Stone Mother of Pyramid Lake

Long, long ago, all the people of this land were animals. The ruler of this land was the wolf, who was a wise and good ruler. His brother, the coyote, was very tricky and caused his brother the wolf a great deal of trouble. One day, the father of all the Indians came to this area and lived on a mountain near Stillwater, Nevada. He was special...a very great and good man... Later, a woman who lived in a different part of this country heard about this man. This woman, who had a bear for a husband, thought about the Indian man all the time. She hoped that someday she might be able to see him because she had heard what a wise and good man he was. One day she and the bear had a fight. She decided to leave the bear and come to the man whom she had heard so much about. Her experiences on the trip to see this wise and wonderful man were many. As she traveled, she left her footprints in the rocks along the shore of Mono Lake and one day she met a giant by Yerington, Nevada. This giant tried to eat her but she managed to kill him. The Indians believed his body turned to stone. After many days, she arrived at Stillwater Mountain. When she first caught sight of the man ruler, she was filled with awe. He was so handsome, she hid from him at first. He saw her tracks and called to her. After awhile, she gathered enough courage to come out from hiding. He told her to sit down and eat some soup. It was the best she had ever eaten. She stayed by the fire that night. The next night she slept closer to him. On the ninth night they were married. They had many children. The first was a boy and he was a very mean person. The children could not seem to get along. They fought and argued all the time. Then one day when they were very, very unruly, the father called them together to talk to them. He told them that he had the power to separate them with one word. They began fighting before he had finished talking. The father became very angry. He said to them, ÒI am going to separate you and then I am going up to the sky to my home. When you die you will come up to me. All you will have to do is follow that path and you will reach my home. Someday I hope you will all come to your senses and live together in peace and stop this fighting. He took the oldest boy and gave him one of the girls and sent him west. They became the Pitt River Indians. He sent another couple east and they became the Bannocks. The remainder of the group he kept at home and they became the Northern Paiute. Then he went up to the mountain to his home in the sky. The woman felt so bad that she began to weep bitterly. She missed her children so much, but remained with her children, the Paiutes. The Paiutes grew into a strong tribe and became the most powerful group in the country. But the Paiute mother still grieved for her lost children, especially the Pitt River Indians, who were so poor that she cried more and more each day. One day, she decided to sit near a mountain where she could look towards the Pitt River Country. She sat there day after day and she cried and cried. Her tears fell so fast and so much that they formed a great lake beneath her. This body of water became Pyramid Lake. She sat there so long she turned to stone. There she may be found today. She is the stone mother of Pyramid Lake and she carries her burden basket at her side.