Crow Religious Beliefs

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.

To several tribes (past and present), the wolf itself is known as a protective spirit or totem. They view the wolf as a wise fellow hunter to be respected and admired. Quite a few Native American tribes are familiar with the idea of a man transforming from man to beast. The belief is known in many tribes including the Mohawk (whose territories once covered upstate New York to southern Quebec) where those who could shift were known as limmikin (sometimes yenaloosi). However, the Navajo tribe is also best known for its shifter beliefs called skinwalkers meaning “he goes on all

One of these motifs involve, a young man experiences a ritual initiation and ultimately he achieves an heroic act (Millisaw, n.d.). Most of the time, the man was born with a divine background or he may have mixed parentage (Millisaw, n.d.). Another common characteristic found throughout Native American tribes is the trickster (Millisaw, n.d.). For example, in the Lakota Tribe, a spider is used to represent the tricker (Millisaw, n.d.). While in the Kiowa tribe, the trickster appears as a coyote (Millisaw, n.d.). However, Native American literature is not only similar throughout Native American tribes, but it also shares characteristics with African literature as well. According to Gloria Fiero, African folklore and Native American myths share the feature of having heroes or heroines that work to control nature (2015). Also, another feature that is shared between African and Native American literature is that the heroes and/or trickers may be humans that have been transformed into animals or vice-versa (Fiero, 2015). I find this interesting as Native American literature share attributes not only within different tribes, but with different cultures as

The Navajo are similar to the Maya, have stories of creation. The Navajo believe that “Before this world existed, and far below it, the First World lay in darkness. Here lived six beings: First Man, First Woman, Salt Woman, Fire God, Coyote, and Begochiddy, the golden-haired child of the Sun. Begochiddy made four mountains in this first world - white to the east; blue to the south; yellow to the west; and black to the north. Then Begochiddy made insects and plants. But conflicts arose and the first beings, tired of the First World and its darkness, decided to leave. At the center of the First World, Begochiddy made a red mountain and planted a giant reed. The first beings gathered all of Begochiddy's creations and crawled inside the hollow

The belief system of the Choctaws was shared beliefs of the tribes of the south-eastern regions of North America. They believed that they emerged from the earth through a mound called Nanih Waiya. The major deity was the sun, a spiritual being whose earthly representative was fire. Another belief of the Choctaws had to do with death. It was their custom to clean the bones of the dead before depositing them in boxes or baskets in the bone-houses, the work being performed by "certain old gentlemen with very long nails," who allowed their nails to grow long for this purpose. The people of this tribe also followed the custom of setting up poles around the new graves, on which they hung hoops, wreaths, etc. As their name seems to imply, they practiced artificial head flattening. They believed this process would aid the spirit in its ascent.

The Native Americans in Central and South America and the colonial settlers of North America in the 1600’s, such as Puritans and Pilgrims, had many cultural differences and similarities. One of these similarities was having a creation story to explain where they and the world around them had come from. The Inuit believed that the Raven had created everything that they knew existed; the Mayans believed that all was created by Tepeu and Gacamatz, and the colonial settlers believed in the ChristianGod. These gods and godly figures shaped each cultures views of the world around them starting with how the world was created. Inuits revered animals, Mayans worshipped their gods highly, and colonial settler Christians believed that their purpose was to spread God’s word.The godly figures that shaped the world in each creation story and myth are alike to one another in some ways. The Inuit god figure Raven is described as having “the powers of both a man and bird, and could change from one to the other simply by pulling his beak above his head as one lifts up a mask.”The Mayans gods that created the world were Tepeu the Maker and Gacamatz the Feathered Spirit, both were said to glitter “with brilliant blue and green feathers.” The colonial Christians believed that they were created in God’s image and thus believed that their god appeared similar in form to them. The Mayans and Inuit both had god figures that were feathered and appeared brilliant, similar to the birds that

Trickster tales have been an important part of the Native American culture for hundreds of years. Trickster tales are an oral storytelling tradition and are continuously passed down from generation to generation of Native American Indians. American Indians enjoy listening and telling trickster tales because it is a fun and interesting way to tell a story with a valuable lesson. In many tales, the trickster has a name associated with an animal, and a majority of listeners assume they are animals; however, in some tales, characteristics may appear more human-like. Trickster tales allow Native American cultures to use their imagination and thoroughly understand the moral lessons presented in the tales, and therefore may help with one’s

The Native American tale of "Coyote and Bear", originally translated from oral tradition in nineteen six by G. A. Dorsey in the book The Pawnee, Mythology, Part I, tells us the story of Coyote who accidentally meets Bear, and in order to protect himself from being killed by Bear, starts to make up self praising stories to impress Bear. Eventually, Coyote convinces Bear, but after a few hesitant moves, Bear realizes that Coyote was lying. The tale then, ends up with the murder of Coyote by Bear. The most relevant literary figure used in the tale is the trickster, which is, in the study of folklore, a god, a spirit, or simply a human hero who breaks god´s or nature´s rules, sometimes with bad intention, but usually with final positive

The Native American myth “Rainbow Crow” originated from a tribe called the Lenni Lenape. The Lenni Lenape are also known as the Delaware Indians, or sometimes just Delaware. They are a typical Indian Tribe with their own ways of life.

The Crow Indians were located over a large area which included south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming, along the Big Horn and Yellowstone river drainage, the Musselshell and Powder River, the Wind River Range, Yellowstone Lake, and the Rocky Mountains. The land was a mixture of coniferous and deciduous foothill and mountain forest, grassland prairies, and cottonwood-treed river valleys. The forest had edible berries and roots for grazing herd animals. The Crow had a focus on the cultivation of crops such as maize for subsistence, but once they acquired horses it shifted into buffalo hunting. Large game animals were hunted such as buffalo, bison, deer, and elk and it led to the destruction of the bison herds.

Another interpretation would be that the buffalo is a symbolic representation of Crow livelihood. Hunters would typically be men who also served as warriors. This would mean that hunting was another honorable practice

The Crow Tribe is also known as the Apsáalooke, Absaroka, and Apsaroke Tribe. They settled in Montana and then split into two different groups, the Mountain Crow and the River Crow. The Crow tribe made allies with Kiowa and Kiowa Apaches that where around the same area The Crows where in. The Crows are known for there skills with horses, however they did not always have horses and would hunt on foot and would use dogs to pull goods. Horse herds started to grow fast but the winters kept them small. The Crows would breed these horses and sell them. Many times the Blackfoot Confederacy would raid the Crows for their horses. Later the Blackfoot Confederacy would become the biggest enemies to the Crows.

The Cree had believed in the trickster Coyote. The coyote was considered a deity and was responsible for many creations. For example, the coyote was accountable for the creation of the milky way and the diversity of mankind. The Cree believed that the coyote had two sides: a creator and a trickster. The creator is a side that the Cree believed made up the world, also the trickster is a side that was thought to upset the rules because of its foolish and cleverness. The coyote is often mentioned in myths as a character who steals life essentials (such as: water, light, fire, food etc.). Then those life necessities are either lost or set loose to create the

Why are the three Native american stories so Important? “The coyote”, “The Origin of The Buffalo and The Corn”, and “The First False Face” are Native American myths and legends. They have many similarities and differences. All three of the stories have Native American tribes.

On June 27, 1978, two Crow Indian brothers, Bobby and Tyler were killed by a 44-car Conrail freight train. The day before the accident, the two brothers had disappeared from home. Later on, the film revealed that the two brothers had run away from home because they knew what their stepfather was doing to their sister. The Crow Indian siblings were adopted into a white Baptist family that also adopted their biological sisters seven years earlier. The crow Indian siblings were taken from a troubled home in Montana. The filmmaker Chris Billings their Crow Indian brother is investigating what drove his adopted brothers to this point.