In a 1904 Skidi Pawnee story told by Newly Made Leader Woman or Clara Yellow Sun, a young woman ran off with a man who turned out to be a dreaded outcast, a kitsahuruksu. She probably heard this story from her father, a famous Skidi doctor named Scabby Bull. In the story, the Scalped Man held the poor woman captive. When she got pregnant, he brought her a cradleboard. And after her contractions began, she made ready to give birth, and the Scalped Man stepped to a dark corner of the cavern, promising to summon a midwife. An opening appeared. A large turtle crawled out of the river. It placed its paws on the woman, and she “gave birth without pain, and the turtle went back into the water.” This association of turtles with childbirth is rooted in mythological storytelling.
One of the greatest of Skidi priests was Scout Roaming the World, and about 1905 he told a fascinating version of a Skidi cosmogonic narrative. In the story, Morning Star carried Sun as a “ball of fire” and he wielded that fire to vanquish a series of obstacles. On this quest he achieved various tasks, including “the bringing of the baby-board which is guarded by turtles in the form of hot fire.” This mythic journey gave rise to the form of the cosmos. And the folk of Pawneeland sought to reflect in ceremony the wishes of the heavenly realm, the celestial intentions that gave rise to humankind.