How the Rattlesnakes Came to Be What They Are

A Zuni story · Zuni Pueblo, western New Mexico · 3:56

A still from the film How the Rattlesnakes Came to Be What They Are
Coming to YouTube soon

Long ago the Rattlesnakes were people. When their youngest child is lost in an accident while the children play on the sand-banks, the whole village cries out in grief and falls to the ground, and rises again as snakes. The story closes with a teaching: do not take any animal's life without need.

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