” ref

Milky Way: cannibal totem pole of red cedar represents Milky Way, the axis mundi center of our world, which birds ascend, cannibal pole depicts top to bottom Eagle, Man-Eater, Raven, Grizzly Bear, Wolf.” ref

Upper World: souls are birds ascending to the sky realm of sacred power in back of ceremonial house cannibal novices go through bird’s beak, i.e., flies to Upper World ref

Lower World: with reversals ghosts live under-ground, on earth can restore killed dead to life ref

(Nuu-chah-nulth)

Milky Way: home of ancestors in Milky Way

“Nootka cosmos 4 realms: Sky, Land, Sea and Horizons (2, between sky and sea and sky and land, the Horizon or ‘Inbetween’ of supernaturals, e.g., Thunder-bird, Wolf, Salmon, Killer Whale. Images on a ceremonial house curtain often represent ancestors. ‘Ancestors—that is, those who have died, left the physical world, and completed the year-long, sometimes our-year-long cycle returning to Taa’winisim (The Milky Way)—come back to witness …thus add to the spiritual power of the event.” ref

Salishan languages

“The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by agglutinativity and syllabic consonants. For instance the Nuxalk word clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ (IPA: [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]), meaning “he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant”, has twelve obstruent consonants in a row with no phonetic or phonemic vowels. The Salishan languages are a geographically contiguous block, with the exception of the Nuxalk (Bella Coola), in the Central Coast of British Columbia, and the extinct Tillamook language, to the south on the central coast of Oregon.” ref

(Coeur d’Alene)

“Ashes of deceased deposited in Spokane River, would rise like a salmon, leap the bridge, find a way home.  Milky Way, trail of the dead; Ursa Major is mean Grizzly Bear; on a hunting trip, his brothers-in-law aimed to shoot; but youngest warned him, and all transformed into stars.” ref

Milky Way: path of souls of the dead (No Salishan nor Sahaptian) influenced by Ghost Dance ref

(Kalispel)

“Similar Frog myth. The good go to Amotken; bad to evil goddess Emtép (‘who lives at the foot of the tree’).” ref

Upper World: yes ref

Lower World: at foot of a tree ref

(Nuxalk) (Bella Coola)

“Dog Eating Dance, dancer with Wolf-spirit eats tabooed flesh (not dog’s). Contrast Kwak’wala Cannibal Dance, said to consume human flesh. At death soul visits places habitually visited in life; after 4 days descends below, where it lives forever. Voice of the dead may speak through an Owl to a living person, so owls are treated with respect. Food morsels thrown in fire to souls below. Lower World, land of ghosts, shamans say it stretches along a large river; seasons, etc. are reversed; ghosts live in a house; dance upside down; may return from Lower to Upper and be reincarnated; while other ghosts die a 2nd death with no return.” ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Nespelem)

“Ghosts, shadowy figures in opaque garb, most without heads or other body parts. Land of the dead in sky, at end of Milky Way trail; life same as on earth or place of oblivion.” ref

Milky Way: path of souls of the dead, (No Salishan nor Sahaptian) influenced by Ghost Dance ref

(Nlaka’-pamux)

“Twins are Grizzly bear children, with weather powers. Milky Way, ‘what has been emptied on the trail of the stars’, ‘the gray trail’ or ‘tracks of the dead’.  Deceased’s dogs killed; skins hung up on nearby tree. “Among Salishan on BC and Columbia Plateaus, Lillooet, Thompson, possibly Shuswap, only peoples to consume dog flesh”. Land of Dead, W, sunset. Past shaman shortcut, trail is red ochred; descends to stream, a log crossing, ends at large lodge, souls welcomed; land of sweet flowers, plenty; or is beyond a lake crossed by a canoe. The souls of animals go to their respective homes in Lower World, where animals are born. (Lower Thompson and Lillooet) Land of the dead not in sky, but ‘where the sun sets’; is a life of continuous ceremony;  (Lower Thompson) across a river (elements list);  (Lillooet) reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: trail of stars, ‘gray trail’ or ‘tracks of the dead’ (No Salishan nor Sahaptian) influenced by Ghost Dance ref

Lower World: animals ref

(Pend d’Oreille)

“Some Pend d’Oreille think that souls followed the main streams north to the gate to the spirit land; Kalispel say first north and then west, in the same direction as the main river runs. Others say souls follow the streams to the sunset land and disappear there just as the sun and moon do. East is the region of birth and life, west death and mystery.” ref

Upper World: N, then W, following streams, rivers, to sunset land beyond (celestial?) ref

(Salish) (Coastal)

“(Snohomish Lushootseed) Milky Way is a river; (Coast Salish) village of dead W of this world; by tree, canoe shamans cross 2 rivers to retrieve soul. (Tillamook) After death soul walked 2 days to a river, waited 10, a canoe took it to other side. Welcomed into a large house; dancing and feasting; a beautiful land with colorful birds, plenty game; old > young. Salmon run composed of reincarnated spirits of ancestors, providing food; reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: river ref

(Salish) (aka Bitterroot, ‘Flathead’)

“Similar to Spokane and Kalispel, except in this case Amotken sent one son, Frog jumped and attached to one of his cheeks, and he became Sun by day, shining light, and by night Moon, with disfigured face Coyote versus Amotken, lift a rock to test power [This is close parallel to Iroquoian (Seneca, Onondaga) False Face Society ‘Bent Nose’ myth?].” ref

(Southern Okanagan)

“During making of Sun and Moon from Coyote’s sons, Frog-Woman clings to Moon’s face. Flood stories, Shamans have power sticks, used in dances, etc., 3-4 feet long, decorated with colors, painted with guardian-spirit emblems, rattles at top, most common decoration straight lines, circles, spirals.  Strong power animals include Cougar, Grizzly for riches, Buzzard for curing, Horned Owl, night vision. Navel-cord amulet bags.  Soul has 5 components. Burial under rockslide or cover of rocks, the hole lined with tule mats or these were wrapped around the bundle, 1-3 cedar poles set up on grave, power emblem might be attached; corpse carrying pole broken in several pieces placed at the head. Land of Dead in the sky (Christian influence?).” ref

Upper World: yes ref

(Shuswap)

“Dog sacrifice, dead’s best or favorite dog killed at grave, body hung up on pole or nearby tree. Dog Dance ceremony, lead dancer in wolf-skin tears apart dog, eats flesh. 2 myths on how 4 dogs transform from Grizzly Bear, Timber Wolf, Panther [Cougar], Rattlesnake, kill, devour cannibals; and how hunter uses 4 bones (Grizzly, Wolf, Porcupine, Marmot) which transform into 4 dogs to kill and devour cannibal. Reincarnation.” ref

(Spokane)

“Amotkan, earth creator, made light after the animals met to create it using a high pole to climb, but failed to stay on top. Thunder shattered it, loosened a piece of red rock, which turned into a handsome red man. Amotkan gave him a brother made from a root of an herb. The two went to the lodge of Lady Bullfrog. So enamored of the root brother, she leapt onto his face and stuck there. Pulling loose she tore out one eye. He ascended  and became the Sun, for he did not want people to see his face, now missing one eye. People must close one of their own eyes to look at him. Then Bullfrog jumped onto the other brother’s face. He became the Moon. If one looks carefully at the moon, the Bullfrog is clinging to his face. Deceased buried upright or sitting, a position common among the Upper Spokane; Lower Spokane placed bodies parallel to the river, heads downstream, buried with bone carvings, stone tools and pipes, as did other Spokanes. On slopes sometimes piled rocks on graves to protect from predators. Soul left the body at death. The dead’s name not spoken, to void ghosts.” ref

(Wenatchi)

“Flood story. Marten and Fisher kill horned Water-Monster; use cane to climb to mountain top, escape flood.  Land of the dead not in sky, but is continuous ceremony.” ref

(Quileute) (Chimakuan language isolate)

“Raven created features of the landscape; rescued the Sun from people who hid it in a box, so all had light. Thunderbird lives under glacial ice. Animals were first on earth, some had union with a star that fell to earth > Chemakum, Quileute, etc.  Everything has 5 souls: body, inner soul, outer shadow, ‘life-unit’ [a suggested term ‘life-force’; compare ‘power’ in Numic religion], ghost; dead descend to Land of Ghosts deep underground. Every person has an individual guardian spirit; also prays to Sun and the universe; first Quileute humans Raven created from a Wolf Dwelling place of souls is called Country of the Ghosts and situated way under the ground. It is a large valley through which runs a river, and the souls dwell on both banks, recently dead on the near side, those who died long ago on the other side, occupying houses exactly like those of the living, and their days are spent in same occupations, and all have plenty. The river is crossed by canoe, and thus Quileute bury their dead in canoes. Souls stay there forever. Infants and children have a separate underworld, south of that of adults, the trail, no obstacles, a beautiful lake for bathing, houses by playgrounds, and an old woman gives them all perpetual care.” ref

Lower World: houses on each side of river, canoe crossing dancing, feasting, plenty, reversal day/night, ghosts, steal souls ref

(Kutenai) [language isolate]

“Milky Way the trail of single animal, Dog; ‘Dog’s trail’ Burial, Version 1. Burial between 2 trees, stripped of bark, painted red, with offering of piece of highly valued property tied to wooden hoop and placed in one of the trees.  Version 2. ‘Corpse carried by straps of hide; shaman always accompanies; valuables placed with corpse (not broken, burned or ‘killed’); horse killed; burial in rocks, talus slopes [not known if in soil) [also in rocks, talus slopes: Southern Salishan Coeur d’Alene, Flathead (few), Wenatchee, Sanpoil; Kalispel, but not Northern Salishan Lillooet or Lower Thompson; Plateau Penutian Umatilla, Klickitat, Tenino, Wayampi, Kittitas, but (-) Maritime Penutian Lower Chinook]; in obscure spots, not near village or camp; grave not lined; on back, facing W; grave marked by poles along each side [not Flathead, Coeur d’Alene, nor Umatilla, but Chilcotin]; horses used to eradicate all signs to avoid disinterment by enemies [unique to tribe]; twins buried same; post- funerary feast and property of deceased distributed [general Salishan, Penutian] (Plateau element list). [Southern Okanagan (Okanagan-Colville) buried body under a rockslide or other rock covering, personal belongings, tools, power objects, etc. placed on body before burial (broken for No. Okanagan). Spokane bury along river, also on slopes covered with rocks.” ref

Milky Way: Dog’s trail’ ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Chumash) (language isolate, or oldest CA lang + Yukian + Baja Waikuri)

“Chumash) Meteor ball of light, (“shooting star”, “falling star”) a soul dying or on journey to land of the dead. Souls traveled Milky Way to west, where Venus ruled over land of the dead, and Golden Eagle, highest Upper World deity, who knew what was to be. Fall and early winter Milky Way spanned sky NE to W, time of solstice rituals for Sun and recent dead, when Sun set west in Milky Way below Altair in Aquila (Hudson & Underhay, 1978: 96-125; Green, 2001) The body is cremated; a soul lingers about the old living place for five days, and is fed every night; on the fifth day, departs, and possessions are taken to a sacred pole, the Depository of the Things of the Dead, at mouth of Ventura River (others say Point Conception); the soul goes W to land of the dead; at end of 12 years it returns, reincarnated.” ref

Milky Way: path of souls of the dead to west + Sun also, falling star ref

Upper World: in the west beyond ocean, in stars of Aquila, via Milky Way ref

(Yuki) (Yuki–Wappo languages of western California)

“In beginning everything water; on the water in a fleck of foam, a down feather was circling, from which issued voice and singing of the Creator; Coyote also present; Creator formed earth from piece of coiled basket; fastened earth at 4 ends; makes sky from skin of 4 whales; marries sister, places sticks, arise in morning as people. Coyote bumbler and culture hero. Deciding against the creator, Taikomol, Coyote chose that humans die. Contest between Creator and boasting Thunder. [This contest has similarities to Iroquois Bent-Nose contest.] Milky Way the trail of single animal, Coyote;  glossary hó•lk’é•lel’ mîs ‘milky way (dead person road)’ [Coyote = hulk’o?i]. (Wappo) Milky Way hote´umîts (ghost road); in 1870s, various dreamer cults, Bole-Maru and Earth Lodge cult from Pomo to Kato to Wappo and Yuki; some modified traditional Ghosts Dance; Ghost Dance influence on Pit River and Round Valley Reservation Indians Cremation ashes flung into air, spirit flies to Pt. Reyes grotto, eternal fire, for a season, then flies west over the ocean to the ‘Happy Western Land’ Deceased’s soul first revisits all the places it has ever been; then went to the sky, place of abundance; deny Milky Way is path of the dead; no record of reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: dead person road’ (some denied it) (Ghost Dance influence?) trail of Coyote creator makes sky from skin of 4 whales. ref

Upper World: goes to Pt. Reyes grotto, then west, beyond ocean or goes to sky. ref

(Maidu of northern California) Maiduan languages (Maidun, Pujunan)

“(Maidu) Milky Way is Morning Star’s trail. (Mountain Maidu) Milky Way is ‘creek or river’, not trail of animal or race. (Valley Maidu) glossary, mupupup-nomba (Milky Way, ‘whitish road’). Milky Way is ‘ghosts’ road, dead person’s trail’ but not for Maidu or Nisenan; [but] dead person’s trail for Foothill Maidu and Wintu. (Foothill Maidu) The Milky Way is pointed out as the road of the spirits. ‘We may be confronted here by a Ghost Dance idea’. [However] Informants stated Mountain and Foothill Maidu rejected the Ghost Dance and return of the dead. Dogs killed at death of owner, Mountain Maidu; Trinity Wintu; Yurok, Karok, Hupa, Nogatl, Sinkyone; Lassik and Kato, W and E Shasta’, and Foothill Maidu. (Mountain Maidu) the heart lingers, but there is no retracing of life course; they believe their ghosts go eastward and live with the Creator. Once a ghosts face is washed, it is spirit forever’. (Valley Maidu) ‘At death the soul (‘heart’) lingers near the body for several days, then journeys to every spot which the living person had visited, retracing each of his steps and re-enacting every deed performed in life. Then the spirit seeks a mysterious cavern in the Marysville Buttes, where for first time it eats spirit food and is washed. From the Buttes the spirit ascends to the sky land, flower land, or spirit land, as it variously called’. (Foothill Maidu) The soul takes a similar journey, but reaches the sky land (‘valley above’) by going east along the path of the sun, instead of the Buttes. The Milky Way is also pointed out as the road of the spirits. Informants stated Mountain and Foothill Maidu rejected the Ghost Dance and return of the dead. (Chico =  Valley Maidu)  glossary, mupupup-nomba (Milky Way, ‘whitish road’); but informant uncertain if ghost road. Chico informants stated they had Dreamer dances, popular Ball dance, but ‘never heard of the return of the dead preached in association with the Bole-Maru and considered it a ridiculous idea’; and it later conflicted with ‘Big Head’ ceremonies. (Nisenan) Coyote argues against the return of humans to life and prevails, so people must die. When his own son is killed by a rattlesnake, Coyote is unable to undo his decision. Deceased spirit crosses water, river, on a bridge. Whirlwinds indicate arrival of good spirits to transport the soul of recently deceased to afterworld, the Happy Western Land.” ref

Milky Way: trail of departed spirits (Foothill Maidu) possibly impact of Ghost Dance; but they say they rejected Ghost Dance and return of the dead. Morning Star’s trail (Maidu) ‘creek or river’ (Mtn. Maidu) ‘whitish road’ (Valley Maidu).” ref

Upper World: to Buttes then into sky, or to East and live with creator (Foothill Maidu) or to the west. ref

Hokan language family

“The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken mainly in California, Arizona, and Baja California. The geographic distribution of the Hokan languages suggests that they became separated around the Central Valley of California by the influx of later-arriving Penutian and other peoples; archaeological evidence for this is summarized in Chase-Dunn & Mann (1998). These languages are spoken by Native American communities around and east of Mount Shasta, others near Lake Tahoe, the Pomo on the California coast, and the Yuman peoples along the lower Colorado River. Some linguists also include Chumash, between San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles, and other families, but the evidence is insubstantial, and most now restrict Hokan to some or all of the languages listed below.” ref

(Achumawi) (aka Pitt River) northeastern California (Achumawi language, possibly related to the Hokan language family)

“(Achumawi Modesse) Deciding against Silver-Fox, Coyote chose that humans die. Milky Way as path of departed souls or spirits on their way to the next world. So feared the dead [ghosts], they quickly disposed of the dead by cremation without any ceremony or purification ceremony; the belongings of the dead also burned; taboo against survivor even speaking the dead’s name; for ‘his soul had gone to the western mountains, and no one wanted to give it an excuse to return (Achumawi) influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Milky Way: path of departed spirits ref

Upper World: to western mountains ref

(Washo/Washoe or Wašišiw) Washo language, possibly related to the Hokan language family)

“The dead’s spirit goes up and south to the Land of the Dead, guarded by men with bows; some shamans could journey to retrieve a soul; there spirits played games and had a good time; those of killers segregated, did not fare well. Ghosts wander the land, generally malevolent, feel they’ve been badly used in life or not properly honored at death; often come in form of whirlwinds, dust devils or puff of warm air at night. Washo glossary, hanayanaasuk (Milky Way, ‘sky backbone’). (Washo) influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Milky Way: sky backbone ref

Upper World: up, and South ref

(Pomo) (language isolate or possibly related to the Hokan language family)

“Milky Way path of departed souls; (Eastern Pomo) Milky Way trail of single animal, Bear. Ghost Dance, then Earth Lodge cult among Pomo 1872; and Bole-Maru cult (pro-burial anti-cremation), world destruction and return of the dead; all possibly grafted on prior Ghost impersonation ceremony. Cremation. Soul ascends by ladder to heaven; wicked fall off, descend to limbo forever; the truly evil > forever hungry grizzly bear or rattlesnake.” ref

Milky Way: path of departed spirits [Ghost Dance influence?] or trail of single animal, Bear. ref

Upper World: ascend by ladder ref

Lower World: limbo forever ref

“Milky Way as ladder, suggests motif origin when precession yielded Milky Way vertical. At 35,000-31,000 years ago and 9,000-5,000 years ago. [But Using ‘Starry Night Pro’, Milky Way Upright 40,000 years ago, at 11-12 PM, NNW, with Zenith to right of it. Upright 34,000 years ago, at 10-12PM, WNW, with Zenith slightly to R of Lacerta. Upright 26,000 years ago, at 12PM, NE, with Zenith in Milky Way’s Cygnus. Upright 19,000 years ago, at 1AM, due S, Zenith in Milky Way, near Aquila Altair, above Serpens Cauda, above Scorpius. Upright 14,000 years ago, at 2-4AM, NNE, Zenith near Serpens Cauda in Milky Way, above Aquila, above Cygnus, though 7-8PM it was horizontal on the horizon E to W, and facing N, Cygnus was few degrees L and Aquila R of due N. Compare Chumash Milky Way journey with Scorpion Woman as obstacle; and Milky Way horizontal E to W at winter solstice ritual time? But 11PM winter solstice 11,000-3,000 years ago was horizontal SE to SW and vertical only in daylight, though ~3,000 years ago it was  vertical ~7PM in NW, then turned horizontal ~1 AM NW to S.  At 400ka, 10PM winter solstice, Milky Way vertical in NW and at 4AM horizontal N to SW.].” ref

(Shasta) (Shasta language, possibly related to the Hokan language family)

“Milky Way as path of departed souls or spirits on their way to the next world. (Shasta) Burial with belongings, or cremation if distant; immaterial part, identified with the heart, left body by way of feet and went to home of the dead in the east. Others stated it went to the west, where it rose to the sky and journeyed eastward along the Milky Way.” ref

Milky Way: path of departed spirits ref

Upper World: to West, then Milky Way, East or directly to east [exact reverse of Chumash Milky Way path, 14,000 years ago?] ref

(Karok) (language isolate or possibly related to the Hokan language family)

“Deceased traveled Milky Way to land of the dead in the sky, an especially happy place reserved for rich people and ceremonial leaders. Path of the dead went up a ridge to SE from mouth of the Salmon River.” ref

Milky Way: path of departed spirits or up ridge to SE from mouth Salmon River ref

Upper World: yes ref

(River and Delta Yuman) [Core Yuman < Yuman-Cochimi < Hokan?]

“(Maricopa, River) Milky Way is tracks or dust of a race between Antelope and Deer.  (Diegueño, Delta) Milky Way is ‘backbone of the sky’. Also, Assiniboine, Kiowa, and Luiseño; ‘only apparent Asian parallel is from Samoyed’; but not Quechan; (Diegueño; Quechan) (sometimes or a few) Milky Way associated Coyote; Orion ‘Mtn sheep, L-handed hunter and arrow; (Quechan) N. Star ‘one end of Coyote’s net’;  (Diegueño; Quechan) cremation; (Diegueño; Quechan) land of dead in south; not below, underworld; (Quechan) ‘land of dead for twins, above’. Afterworld is duplicate of earth, except day and night, seasons reversed, old become young; constant dances and games, war, plenty to eat, and always enjoying themselves; eventually they get old and die, three times, and at the 4th death the soul becomes nothing more than a bit of charcoal lying on the desert.” ref

Milky Way: tracks or dust of race between Antelope and Deer and/or backbone of the sky (few) Coyote North star end Coyote’s net. Orion Mtn sheep, L-handed hunter, arrow. ref

Upper World: twins ref

Uto-Aztecan language family

“The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ancestry of the Ute language of Utah and the Nahuan languages (also known as Aztecan) of Mexico. The Uto-Aztecan language family is one of the largest linguistic families in the Americas in terms of number of speakers, number of languages, and geographic extension. The northernmost Uto-Aztecan language is Shoshoni, which is spoken as far north as Salmon, Idaho, while the southernmost is the Nawat language of El Salvador and Nicaragua.” ref

(Northern Paiute) (Northern Paiute/North Numic, Uto-Aztecan language family)

“Paiute (/ˈpaɪjuːt/; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three languages do not form a single subgroup and they are no more closely related to each than they are to the Central Numic languages (Timbisha, Shoshoni, and Comanche) which are spoken between them.” ref

“1. Spirit Cave, NV, mummy,  (~10,900 years ago) n=2 D1. 2. Pyramid Lake, NV, w of Winnemucca Lake, Wizard’s Beach Man (~9,200 years ago) = C1; (~5.500-1.500 years ago) n=18 56%D, 33%B, 11%A, no C, no X; [A=A2a]. 3. Stillwater Marsh NV (~3.500 years ago) n=21 57%D, 38%B, 5%A, no C, no x; most similar to current Penutians (bones protected Fallon Paiute-Shoshone. [Lick mthap, D is D1] 4. West Nevada Combined (Pyramid Lake + Stillwater Marsh, both same geographic area), n=39 (56%D+36%B+8%A, no C, no X), the West Nevada D:B ratio closest to N. Uto-Aztecan [N. Paiute/Shoshoni], California Penutian and Central Coast Hokan; high %D > current pop. suggests D characterized the prehistoric pop of W. Nevada until the last millennium arrival of Northern Uto-Aztecan, Great Basin group and Numic speakers; and Calif. Penutian most likely modern descendants of Pyramid Lake group. 5. N. Paiute/Shoshone, n=94 48%D, 43%B, 10%C, no A.” ref

“[Ergo, based on archaeogenetics the Great Basin had a stable mtDNA population pattern (predominantly D + moderate B-mtDNA) for at least 10,000 years, despite later diffusions of various language families?] [With respect to Kaestle & Smith (2001) hypothesis, based on mtDNA sample patterns, Hokan (Achumawi n=2 100%B; Washo 54%B, 36% C1; Pomo 50%B, 25%D, 25%X; Karok n=1 100%B) appears predominantly B-mtDNA; thus, ruling out Hokan as having any long ancestry in the Great Basin? Maritime Penutian (Wishram 52%B, 27%D, 21%A; Coos n=1 C) and Calif. Penutian (Yokut 50%B, 38%D; Miwok 75%B, 25%D; Costanoan 50%C, 25%B, 25%D; Wintuan n=3 100%B; total n=27 56%B, 30%D, 11%C, 4%A) appear to have a reversed pattern, predominantly B, secondarily D, or no D; thus, ruling out Penutian as having any long ancestry in the Great Basin?  These rule-outs suggests Northern Uto-Aztecan may be the earliest or earliest adopted language family of Great Basin population, and its 3 variants, W, C and S Numic, correspond to the 3 points of the late Pleistocene Great Basin triangle of Pluvial Lakes, which also show occurrences of Clovis industry?]  [In late Pleistocene the Great Basin had a geographic triangle of paleolakes, apparently each occupied by Clovis peoples: Pluvial Lake Lahontan (including Clovis points along shores; Black Rock basin); Pluvial Lake Bonneville (Wild Isle Delta; Old River Bed) [NW, Simon Cache; NE, Fenn Cache]; and Pluvial Lake Owens River-China Lake (and Lake Mojave).” ref

“[Important zoomorphic characters in myths, afterlife beliefs, and genetics suggest Pluvial Lake Lahontan paleo to archaic peoples closest to N. Paiute/Shoshone?] [Also compare 3 quite different creation myths suggesting a sequential prehistoric ordering of myth and language family admixtures/adoptions. (No. Paiute) (Type 1 + 4) Earth Creator: Ocean-Grandmother sprinkled particles of her skin on the waters, assumed a birthing posture, stretched it out to make land, ending at Job’s Peak, Stillwater Range, near Walker Lake. Job’s Peak regarded by some No. Paiute groups as the center of the world, the sacred center where creation began. [Note. Also, this is the Southern Paiute creation myth.] (Bannock) (Type 3 + 1) Father, Mother and Son creator(s); Earth-Diver: Muskrat (Bannock) (Type 2) Polarity Balance: Wolf (Esa) and Coyote (Ejupa). Esa (Wolf) is the creator god and culture hero, sometimes takes on form of a wolf. Ejupa (Coyote), Esa’s younger brother, a trickster figure and culture hero [native-languages.org]; Gray Wolf created the Bannock using beautiful feathers of song birds. “The snow lies there / The snow lies there / The snow lies there / The snow lies there / The Milky Way lies there / The Milky Way lies there”. ‘One of the favorite songs of the Paiute Ghost Dance. In the mythology of the Paiute, as of many other tries, the Milky Way is the road of the dead to the spirit world’. Paiute Glossary: Gosi’pa – the Milky Way, road of the dead.  Origin Myth (Blind Tom, Walker River) After producing the people, People Father and Mother headed south, “came to the ocean and walked over the water to the western edge. The clouds rose like a great door and they passed under. They climbed up a ladder and passed through the door in the sky. There they live. When anybody dies the spirit goes along Kasipo (the Milky Way), to this place. People Father places the soul in a box, after a time it becomes a living person. Father then places in a luxuriant place where soil is white like snow and no sickness ever.” ref 

Burial in rocks (universal), rock covered (universal); spirit goes to sky, above (universal); travels S and up (11 of 12 bands); goes along Milky Way (universal), called ghost road (universal), ‘dust road (kusipo)’ (universal), ‘smoke from fire’ (0 of 12), ‘sky path’ (No. Paiute) Ice Barrier. Coyote and Wolf went to the north to fight. Wolf gathered people, and Coyote who had been to the Snake River, gathered people and went back there. Ice had formed ahead of them, and it reached all the way to the sky. The people could not cross it. It was too thick to break. A Raven flew up and struck the ice and cracked it. Coyote said, “These small people can’t get across the ice.” Another Raven flew up and cracked the ice again. Coyote said, “Try again, try again.” Raven flew up again and broke the ice. The people ran across [or through?]. They ran across. Coyote was the last person over (No. Paiute) The song and dance by Whippoorwill, caused Frog, who had offered himself to be the Moon, to rise into the air and become the beautiful full Moon, accompanied by his seven wives, the sisters of Wolf and Coyote, who became stars, and his son who became Venus; Frog tunnels to bring primal waters of sea to emerge as springs and other water flows. Compare Chumash, fresh water under care of Frogs, since it is their urine.” ref

Milky Way: path of departed spirits (Ghost Dance derived from N. Paiute original) or dust road or smoke from fire. ref

Upper World: goes S and up. ref

(Hopi) (North Numic, Uto-Aztecan language family)

“‘When an adult dies, the nearest blood-relatives wash the head, tie a feather offering to the hair so that it will hang over the forehead, wrap the body in a good robe and carry it to one of the graveyards which are in the valleys near the mesas. The body is buried in a sitting position so that it faces east. On the third night a string is placed so that it points from the grave to the west. The next morning, the fourth, the soul is supposed to rise from the grave and proceed in that direction, where it enters the ‘skeleton house’, believed to be situated somewhere near the Canyon of the Colorado. The bodies of young children who have not yet been initiated into some society are not buried in the ground, but are placed in a crevice of the rock somewhere in the side of the mesas and covered with stones. The string offering in this case is not placed pointing toward the west, but toward the house where the family lives. The spirit of the child is believed to return to the house and to be reborn in the body of the next child, or to linger about the house until the mother dies, when it accompanies her to the world of the departed’. The souls of the dead return through the [sipapu] to the underworld in a journey of four days. They are not confined underground but also visit the mountains and the sky where they appear as clouds. A mask of cotton is placed over the face of the dead to represent the cloud mask which the spirit will wear when it returns with the cloud people to bring rain to the village. Entering via the sipapu in the Grand Canyon, they meet the One Horned God [Masauwu] who can read a person’s thoughts by looking into the heart The virtuous follow the Sun Trail to the village of the Cloud People.” ref

Upper World: yes ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Shoshone) (Central Numic, Uto-Aztecan language family)

“(Shoshone) Black Bear and Grizzly fought; Grizzly lost, banished, found himself in frigid desolate wilderness, fearing freezing or starving to death, ran into glow of the Milky Way and found his way to the Eternal Hunting Grounds, the white ice crystals he shook from his fur remained in the sky to light the way to the Land of the Souls, and Shoshone call this trail the Bridge of Souls.” ref

“(E. Shoshone, Wind River) The main ritual of the Shoshoni is the Sun Dance. Stuffed Eagle in rafters, probably formerly on top of the center post, and lower down on the post, a Buffalo head attached. ‘The upper part of the pole is forked and indicates that it stands for the Milky Way, which is as we know similarly divided into two branches. According to Shoshoni beliefs the Milky Way is the path trodden by the dead on their way to the world beyond. The sacred pole is thus a ritual replica of this road. Now, the Milky Way is called in Shoshoni tugungu:himp, “the backbone of the sky.” This name apparently refers to the axis mundi that keeps up the sky. The implication is, of course, that the sacred pole is the world pole.’ Two flags are appended to the forks of the center pole, usually one blue, other whitish. ‘According to one of my most knowledgeable informants, they stand for dark and light, night and day, earth and sky.” ref

“However, even in earlier [pre-horse, pre-Plains] times [the land of the dead] was described as delightful and happy with plenty of food. To come to this paradise the dead person follows the Milky Way, “the backbone of the world.” This indicates a realm of the dead in heaven, an old belief also found among the Basin Shoshone. This belief is somewhat at variance with another belief in which the land of the dead is situated beyond the mountains.’ ‘On third or fourth day the corpse is transported to the burial place… For a male the est horse is killed on the spot so that it can serve as its master’s mount to the land of the dead; on this horse he hunts buffalo in the beyond; other belongings buried for next world’. ‘For the Shoshoni, there are many ways of conceiving of the dead. Either they go to a particular realm in the other world, or they remain on earth as ghosts, or they are born again as people, or they transmigrate into insects, birds, or even inanimate objects like wood and rocks. There is also the belief, possibly post-Christian, that the dead person goes to Our Father. The beliefs in reincarnation and transmigration seem to have been very weak and to have disappeared at least fifty years ago.’ Some say ghosts are dead who followed the wrong branch of the Milky Way and turned back, disguising themselves as whirlwinds or walking skeletons. ‘Most information holds that the dead are situated apart from this world, beyond the western mountains, or in the sky, or somewhere else. There are reports of an underground land of the dead, just as in the Great Basin, but this idea is not generally accepted. However, a more common belief claims that the dead have to pass through a dark tunnel in order to reach the land beyond.’ ‘Backbone of the sky’. Naraya Song #3. “Soul [Mugua] fog soul fog / Soul fog soul fog / Soul floating, flying up / Soul floating, flying up / Soul floating, flying up / Soul floating, flying up. Narrator Emily Hill says ‘the soul is like a fog when it gets out of the body … Well, when a person dies the soul goes out of the body and it flies in the air… It flies away from you… They go to God’s home… When the body’s already in the ground”. (Comanche) Only visible form a ghost may take during daylight hours is a whirlwind or ‘dust devil’. (General Numic) ‘A glimpse of the Land of the Dead in Numic myth shows a happy, green, and grassy place, and by implication, a well-watered place, a place with trees. For Wind River Shoshone, even the road to the Land of the Dead has grass. Some vague idea of reincarnation, possibly connected with a world-renewal concept, as encountered but its significance remains obscure. S-Lemhi thought that at least some people would be reincarnated in the future. NP-Ban recalled an old belief that all people would some day be born again as babies’. [JBH. contradicts:] (Great Basin) But Great Basin absence of any reincarnation belief, except Shoshone human to animal.” ref

“(N. Shoshone) Creator beings, Gray Wolf and Coyote. Tale of Bullfrog stealing Elk-woman’s son, Little Elk who finally ran home to the mountains. Frog associated with rain, fertility; killing a Frog, placing on back causes rain; turned right side up, stops rain. (N. Shoshone) Coyote brought death into the world. Narrator says he got sick, died, soul descended to another world, where the Father was making some dead come alive again. He had vision of the whole earth, his dead body, then suddenly he was alive again. Another time, went up into the clouds, saw another world, only skeletons, departed friends, lots of sagebrush. A common N. Shoshone belief is that the mugua of the deceased rises immediately until it reaches Wolf’s house, where it is washed and revived by Wolf, and while rising they look like clouds.  Burial in rocks, rock covered (9 of 15 bands); cremation (some deceased; 8 of 15); after death soul goes to the sky (2 and 2? of 15); along Milky Way (2 of 5, rest no reports); Milky Way named (only 3 of 15 report), ‘dust road’ (1 and 1? of 15), ‘smoke from fire’ (1 yes, 1 denies), ‘sky path’ (1 denies, 1?).” ref

Milky Way: path of departed spirits ‘bridge of souls,’  “backbone of the sky’’ replicated on Sun Dance center pole, forked at top; blue & white flags at top, light & dark, earth & sky ‘dust road’ (Ghost Dance derived from N. Paiute original, plausibly also Shoshone original).” ref

Upper World: beyond the W mtns or in the sky the soul ascends looking like a cloud. ref

(Southern Paiute) (Southern Paiute/Ute/ Southern Numic, Uto-Aztecan language family)

“(Ute) Ute Bear Dance and western Colorado petroglyphs of Bear climbing tree with forked top, and Bear apparently on a trail of stars/footprints. Compare Southern Evenk seasonal earth-renewal rituals: fall Bear festival in which Bear journeys to Upper World, climbing the clan tree, to plead for Grandmother Mistress of Animals to release of souls of unborn animals in spring; and spring revival rites, when Bear returns with game animals and vegetation at clan river ‘portal’ at clan center. The spring renewal rites include Cosmic Hunt ritual in which hero Bear-Man ascends via the Engdekit river upstream, south and east, to Upper World; on skis chased Sun-Moose-Mother, his arrow stopped by Master of the Upper World, and the Milky Way the ‘ski track of the hero’ Southern Ute) Frog associated with fog and thunder. (Southern Paiute; Ute) Coyote chose that humans die. All animals controlled by snow-white Master of Animals who lived high in the mountains; could transform into Raven, Burial in rocks, rock covered; soul resides in heart; after death soul goes to the sky (above); (some reports) straight up; to Wolf’s house; escorted by Wolf (only 1 Ute band); washed by Wolf on the way (only 1 Ute band); goes to Milky Way (2 Ute, 1 S. Paiute band only); called ghost road (1 Ute, 1 S.P. band only); afterworld like present world.” ref

Milky Way: (only 3 of 11 bands) called ghost road (only 2 bands) Northern but not Southern. Ute influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Upper World: Wolf’s House ref

(Kawaiisu) (Southern Numic, Uto-Aztecan language family)

“Earth-Diver: Coot. Coyote told animals and birds to dive for dirt to make land. All tried and failed, except Coot succeeded. All the animals and birds came down from the sky (parks.ca.gov). [Coots are not ducks, but shore birds like rails; they build floating nests.  Compare Kawaiisu earth-diver Coot to Nivkh creation-time Pochard or Northern Shoveler who creates earth building network of nests; Coot in Ojibwe Earth-Diver creation myths; and Arapaho Earth-Diver Red-headed Duck/Pochard.] An ominous sign, reddish Great Snake/Lizard in sky, a relative will die; a sick man had to pass over it on way to Lower World’. ‘Every person and animal has an inipi (spirit, ghost), the essence of life; which may wander off during sleep, and leaves at death, taking a path E across the desert to land of the dead, where they act as they did when living; may tease survivors, play tricks on them, or frighten someone who was unkind to them… An evil shaman can control an inipi to harm to others. Whirlwinds almost always inipi. Tobacco and blue sage used to keep ghosts away; also, charms such as 2 bird wings attached to a stick or a spiral made of strips of wood, hung from ceiling to freely move in air currents’. Deceased’s body wrapped in tule mat, placed in rock cleft, covered with split burden basket, rocks. Annual mourning ceremony, images of deceased, possessions burned; beads, pinyon nuts and other offerings thrown in the fire. (Ute Chemehuevi – Kawaiisu) dogs sacrificed.” ref

Milky Way: piñon road ref

Lower World: in east; pass over Great Snake / Lizard ref

(Chemehuevi CA, NV desert) (Southern Numic, Uto-Aztecan language family)

“Coyote noticed many wandering spirits alongside the living at Nivaganti. So, Wolf created an opening in the sky, Nuva Kiav, in the Milky Way so the spirits could head home; they gave this guidance to two sisters who entered a sacred cave, Ting-i-ai, and took this spiritual journey for the first time, over the Salt Song Trail. ‘The Milky Way is the dead trail or sky road; the dead have to jump across a river, and if bad, can’t make it; turn into white butterflies and some come around here’; the sky road leads to a hole in the sky north of Nivagati. (Ute Chemehuevi – Kawaiisu) Milky Way ‘piñon road’. Dead buried extended, head W; dogs sacrificed; house burned, unburnables (e.g., pots) broken. (Chemehuevi) influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Milky Way: trail of the dead, sky road, Salt Song Trail soul must cross a river; sky road leads to the hole in the sky, N of Nivagati piñon road. ref

Upper World: yes ref

(Cahuilla – Luiseño Gabrielino) [So. Calif. Language Area < Uto-Aztecan]

“(Cahuilla) Milky Way tracks or dust of race between Coyote and Wildcat. (Luiseño) Milky Way is ‘backbone of the sky’. Also, Assiniboine, Kiowa, Diegueño. ‘Only apparent Asian parallel is from Samoyed’. But not Luiseño or Cahuilla, only Yuman Diegueño. (all tribes) a single, bright meteor is cannibal spirit Takwich. (Luiseño) Soul goes up to realm ruled by Chinigchinix, similar to world of the living, but without sadness or work; some say he judges who goes to heaven or not; identified with Raven. (Mountain Cahuilla, 2 of 3 Luiseño bands) Land of the Dead in Lower World, below. Milky Way associated with a deceased man (towish), with the sacred cord wanawut—representative of life—and probably with the mystic being Whaikut Piwkut (‘White-Grayish’), one of the preexistences of Sky (Night) and Earth; and where one’s spirit went at death. [Compare Egyptian goddess Neith, whose double arrows in rounded lozenge shape indicate her presence at pre-dawn (before the first lightening before dawn) and post-sunset (after the last colors of sunset disappear in darkness) states of pure potentiality for creativity and stillness.] (Gabrielino) Fully initiated souls became stars in the Milky Way; ordinary souls to Lower World, where they made merry with dancing and feasting.” ref

Milky Way: assoc. with deceased man with sacred cord ‘life’; and ‘White-Grayish’, a pre-existence of Sky and Earth or dust of race between Coyote and Wildcat and/or backbone of the sky (Mission Indians) influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Upper World: fully initiated become stars in the Milky Way ref

Lower World: Ordinary souls; make merry with dancing and feasting. ref

(Zuni) [language isolate] (borrowed a number of words from Keres, Hopi, and O’odham pertaining to religion and religious observances) (Hypothetical proposals have been connections with Penutian (and Penutioid and Macro-Penutian), Tanoan, and Hokan phyla, and also the Keresan languages) (As Zuni is a language in the Pueblo linguistic area, it shares a number of features with Hopi, Keresan, and Tanoan (and to a lesser extent Navajo) that are probably due to language contact) ref 

Algic–Algonquian Language family

“The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada. The other Algic languages are the Yurok and Wiyot of northwestern California, which, despite their geographic proximity, are not closely related. All these languages descend from Proto-Algic, a second-order proto-language estimatedto have been spoken about 7,000 years ago and reconstructed using the reconstructed Proto-Algonquian language and the Wiyot and Yurok languages.” ref

“The Algonquian languages are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas, and most of the languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Indigenous Ojibwe language (Chippewa), which is a senior member of the Algonquian language family. The term Algonquin has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word elakómkwik, “they are our relatives/allies.” Speakers of Algonquian languages stretch from the east coast of North America to the Rocky Mountains. The proto-language from which all of the languages of the family descend, Proto-Algonquian, was spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. There is no scholarly consensus about where this language was spoken.” ref

(Yurok, Wiyot) (originally on Middle Columbia River) (= current Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, Kennewick) [Proto-Algic > Yurok, Wiyot, Algonquian]

“(Wiyot) Earth Creator: Old Man Above, made a boat, then people, bad all died, made new people by thought, gave them dances. (Yurok) Transformer Culture Hero – Widower across the Ocean, similar to Algonquian heroes [native-languages.org] (Yurok) The dead, called ‘ghost’ or ‘skeleton’, go below, at a small tree not far above the river; underground the dead came to a river, crossed by a ferryman in a canoe; people killed by weapons went to a place in willows, and forever shouted and danced the war dance; contentious and thievish people, to an inferior place; a rich, peaceable person, who had constantly planned entertainment for dances, came to the sky. Souls had to cross an extremely attenuated greased pole, which bridges over the chasm of the ‘Debatable Land’; mourners burned a fire to light their way, the number of nights varied, less for the good, more for the wicked. Reincarnation.” ref

Upper World: For rich, peaceful, gave dance ref

Lower World: For bad, contentious, thievish. ref

(Ojibwe) (Algonquian Language family: Algic < Algonquian < Ojibwe-Potawatomi < Ojibwe) “It is estimated that Proto-Algic was spoken about 7,000 years ago somewhere in the American Northwest, possibly around the Columbia Plateau.” ref

“Earth-Diver: Coot. [Compare Kawaiisu earth-diver Coot; Arapaho earth-diver Red-headed Duck/Pochard and Nivkh creation-time Pochard or Northern Shoveler who creates earth building network of nests.] Scaffold burial, similarly to Lakota Sioux. Soul journeys south to shores of a great ocean; on the way must bridge stream over a large Snake [Horned Serpent]; some fall and drown. Afterworld souls are treated according to their merits, the good free from pain, spend time dancing and singing; souls of bad persons are haunted by the phantom of the persons or things they have injured; souls pass over the Owl Bridge’. Deceased journey to land of dead; at a bifurcation a large Dog guards the way, lets only those pass who were good to dogs, or souls walk a dusty road to a river with log across; Dogs guard it at both sides; if person was cruel to dogs, they throw it into the river. If mistreated Dogs or Horses, they torment the souls after death. (Timiskaming Ojibwe) Milky Way is path of departed souls on their way to the next world. (Ojibwa, including 2 groups near Lake Huron and Saulteaux) Milky Way is path of migratory birds or (Timiskaming) birds of light/fire. (Ojibwe) jibekana (‘the path of the dead’, ‘path of souls’; and also ‘Milky Way’, ‘the serpent’s path’); Combined soul and bird path motifs concentrated among Algonquians, has only Finno-Ugric parallel. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead path of migratory birds cf. Uralic; Oroqen; Ojibwe; Mi’kmaq  (Ojibwe, nor Algonquian in MN, WI, MI) all not influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Upper World: ? ref

Lower World: ? ref

(Blackfoot) (Plains Algonquian)

“Milky Way the trail of single animal (Blackfoot) Wolf. ‘The Wolves were the first Earth beings to pity us, when we were starving in a winter; they found a family, took it to their camp, showed the man how to cooperate on a buffalo hunt. The Wolves disappeared in the spring, but we still see them in the night sky as Wolf-Trail, and it reminds us how to live together, caring, giving, sharing and with respect for all creation, all life. Wolves said: pray to the trail, there are Human beings there, Spirits there, and they are powerful, and can help you. In traditional sky tales, other tribes revering the Milky Way as a path to the afterlife include the Blackfeet, who have known it as the Wolf Trail, All souls traveled east to the Sand Hills and lived in paradise there, no moral judgment after death. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead, trail of single animal, Wolf or Wolves benefactors of Cherokee (Blackfoot) not influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Upper World: ? ref

(Arapaho) (Plains Algonquian)

“Earth-Diver: Red-headed Duck and Turtle. [Coots are not ducks, but shore birds like rails; they build floating nests. Compare Kawaiisu earth-diver Coot to Nivkh creation-time Pochard or Northern Shoveler who creates earth building network of nests; Coot in Ojibwe Earth-Diver creation myths; and Arapaho Earth-Diver Red-headed Duck/Pochard.] Milky Way is trail of dust of a race between a young Bison bull and a black bobtailed Horse, result is who gets eaten. Milky Way is hi’thina’na-ba, (‘the buffalo road’), or thi’guni-ba (‘the spirit or ghost road’); morning star is naga’q (‘the cross’). Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead or trail of dust of race between Bison and Horse, Arapaho influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

(Gros Ventre) (Plains Algonquian)

““Dead people go to a barren region in the north. People have been there, but the ghosts are invisible. The dead are often heard whistling, speaking, and calling around human houses and tents; they may be closed, but still they are heard. They speak as a living person and people ask them questions.” … a man became sick, unconscious, travelled north to the Cypress Hills to a large encampment. Deceased may be buried in a tree. Land of the Dead called Bashnobe (‘the Big Sand’) (native-languages.org). No evidence of reincarnation. The Milky Way is tsöökanibyaan (“ghost road”). Gros Ventre received the Ghost Dance from the Arapaho, who were deeply affected by it, but it took little hold of the Gros Ventre.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

(Cheyenne) (Plains Algonquian)

“Milky Way is tracks or dust of race between Buffalo and Horse. They placed the deceased’s belongings with the body; even painted it with distinctive markings to ensure the soul could find its body again to rest on during 4-day journey to Seana—the destination for the average Cheyenne who dies a good death—located “at the end of the long fork of the Milky Way”; ‘while Medicine people may travel to Bear Butte, within the sacred mountain may become nesemoono, personal spirits, who continue to guide and instruct people, assuming a variety of incarnations on the surface of the earth’; those who had evil life take the ‘short fork of the Milky Way or ‘suicide road’ and are lost, or fall back to earth as were-animals’. Owls are ‘heralds of death, haunt them, may be associated with evil dead’.  The soul journeys on the ‘Hanging Road’ between earth and heavens, to dwell with the Great Spirit and long-lost loved ones; live as they did on earth; have a good time there.  Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ‘hanging road’ or tracks or dust of race between Bison and Horse. Cheyenne influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Upper World: yes ref

(Innu) (aka Naskapi) (Central Algonquian)

“‘Deceased’s body buried near a lake, facing water; a pole erected fastened with ear and beaver skulls, if an important hunter; in Hind’s time (1853) body wrapped in a blanket with weapons and tools; occasionally dogs were killed and left with the corpse’. ‘Soul theory can be illustrated by comparison of terms which denote ‘soul’ and ‘star’: atcakwu’c (diminutive form, ‘little soul’ or ‘star’)’; compare Penobscot [below]’. ‘Souls of newly born babies come from clouds or celestial realm or Upper World.’ ‘Milky Way is the Ghost Road of departed souls on their way to the next world, where they reside in the sky, and they manifest as stars, until they are reincarnated; and congregate in a dance and illuminate the night sky as the northern lights; and as similar beliefs for the Wabanaki, it may be regarded as fairly archaic; similar to Finno-Ugric mythology. Innu have little fear of ghosts.’ Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

Upper World: souls > stars ref

(Menominee) (Central Algonquian)

“Each person 2 souls: ghost (=intellect, in head), lingers about graveyard for indefinite time; gives sharp whistling cries at night; food offerings made to it + immortal soul, travels the Road of the Dead (Milky Way) to Land of the Departed. One of principal aims of the Medicine Lodge Society is to prepare members to make this difficult 4-day journey safely. Weapons and utensils were placed in graves for use on the journey, not for service in the Land. Just before the Land is reached, a river crossed over slippery log; a huge Dog guards it, forbids evildoers and those who have mistreated Dogs or Wolves, and they fall, swept away forever. If soul succeeds, it is welcomed by spirits of those gone before and joins them in feasting and playing lacrosse forever. In the west, the Land is ruled by Little Wolf, who was slain by lower world powers. Over 4 days Little Wolf washes the soul in a large wooden bowl, cures it of all ailments and purges it of all earthly knowledge, so as to be endowed with heavenly lore’ for members of the Mitä’win… the dead person called back to feast, then released to return, live forever in the [afterlife]’. Milky Way is path of souls to the next world; a giant Dog, leader of all earthly dogs, prevents those who ill-treated Dogs and Wolves in their lifetime to cross a slippery log to settlement of the dead.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

Upper World: ? ref

Lower World: ? ref

(Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo) (Central Algonquian)

“(Fox) Milky Way is a white river. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: white river ref

(Shawnee) (Central Algonquian)

“There are motifs of obstacles of water and the Dog guardian on the path to the land of the dead.” ref

(Cree) (Central Algonquian)

“(Eastern Cree) ‘Held biennial vernal and autumnal equinox Midéwin medicine ceremonies. Initiates undergo death and revival. This is followed by a sacrifice of white dogs, blood pieces tied to four posts of the great lodge, then the meat is roasted and quartered without breaking a single bone, and the entire assemblage feats and satisfies their hunger in honor of the Great Spirit, after which follow chants, dances and orgies until morning’. Milky Way is path of migrating birds, geese, swans; also path of souls of the dead.  Deceased are interred wrapped in birch or pine bark; belongings laid on grave not in it; on the grave are carved or painted the symbols of the tribe, different animals of the country. Reincarnation. (Plains Cree) not influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

(Lenape/Delaware) (Eastern Algonquian)

“Milky Way is path of departed souls on their way to the next world. Dogs guard the log-bridge at the bifurcation of the Milky Way where lies the path to the other world; they push off the bridge souls who ill-treated dogs during their life. Lenape kept ghosts away from newborns and infants, afraid they would attempt to steal them; children were wrapped as soon as possible in adult clothing as disguise. Deerskin strings or strips of corn husk were tied to the wrists of children so a ghost would think they were tied fast to the earth; and holes were cut in their moccasins so that they could not follow the spirit trail. Reincarnation; (Oklahoma) influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

(Mi’kmaq) (Eastern Algonquian)

“Milky Way was path of departed souls or spirits on their way to the next world. Milky Way changes its orientation in spring and fall from diagonal to vertical, and does this to guide the Canada Geese in their migrations. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead, guides the path of migratory birds cf. Uralic; Oroqen; Ojibwe; Mi’kmaq.” ref

(Penobscot) (Eastern Algonquian)

“Like Innu, ‘soul’ and ‘star’: keta’nkmzu (‘ghost’ or ‘spirit of a dead person’); keta’nkmzu audi’ (‘ghost trail or path’, the Milky Way); awa`tawe’su (‘star’, literally ‘far-away being.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

Upper World: souls > stars ref

(Passama-quoddy) (Eastern Algonquian)

“Milky Way as path of departed souls or spirits on their way to the next world.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

(Massachuset) (Eastern Algonquian)

“Milky Way as path of departed souls or spirits on their way to the next world; in SW is a portal guarded by a Dog who denies entry to the unworthy.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead ref

(Narragansett) (Eastern Algonquian)

“Soul has 2 parts, one existed while the body slept, the other was a reflection of the body. After death one goes to an afterworld like this one, great and good persons live on in the house of their creator, Cautántowwit, while murderers, thieves and liars were sentenced to continuous wandering and restlessness.” ref

(Kiowa) [Kiowa-Tanoan languages]

“Milky Way is tracks or dust of a race between Buffalo and Horse or is backbone of the sky. Souls cross a thin greasy pole, bridges the chasm of the ‘Debatable Land’; mourners burn a fire to light their way, number of nights less for the good, more for the wicked.” ref

Milky Way: trail of dust of race between Bison and Horse or backbone of the sky. ref

Iroquoian Language family

“The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, almost all surviving Iroquoian languages are severely or critically endangered, with some languages having only a few elderly speakers remaining. The two languages with the most speakers, Mohawk (Kenien’kéha) in New York and Canada, and Cherokee in Oklahoma and North Carolina, are spoken by less than 10% of the populations of their nations.” ref

(Huron, Seneca) (Northern Iroquoian > Iroquois proper (Mohawk-Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Susque-hannock)

“(Huron, Seneca) Milky Way as path of departed souls on their way to the next world. On an adjacent path marked by stars, ‘the path of the dogs’ travel dog souls; human souls had to cross a log-bridge over a river, guarded by a Dog, who attacks and throws many into the river. Huron say a person had 2 souls, or up to 5; one stayed near the corpse until the Feast of the Dead, freeing it to be reincarnated; the other soul, to the Village of the Dead, where life continued as before. A Feast of the Dead, held every 8 to 12 years; burials disinterred, and tribe unified by re-interring dead in common grave; some grave goods broken to release the souls of the item so that the spirits of the deceased could utilize the item in the afterworld. After the Feast souls assembled covered in robes and grave good and departed on a path along the Milky Way; they met obstacles; had to pass a rock where ‘head-piercer’ drew out their brains and put them in pumpkins. Next they crossed a log over a raging river guarded by a fierce Dog. Many, frightened, fell off and drowned. After months they arrived at the village of the dead, much like that of the living, their occupations, status unchanged. The obstacles were only illusions, to deceive the souls so that they would not attempt to cross back to the land of the living as ghosts. ‘A child younger than 1 month was buried along a well-used pathway so that their souls could re-enter the womb of a woman who passed by to be reincarnated’. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead humans and/or of dogs ref

(Mohawk) (Northern Iroquoian)

“(general Iroquois; Oneida; Huron) Reincarnation.” ref

(Cherokee) (Southeren Iroquoian)

“Milky Way the trail of single animal Wolf; or path of departed souls on their way to next world; or called “Where the Dog ran”, northward, spilling some cornmeal he stole (wiki). Sirius and Antares are 2 Dog-Stars opposite one another where the Milky Way meets the horizon. They cannot be seen simultaneously. The soul crosses a stream on a thin pole. Villains fall off, the rest continue E then W. At the passage by the bifurcation of the road one must feed well the first Dog, then further, a second Dog. If soul caries too little food, the second Dog will remain unfed and the soul wander forever between the 2 Dogs. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead or trail of single animal, Wolf; of Blackfoot or Dog. ref

 Siouan–Catawban language family

“Siouan (or Siouan–Catawban, is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Authors who call the entire family Siouan distinguish the two branches as Western Siouan and Eastern Siouan or as “Siouan-proper” and “Catawban”. Others restrict the name “Siouan” to the western branch and use the name Siouan–Catawban for the entire family. Generally, however, the name “Siouan” is used without distinction.” ref

(Lakota) (Siouan–Catawban language family)

“(Lakota) Human soul has 2 parts, woniya (breath of life) and wanagi (spirit); both go to the spirit land; the spirit may come back and cause harm to survivors if not pleased with them prior to death. If hear a ghost, bad luck follows; if hear a ghost mourning, someone in family will die soon; ghosts are primarily interested in securing the deaths of people they knew in life. The spirit is not what constitutes life; rather is the ghost that defines life; ‘his ghost is his breath’, they say; a good spirit goes to the spirit world ‘at the other end of the spirit way’, a bad spirit stays in the form of a ghost. After death the soul must cross a river on a very narrow tree; if it is afraid, it returns to the world and wanders forever, and if it crosses it goes to the spirit world. (Oglála Lakota) Ghosts entice the living to join them. Loved ones to appease a ghost, ‘keep’ it for one year, feeding it; and after a year it departs along the ‘ghost road’, the Milky Way. It is said, ‘the aura of the Milky Way is caused by their campfires’. In the spirit land it meets previously departed friends, Mean-spirited people are met on the narrow path by the Spirit of the North who trips them so they fall into the waters, which separate the Land of the Living from the Land of the Dead, and the Spirit of Waters is allowed to do as it will with the fallen souls. (Dakota, Oglala, Teton) Reincarnation; (Dakota) twins in particular thought to be reborn The intent of the Keeping of the Soul ritual (wanagi yuhapi) is ‘to assure its return to its origins, where it was born – Wakan-Tanka –so it need not wander the earth like the souls of bad people; and to help the living to be mindful of death’ (Oglala and other Sioux) Body of deceased disposed of by scaffold burial or burial in a tree.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead, Lakota influenced by Ghost Dance ref

Upper World: ? good to origin ref

(Assiniboine) (Dakotan) (Western Siouan)

“Milky Way is ‘backbone of the sky’; also, Kiowa, Mission Indians (Diegueño, Luiseño) of southern California. ‘Only apparent Asian parallel is from Samoyed’. The soul went toward the south, where the climate as warm and game abundant; the bad to a land of perpetual ice and snow and lacked everything desirable.  Reincarnation. Good souls S to land of warmth, plenty; bad souls to land of ice.” ref

Milky Way: ‘backbone of the sky’ ref

(Saponi) (Siouan > Ohio Valley Siouan  > Virginia Siouan (Tutelo-Saponi, Moneton), Mississippi Siouan (Biloxi, Ofo)

“At death both good and bad souls were taken under guard to the ‘great road’, traveled together on the road until they reached a fork, the good to the right, level; the bad to the left, strewn with rocks and mountainous, and were separated by strikes of lightning. For the good the land was warm, perpetually like May, time did not exist; everything they attempted was accomplished; animals were plentiful and fat; the bad went to a land of perpetual hunger, and snow, the only food a bitter kind of potato that gave the soul-body great ulcers; an ugly snake-haired woman determined the extent of torture based on amount of their accumulated sins, which if they survived this, they were allowed to travel to the ‘regions of bliss. At fork of a great road good souls R to land of warmth, plenty; bad to L to land of ice, hunger.” ref

(Ho Chunk) (Siouan > Mississippi Valley Siouan [C. Siouan] > Chiwere-Winnebago)

“Milky Way as path of departed souls on their way to the next world. An old man had 4 hunting dogs; gave 1 ability to hunt both day and night, and become Grey Wolf, patron of humans; gave 3 sacred powers, Green, Black and White Wolf, to become patron of the underworld. Reincarnation.” ref

Lower World: Green, Black and White Wolf patrons of. ref

(Mandan) (Siouan > Mandan extinct)

“Milky Way is path of departed souls on their way to the next world. I cannot find a reference or source for this. Possible Ghost Dance influence?]. A person has 4 souls: (1) white spirit, often seen traveling through the air as a shooting star, the principle spirit, represented by white upland sage; (2) scarcely visible, light brown, spirit, as a Meadow Lark;  (3) lodge spirit, remained around the lodge of which it was a member during life, sometimes as a light; (4) black, represented by a shadow, could frighten people. First two spirits unite, go downriver to a spirit village lodge, one for each village where the old people lived, and there plant, hunt, perform ceremonies as in life. Some claimed the two souls would return to Baby Hill to be reincarnated. Children who died before being named (usually the 10th day) were wrapped in robes and placed in trees or interred apart from the rest of the dead. There were no rites, since not considered a part of the village until named. They were believed to return immediately to the Home of the Babies to be reborn later; at prayer request of a childless woman. Mandan believed the soul returned to the Lower World, the place of origin of the Mandan. Humans stars before birth. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead white soul seen as a falling star. ref

Lower World: yes ref

(Hidatsa) (Siouan > Western Siouan > Missouri River Siouan > Crow + Hidatsa)

“Milky Way is scattered ashes. After death, a soul lingers for 4 nights, then goes to the lodge of his departed kindred in the village of the dead. There he is rewarded for valor, self-denial and ambition, as among the living, and cowards despised. Suicides went to a separate place in the afterworld. A lifestyle was maintained exactly as on earth, except they hunted and fed off the souls of animals that had died on earth; the 4 seasons were in reverse order. Reincarnation.” ref

Milky Way: scattered ashes ref

(Pawnee) (Caddoan > Northern Caddoan > Pawnee-Kitsai > Pawnee)

“Milky Way as path of departed souls on their way to the next world; or Milky Way is tracks or dust of a race between two animals. Some souls departed, traveling to the heavens to become stars, while other belonging to those who died of illness or cowardice, forever traveled the Milky Way or ‘ghost road’ from end to end; chiefs, shamans and priests all ascended to a distant heavenly village.  No evidence for reincarnation. Influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead or trail of a race between 2 animals, Pawnee influenced by Ghost Dance.” ref

Upper World: chiefs, shamans, good > stars ref

 Muskogean language family

“Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a Native American language family spoken in different areas of the Southeastern United States. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally divided into two branches, Eastern Muskogean and Western Muskogean. Typologically, Muskogean languages are agglutinative. One documented language, Apalachee, is extinct, and the remaining languages are critically endangered.” ref

(Chickasaw) (Muskogean)

“Muskogean languages: The Muskogean family consists of six languages that are still spoken: Alabama, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (previously referred to as Creek), Koasati, and Mikasuki, as well as the now-extinct Apalachee, Houma, and Hitchiti (the last is generally considered a dialect of Mikasuki). The major subdivisions of the family have long been controversial, but the following lower-level groups are universally accepted: Choctaw–Chickasaw, Alabama–Koasati, Hitchiti–Mikasuki, and Muscogee.”  ref

“(Chickasaw) Milky Way is path of departed souls on their way to the next world; Milky Way is the path of dogs; soul travels W, under the sky, proceeds up upon it to land of The One Above or the Breath Holder; Milky Way was ‘spirits’ road; all the souls will return before the world is destroyed by fire.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead and/or of dogs (Huron, Seneca; Cherokee) ref

Upper World: good go W horizon lives with Breath Holder. ref

(Creek-Seminole) (Muskogean)

“Souls of the good dead went to an afterlife in the sky, those of evil people ‘went west’; the Milky Way, created by the breath of the Creator, is the path of souls; the good, to a city on the W horizon, realm of Master of Breath (Life); dogs and other animals along the ‘path of the dogs’; the 2 paths converging at the heavenly city; and dogs were sacrificed so that they would escort their masters.” ref

Milky Way: path of the dead and a path of dogs and other animals. ref

Upper World: good go W horizon where 2 paths converge and live with Master of Breath (Life) ref 

(Natchez) (language isolate, or possibly Muskogean)

“Milky Way is the path of dogs. The afterworld had such abundant feasting, dancing woman and pleasure that men willingly went to their deaths in battle to enter it; also, a hell world in which soul was left naked, exposed to mosquitoes, the world covered in water, and only food, spoiled fish.” ref

Milky Way: yes? Path of dogs ref

Upper World: ? Good? ref

Lower World: yes, bad ref

Atlantis (Fake Story): like the “Creation Myth” for Racists