#Vodou deity damballah wedo tokan skin

*A Tale of Coatlicue * Coatlicue, She of the Serpent Skirt * Snake Goddess: * Coatlicue the Snake Mother:Īztec myths about the mother goddess Coatlicue, the Lady of the Serpent.Ĭaddo legend about a man who became a snake after eating snake meat.Ĭaddo legend about how Snake-Woman brought agriculture to the people.

Lenape and Shawnee stories about a woman who unwittingly married a snake-man.īlackfoot story about the origin of snakes. *The Girl Who Joined The Thunders * Thunder Son: Peoria legend of a careless woman who was led astray by a rattlesnake. Passamaquoddy story about rude men being turned into snakes. Legends from many different tribes about wicked women having affairs with snakes.Īrapaho myth about the garter snake and the origins of the Sun Dance.īlackfoot Indian legend about a snake's wish to become human. *The Woman who Loved a Serpent * The Rolling Head * Case of the Severed Head: Southern Plains legends about Snake proving himself more powerful than Coyote. *Coyote Challenges the Snake * Coyote and Never-Grows-Larger: O'odham legend about how Rattlesnake brought death into the world. Passamaquoddy stories about an overly-proud woman giving birth to the first snakes. Tribes with Snake Clans include the the Hopi (whose Snake Clan is called Tsu'ngyam), the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, the Creek (whose Snake Clan is named Cettvlke,) and the Chippewa (whose Snake Clan and its totem are called Ginebig.) The Hopi also have a Snake Society (one of only a few Hopi religious orders to include women as well as men), and the Hopi Snake Dance is one of the tribe's most important ceremonial dances. Snakes are also used as clan animals in some Native American cultures.

Many Aztec and Mayan gods and goddesses such as Quetzalcoatl, Coatlicue, Tlaloc, and Q'uq'umatz, were associated with snakes or appeared in the form of a snake, and the shed skins of snakes were used as power items by traditional priests in some parts of Mexico. In the ancient religions of Mexico and Central America, Indian snakes were associated with divinity, rebirth, and spiritual power, and were often looked upon with both fear and awe. In our organization, three people from different tribes all agreed that it was bad luck to have a snake in the house and that they would never allow their families to have a pet snake, although a pet lizard or tarantula would be all right! Snakes are also one kind of animal that some Native American people still have superstitious feelings about today. As with most wild animals, there are also some Indian stories in which characters who treat snakes disrespectfully live to regret it. In the folktales of other tribes, Native American snakes enforce a rough type of justice, and breaking laws or violating taboos may cause a person (or his family) to be bitten by snakes.

#Vodou deity damballah wedo tokan skin

Some medicine bags were made of snake skin for this reason. Among the Anishinabe tribes, snakes are seen as dangerous but also powerful, and they have been considered one of the major spirit animals of the Midewiwin medicine society.

Kingsnakes are also considered sacred in some California Indian cultures. An exception is the Pueblo tribes of the Southwest, where snakes are revered, as they are in many parts of Mexico. Snakes are associated with violence and revenge in many North American cultures, and rarely with any positive qualities. Snakes are one group of animals that are thought poorly of in many different Native American tribes. Posted on Saturday, 08 March 2014 at 5:30 AM