William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation," his personal journal of the Puritans as they moved from place to place looking for somewhere that they could settle and practice their religion. In this, it parallels the Zuni origin story in that they also had to travel to find their middle place where they were destined to settle. Bradford’s work is a journal that gives a detailed account of day-to-day events that when read in its entirety provides a broad sweeping view of the Plymouth settlement.
The Zunis did not come from here. They were created in a world that must have been deep beneath the surface of the earth because their Gods directed them to light prayer stick that transformed into trees that they then climbed up into the next successive world from the fourth world where they had been created. The first world was a dark place and the Zunis had to climb to get out of it. Bradford also refers to spiritual darkness and persecution that surrounded them and made them move from their homeland. Where they were, “both scoffed and scorned by the prophane multitude, and the ministers urged with the yoak of subscription, or ele must be silenced; and the poore people were so vexed with apparators, and pursuants,and the comissarie courts,” . The persecution that the Puritans experienced could be likened to the Zuni experience to spitting on each other because they could not see where anyone was in the darkness.
God asked the Zunis if they had any means to get out by themselves and they did not so he helps them. The priests that led the way for the Zunis needed to bring seed and sacred things with him. The need for seed is another thing that the Pilgrims had in common with the Zunis. Their religious leaders also carried made sure they had both seeds and bibles with them when they traveled. This is especially true of the voyage the Pilgrims made to the New World. It was very important for them to have everything they needed to establish a settlement and seed was vital so that they could grow their food when they arrived.
The Puritans did not immediately travel to America when they started searching for a new home. They first traveled to Holland where there was greater religious tolerance. In England, Queen Elizabeth was intolerant to any faith except the Anglican Church. The Pilgrims were a sect of the Calvinist sect and so came under the weight of the religious persecution extant at the time.
Elizabeth’s successor King James was also intolerant to the Calvinist and his son Charles was worse. The Pilgrims adopted their name because they saw them as on a journey on earth towards spiritual enlightenment. This can be likened to how the Zunis traveled upwards through the successive worlds by climbing trees out of each world to reach the surface. They were traveling towards the sun, guided by their God Priests. At each level, they stopped and lit Prayer Sticks at night. Those sticks changed overnight to the trees the next day. The Pilgrims also stopped and prayed for guidance at every pause in their journey.
The Zunis also were traveling upwards through the different worlds. They started in the dark first world and lit prayer sticks that turned into a fur tree that pierced the top of that world so they could climb up into the second world then they had to climb up branch by branch into the third world. The same thing happened in the third world. They had to stop and wait then they received the guidance and the prayer sticks that they burned at night. The next morning they saw another tree they climbed up into the second world. The process repeated itself in the second world when it was time to leave the second world they lit the prayer sticks that turned into a tree at night and they reached the first world and finally reached light of day. Even though they emerged deep inside a canyon, the light hurt their eyes and they had to adjust to the daylight.
This could be seen as paralleling the Pilgrim’s journey where they had to move and keep moving around to find a safe place to settle. When the Zuni people surfaced, they had to clean themselves and it was not until they finished cleaning and adjusting did they end up looking the way they look today. The Pilgrims also had to adjust to their new world. In their case, it was both a physical adjustment as they got used to being on solid land again. They needed to make a mental adjustment as well. When the Pilgrims landed, they knew that they were not at Jamestown and would have to establish more than a place to live; they would also have to set the laws that governed the settlement as well. That is the origin of the Mayflower Compact.
Both the Zunis and the Pilgrims had to plant and grow food in the new world. Corn was important to both. Both groups encountered other peoples in the new world and there was conflict at times between the established people and the newcomers. The Zuni story speaks of how they did not love their corn mothers enough and lost them. By saying this, they meant that they did not save theirs seed corn. The Pilgrims also did not save enough seed corn and had to get gifts of seed corn from the Native Americans. Bradford also makes mention to some of the Pilgrims who stole seed corn from the native people. The Zunis had to go on what amounted to a pilgrimage in search of their corn mothers who are finally restored to them.
After they reached the new world the Pilgrims were not done traveling and making new settlements and neither were the Zunis. The Zunis had arrived in the new world but still had to find their sacred Middle Place so they traveled building settlements along the way. Along the way, they become fragmented. This too happened to the Pilgrims in their own fashion. As the original settlement survived and succeeded some people ventured further on to create and build more homesteads. The Zunis traveled further, and with greater purpose. However, they did create their settlements along the way. There was a major division with them regarding the choice of the eggs where the people of the Parrot split from the people of the Crow. At the foundation of both these stories there is the truth of people who travel to find their spiritual sacred Middle Place where they can settle with others, raise their families and practice their religion.
Works Cited
Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation." 1606 - 1646.
