Video Summary - Ute Wisdom, Language and Creation Story | Larry Cesspooch

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons

Speaker introduction and identity
- A storyteller introduces himself as Sesquitch (Ute name meaning “white belly,” associated with a white birthmark on his ancestor’s tummy).
- He explains his background: Vietnam veteran, 64, active and athletic, and a storyteller through film, music, and other creative work.
- He situates his people geographically:
  - Ute people historically occupied Colorado and Utah.
  - After Spaniards arrived (~around 1600), outsiders referred to Utes as “Utah” (the origin of the state’s name).
  - Spaniards brought horses, creating a wild mustang culture.
Historical displacement / reservation life
- Ute people were relocated onto a reservation where he lives (referred to as the Ute reservation).
- The speaker notes the reservation’s large acreage (about 3.5 million acres) and emphasizes that much land (including Colorado and Utah areas) was lost, especially for Utes living on the Wasatch Front.
Purpose of creation stories
- The speaker frames creation stories as:
  - Passed down generation to generation
  - Not written down traditionally
  - Something younger people may not always know anymore, so he feels gratitude and responsibility to share them
- He emphasizes that each listener has something to take from the stories to “do good things.”

Creation starts with Sunoy / Sun and Moon, described as the creator and “theatrical thinker.”
In the beginning, there was nothing.
Sunoy snaps or signals (snaps fingers), and light appears.
Sunoy speaks to the light, addressing the sun as responsible and necessary, setting a daily cycle:
- The sun rises every day, and things come “through this light.”

Sunoy creates rain and snow (“Kumuy”).
He places:
- Sun over his right shoulder
- Rain/snow (Kumuy) over his left shoulder
This creates a comfortable balanced world (coolness and readiness for life).

Sunoy creates Mother Earth using a magic staff to cut a hole through the heavens.
He drops the rain/snow content through the hole.
Sunoy becomes curious and steps through the hole:
- He lands on a cold, desolate place with snow-capped mountains.
- He instructs the sun/light to shine through the hole so snow and ice melt.
The melted water becomes:
- Rivers and streams
- Flowing into the ocean
Sunoy transforms water into living beings:
- He breaks off a piece and places it in the water; it becomes fish that swim away.
He spreads life across Earth:
- Things turn green
- He gathers leaves from different trees, makes magic by blowing on them, creating birds
He creates animal peoples with the magic staff.
Harmony exists until the arrival of a trickster force.

A trickster figure, Yekhovich (coyote), disrupts harmony:
- He spreads misleading messages between animals, causing mistrust and fighting.
- His chaos is symbolized by his tail wagging and him running away after trouble begins.
The creator is upset at the failure of harmony.
The creator appoints Wee-yah-get (the bear) as leader of the animal nation:
- Wee-yah-get agrees.
The story explains coyote’s subordination:
- When coyote gets rowdy, he’s “sat on” and cannot get out (coyote’s legs flop).

The creator wants to create human beings next.
He gathers twigs from multiple trees and puts them into a magic bag.
- Trees named: black cottonwood (mumbo referenced), Russian olive, Chinese elm, cottonwood (as stated).
The creator gets tired and decides to rest.
Yekhovich watches and becomes curious:
- Sniffs the bag
- The bag moves and sounds come from within
Yekhovich cuts the bag open.
- The effect is compared to stepping on an ant hill: people come out.
Coyote tries to put them back in but panics and runs away because there are so many.
When the creator returns, he finds the bag emptied and blames Yekhovich.

The creator finds only one more group still left in the bag: youth people.
He assigns them a place in the mountains:
- Rocky Mountains, Uinta Mountains, Wasatch Mountains
This is explained as why they became known as “mountain people.”

The creator remains disappointed; Yekhovich returns apologetic.
The creator alters Yekhovich’s role as penance:
- Every night, coyote must howl to the moon (a continual correction of wrongdoing).

The creator’s final message: everything has purpose.
Mother Earth and water are used to make:
- Mud pies / foundations for plant people, animal people, and human beings
Everyone is given a mission and gifts to complete it.
- Lesson: Don’t envy others’ gifts—your own are the right fit.
Each person is also given part of the creator’s spirit:
- Spirit moves with breath
- When babies take their first breath, spirit enters through a soft part of the skull called a bowalkat
- Spirit powers the heart’s beating (described like an “AAA battery” weight comparison)
When life ends:
- Spirit leaves again through the bowalkat
- Returns to the creator / circle of life
- Body returns to Mother Earth
Connection principle:
- The speaker references “All my relations” as the idea that all beings share origins.
- Humans are described as largely water (85%) plus minerals.

Sunoy provides the medicine wheel as a teaching tool for kinship:
- It represents the circle of life and that all peoples belong together.
Symbol meanings as described:
- Feathers represent all the animal nation
- The hoop is made of red willow
- Directions (and groups):
  - East: yellow man
  - South: red man
  - West: black man
  - North: white man
- Unity of world nations is called nanama (“together” / collectively).

The speaker connects Ute words:
- “Thank you” and “goodbye” are described as the same word: Toghwiyakh.