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

Overview

After Norwanchakus loses Keriha’s trail, he visits his Lasaswa relatives. Their household has spent five years making ropes after hearing of his search. Two elders sit beside the door, with their sons working inside; a small boy behind them collects the shreds that others discard. Norwanchakus asks them to reach Sas in the sky, carrying three gifts in exchange for news of his brother. Tsiwihl watches each climber from below.

The elders’ coils and then their sons’ ropes all prove too short. Norwanchakus asks the small boy to try despite others’ ridicule of his little basket. His rope seems to increase rather than diminish as he climbs. Tsiwihl watches until his eyes bleed and sees the child reach the top. There the boy waits beside the sky-road under a tobacco tree, gives Sas the gifts and learns that Keriha is being held beyond the western sky and will die the following day unless rescued.

The boy returns with both the instructions and Sas’s gifts for Tsiwihl: a sky cap and a piece of sky for his breast. Norwanchakus adds an oak-leaf blanket for the watcher and rewards the child with the world-edge plant kúruti, allowing him to make rope and climb in any direction throughout his life. Curtin identifies Lasaswa with large spider and Tsiwihl with a blue-breasted lizard; the tale explains their abilities and appearance through the work of locating the missing brother.

Rope made from discarded fibresLength grows during ascentVisits Sas beside the sky-roadReward enables lifelong rope-making
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Origins & earliest records

Jeremiah Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind (Boston: Little, Brown, 1898). Collection notes pp. 486–487 identify the first nine narratives as Wintu and describe his California collecting in 1895 and earlier publication in The Sun. This chapter names no individual teller.

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Records & interpretation

Complete Norwanchakus and Keriha, pp. 211–240, through the rescue, naming legacy and separate departures beyond the sky. No individual teller is named in the chapter. Mythic transformations and landscape explanations are presented as narrative claims.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Creation Myths of Primitive America

    Jeremiah Curtin, collector and English presenter; individual Wintu teller unnamed here · 1898

    Complete Norwanchakus and Keriha, pp. 211–240; collection provenance pp. 486–487.

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 digitised primary collectionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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