Iroquois Indian Creation Myths

Greek creation myth highlights how men and women differ in their status and roles. Women were the inferior sex when compared to men, they were seen as intellects, and child

For thousands of years there has been a strong distinction between the roles of men and women. Often times in stories there will be women that are only mentioned for their beauty and charisma. Hardly ever will you see pages upon pages being spent talking about the true character and accomplishments of women characters. Even though stories like The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis were written thousands of year ago, (when stories were told mostly told from a males perspective) the light shined on women in the texts show them as wise, strong, and greatly influential beings. In The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of  Genesis, the writer shows the women as bringers of knowledge,  guidance, and care to the men in the texts that are lacking thereof.

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 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

The Iroquois Creation Story is set before the existence of humans as we know them, but not absent of a physical place, or other beings. The Iroquois Creation Story has a very supernatural setting with many mythical and magical elements. The first lines of the story stated, “Among the ancients there were two worlds in existence. The lower world was in great darkness; - the possession of the great monster; but the upper world was inhabited by mankind.” The physical setting starts out in in the upper world, but changes to the lower world when, as stated in the story, the mattress the woman laid on “sunk down towards the dark world.” Eventually the setting changes one more time when the mattress landed on the back of a turtle, and eventually changed in to an island. “While holding her, the turtle increased every moment and became a considerable island of earth.” The inhabitants of these settings are just as enigmatic as the actual setting. Mankind inhabited the upper world we know but the lower world was “the possession of the great monster”. The monsters of the lower world are never described, except we know for sure that there was a turtle where the woman came to rest. Eventually the inhabitants of the lower world would include Enigonhahetgea and Enigorio, who would go on to transform the setting even more.

A belief is defines a true statement, something that exists, or the trust and faith in someone or something. We all have beliefs and have obtained those believes individually in many different ways and whose to say that belief is right or wrong, or true or false. As with a myth, a traditional story, mostly believed to be a false idea or false believe.

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 HEAVENS AND THE EARTH IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THEN THERE WAS LIGHT AS IN GENESIS, CHAPTER ONE, STATED. THE LIGHT GOD CALLED DAY THE DARK HE CALLED NIGHT CREATED A HUMAN BEING THERE IN BEGAN MAN’S

Even though there are many creation stories, The West African and Cherokee creation stories have archetypal similarities and differences even though they never intermingled. While both West African and Cherokee begin their stories with nothing existing. With all the things going on in the world it’s amazing to think that people separated by thousands of miles and oceans have similar creation stories.

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.

The Greek and Roman societies were a very patriarchal society. This is reflected throughout the myths in classical mythology. By looking at the many pieces of literature involving Greeks and Romans we will see that the roles women portrayed are very different from women’s roles in today’s society. Although there are a few similarities to women’s roles in today’s society, their roles are more like those women in the past. We can see this by looking at the qualities of Greek and Roman female gods and looking at the roles women play in the myths.

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 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.

For the past two-thousand years, the Book of Genesis has served as work of literature to the western civilization. Whether people believed in the Bible or not, the Book of Genesis tell stories they talk about having good morals, teaching live-learned lessons and overall it gives a glimpse of how the first human being acted when the world was developing and how they handle problems and situations. However, even though the book of Genesis shows a tone of life long morals, Genesis also shows the different sides of humans. Genesis shows how human can be deceitful, evil, and disobedient to authority figures. But these traits with humans were rarely displayed by man, but mostly by woman. In

In the Iroquois creation myth, Sky Woman understood that she was pregnant with twins and was pushed by her husband into the Earth’s waters below the above world. Little Toad was able to bring up mud to spread on Big Turtle’s back, and it grew to become the size of North America where Sky Woman created the Iroquois world. Her children, Sapling and Flint, were important in creating the details of the land such as rivers, fish, plants, and even the seasons. The Sky People, Demi-gods of the Iroquois, were critical to the Iroquois people as it helped to define who they were and what they believed. The Iroquois people were happy and peaceful. There was little to no violence within their tribes just as in their myth of creation that tells of the Sky People living on an island floating above the “earth” where there was no sadness, violence, or negativity. This shows the ways the Iroquois applied their myth to their everyday lives and their religion. The myth also explains how the Sky Women’s evil son, Flint, was beaten by his good brother, Sapling, and was required to live on the Big Turtle’s back. North America was carried upon Big Turtle’s back and according to the the myth, bones in fish, thorns on bushes, and volcanos erupting symbolized Flint’s anger. The myth of Sky Woman and her sons is the explanation of how all nature came to be.