American tribes
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American tribes
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This is our collection of links to Maricopa stories and folktales that can be read online. We have indexed our Native American legends section by tribe to make them easier to locate; however, variants on the same legend are often told by American Indians from different tribes, especially if those tribes are kinfolk or neighbors to each other. In particular, though these legends come from the Maricopa tribe, the traditional stories of related tribes like the Yuma and Mojave are very similar.
Cipas
(also spelled Isacipa's, Sipa, Shipa, Thoshipa, and other ways):
The Maricopa creator god. Unlike Native cultures in the rest of North America, the Maricopa and other
Sonoran tribes of southeast California and southwestern Arizona did not consider their Creator to be
a benevolent spirit or a friend to humankind-- he was capricious and dangerous,
and was eventually poisoned and killed by his own creations after instigating a war among them.
Kokomat
(also spelled Kukumat, Kukuma't, and other ways):
Twin brother of Cipas. He was Cipas' assistant in the creation of humankind,
but after quarreling with his brother, became ruler of the underworld.
Maricopa Creation Myth:
Back to the Animals myths
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