Kahsuku, the cloud people

Overview

The grandmothers identify the figures travelling a western ridge as Kahsuku, cloud dogs or cloud people. The elder Katkatchila explains their origin to Olelbis: the world fire produced smoke, the incoming water produced steam, and wind drove the mixture south, where it became a people. They appear in black, white and red forms, with good heads and long necks. Keen sight, strong scent and timidity make them difficult to approach.

The Katkatchila brothers fence the ridge and prepare a snare at Olelbis’s direction. Most clouds break through, but one black cloud is captured and skinned. Its body is buried rather than eaten; Olelbis tans the skin and gives it to a grandmother. A later white cloud supplies the other woman’s covering. The brothers keep a third, red skin, which they hang in the west or sometimes the east.

When the women hang out the white skin and then the black, clouds emerge, travel south and return north to bring rain. They take the skins indoors when enough have gone out. Clouds that escaped the traps remain toward the northwest as Yola Ka, snow clouds. The account keeps living cloud people, captured skins and the clouds subsequently issuing from those skins distinct; it does not describe the captured individuals simply reviving.

Origins & earliest records

Jeremiah Curtin’s Creation Myths of Primitive America (1898), opening Wintu narrative Olelbis. His provenance notes describe the California collecting context; this chapter does not name its individual teller. Curtin states that an earlier version appeared in The Sun on29March1896.

Records & interpretation

Complete Olelbis,pp.3–48, read through the final disposition of the first people; notes490–493 also read. Complete cloud sequence36–42. Curtin’s comparative theories are not treated as established origins.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind

   Jeremiah Curtin · 1898

   Complete Olelbis,pp.3–48; Complete cloud sequence36–42. Notes486–493 for collection, prior publication and editorial interpretation.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textCurtin1898: complete opening Wintu narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.