Native Americans: 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies. James Mooney

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      The Ford - Apache

      Disc N 1—Yólkai Nalí̆n, one of the most venerated and greatly feared personages in the Apache mythology. She is the Goddess of Death, or rather of the after-life, for she controls all souls that pass on to the future world. The road to this afterworld is supposed to cross her shoulders and is symbolized by the Milky Way, a trail made by the departing spirits. The Apache will not utter the name of a deceased person, because they say the dead have gone on to Yólkai Nalí̆n and are her people. If they talked of them it might anger her, and when their death ensues she might refuse them admittance to the eternal paradise. This goddess is supposed to preside over the birth of children, hence supplications and offerings are made to her immediately before childbirth. She is invoked at other times to withhold her call, for it is believed that she can cause death. These prayers are addressed to Yólkai Nalí̆n through the medium of small white shells and white stone beads. The white beads are symbolic of purity, and through them Yólkai Nalí̆n is asked to keep the minds of the people free from evil thoughts or deeds.

      2—Dutlí̆shĭ Nalí̆n, the Turquoise Girl, is the creator of all things green. She has to do with the crops in the fields, and the devout Apache prays to her every morning during the season of growth.

      3—Ĕnásho Dĭlhklí̆shĕn is the God of Intellect. He controls the minds of the people, making their thoughts good or evil at will. It was he who first talked to the people on earth. When a child is born its parents often pray that Kútĕrastan will make it grow to be like Ĕnásho Dĭlhklí̆shĕn, to whom prayers are addressed for aid when one must talk to the people. In such case no offering of pollen is made unless the request be presented to an image representing this god, when pollen is sprinkled upon it.

      4—Hádĭntĭn Nalí̆n is Chieftainess of Pollen, because she causes pollen to grow on the trees. The Indians know the function of pollen in plants and pray that their corn and other products of the fields, as well as the nuts and fruits that grow wild, may be fructified early in the season, to insure good harvests.

      Disc O 1—Hádĭntĭn Nalí̆n, described above.

      2—Nĭlchídĭlhkĭzn, Chief of the Winds. The Apache never complains of the wind, for should he become impatient about them and give vent to sacrilegious utterances he might anger the Wind God and thereby bring on destructive storms.

      3—Yólkai Nalí̆n, described above.

      4—Yakósha Skhĭn, God of Moisture and also Controller of Rain. Since snow, ice, hail, frost, dew, and fog are derived from the clouds, Yakósha Skhĭn is sometimes termed Chief of the Clouds, but in general the clouds are regarded as his workshop, for there is another who has direct charge and control of them.

      P, Q, R, and S—These figures represent gods, or, in Apache, gáŭn, who are supposed to have been made by the Sun for the purpose of curing people stricken with bodily disease. Diseases of the body are regarded as distinct from those of the mind. The gáŭn live in the four cardinal directions and are impersonated in medicine ceremonies by men wearing stick masks, who always take stations at the four sides of the patient. These doctors are not called in case of illness until after the four chief deities have been supplicated, when, as a last resort, the medicine-man prays to the gáŭn. If the gáŭn cannot help, there is believed to be no hope for the patient. In ancient times all animals could talk, and many were used as beasts of burden. The bear and the deer were the horses of that time. In the graphic representations of the Apache these four spirits are often pictured riding deer and bear.

      Medicine and Medicine-Men

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      The medicine-men of the Apache are most influential personages. They are usually men of more than ordinary ability, claiming, through their many deities and their knowledge of the occult and ominous, to have supernatural power. In sickness any individual may make supplication to the deities, but the prayers of the medicine-men are accepted as being most efficacious.

      Apache Medicine-man

      Many of the medicine-men have some knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and generally make use of them in the treatment of disease, but their treatment consists more of incantation than aught else. Even in collecting the plants they invoke the deities, usually facing the cardinal points in turn. In case the prescription calls for a combination of herbs or other vegetal products, the number four is always strictly adhered to; it might be a decoction made of four roots of one variety or of a single root from each of four varieties of plants.

      Every Apache medicine-man has a medicine skin, his ĕpú̆n ezchí, inscribed with the symbolism of the tribal mythology. With his prayer wands he rehearses the symbolic figures, praying to the mythical characters who are regarded as most efficacious in the particular ailment under treatment. In his own little kówa, or dwelling, with the painted deerskin spread before him, on which are delineated the symbolic representations of a score of gods comprising the Apache pantheon, a medicine-man will sit and croon songs and pray all day and all night in the hope of hearing the voices of celestial messengers.

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