 I was determined to see Tiponi Ankti more frequently. "Heat vision" or not, when I checked her stories with older people in the pueblo the accounts were similar. Few details varied between what she told me and what I subsequently heard in the pueblo. I began spending more time outside the village than inside it, more interested in the world of one dead person than I was the community of the living. "Dead" or "phantom" or "spirit," and how was I to know she was not some kind of qatsina herself? Several weeks had gone by since my encounter with her at dusk. I wandered. I varied the times of day at which I came. I saw no pattern between the two encounters, no two elements that could be considered links. I had been pacing and, both times, there she was, without any indicator or incantation. This time was no different. I was watching two hawks nesting above the mouth of a cave, then I heard her small serious voice coming from her small serious form. "Somewhere up there in the northwest corner of the rocks there is a cave. Yellow Corn Woman and her son - do you remember them from the dance?" She was at my right side and followed my gaze towards the hawks as she spoke. It occurred to me that she was referring to the events of her stories as if I had been present. I thought again about the old women in the adobe saying that Tiponi did not realize that her stories were not real events repeating themselves. "Yes, I remember Yellow Corn Woman and her son. He had grown up." "Owi. When he was still very small he lived in the cave with Yellow Corn Woman and his father." "Who is his father?" "His father?" Here she paused again as if mildly confused as to why I asked such evident questions. "Well, it's Ganadyani, the Deer Planter." "How does someone plant deer?"  "Easily, especially for a qatsina. Ganadyani started planting deer when Yellow Corn Woman gave birth to their son. The three lived inside the cave together and Ganadyani said, 'I am going to go plant.' Yellow Corn Woman asked Ganadyani what he would plant and he said that he would plant all kinds of game: animals, rabbits, antelope, buffalo, mountain goats, and deer. After saying this he left and went out into the desert to plant."  "Yellow Corn Woman's son grew, and as he grew he became curious about what his father planted. One afternoon he took his rabbit stick*, climbed out of the cave, and went off in the direction his father took in the mornings to tend to his crop. When he came to the place where his father planted, he saw a field of ears and antlers. The deer had been growing well, and the smaller sprouts of the other animals' ears could all be seen above the delicate layer of grass. Yellow Corn Woman's son began smacking all of the sprouts with his rabbit stick. He continued through the entire field until all of the sprouted ears and antlers were laying broken, torn off of the animals." "Ganadyani went to tend his crop that evening and saw the broken pieces of his crop laying everywhere. He saw his son in the distance. He approached the boy and immediately accused him. 'It appears that you have been up to no good.'" "The boy, who still was very young, was confused. 'Hello, Father. I came to see what you were planting.'" "'Child,' Ganadyani responded patiently, 'I planted all kinds of game and you have come and torn off all their poor ears!" "'Game, Father? I did not know that, honestly!' Ganadyani's son was almost in tears. 'I did not know and so I hit them with my rabbit stick!'" "Ganadyani did not reproach his son further, but made him promise to not return to the field. 'You will see them when you are older and they are older,' he promised his son. Then they both went home together and left the animals growing in the ground." "When they got home, Yellow Corn Woman was already in the house. Ganadyani told her what their son had done. 'Don't let him hurt my plants anymore. When they grow, he can see them.'" "'Your father has planted and tended his crop. He has planted game and you went and lobbed all of their ears off with your rabbit stick. We will go together and see them when they grow up, not before. Do not hit the poor animals anymore.'" I found the story odd, the lack of punishment for the destruction the boy had caused surprised me. Tiponi had kept her even tone. Nothing in her narration gave away a disappointment in the qatsinas or their son and now the story seemed to be over. Its ending being Yellow Corn Woman's reproach. We were standing silently in the shade of the cave, our eyes wandering over the patterns in the rock. I didn't want to say anything; saying anything was too much weight for her ephemeral presence. Still, I felt like I had to respond, to show some recognition. I don't know why that came to me. It was a silly idea. "Where was Ganadyani planting? Where is the 'delicate grass' in the desert?" But I knew the answer before the question finished leaving my mouth. Ganadyani planted nowhere in the desert because qatsinas live in the mountains. I went to the left, walking towards the village. I knew without looking that she hadn't been next to me.  Author's Note: With the story "The Deer Planter" I was forced to combine elements from several tales that shared similar elements, but in which the names and plot lines varied. Ganadyani is often also referred to as Heluta, who is the father of all of the qatsinas. Historically the Hopi were separated three main pueblos. These are referred to at the First, Second, and Third Mesas according to the order in which they were discovered by Spanish conquistadors. Unlike the traditionally nomadic Navajo, who also subscribe to a type of qatsina cult, the Hopi mythology developed within relatively isolated communities. Ruth Benedict, and other folklorists and anthropologists, have since discovered that like other mythological traditions, the different stories from the three mesas are often simply variants that share fundamental morals or concepts. Heluta and Ganadyani are both present in Benedict's Tales of the Cochiti Indians, and her account attempts to display the overlap between the stories featuring this character. However, in contemporary artistic representations of qatsinas, like the kachina dolls, Heluta is a much more common figure than Ganadyani. "The Deer Planter" provides another portrait of an individual qatsina character and his particular powers. In addition to this, "The Deer Planter" is a portion of the larger set of Hopi creation and origin stories. Ganadyani's specific powers are representative of creation stories in the Hopi tradition. Hopi tradition divides creation into many events in which many different qatsinas take part. As in this story, a whole set of creatures or objects may be created at one time, but the entirety of creation is a conglomeration of the acts of many different qatsinas. * Rabbit sticks ,or kleane in Hopi, are closely associated with throwing sticks or clubs and are reportedly one of the most ancient human weapons. The basic form and use of the rabbit stick were proliferate in a wide variety of ancient cultures, including Native American cultures in North America.  Bibliography: BENEDICT, Ruth. Tales of the Cochiti Indians, "Ganadyani." Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 98. 1932. Accessed online at Sacred Texts, the 23 March 2009. Last updated: Unknown. Wikipedia. Article "Throwing Stick," Collective Authorship. Accessed Online the 29 March 2009. Last updated: 19 March 2009. Image Information: Wukoki Ruin, Arizona. Wukoki is a Hopi word meaning 'big and wide house.' Scattered Corn Woman, Edward S. Curtis. Hopi Cornfields, Dry Farming. Hopi Rabbit Stick, Pitt Rivers Museum. |