Tekawerahkwa

deity earth Iroquois single tradition · 2

Tekawerahkwa, meaning Earth Woman, is the daughter of Atahensic in an alternate version of the creation myth. She was impregnated by the west wind with the twins Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah and died during childbirth. From her remains grew various plants that sustain the people: the sister spirits of corn, beans, and squash came from her breasts, hands, and navel; sunflowers from her legs; strawberries from her heart; tobacco from her head; and purple potatoes or sunchokes from her feet.

↻ synthesized from 2 sources

When

First attested
1908 CE
Attested period
1908 – 1908
Historical notes
Documented in Converse 1908.

Relationships

child of
Atahensic

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

wikipedia (2)

Source passages

“Atahensic had a daughter named Tekawerahkwa (transl. Earth Woman), whom the west wind impregnated with Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah.”

#3128 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“According to this variant, Atahensic had a daughter named Tekawerahkwa (transl. Earth Woman), whom the west wind impregnated with Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah. As Tekawerahkwa died by childbirth, either she wished for her body to sustain the people or Atahensic sowed on her grave the seeds she had brought when she fell to Earth”

#20453 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001