San Geronimo Valley Historical Society by Owen Clapp
I don’t know just when this happened, but that Coyote, he jumped high in the air and came down head first. He split into four pieces, and the heart was “him.” The other parts went to the four directions; one went under the water.
Smith, a Bodega Bay Coast Miwok, shared this more complicated version with Kelly:
Coyote was all alone. That’s why he shot his arrow into the air. [Three] times he did that and missed. The fourth time, the arrow hit the top of his head and split it. The left-hand side was his brother. Coyote told him, “I am bigger than you are. You go north and stay there. I am going where the sun sets.” He crossed [the ocean] with his tule boat and built a house over there where the sun sets. He worked four days and could not stop. The top of his house could be seen from the hills here. Coyote didn’t like that. He wanted to make smoke. Sometimes he smoked tobacco. He wanted fog or smoke to cover the shine of his house. One day, early in the morning, he smoked. The smoke became fog. He filled his pipe four times and smoked. Then he stopped. He made the fog stay, and even when the wind blows, his house is still covered. They say Coyote has lots of acorns over there; I don’t know about that.
Announcements
Thank you to those who were able to make the Saturday, May 25 SGV artists and art history panel event! This was our first event since becoming part of the Community Center, and it was wonderful to lean into this new collaboration through a meaningful topic. Thanks also to superstar volunteers Zane Edwards and Melissa Meith, who have been working with SGVHS now for about two years! Zane hosted a table at the Woodacre-wide garage sale on May 18, and Melissa continues to conduct oral history interviews with longtime Valley resi- dents who are visual and performing artists. These interviews are becoming available online gradually. Please visit us at sgvhistoricalsociety.org, then navi- gate to “Digital Archive,” then choose “SGVHS Oral History Project” from the dropdown menu, or type sgvhistoricalsociety.org/sgvhs-oral-history-project into your browser. Stay tuned for Coast Miwok-focused events and programming in November.
Thanks for reading, as always, Owen
Loaning Images for Digitization
If you know of anyone with historic Valley photos who might like to tempo- rarily loan the photos for them to be scanned into our archive, please send an email to sgvhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.
Time Capsule & Living History
‘COYOTE DIVIDES HIMSELF.’ Coast Miwok culture bearers Maria Copa and Tom Smith were both recorded telling their versions of the origin of the four directions. Copa, who was born in Nicasio and spoke with anthropologist Isabel Kelly in the 1930s, told this story:
Above, a photograph from the author’s collection of a coyote standing among coast live oaks.
SGV Community Center Stone Soup Page 21
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