CREATON MYTHS

  • Stories about the Creation of the World
  • “tell people who they areby telling where they came from” (21)
  • influence how they think about the world & treat it
  • their worldview
  • symbolic story about how the world was created & how humans came to be
  • common traits:
  • advance a general cultural outlook
  • perspectives on life
  • ways to understand life
  • also
  • birth theme: start of life cycle
  • higher power: a creator, catalyst
  • innocence, sinlessness
  • animals & humans together
  • Natives:
  • spoken, narrated, sung, chanted (oral tradition)
  • mid- to late-1800s that Euro-Americans gained the linguistic skills & cultural understanding to translate them decently
  • & Natives collaborated in the recording of their myths & legends
  • Frank Hamilton Cushing, Zuni, 1879
  • Washington Matthews (army doc), Navajo, 1880s
  • JW Fewkes, & JW Lloyd, Pima, 20th C.
  • David Cusick, a Tuscarora member of the Iroquois 6 Nations), 1825 – 1st Native

IROQUOIS

  • 5 Nations:
  • Mohawks
  • Seneca
  • Oneida
  • Onondaga
  • Cayuga
  • 6th nation =
  • Tuscarora of North Carolina, early 1700s
  • “People of the Longhouse”
  • Haudenosaunee
  • referred to self
  • longhouse –
  • 20 ft. wide
  • 40-200 ft. wide
  • several families in 1
  • shared cooking fires
  • Iroquois:
  • French
  • English & Dutch: Mohawk, Seneca, Maqua
  • area:
  • northeast North America
  • Erie & Ontario lakes
  • St. Lawrence & Ottawa rivers
  • Hudson River

CREATION MYTH:

  • 25 versions (oral tradition)
  • 1623: Gabriel Sagard, French
  • 1828, David Cusick – Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations

  • 2 worlds –
  • Lower World of darkness, the possession of the Great Monster
  • Upper World of sky, inhabited by “mankind”
  • SKY WOMAN:
  • conceives TWINS
  • sinks, pushed, falls from Upper World to Lower World
  • Lower World creatures see her falling, prepare her landing
  • get a patch of earth
  • turtle volunteers to catch her in the water
  • TURTLE
  • grows to the size of an island
  • w/bushes & trees
  • TWINS
  • fight in the womb
  • evil one wants to burst out his mother’s side
  • good one prevents it
  • birth
  • she dies shortly after
  • ENIGORIO –
  • good son
  • creator
  • sun from mother’s head
  • moon from mother’s body
  • stars
  • creeks & rivers
  • animals
  • “Adam & Eve” = “The Real People” (Ea-Gwe-Howe)
  • rain, vegetation, game animals
  • ENIGONHAHETGEA –
  • evil son
  • creates only bad things, tries to corrupt brother’s creations
  • mountains, valleys
  • (rivers in only 1 direction)
  • reptiles – poisonous to humans
  • tries to create humans – but APES
  • tries again, brother stops, gives them life & souls
  • “the most knowledge of Good & Evil” (25)
  • Evil Son tries to contain all animals, to keep from humans – Good Son frees them
  • Final Battle
  • Evil Son challenges brother
  • for governance of entire universe
  • confess their weaknesses
  • Good’s = beaten w/corn stalks, rushes, reeds (a lie?)
  • Bad’s = beaten w/deer antlers
  • 2-day battle
  • Bad = beaten w/antlers, crushed into the earth
  • Bad’s last words –
  • he’ll become Evil Spirit (“Devil/Hades”)
  • hold equal power over human souls after death
  • COMPARISON to BIBLE:
  • virgin birth
  • good vs. evil struggles
  • Creation
  • Adam & Eve
  • ultimate battle, Good vs. Evil, Armageddon
  • Devil, Hades

NAVAJO

  • Athabascan language
  • shared by Canadian & Alaskan tribes
  • shared by Apaches
  • Navajo Nation
  • Din-e
  • “The People”
  • Navajo = Spanish, Apaches who cultivate fields (Apachu de Nabajo)
  • migrated south west
  • skills
  • farming & weaving - from Pueblos
  • silver-working – from Mexicans
  • livestock – from Spanish

CREATION MYTH:

  • complex
  • 5 Worlds
  • #1 theme
  • harmony & balance
  • gods & humans & creatures
  • man & wife
  • Washington Matthews, late 1800s
  • 1st WORLD:
  • “like an island floating in a sea of mist” (26)
  • red
  • no sun, stars, people
  • only light = the sky
  • wind creatures (Nilchi Dine’e)
  • the Holy People (Hashch’eeh Dine’e)
  • predecessors of Humans (we got their beauty & form)
  • 4 colors of the day
  • white = eastern sky, dawn (rise & shine)
  • blue = southern sky, day (work)
  • yellow = western sky, evening (retire)
  • black = northern sky, night (sleep)
  • north = death
  • Great Fountain
  • center of the world (axis mundi)
  • confluence of 3 rivers
  • 12 tribes
  • 4 in 3 directions
  • ants, dragonflies, beetles, bats, locusts
  • not insects/animals
  • but spiritual beings
  • 4 GUARDIANS
  • in the water surrounding the 1st World
  • Water Monster, east
  • Blue Heron, south
  • Frog, west
  • White Mountain Thunder, north
  • “FALL”
  • adultery
  • resulted in deceit, jealousy, turmoil
  • * destroys the HARMONY between husband & wife
  • warned 3x, 4th = banishment
  • but they were “lost in their wickedness & did not heed”
  • 4 Guardians sent Great Flood
  • escape east, through small opening into a blue world
  • “strange blue head” in the sky
  • 2nd WORLD:
  • blue
  • barren & flat
  • scouts (like Noah & raven & dove)
  • Swallow People (blue beings)
  • (supernaturals who were precursors of today’s birds)
  • don’t learn their lesson:
  • take liberties with head Swallow’s wife (adultery #2) 
  • kicked out #2
  • White Head appears, go south – crooked opening
  • 3rd World:
  • white
  • Grasshopper People
  • (supernaturals who were precursors of today’s insects)
  • adultery #3  kicked out #3
  • Red Head, go west – winding entrance
  • 4th World:
  • black & white
  • the Pueblos (the Kiis’annii) –
  • lived in pit houses, houses in the ground
  • Pueblos teach them @ agriculture (corn, squash, pumpkin, beans)
  • *Nilch’i Dine’e behave
  • (no adultery, no kick out)
  • Holy People appear
  • 3x just a voice – 4th x = appear
  • White Body (Talking God)
  • Blue Body (Water Sprinkler)
  • Yellow Body (Calling God)
  • Black Body (Fire God)
  • 4 days, 4x a day – tried to speak w/gestures & signs – not understood
  • want to make more people, but in better forms
  • ND = formed like Holy People: teeth, 4 legs, claws like insects…
  • “smell bad”  purify
  • wash
  • dry with sacred cornmeal –
  • white for men, yellow for women
  • Holy People return in 12 days
  • Creation of 1st HUMANS
  • 2 buckskins
  • 2 ears of corn (white, yellow)
  • buckskin, ears, buckskin
  • Sacred Wind came between buckskins
  • Mirage people appeared & walked around the buckskins
  • 4th turn of the MP  man & woman replaced the ears
  • “ADAM &EVE”
  • First Man, First Woman
  • Altse Hastiin, Altse Asdzaan
  • make a shelter  husband & wife
  • rock crystal
  • to man
  • symbol of clear thought
  • to burn for fire
  • turquoise
  • to woman
  • symbol of power of speech
  • to burn
  • 4 days TWINS
  • Nadleeh
  • have both male & female spirit --???
  • hermaphrodites?
  • men who did women’s work w/o stigma?
  • every 4th day
  • 4 more sets of twins (no more Naleeh)
  • Instructions:
  • A&E taken to east mountains for 4 days
  • children taken later, for 4 days
  • how to live a good life
  • how to conduct themselves (in a manner befitting their divine origins)
  • Knowledge of Good & Evil
  • b/c Holy People were capable of G&E
  • taught them witchcraft, too
  • religious rituals:
  • A&E wore masks
  • prayed – long life, ample rain, abundant harvests
  • ceremonies: prayers, songs, rituals…have NOT changed
  • marriage:
  • children of A&E + Pueblos + Mirage People
  • 4 days  children
  • inventions
  • earthen dam
  • guardians = Nadleeh
  • Nadleeh made pottery, baskets while there
  • “Millennium”
  • period of peace
  • 8 years (long time, 4x2)
  • Trouble:
  • Earth & Sky joinCOYOTE & BADGER
  • bad & good omens
  • 1st argument:
  • 1st Woman’s “ungrateful remark” regarding his hunting & providing
  • other versions make it seem a “bawdy” joke
  • the vagina (the joosh) = responsible for the successful hunting & food provision
  • 1st Man moves away, separation
  • = loss of self-control
  • (overreaction, pride)
  • prank:
  • 1st Man gathers all men
  • take all their weapons & tools
  • & move across river (with Nadleeh)
  • Let’s see how they “get along w/o us after all!”
  • 1st winter:
  • women = OK b/c they harvest men’s crops
  • women taunt men
  • too late in season for men to plant, ate mush
  • spring: men w/ bigger harvest
  • (than before, than women)
  • 4th year:
  • men had so much they left most to rot in field
  • waste = taboo
  • women = starving
  • women miss men
  • dildos of cacti & stones
  •  creation of monsters
  • loss of self-control
  • reunion
  • for sake of species (no more children)
  • feast
  • to commemorate, celebrate
  • = “community”
  • 3 women = missing
  • mother, 2 daughters
  • captured by Water Monster as they were rowing across the river
  • pray to Holy People
  • Coyote helps in search of water – 4 chambers of WM’s dwelling
  • found, retrieved, BUT Coyote steals WM’s child FLOOD
  • feast
  • Floodb/c of Coyote’s trick
  • planted trees to climb to safety
  • juniper, pinon, pine, spruce
  • Old Man, Young Man – w/sacred soil  Great Reed
  • from 7 sacred mts.
  • 32 reeds fused into 1 giant reed
  • hole in east side of reed, climb in for safety, sealed
  • escape through Sky
  • Turkey = last out, white tail feathers = reminder of escape
  • 5th World:
  • glittering
  • Holy People, Pueblos, A&E, Nadleeh, offspring
  • return Water Monster’s baby
  • plant, build houses, scouts, multiply
  • divination
  • HP do test to determine their future
  • “magic shell” tossed into water: float = immortality, sunk = mortality
  • Coyote tosses 2nd stone in water when 1st floated
  • sinks  “If we do not die, we shall soon overrun the world. There will be no room for us all.”
  • people see wisdom, reluctantly agree
  • Coyote = responsible for human mortality = across Native Am. stories
  • 1st death & burial
  • Nadleah
  • Holy People instruct – prepare body, place in rocky crevice
  • Argument #2:
  • over seed corm brought from 4th World
  • vs. the Kiis’aannii
  • separation #2
  • borders, marked by 4 mountains, w/3 interior mts., by A&E
  • Naming Ceremony (by A&E)
  • east, south, west, north
  • 4 color changes of the sky (as before – see 1st World)
  • need more light Sun & Moon = created
  • Old Man w/sacred soil, reward = Sun God, immortality, bears sun across sky
  • Young Man = Moon God, immortality, bears moon across the sky
  • MONSTERS:
  • result of women’s unnatural acts in 4th World (stones, cacti)
  • horned monster, kicked people off cliffs, killed w/eyes, flying monster
  •  only 4 people remain
  • 1st Man still prays each morning faith in hardship (JOB)
  • 4th morning – White Body told 1st man to go to mountain 
  • Changing Woman: “the most beloved of all the deities”
  • as a baby, 1st Man takes her home
  • 4 days = full growth, maturity – moves out
  • birth to TWINS
  • sons of Sun & Waterfall
  • Born-for-Water, Monster Slayer
  • twins defeat the monsters
  • (helped by Spider Woman, others)
  • MS slew, B4W stayed home protection spells
  • Sun gives special weapons to kill Giant, one of his sons/monsters b/c killing humans
  • weapons made of lighting, magic to walk on rainbow
  • last 4 monsters = PANDORA’S BOX-
  • Old Age, Poverty, Hunger, Cold
  • spared by the Twins so Humans would not get complacent
  • Twins go dwell w/Holy People
  • become protectors of Humans (still)
  • Sun & Changing Woman get married
  • after he agreed that she wouldn’t be long away from her people
  • made more people (replenish earth after the Monsters)
  • 4 Original Clans
  • Happy Ending:
  • Changing Woman makes more people
  • Twins become protectors of Humans (live w/Holy People)
  • Holy People leave but in touch through PRAYER & SONGS
  • Sacred Rainbow =
  • placed around Navajo homeland (Dine’bikeyah)
  • protection
  • blessing
  • reminder of sacredness of that land
  • so long as Dine remain w/in this boundary, they have protection of Holy People
  • connection to the land
  • (Jerusalem as “Holy Land”)
  • LESSONS:
  • #4
  • industry
  • cleansing/purification ritual
  • how 1st Man & 1st Woman came to be
  • prayer
  • ceremonies & rituals
  • why there’s good & evil
  • marriage
  • be fruitful & multiply
  • harmony & balance
  • loss of self-control & results
  • waste = taboo (esp. waste of food)
  • feasts to commemorate good times: symbol of community, celebration
  • flood
  • why turkeys have white tail feathers
  • why we die – mortality
  • how to bury
  • naming ceremony
  • faith in woe, still pray
  • sun & moon
  • twins
  • why there’s Old Age, Poverty, Hunger, Cold
  • prayer & song
  • holy connection to the land
  • COMPARISON to BIBLE:
  • axis mundi (Garden of Eden)
  • 12 Tribes of Israel
  • Sodom & Gomorrah
  • Fall & banishment
  • Great Flood
  • scouts = dove & raven from Noah’s ark
  • Adam & Eve
  • marriage
  • industry, work
  • be fruitful & multiply
  • millennium
  • fall, Serpent-trickster
  • Job & monsters (faith in woe/crisis)
  • Holy Land

LINKS:

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica:
  • Bulfinch’s Mythology:
  • Amazon’s list of books on CM:
  • Genesis, Ch.1-3:
  • Jewish, Christian, Islamic faiths
  • 6 days
  • from darkness to light
  • sky, land, plants, sun moon, animals, humans
  • story #2:
  • Adam, from dust/earth
  • creates Garden of Eden & places Adam there…w/warning
  • Adam names all creatures
  • Eve from Adam’s rib
  • Fall & banishment
  • Greeks:
  • Aztecs: