Xiipúktan (First of All): Three Views of the Origins of the Quechan People
Nov 2013 · World Oral Literature Series Book 5 · Open Book Publishers
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The Quechan people live along the lower part of the Colorado River in the United States. According to tradition, the Quechan and other Yuman people were created at the beginning of time, and their Creation myth explains how they came into existence, the origin of their environment, and the significance of their oldest traditions. The Creation myth forms the backdrop against which much of the tribe’s extensive oral literature may be understood.
At one time there were almost as many different versions of the Quechan creation story as there were Quechan families. Now few people remember them. This volume, presented in the Quechan language with facing-column translation, provides three views of the origins of the Quechan people. One synthesizes narrator George Bryant’s childhood memories and later research. The second is based upon J. P. Harrington’s A Yuma Account of Origins (1908). The third provides a modern view of the origins of the Quechan, beginning with the migration from Asia to the New World and ending with the settlement of the Yuman tribes at their present locations.
Publication of this book is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services Native American / Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program grant number MN-00-13-0025-13.
This collection is for the Quechan people and will also interest linguists, anthropologists, oral literature specialists, and anyone curious about Native American culture.
This book is part of our World Oral Literature Series in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.
At one time there were almost as many different versions of the Quechan creation story as there were Quechan families. Now few people remember them. This volume, presented in the Quechan language with facing-column translation, provides three views of the origins of the Quechan people. One synthesizes narrator George Bryant’s childhood memories and later research. The second is based upon J. P. Harrington’s A Yuma Account of Origins (1908). The third provides a modern view of the origins of the Quechan, beginning with the migration from Asia to the New World and ending with the settlement of the Yuman tribes at their present locations.
Publication of this book is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services Native American / Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program grant number MN-00-13-0025-13.
This collection is for the Quechan people and will also interest linguists, anthropologists, oral literature specialists, and anyone curious about Native American culture.
This book is part of our World Oral Literature Series in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.
The Quechan people live along the lower part of the Colorado River in the United States. According to tradition, the Quechan and other Yuman people were created at the beginning of time, and their Creation myth explains how they came into existence, the origin of their environment, and the signi...
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About the author
George Bryant was born in 1921 and grew up in a Quechan-speaking family. He attended school on Fort Yuma Reservation and later at the Phoenix Indian School, Yuma High School, and the Sherman Institute. As a young man he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving in combat in the Pacific in World War II and in Korea. Later he was elected to the Quechan Tribal Council, where he was involved in getting the federal government to restore tribal lands and in planning many of the projects that have made the tribe successful today. He is now retired and lives in Yuma, Arizona. Bryant follows a family tradition of working to preserve the Quechan language. His grandfather, Chappo Bryant, and his father, Michael Bryant, were both involved in linguistics projects with linguist A. M. Halpern in the 1930s. George Bryant has been working with linguist Amy Miller since 1998. He is the primary contributor to the forthcoming Quechan Dictionary, and (along with Barbara Levy, Millie Romero, and Amy Miller) he devoted many years to translating stories for the forthcoming volume Stories from Quechan Oral Literature from the Collection of A. M. Halpern.
Amy Miller earned a PhD in linguistics from the University of California, San Diego, where she studied with Margaret Langdon. She is the author of A Grammar of Jamul Tiipay (2001), co-author of the Barona Inter-Tribal Dictionary (2008), and co-editor of Kar’úk: Native Accounts of the Quechan Mourning Ceremony by A.M. Halpern (1997). She has been studying and documenting Yuman languages since 1984.
George Bryant was born in 1921 and grew up in a Quechan-speaking family. He attended school on Fort Yuma Reservation and later at the Phoenix Indian School, Yuma High School, and the Sherman Institute. As a young man he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving in combat in the Pacifi...
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