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What did the Pueblo Twin Gods teach people during their migration?
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Mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Haida argillite carving, c. 1890, depicting a folktale in which the Bear Mother endures a cesarean birth; in the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Haye Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York City.
In the mythology of the Pueblo peoples, the Twin Godsāalso known as the Little War Godsāserved as culture heroes who guided the people during their migration following their emergence from the underworld.1
During this journey, the Twin Gods taught the people many features of their culture, including the performance of ceremonials. Additionally, they played a role in helping to stabilize the surface of the Earth as it was being formed.1
It is important to note that the Twin Gods are complex figures in Pueblo tradition, embodying a combination of the helpful deity and the trickster; they are sometimes depicted behaving like unruly children.1