The Legend of the Wind and Rain
from "How Do We Know?" a guest lecture by Phillip Miguel
summarized by TOCC GEO101 Spring 2005
class participants
On the Tohono O'odham Reservation a legend was told how the Wind and
Rain were chased off the land. The Wind offended the chief leader of
the community's daughter. The chief banished the Wind and chased him
off the reservation. He decided to take the Rain with him because
they were close friends and the Rain was blind. They were gone
for over four years. The village grew desperate because their crops
were suffering. The chief talked to the Wind and Rain to bring
them back. So the chief asked the Wind and Rain to return and the
people performed a ceremony that is call the rain ceremony, which in
effect helped bring back the rains to the reservation. It is still
performed to this day. Rain was and still is our livelihood on our
Tohono O'odham Nation, because it waters our crops.
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