Native American Creation Stories
American Literature
E-Campus Online
May 5, 2009
Native Americans from all over the United States have stories of their creation. These stories explain how a person, animal or even supernatural forces come up with the plans or blue prints of the Earth and its inhabitants. Each tribe has their own version or versions but they are all similar in how they are written. The Iroquois, the Pima, and the Aztec tribes stories are very the same and yet they are different. Each element of story is different but represents similar things.
The Iroquois creation story is mixture of the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Tuscarora and Cayuga nations. These six nations make an incredible story of good versus evil. The story starts off by introducing two different worlds and the twin infants. The author, David Cusick, writes “The lower world was in great darkness;-the possession of the great monster; but the upper world was inhabited by mankind; and there was a woman conceived and would have the twin born” (p.18). The woman in the story is the “Creator” which in most stories known today would be “God”. In the story the woman is assisted by a turtle which it becomes Earth. The woman goes through a state of confusion. “While she was in the limits of distress one of the infants in her womb was moved by an evil opinion and he was determined to pass out under the side of the parent’s arm, and the other infant in vain endeavored to prevent his design” (Cusick, p.19). The story goes on to explain the infant that is born through her side is the ruler of the lower part of the world as while the other twin is the ruler of the upper world. “The bad mind proceeded further in his motives and he made two images of clay in the form of mankind; but while he was giving them existence they became apes; and when he had not the power to create mankind he was envious against his brother; and again he made two of clay” (Cusick, p.20). The two brother battle...