Myths And Tales Like The Coyote Who Free The Moon Or How People Come Into The Earth

All religions strive to explain the beginning or creation of the world and it’s features. A divine being that creates the land and sea, the heavens, animals and man ( EAC 297 Myths and Legends). Creations stories vary from culture to culture, but some similarities and parallels can be made between cultures that are completely unconnected to one another. Two creation myths that have similarities between them are those of the Judeo-Christians and the Native American,namely, Navajo peoples. There are many differences in these myths in regards to what could be considered sacred numbers and in the sequence of events. However, despite the difference between these two myths, the similarities are worthy of note. Both the creation myths of the Native

Native Americans do not explain their supernatural elements the same way other cultures do. Most other cultures try to talk about gods, or ghosts, or supernatural elements. Native Americans use nature and spirits to explain the supernatural elements. Native American myths instead rely on nature and spirits to tell the story, which reflects on their culture’s belief system. The Native Americans have many myths and folktales, and most of them share many common themes and archetypes with other cultures, myths ,and legends. Almost every Native American myth or piece of folklore revolves around nature and its power; while spirits are used mainly to explain the unexplainable parts. This characteristic is shown with spirits being important characters,

“Coyote and the Buffalo’’ and “Fox and Coyote and the Whale’’ are folk tales told by Okanogan storytellers. They are myths passed down verbally from generation to generation explaining why the world is the way it is. Trickster tales are folk tales that includes an animal or a human character as a protagonist which represent the dual nature of humans. It teaches many lessons. The character has magical powers. Coyote is featured in both of these trickster tales showing similar and different contradicting qualities showing different characteristics like being greedy, disrespecting the dead, family structure, etc.

2. The narrator describes the story as a “Coyote story” that “smells bad” and “bites your toes”. The Coyote is found in certain aboriginal legends, symbolizing traits of ingenuity, transformation, playfulness, but also represents negative attributes such as greed, recklessness, and impulsiveness. In this story, Coyote’s negative attributes are emphasized and in his greed and ignorance, could not see past propaganda spread by the Whitemen that employed Coyote. The story “smells bad” because the narrator is uncomfortable at the treatment of the enemy aliens because it is similar to how the Whitemen had discriminated against natives. This is evident when the narrator says “they look like you and me”, suggesting that their likeness comes from how alien they look to the Whitemen. Coyote brushes off the narrator’s

Oedipus,Theseus and the Minotaur, Odyssey, Iliad, here are Greek myth well known to be a narrative depicting supernatural beings, imaginary actions, collective fantasies, ....(Larousse).But what about the Native American Myth ? Following the reading of three Native myths , “ The eath on turtle's back” “ When Grizzles walked up right” and “ Fire” , it is possible to notice several similarities such as the myth's goal, the character and the end.

After having read the chapter and the PowerPoints, one aspect of Native American Religion that interests me is the spirit world. I am curious as to how it connects to a vast majority of their religions practices, since the Native Americans were polytheistic or contained multiplicity of gods within their religious practices. I was interested in how they connect this world as “Earth Mother”, who provides bounty of the Earth (Hopfe et al. 2016). The position of High God is also connected, but separate from the concerns of the Earth. These different spirits have allowed the Native Americans to not consider a High God as a personality, but rather a divine or sacred power that is revealed in humans, nature and the spirit world (Hopfe et al. 2016).

Native Americans have existed for thousands of years, developing a rich heritage that characterizes the value of the group. Today it is estimated that there are more than 2.5 million Native Americans living in the United-States and this population is steadily growing. Although they account for only 1 percent of the total U.S. population, they have been described as including 50 percent of the diversity that exists in this country. This diversity among Native American nations is illustrated by 250 languages and more than 500 tribes. One of these tribes is called the Cherokee Indians and this research paper is going to deal with them. Cherokee were probably the most acculturated Indians in the nineteenth century. They were one of the first Indian groups to successfully transform their aboriginal landscape into a new cultural landscape that sometimes surpassed their white frontier neighbors. They had a lots of powerful traditions focusing on the tribe first, the clan second, and the family third in terms of importance and duty. The family was the centrality of the circle and the individual was traditionally simply not allowed to upset the order of the family. Traditional beliefs permit us to think that “being Indians” was obviously not about the blood that flew in their veins, but how they lived in a cultural and traditional way in respecting the sacredness of the American way of life.

During the early American time period, native Indians would create literature to record their new discoveries or explanations for life’s mysteries. The early American time period consisted of many myths from the native Indians that helped the people understand

Native American worldview presents an alternative system of being grounded in reverence towards the elements of nature and cosmos. A close reading of the oral tales, myths, and narratives of Native American childhood often revolve around the motif of mother and child relationship, foreground an idea of childhood characterised by freedom and autonomy. The children in these myths learn from their experiences of quests rather than by the method of indoctrination or instruction. A sense of childhood emerges from these narratives. The childhood is a distinct concept and a stage in individual’s life having its own sets of physical and psychological needs. The paternalistic attitude towards children symptomatic of Puritan childhood that aims at disciplining

Customary American Indian educational procedures accentuate a narrative method, for instance, utilizing folklores, tales, and analogy to participate in their world (Chee et al, 2006). America Indian’s narratives contain figurative connotations, ancestral accounts, community associations, and figure of

The History of America has been stongly shaped by a collection of popular myths, stories and overall religious or cultural traditions, but not to the extent of the Native American History. We are all familiar with myths and legends about the past, namely the creation of our species and the mythological views of multiple godly figures. The majority of those mythological events have been created to suit Native American cultures. Because of these stories, Americans have misunderstood much about the Native American culture, For example, many assume that pre-Columbian North America was a land that was very wide spread and consisted of little inhabitants, when really, millions of Native Americans lived in the land. For example, Native American societies were full of wealth and held and heir of sophistication, contrary to popular beliefe that the Native Americans survived only through hunting, gathering, and fishing

Native American Literature is one of the earliest forms of literature that uses myths to reveal the many themes of Native American Literature, as well as its characteristics. A great example would be Myth One developed by the Seminole Indians acknowledging how various animals entered the world from a shell to find appropriate surroundings. Myth One incorporates the Native American theme, formation of the New World, which corresponds to the Native American characteristic of illustrating a feature of the nature world. Animals mentioned in Myth One include, but are not limited to bears, deer, frogs, and snakes. An additional myth that also contains both a Native American theme and two of its characteristics is Myth Two written by the Chippewa

The other important part of the Indians’ religion was their fables explaining the origins of the world. With time, these fables gradually

Every culture and religion around the world has their own beliefs, myths legends and stories of creation about how all things came to be. Some are very similar and others are very unique and take on a whole new perspective and life of their own. One thing that they all have in common is that those beliefs are a direct reflection of their religion and paradigms (the way they see the world) and therefore effect their actions and behaviors. Most of us here in North America and the United States are familiar with Christianity’s biblical version of creation as found in the old testament in the book of Genesis and may be unfamiliar with the Native American creation stories. In this essay I will closely compare the religious beliefs by examining the traditional Christian and Navajo Indian creation stories.

“Traditional religious beliefs center around Wakan Tanka, their god and creator of all things. They were also a very spiritual group and believed that all things have spirits. Seven main spiritual ceremonies were held each year and were a very important part of Sioux culture.” The Sioux were culturalist, they focused a lot on their culture and they still to this day. In the book Saga of the Sioux, the author, Dwight Jon Zimmerman, is writing in third person. The author writes his point of view on how the Indians were treated. The book is also non fiction. The author talks about some conflicts that the Native Americans face: man vs nature and man vs society. The author also has themes : fight for your rights, and be careful who you trust.