“The Iroquois Creation Story” as told by David Cusick cites two worlds being in existence during ancient times. “The lower world was in great darkness;--the possession of the great monster; but the upper world was inhabited by mankind”(23). As a pregnant woman in the upper world went to sleep she descended down to the dark world. The story goes on to say that the monsters saw her descending and sought to “… secure the woman from the terrors of the great water…” which lie below (23). Turtle volunteered to save the woman and the back of turtle’s shell became an island for the woman’s body to fall upon. The beginning passages of the story are transformational because the story tells of humans, monsters and animals being separate beings …show more content…
Enigonhahetgea creates the moon, which turns day to night, and Enigonhahetgea tried to create people, but instead created apes he also created many things in the world that could impede human life. Enigorio followed behind his twin to undo what he had done. This part of the story is instructional in its function by bringing to awareness traits of competition, jealousy, and power that can be seen in the behavior of the twins. It also tells how daytime and nighttime came into being and where the tribe came from. It also infers choice as both brothers were born into the dark world. One chose to create light, the other chose to remain in darkness. The conflict between the brothers grew until Enigorio could no longer focus on his tasks nor could he accept his twin’s behavior and challenged him to a contest in which the winner would rule the world. Enigorio was deceitful to gain the upper hand for the coming battle. Enigorio killed Enigonhahetgea. As Enigonhahetgea was dying, he said he would retain “equal power over the souls of mankind after death and he sinks down to eternal doom and became the Evil Spirit”(25). I think this section infers the duality of good and bad, light and dark in everyone. Even the good minded twin engaged in deceitful practices in order to ensure he would win the
All different cultures have their own creation stories, mostly all containing the elements of a Higher Power of some sort, how the power created the world, and the creation a human man. The Christian belief in the Genesis story has these key elements , as does the Iroquois creation myth, The World on the Turtle's Back. Although these two creation stories share similarities, they also have some stark contrasts. These contrasts include, how the two cultures of the Native American Iroquois tribe and then Christians view life and aspects of good and evil, the way each culture views nature and the impact that has on their culture, and finally the way the Christian God and the Iroquois gods are portrayed to
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.
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will
The creation story of Chippewa is pretty interesting to research about. Chippewa is really associate Anglo pronunciationcof the word “Ojibwa. By researching about these people I found out that Chippewa calls themselves“Anishinaabe,” which basically means real people or original people. Anishinaabe created their own story which was recorded and passed down to many generations. In the story the central figure is Gitche Manito and she used Mother Earth and herelements to form the animals, the plants, and then the Anishinaabe. Gitche used birds to sent life of seeds to all four directions and to the above and below land. The Mystery created to feed animals, heel plants and give more beauty. Lastly, he took the four parts of rock, water, fire, and
How come they have never met each other? Hey, but they all live in Canada and all met the Europeans! I wonder if the Europeans ever mentioned one tribe to the other? Anyway, the Inuit, Haida, and the Iroquois are the same in many ways but are a lot different.
The Lakota Indians, are sometimes known as the Sioux, but they call themselves the Lakota, which is translated as ‘friend’ or ‘ally’ in their native tongue. Their description of themselves make sense when looking at their seven virtues that they live by, “These are Wóčhekiye (Prayer), Wóohola (Respect), Wówauŋšila (Compassion), Wówičakȟe (Honesty), Wówačhaŋtognaka (Generosity), Wówaȟwala (Humility) and Wóksape (Wisdom) (“Lakota Today”). A culture’s idea of the most importance qualities a good person should have gives a good idea of what kind of people they are. The Lakota’s virtues all revolve around a general concept of respect for everything, compassion, humility, and honesty. These things can either refer to their fellow man, or
At the beginning of the story about the creation is different: in Christian story, the first day God created the heavens and the earth. God created the world in seven days, and the world has day time, night time, plants, trees, sky, seas, lands, water, birds, wild animals, foods, the man ? Adam, and his wife ? Eve. On the other hand, in Iroquois, that has two worlds in ancients already ? the lower world was in great darkness and humankind inhabited the upper
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.
All humans are interested in their origins and trying to account for their existence through creation stories. Native Americans tribes are no different from the rest of humanity. The tribes’ stories explain how people came into existence, how they came to be live on the lands they do and the how people interact with nature and each other. These trends can be seen in the legends of three tribes hailing from New England to the Great Lakes Region.
The creation story of the Ojibwa beginning with nothing but absorbing dark void because in the beginning there was nothing besides that. Nothing. Not until Manitou. Before him there was a possibility that everything that we know and also everything that we didn’t know could exist. Our human mind is not able to be capable of thinking such possibility. No person can imagine such unfathomable powers to envision such foresee of creation. It is unpassable for a human to image such a phenomenon thing and bring it all into existence, that’s why people believe in a high power then them. Some call it as God, Allah, Buddha etc. God’s are all (seemingly) super natural, imaginary some would say! and are a creation of humanity to bring a sense of hope.
The difference in writing styles between the Iroquois Creation Myth and Christopher Columbus’ letters is very significant. The Iroquois Creation Myth is much more mystical and entertaining while Columbus’ letters are more formal and simply recounting events. Though the two pieces of literature have their differences, there are still some similarities. The Iroquois Creation Myths focus on nature and animals. Likewise, when Christopher Columbus is writing his letters, he describes the nature around him in great detail.
Eternal inflation is an alternative theory of creation that is a modification of the Big Bang Theory. The earliest universe was expanding matter, and particles that were next to each other would routinely be sent whizzing away to the farthest reaches of their cosmological horizons. It is no longer like that, however, as the inflation stopped. The theory of eternal inflation is that the expansion did not stop all at once. Rather, little bubbles of space randomly stopped inflating, or fell onto trajectories that led to the end of their inflation. And, since the expansion is rapid, the inflating space creates more space than the bubbles that stop inflating lose -- so inflation never ends. The result is an ever-expanding multiverse, which means not only is Earth not the center of the universe but our universe isn’t the center of the universe.
Before they are even born their differences begin to emerge. One boy is born with a dark mind full of evil and destruction, while the other has a mind for creation and goodness and light. The Good Twin creates the world similar to how the God of the Bible does when it speaks in Genesis of how He created the universe in a period of seven days. The Evil Twin is said to make injurious reptiles to try to hurt the humans that his brother created, and therefore can be compared to Satan who appears as a serpent and destroys the peace of mankind. Good and evil twins are commonly found in several myths of other American Indian tribes as well.
Many Native Americans tell stories of the creation of earth that explain how they came to be before the Europeans entered North America. Creation myths vary among all cultures; however, they all have one thing in common; heaven and earth. One of the most popular creation myths was the Iroquois creation myth. The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee meaning “People of the Longhouse” (Iroquois Indian Museum, n.d.) consists of six Indian nations that include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. In the beginning, there was a belief that before the creation of earth, there were two realms, the sky, and the lower world that consisted of water and water creatures. From the sky, a young woman named the Sky Woman was
“The Iroquois Creation Story” tells the ancient myth when only two worlds existed. One, in the lower half, complete darkness filled with monsters and the other, the upper world, filled with mankind. There, in the second world, a women conceived twins. As her labor intensified she fell closer and closer to the lower, darker world. While in distress the twins were born and “entered the dark world by compulsion”. Only a few moments later the women fell to her death. As the twins grew older they possessed different minds. One was the good mind and the other was the bad mind. The good mind used the parent for his initial creations. Around the head, an orb was created to “bestow light to the new world”, now known as the sun. Another orb was placed around the body which was “inferior” to the light, now known as the moon. He also created spots of lights to connect the day and night which are now know as stars. All of these were created to help “regulate” the days, nights, season, years, etc.”. The good mind continued his creations by creating animals, oceans, mountains, insects and mankind.