Iroquois Creation Story Summary

Finally, the Christian God and the Iroquois gods are viewed differently in the eyes of a standard human. First off, the God of Christianity, is the only God. But, in the Iroquois culture there are multiple gods, who become the elements, and then the Iroquois praise these elements.(Iroquois 30) In Genesis, man is created in the likeness of God,(Genesis 1:27) but in the Iroquois myth man is created by another man. The Genesis God is thought of as more of a paternal God who loves His children but reprimands them when the children disobey, where the gods of the Iroquois is just revered and respected, no mention of punishment for humans is mentioned in the Iroquois myth. One similarity is the belief that the gods or God dwell in a place above the rest of the world, the Sky-World in Iroquois, or Heaven in the story of Genesis.

There’s tons of debate between which creation story is true. Some people say that the Adam and Eve creation story is true. Others truly think the Native American one is correct. But nobody alive today, has any idea which one is true, probably no one ever will. However, both Native American and Creation stories are similar in many ways. Both stories are different also.

One of the first differences between the Iroquois’ beliefs and Christianity is the theory on “the creation of life”. The Iroquois believe in a creator God called ‘Hahgwehdiyu’, which was the good spirit of the twin Gods of Wind Breath. He shaped the world with the palm of his hands and recycled the corpse of his dead mother to create the sky, moon and the sun. He planted a grain of corn in her to give the world fertility. It is believed that when the Sky Woman, or the mother, fell from the sky she would fertilize the earth so her granddaughters could grow and harvest many things. They also believe in a current God called

The bad mind baby - Enigonhahetgea that had an evil opinion and born under the side of his mother?s arm, and the good mind baby - Enigorio born the normal way. In the Christian story, there has man and woman. On the other hand, in Iroquois has two-difference kind of people ? good mind people and bad mind people.

From the myth, Theogony by Hesiod, line thirteen is written to say, “Chaos was first of all, but next appeared broad-bosomed earth,”. (Eva M. Thury) Similarly, the Genesis creation story says that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void,”. (contributors) Our textbook explains that there were a various number of authors who wrote The Old Testament. On page 56, the third paragraph details the differences in translation styles of the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish religion authors. Although the Iroquois Indian culture tells a different story. It says that human beings already existed and lived high up in what is now called heaven. In A Tale of the Sky World “Before our world came into being, human beings lived in the SkyWorld. Below the SkyWorld was a dark watery world with birds and animals swimming around.”

Creation stories are tools used to try to explain the unexplainable. For centuries humans have been searching for answers to the what, when, why, and how questions that encompass life. Genesis and the Iroquois Creation Myth are two different stories that seek to describe the creation of Earth and the universe that surrounds it. Genesis describes a Christian perspective, particularly one of the most popular Western explanations to life on Earth. The Iroquois Creation Myth, on the other hand, takes a less traditional approach, while only mildly alluding to religion. The similarities between the two lie in the timeless battle of good versus evil.

Nevertheless, the revenue made by the NCAA from ticket sales, marketing and television deals is not used for education or research. According to Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer, 20 % of the money goes back to the involved schools but it does not go directly to the classrooms of the university. The profits are shared between the coaches, administrators and the rest of the staff as well as money to the athletic program to maintain it. According to NCAA.org “$199.6 million was Distributed to Division I schools to help fund NCAA sports and provide scholarships for college athletes” out of 996 million raised. In some cases money is taken from the school department to fund the athletic programs, for example the University of Tennessee took $18

The Iroquois creation story there exists two planes the Nothing and the Great Blue. In the Great Blue there lived a woman who dreamed dreams has a dream about a tree that brings the light, but the blossoms on the tree blocked the light and this frightened her. When she awoke she begs the men of her village to cut down the tree, but not understanding the men dig around of the tree to allow more light to shine through. The tree fell through the hole the men dug and left only darkness. The men blamed the dreamer of dreams for there being no more light and the men grabbed her and threw her through the hole where the tree used to be. As the woman fell a hawk caught her and slowed her fall. The hawk unable to carry her forever called to the other creatures to help find solid land for the woman to live upon. Unable to find dry land the animals dove into the depths and came up with mud which they began to pile on the back of a gigantic turtle. The animals became excite by their work and made the entire Earth. Till this day the Earth

There are quite a few similarities between the Greeks stories of creation and the Cherokee. In both stories, before anything could be created, water had been everywhere, and surrounded in darkness. It was void-like and wild, primitive almost. Another similarity

Members of the Nations speak Iroquoian languages that are distinctly different from those of other Iroquoian speakers. This suggests that while the different Iroquoian tribes had a common historical and cultural origin, they diverged as peoples over a sufficiently long time that their languages became different. Archaeological evidence shows that Iroquois’ ancestors lived in the Great Lakes region from at least 1000 A.D.

There are many familiar archetypes found in the Creation stories of the Native American Indians. The Iroquois and Navajo Creation Stories from The Norton Anthology American Literature Vol. A, contains several archetypes similar to those of the Judeo-Christian Bible. The story of the Iroquois contains similarities such as a virgin mother, characters of good and evil, different steps to creation, Heaven and Hell. Some concepts follow through in the Navajo story, but it also mentions the importance of marriage, twelve tribes, interbred peoples, floods, and a rainbow.

Ellis Island was referred to as “a police station, but a palace.” This was the reference used to describe the island during the great immigration period. This reference all depended on how people were treated throughout their journey. It could be referred to as a “police station” because there was a discrimination between rich, middle and poor class; immigrants were put through an inspection process in which they were checked without their knowledge of what was going on and if anything was wrong, then they would be branded with chalk and put through further inspection. For most people, this was a difficult encounter. The island could be referred to as “a palace” because the immigrants were given good hospitality throughout their stay and Ellis

Often a topic of debate, there are several different takes on the creation story existent in literature. Dependent on one’s religion, different beliefs about how the world we live in was created may arise. Looking deeper into the literature, one will realize there are also many similarities between creation stories. Based on the strong possibility that Genesis was influenced by the Enuma Elish, there are similarities that stem from the fact that they both describe the creation of a new world as well as differences in their interpretations and approaches to creationism.

For thousands of years, scientists have tried to interpret the concept of creation. However, before people had access to modern scientific equipment, they told creations stories. A creation story is a myth that explains how and why the earth was made. A few cultures with differing opinions on creation are Europeans, Cherokee Indians, West Africans, and Hawaiians. Europeans tell the story of Genesis and God creating the earth in seven days and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Cherokee Indians believe that the earth was created by a water beetle. In West African culture, they teach the Golden Chain story, and Hawaiians have the Kumulipo story to explain their beliefs on creation. Although each story follows a basic guideline, they all have distinct disparities.

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