The Tewa people are part of the Pueblo Indian culture of the Southwestern United States. Historically, the Tewa inhabited the Rio Grande region in what is now New Mexico, north of Santa Fe. Today, a portion of the Tewa live in Arizona on the Hopi Reservation. Tewa folklore and mythology is rich with cosmological and religious themes, as well as stories of culture heroes of the past who brought the Tewa people into being. In one Tewa legend, Water Jar Boy is born of a virgin and searches for his immortal father.
The story originated as an oral tradition before it was recorded by anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons in 1926. The story begins with a young woman who refused to be married. She lived with her mother and father in the village of Sityatki. Her father was happy and well liked, but her mother was a harsh woman who worked hard and made water jars. One day, the mother ran out of water for the clay. “Mix this clay with your feet until I return,” the mother commanded her daughter. While her mother was gone, clay splattered on the daughter’s feet and legs. The more she tried to clean the clay off, the more it clung to her. The clay entered her and made her pregnant. When her mother returned with the water, she found that her daughter was giving birth. When the child came out, it was not a human but a water jar! The daughter cried and cried. The mother was angry. She picked up the water jar to smash it against the ground to destroy it, but the water jar cried out, “Feed me! I am hungry!” The mother pumped her daughter’s breasts, and milk came out which fell into the mouth of the hungry water jar. The mother decided to take her daughter and the newborn water jar home with her.
The girl’s father was delighted to see that he had a grandchild as he had always wanted one. He did not mind that the child was a water jar. He laughed and rocked it in his arms and sang songs to it. But his daughter only cried and cried.
In twenty days, the water jar was big enough to play with the other children in the village. When he began talking, he said that his name was Water Jar Boy. He would roll around on the ground to join in the games. The children enjoyed their new friend and became very fond of him, but his mother cried and cried because her son had no arms or legs, only a mouth that was hungry for food.
In the winter, the grandfather announced he was going rabbit hunting. Water Jar Boy begged to go along. “But how can you hunt, my grandson?” asked his grandfather. “You have no arms or legs.” Water Jar Boy pleaded, and his grandfather took him along. During the hunt, Water Jar Boy chased after a rabbit and crashed into a rock. The water jar shattered, and out jumped a handsome young man finely dressed in buckskin and moccasins with turquoise beads around his neck. He hunted on his own and because he was so quick and agile, he killed four jackrabbits. He returned to his grandfather who was now frantic with worry because he could not find Water Jar Boy. “Have you seen my grandson?” the grandfather asked the handsome stranger. “I am your grandson,” he announced. The grandfather did not believe him. How could this be true? The stranger said, “I was a water jar, but when I broke against the rock, I shed that skin and have the skin you now see.” The grandfather was convinced and brought the boy home. When his mother saw him, she thought that her father had brought a handsome, young suitor for her hand in marriage and hid her face. But her father explained that this was Water Jar Boy, now transformed into a human. Although they did not believe it at first, his mother and grandmother were soon convinced that this was Water Jar Boy.
A while later, he asked his mother, “Who is my father?” His mother shook her head. “I do not know. I was never with a man.” He kept asking, but his mother only cried and cried. Finally, the boy said that he was going to set out to find his father. “You cannot find him. I never lay with a man. Where would you look?” his mother asked. “I know I have a father, and I know where he lives,” the boy answered.
Although his mother begged him not to go, he set out the very next day. He journeyed toward the southwest to a place called Horse Mesa Point where there was a spring. Before he could reach the spring, he met a man who was walking toward him.
“Where are you going?” asked the man.
“I am going to the spring,” the boy replied.
“What do you want there?” said the man.
“I want to find my father. He lives in the spring,” said the boy.
“You will never find your father,” the man asserted.
“You are my father,” said the boy.
“How do you know that?” asked the man?
“I just know,” said the boy.
The man glared at the boy to try to scare him into leaving, but the boy stayed. Finally, the man admitted that he was his father and took him into the spring. There were many people inside, and they were all delighted to see him. These were his father’s relatives. Women embraced him, and all was happiness and laughter. He stayed with them one night and then returned to his mother and told her that he had found his father.
Not long after, his mother grew very sick and died. The boy thought, “There is no reason for me to stay in this village any longer. I shall go to my father.” When he reached the spring, he found his mother living with his father and all his relatives. His father, who was named Red Water Snake, explained that the young man could not live in the village anymore because his father was a spirit. So he made his mother so sick that she died, so that the three of them could live together forever in the spring.
Mary L. Sellers
See also Creation Myth of the Tewa; Culture Heroes of the Native Americans; Women in Folklore
Further Reading
Dozier, Edward P. 1983. The Pueblo Indians of North America. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Leeming, David Adams. 1998. Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ortiz, Alfonso. 1969. The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Parsons, Elsie Clews. 1926. Tewa Tales. New York: American Folklore Society, G. E. Stechert.
Tyler, Hamilton A. 1972. Pueblo Gods and Myths. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.