To the west: Siky’ak oma’uwu Yellow cloud.
To the south: Sa’kwa oma’uwu Blue cloud.
To the east: Pal’a oma’uwu Red cloud.
To the north: Kwetsh oma’uwu White cloud.
Mr. Frank H. Cushing, in Zuñi Fetiches, Second Ann. Rep., Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 16-17, gives the following:
In ancient times, while yet all beings belonged to one family, Po-shai-ang-k’ia, the father of our sacred bands, lived with his children (disciples) in the City of the Mists, the middle place (center) of the medicine societies of the world. When he was about to go forth into the world he divided the universe into six regions, namely, the North (Direction of the swept or barren place); the West (Direction of the Home of the Waters); the South (Direction of the Place of the Beautiful Red); the East (Direction of the Home of Day); the Upper Regions (Direction of the Home of the High); and the Lower Regions (Direction of the Home of the Low).
In the center of the great sea of each of these regions stood a very ancient sacred place—a great mountain peak. In the North was the Mountain Yellow, in the West the Mountain Blue, in the South the Mountain Red, in the East the Mountain White, above the Mountain All-color, and below the Mountain Black.
We do not fail to see in this clear reference to the natural colors of the regions referred to—to the barren North and its auroral hues, the West with its blue Pacific, the rosy South, the white daylight of the east, the many hues of the clouded sky, and the black darkness of the “caves and holes of earth.” Indeed these colors are used in the pictographs and in all the mythic symbolism of the Zuñis to indicate the directions or regions respectively referred to as connected with them.
Mr. A. S. Gatschet (a), in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., gives the symbolic colors of the Isleta Pueblo for the points of the compass, as “white for the east; from there they go to the north, which is black; to the west, which is blue; and to the south, which is red.”
Mr. James Mooney, in Seventh Ann. Rep., Bureau Ethnology, p. 342, says that the symbolic color system of the Cherokees is:
East—red—success; triumph.
North—blue—defeat; trouble.
West—black—death.
South—white—peace; happiness.
In the ceremonies of the Indians of the plains it is common that the smoke of the sacred pipe should be turned first directly upward, second directly downward, and then successively to the four cardinal points, but without absolute agreement among the several tribes as to the order of that succession. In James’ Long (i), it is reported that in a special ceremony of the Omaha regarding the buffalo the first whiff of smoke was directed to them, next to the heavens, next to the earth, and then successively to the east, west, north, and south. The rather lame explanation was given that the east was for sunrise, the west for sunset, the north for cold country, and the south for warm country.
The Count de Charencey, in Des Couleurs considérés comme symboles des Pointes de l’Horizon, etc., and in Ages ou Soleils, gives as the result of his studies that in Mexico and Central America the original systems were as follows: