Exegesis
Many Native Americans tell stories of the creation of earth that explain how they came to be before the Europeans entered North America. Creation myths vary among all cultures; however, they all have one thing in common; heaven and earth. One of the most popular creation myths was the Iroquois creation myth. The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee meaning “People of the Longhouse” (Iroquois Indian Museum, n.d.) consists of six Indian nations that include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. In the beginning, there was a belief that before the creation of earth, there were two realms, the sky, and the lower world that consisted of water and water creatures. From the sky, a young woman named the Sky Woman was married to the Sky Chief. He had a dream that his wife was to “become pregnant from inhaling the breath from her husband but this was unknown to him” (Quenzer, n.d.) The dream disturbed the Sky Chief and began to distrust his wife. A second dream occurred in which the Sky Chief was to uproot the Celestial Tree. He believed this dream to be a powerful message and proceeded to uproot the tree. The Sky Woman had no idea that the Chief was to punish her for her alleged dishonesty. He coerced her to the large hole and as she looked through the large hole, he pushed her through the hole. As she was falling from the sky, she grabbed pieces of plants growing on the floor of the Sky World as well as a handful of seeds from the branches of the Celestial Tree.
As Sky Woman descended from the sky, various animals tried to rescue her, but were unsuccessful. However, with the help from the water animals, a giant sea turtle emerged from the bottom of the sea and the animals placed the Sky Woman on the turtles b...
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...Six Nations. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=libraryscienceDalesings. (2008). Turtle and Moon. Retrieved from: http://dalesings.blogspot.com/2008/08/turtle-and-moon.html Iroquois Indian Museum. (n.d.). Who are the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)? Retrieved from: http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/ve1.htm
Jii, J. (2011). Iroquois Indian Museum. Journeys and Journals. Retrieved from: http://jayjiiadventures.blogspot.com/2011/02/iroquois-indian-museum.html Olan, K. (n.d). Creation Story. Indian Iroquois Museum. Retrieved from: http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/CREATION%20.htm Quenzer, M. (n.d). Creation Story. Retrieved from: http://www.marcinequenzer.com/creation.htm Yupanqui, T. (1998). Iroquois Myths and Legends: Woman who fell from the sky. Webwinds.
Retrieved from: http://www.webwinds.com/yupanqui/iroquoisdreams3.htm.
Creation stories tell of how the world was created based on the Indians. In my home state of Washington State, Makah Indians told the story of the-Two-Men-Who-Changed-Things creation story. Chelan Indians told the story of a Great Chief above that created the Indians. Both have different cultural backgrounds and live in different places in Washington.
Adjacent Iroquois tribes, such as the Mohawk natives, shared a very similar creation myth (Redish and Orrin, “Native American Legends”). The cultures of both tribes influenced each other, and as a result, the myths became closely related. The Huron creation myth is heavily based on the culture at the time. The myth mentions beans, corn, and pumpkins being planted on the turtle. The Huron culture often depended on beans, corn, and squash for survival (Redish and Orrin, “Wyandot Indian Fact Sheet”). These were the essential plants on which the culture depended. The Huron tribe was thankful for these life-giving plants and showed this in their myth by stating that they came from a divine
In the Navajo and Zulu creation myths they believe that their worlds first started from a seed. Then after that the seed grew it turned into a reed which the gods used to make the worlds around them. The reeds to the Navajo and Zulu people where the gateway from birth to the world. Through the reeds the gods brought life but, they also brought death. In the navajo creation myth the coyote god found and stole the water monster baby which ended up with the entire world being flooded. The inca myth says that Unkulunkulu came from the reed and made everything we see today. One day though he sent out a chameleon to tell his people they would live forever. The chameleon was to slow however so he sent a fast lizard which said that his people would die; eventually after the lizard arrived to the village death was close after.
The Mohawk Indians believe that the Good Spirit created all animals and other creatures on Earth first. Nevertheless, he felt that something was missing. Therefore, he took a piece of clay he found near the river and created a little clay human figure. Then, he built fire and put the little man in the fire until it baked. However, songs of the birds and the river make him fell asleep next to the fire and let the little man burn. The Mohawks believe that he was the first black man. Unsatisfied with the result, he decided to make another man. This time he determined to stay awake but unfortunately, the river sang its song and made him feel asleep again. He woke up and realized that the second little man was half-baked. The Mohawks say that this was the first white man. Once again, the Good Spirit was unsatisfied with the result so he chose red clay and modeled the third little man carefully. He stood next to the fire waiting the whole time the little man was baked. He took it out of the fire when it was done and the little red man became the first Mohawk Indian. The second tale is from the Hebrew Bible. It is the story of “Paradise, and the
Native American culture, according to William Youngs, A Question for Harmony, the Native American origins beginnings started with endless space. Tawa, the Sun Spirit, impregnated Mother Earth, creating the First World. The First World was inhabited by insect-like creatures. These creatures continuously argued to understand the meaning of life. These creatures then fell victim to the sorcerer's, upsetting Tawa so Tawa created ‘Spider Grandmother’. Spider Grandmother led the insect-like creatures to the Second World. The insects grew hair and fur on their bodies and took places as dogs, wolves, or bears.
The historical context of the documents complicate the narrative of the United States' "colonial beginnings" because it shows that the original treatment of the Native Americans shaped the United States' beginning, much more than what most are lead to believe. This is shown through the timing of certain events, the issues that caused the events, and the people who helped make many of the events happen or end.
Many oral traditional stories have been told and passed down from person to person and family to family for thousands of years. Almost every story that has been told has either been altered or told in a different way so after 100 years of one story being told someone will decide to create their own version of it.
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
The Sioux Creation Story is an native american tale about how the world was created. It is based upon the idea that the humanity needed to be destroyed and recreated because of the not so good actions they were committing. The story focuses on particular traditions in the native american culture.
advantage of the rich black soil for farming. Corn was their main source of food,
The main character’s civilization had religious beliefs long before the white man presented his ideas. Essentially, the Sioux religion was based on nature. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact beliefs of the group because of the deficiency of information. However from the text, some aspects can be gathered. First, it appears as though everything in nature is believed to retain a spirit. Zitkala-Sa is observing the flowers and personifies them, assuming they are possessive of a spirit by saying, “Their quaint round faces of varied hue convince the heart which leaps with glad surprise that they too, are living symbols of omnipotent thought.'; (102) Everything natural was incorporated into their religious beliefs. Thus, the people receive refreshment of the soul through companionship with the outdoors. The narrator describes a spiritual experience as, “to seek the level lands where grow the wild prairie flowers. And they, the lovely little folk, sooth my soul with their perfumed breath.'; (101) The Indian girl turns to nature to have her spiritual needs met, which is reflective of the behavior of her people. Thus, although the concept of spirituality as the white man understood it was not incorporated into the Indian culture, the Natives did, in fact have a religion, and maintained universal beliefs and practices.
In the Iroquois Skywoman touch the leaves of the forbidden tree, and in follow of this, she fell down of the tree until the birds are catching her. And on the Judeo-christian story the forbidden tree carries some special fruits, that are forbidden to eat as well. So, in both stories the trees symbolize the greed, that the humans have. One other similar of both stories are the families: In the Judeo-christian story is the family described as a collective of all humans from Adam and Eve. In the Iroquois story, the family does only include all people, who helped to create the
At the beginning of the story about the creation is different: in Christian story, the first day God created the heavens and the earth. God created the world in seven days, and the world has day time, night time, plants, trees, sky, seas, lands, water, birds, wild animals, foods, the man ? Adam, and his wife ? Eve. On the other hand, in Iroquois, that has two worlds in ancients already ? the lower world was in great darkness and humankind inhabited the upper world. It means there was no creation of the world for Iroquois.
In Genesis the creation of the Earth draws quite a few parallels with some of the Native Americans
The Maori myth is a Polynesian story about the creation of the universe which according to Rosenberg was different from other creation myths because it begins with nothing and then progresses through a process of “nonbeing to thought to the creation of the universe and human beings” (351). Even though it may be different because it goes from “nonbeing to thought” instead of nothingness to a spoken word or action, it has many similarities to other creation myths in how it explains the origins of the Gods and how each one represents a natural event or aspect of nature and humanity. The myth begins with an “idea” that “was remembered” and then “became conscious” and then “a wish to create”, all of which created a “power to live and to grow, even in emptiness” (352). At this point there was still no being, only thought and desire which gives the idea that what is being addressed are the human attributes of feeling, sensing, desire and thought, this is where this story is different from other creation myths.