Version 1 (of the Waterspirit Clan). When Earthmaker created the earth it was perfect: its surface was as flat and smooth as a piece of ice. But when the people of this new earth tried to walk upon it, they slipped and slid and could not keep their footing. When they cried out to Earthmaker to pity them, the Creator was moved to tears by their plight. His first tear fell from the sky with such force that the whole earth quaked, and the ground reverberated in colliding ripples. When his second tear struck the earth, craters appeared and mountains were forced up from the impact. His tears soon formed rivers, lakes, and the ocean, making the land so uneven everywhere that the people could now walk without any worry of falling. [1]

Version 2 (of the Thunderbird Clan). When the earth was young it had neither hill nor valley, but was without any contour. Then the Thunders strode forth upon the land, and where they stepped the valleys formed, and where they struck the land with the Thunderbird Warclub, great indentations were pressed upon it. [2]

Version 3 (of the Thunderbird Clan). When living things were newly created, the ground that they lived on was perfectly flat so that both men and animals found it easy to travel over its surface. In this limitless prairie-earth was a village where a young man named Wakâjagiciciga ("Bad Thunderbird") lived with his grandmother. His uncles, who loved him very much, were Thunderbirds. One day Wakâjagiciciga went on a hunt with the approval of his uncles. On the fourth day out he spotted a herd of elk, but they escaped before he could kill any. Later he ran across a herd of deer, but the same thing happened. Finally he came to a village where an evil chief lived with his son. The chief told his people that they were about to be attacked by an enemy. So when Wakâjagiciciga approached, the chief's son riddled him with arrows. The Thunderbirds were furious, and sought revenge. They put charcoal upon their faces and fasted. Over the face of the land they wandered ceaselessly and struck the earth with their mighty warclubs until countless valleys and ravines were hammered into the ground. The chief and his son fled in terror to the Lower World where they devolved into earthworms. The earthworm is the lowest of Earthmaker's creations, for they are food even for the fishes. [3]

Commentary. Version 1 -- In many ways version 3 is the opposite of version 1 -- the flat earth is good for humans and animals in v. 3, bad for them in v. 1; it is pity that creates in v. 1, but the spirit of vengeance in v. 3; it is Earthmaker who is the creator in v. 1, the (Bad) Thunderbirds who destroy in v. 3; the action in v. 1 is conceived as creation, in v. 3 it is destruction; in v. 1 it is water that is the creative agent, in v. 3 it is lightning (= Thunderbird Warclub), a version of fire; v. 1 is of the Waterspirit Clan, v. 3 is of its opposite, the Thunderbird Clan.

Version 2 -- The creation of contour through the use of the Thunderbird Warclub is really the counterpart of lightning. Lightning is said to shoot from the eyes of the Thunderbirds. Both versions 1 and 2 therefore have something to do with creation from the eyes.

The word mâtce denotes the warclub, but it seems also to mean "earth-divider." [4] It may in fact come from mâtcé, which means, "to break, crack, or tear a soft substance by cutting." [5] However, the fact that it seems to mean "earth-divider" is no doubt a stimulus to a story in which the warclub actually divides the earth into hills and valleys.

Version 3 -- The Bad Thunderbirds are responsible for the rain, and its the rain that drives earthworms to the surface where they can be eaten by birds. Lightning, which is shot from the eyes of Thunderbirds, is by nature a stone. The Hotcâk arrowhead, the counterpart of the thunder stone, is made from the snapping turtle claw, flint arrowheads having been purely found items. Items that our found were considered to have been left by the spirits to be so discovered. The tradition is that these points were made by worms. [6] Thus worms make a weapon-stone that is the lower world counterpart to the thunder stones launched by the Thunderbirds. The Hawk Clan, who has a ritual where they eat the center of a fish and move its head and tail to either side, are closely aligned with the Bad Thunderbirds. The creation of hills and ravines in the earth is a creation of hierarchy which impedes the license of the earth animals (and clans). The fish ritual expresses height and centrality; the driving down of the earthworm enemies is a complementary expression of the establishment of hierarchy in terms of the contrast of superior and inferior. The transitive nature of the food chain is another expression of hierarchy. "Worm" seems to function as a Thunderbird word for snakes (see Warughapara). Thunderbirds eat snakes, just like the large raptorial birds upon whom they are partly modeled. The Snake Clan is responsible for maintaining the grounds of a campsite or village, so they have much to do with the surface of the earth. Thus they represent a terrestrial counterpart to the Fish (and Waterspirit) Clan, and the myth establishes the complementary terrestrial expression of hierarchy over the earth as well as over the waters.

Links: Earthmaker, Thunderbirds, The Thunderbird Warclub, Cosmography.

Stories: about the creation of the world: The Creation of the World; Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth (v. 1), Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, Cûgepaga; alluding to the creation of man: The Creation of Man, The Creation of the World, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Elk Clan Origin Myth, The Spirit of Gambling, Wolves and Humans, Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth; featuring Earthmaker as a character: The Creation of the World, The Creation of Man, The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Twins Get into Hot Water, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Lost Blanket, The First Snakes, Tobacco Origin Myth, The Creation Council, The Gray Wolf Origin Myth, The Journey to Spiritland, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, The Seven Maidens, The Descent of the Drum, Thunder Cloud Marries Again, The Spider's Eyes, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, Fourth Universe, Cûgepaga, The Fatal House, The Twin Sisters, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Elk Clan Origin Myth, Deer Clan Origin Myth, Bear Clan Origin Myth, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, The Masaxe War, The Two Children, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Petition to Earthmaker, The Gift of Shooting, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Stone Heart, The Wild Rose, Earthmaker Sends Rucewe to the Twins, The Lame Friend, The Hotcâk Migration Myth, The Necessity for Death, Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, The War among the Animals, Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, Blue Mound, Lost Lake, The Hotcâgara Migrate South, The Spirit of Gambling, Turtle and the Giant, The Shawnee Prophet -- What He Told the Hotcâgara, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, Bird Origin Myth, Black and White Moons, Redhorn's Sons, Holy Song, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, Death Enters the World, Man and His Three Dogs, Trickster Concludes His Mission, Story of the Thunder Names, The Origins of the Milky Way, Trickster and the Dancers, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, East Enters the Medicine Lodge, The Blessing of Kerexûsaka; mentioning the Thunderbird Warclub: Warughápara, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, The Thunderbird, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, cf. Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth; mentioning Thunderbirds: The Thunderbird, Warughápara, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Traveler and the Thunderbird War, The Boulders of Devil's Lake, Thunderbird and White Horse, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Man who was a Reincarnated Thunderbird, The Thunder Charm, The Lost Blanket, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Story of the Thunder Names, The Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, Eagle Clan Origin Myth, Pigeon Clan Origins, Bird Clan Origin Myth, Adventures of Redhorn's Sons, Brave Man, Ocean Duck, Turtle's Warparty, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Quail Hunter, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, Redhorn's Sons, The Dipper, The Stone that Became a Frog, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Redhorn Contests the Giants, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Origin of the Hotcâk Chief, The Spirit of Gambling, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, Aratcgéga's Blessings, Kunu's Warpath, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, The Nightspirits Bless Tciwoit'éhiga, The Green Waterspirit of the Wisconsin Dells, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Big Stone, The Origins of the Milky Way; mentioning the Ocean Sea (De Djâ): Trickster's Adventures in the Ocean, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp (v. 1), Otter Comes to the Medicine Rite, The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Trickster and the Children, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, Wears White Feathers on His Head, White Wolf, How the Thunders Met the Nights (Mâznî'âpra), Bear Clan Origin Myth (vv. 2a, 3), Wolf Clan Origin Myth (v. 2), Redhorn's Sons, Grandfather's Two Families, Sun and the Big Eater, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4), The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father (sea), The Thunderbird (a very wide river), Wodjidjé, The Twins Get into Hot Water (v. 1), Redhorn's Father, Trickster Concludes His Mission, Berdache Origin Myth, Thunder Cloud is Blessed, Morning Star and His Friend.

Themes: a body of water is created by tears falling from above: The Creation of the World, Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Holy One and His Brother; as a punishment, a spirit decrees that someone be transformed into an animal: The Skunk Origin Myth (skunk), The Brown Squirrel (squirrel), Old Man and White Feathers (owl), Warughápara (owl), The Chief of the Herok'a (owl), Hare Kills a Man with a Cane (ant); a human turns into a (spirit) animal: How the Thunders Met the Nights (Thunderbird), Warughápara (Thunderbird), The Dipper (hummingbird), Keramanic'aka's Blessing (black hawk, owl), Elk Clan Origin Myth (elk), Young Man Gambles Often (elk), Sun and the Big Eater (horse), The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Were-Grizzly, Partridge's Older Brother (bear), The Woman who Loved her Half-Brother (bear), Porcupine and His Brothers (bear), The Shaggy Man (bear), The Roaster (bear), Wazûka (bear), White Wolf (dog, wolf), Worúxega (wolf, bird, snake), He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (buffalo), The Brown Squirrel (squirrel), The Skunk Origin Myth (skunk), The Fleetfooted Man (otter, bird), The Diving Contest (Waterspirit), The Woman who Married a Snake (snake, Waterspirit), The Omahas who turned into Snakes (four-legged snakes), The Twins Get into Hot Water, v. 3 (alligators), Snowshoe Strings (a frog), The Woman Who Became an Ant, Hare Kills a Man with a Cane (ant); a human is an affine of the Thunderbirds: The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Thunderbird, Warughápara.

Notes:

[1] Keeley Bassette (Waterspirit Clan), "Legend," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 149.

[2] Charles E. Brown, Wisconsin Indian Place Legends (Madison: Works Progress Administration, Wisconsin, 1936): 5; Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 166.

[3] David Lee Smith (Thunderbird Clan), "How Valleys and Ravines Came to Be," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 100-101.

[4] Mary Carolyn Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago: An Analysis and Reference Grammar of the Radin Lexical File (Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 1968 [69-14,947]) 159, sv mâtce.

[5] Kenneth L. Miner, Winnebago Field Lexicon (University of Kansas: June, 1984) s. v.

[6] Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 38.