Comparing The Earth on Turtle's Back, When Grizzlies Walked Upright, And the Navajo Origin Legend

Origin myths are traditional stories pass down from generation to generation. The Earth’s on Turtle’s Back, When Grizzlies Walk Upright, and from The Navajo Origin Legend all revealed different customs, attitude, and beliefs. These aspects showed the lifestyles and culture of each tribe and how they all came to be. Each myths are far original and different, yet at the same time similar. They focused on natural aspects of how the world came to be. In the story of The Earth on Turtles Back, the Onondagas believed in the world came from a turtle’s back, this showed their beliefs in the animals are the original owners of earth and respects for the animals. Similarly, the Modoc’s also have great deference to animals and especially to grizzlies.

The Navajo people believe that creation began in another world. Originally the Navajo began as insects on the first world. Due to continuous quarrelling the leaders of the realm force them

Thomas King's "The One About Coyote Going West" encompasses a Cherokee variant on Native Creation, the role of Coyote, the effect of white people on Natives, and a moral lesson classic to Native mythology. Also prevalent is the clichéd "don't fix it if it ain't broke" idea wherein matters of concern deteriorate when tampered with.

There is an enormous amount of symbolism in the Navajo Creation Story. One important symbol is the number 4. The table below lists several aspects of the story that are related to the number 4.

Creation myths have varying optimistic views on the creation of man. However, most creation myths agree that a god or gods of sorts sculpted man from the Earth’s clay. The creation myths “The Golden Chain” and “The World on the Turtle’s Back” come from two different tribes, the Seneca and the Iroquois, and share an optimistic view of mankind as well as the idea that man is made from clay. Even though both the Seneca and Iroquois tribes both believe that man is made from clay, they believe that man is created using a different method than that of the other. The Seneca tribe believes that man is created by Obatala in a state of abnormality because Obatala is drunk, while the Iroquois believe that mankind was created in a normal state of mind

She is truly overcome with grief and overflowing with uncontrollable emotion. She is asking for sympathy and understanding when she says, "Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate." In addition, she passes the blame when she says, "Though why should I whine, / Whine that the crime was other than mine?" This suggests that she was pressured from another source -- a boyfriend, family member, or society.

“The World on the Turtle’s Back” is a myth passed down from one generation of Iroquois to the next. Throughout the passage the author uses specific literary elements and style to explain the creation of the world through the eyes of the Iroquois tribe.

The World on a Turtle's Back is a Iroquois myth about the creation of earth. This belief is related to the biblical belief about creation. Both portray a story of a woman wanting to enjoy the forbidden fruit. After they eat of this forbidden fruit, good and evil is created. According to the myth good prevails over the day and bad rules over the night. The days of creation are represented by the woman planting roots and plants while riding the back of the turtle, the night is created by the right handed twin cutting off the grandmother’s head and tossing it into the sky, and the seas are filled by the body of the grandmother being tossed into the

something wrong, but do not know what. I imagine she was going through this pleading with

of the situation and to show that she now has the upper hand in their

Though today, the Blackfoot territory is defined by reserve/reservation boundaries and divided by the United States-Canadian border, their homeland, Nitawahsinnanni (“our land”), continues to be defined by topographical features using their language (The Blackfoot Gallery Committee, 2013, 12). This traditional homeland spans from the North Saskatchewan River (Ponokasisahta, the Elk River) as far south as the Yellowstone River, Montana (Otahkoitahtayi) and from the Rocky Mountains as far East as the “Great Sand Hills

and watched the people closely. She came to find that there were other factors that explains

“The World on the Turtle’s Back” and the “Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire” both share a collerbate relationship between humans and animals. While the stories both focus on animal and human relationships,”The Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire” show a strong relationship between a spider and a human. In the story “The Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire”, “The Choctaw remember. They made a beautiful design to decorate their homes, a picture of the Grandmother Spider,.....This is so the children never forget to honor the Grandmother Spider, the firebringer” (“The Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire” 6). This quote shows how important

What did the early American pioneers see when traveling the uninhabited wilderness of the early 1800’s? Could they have be seeing a black bear standing momentarily on its hind legs or was it actually what we now call Bigfoot today (“The Canadian Encyclopedia”). The origin of Bigfoot dates even further back to Native American myths portraying a large aggressive ape like animal walking on its hind legs eating children and animals (“New World Encyclopedia”). Since then there have been thousands of reports of supposed Bigfoot sightings including footprints, photos, videos and the actual carcass of a deceased Bigfoot. For over 80 years scientist have been discrediting the thought of the existence of Bigfoot, but throughout time scientist have

The motifs found in the creation myths are undoubtedly different from those found in any other type of myth. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of the creation myths is much greater than a primitive attempt to explain the mysteries of creation. Behind each creation myth is a vast variety of symbolism along with a number of motives which are often shared between cultures, despite vast geographical differences. My intention here is not only to discuss the purpose of the creation myths, but also to compare and contrast common themes which can be found in three selected works. These being, an Eskimo creation myth, the Ongwe creation myth and the Navajo creation myth.