Johnie and I were emailing about Ziusudra theater, and I suggested that it would be very nice to have a theatrical telling of the wonderful Hopi Great Flood story. In particular, i asked her to look at the character development of a modern Spider Woman, who is central in the Hopi myth.

Johnie emailed back:
This is very interesting. I had a chance to see the Spider Woman Theatre
group at Ohio State University and participate in their workshop in the
summer of 2002. There is some great movement ideas in this piece. The
Spider Woman Theater is not Hopi as they are from a tribe out of New York
(Brooklyn, believe it or not). The Spider Woman story is in a lot of
tribes I presume. I don't know where we can go from here except to keep
this piece in mind or the mythical character - the female god of all
peoples. Sounds like some research is going to have to be done. I may use
this as a project -

 

 

The Hopi Great Flood

The people repeatedly became distant from Sotuknang, the creator. Twice he destroyed the world (by fire and by cold) and recreated it while the few people who still lived by the laws of creation took shelter underground with the ants.

When people became corrupt and warlike a third time, Sotuknang guided the ones who had retained their wisdom to Spider Woman, who cut down giant reeds and sheltered the people in the hollow stems with a little water and food. Sotuknang caused a great flood with rain and waves, and the people floated in their reeds for a long time.

Finally, they came to rest on a small piece of land, and Spider Woman unsealed their reeds and pulled them out by the tops of their heads. They still had as much food as they started with. They sent out birds to find more land, but to no avail. They grew a tall reed and climbed it, but they saw only water.

But guided by their inner wisdom (which comes from Sotuknang through the door at the top of their head), the people traveled on, using the reeds as canoes. They went northeast, finding progressively larger islands. The last of these was large and fruitful, and people wanted to stay there, but Spider Woman urged them on.

They went further northeast, paddling hard as if going uphill, until they came to the Fourth World. The shores were rocky with seemingly no place to land, but by opening the doors at the tops of their head, they found a current that took them to a sandy beach. Sotuknang appeared and told them to look back, and they saw the islands, the last remnants of the Third World, sink into the ocean. [Waters, pp. 12-20]