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Native american culture and traditions
Native american culture and traditions
Iroquois creation myth
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Bacon's Rebellion- Bacon’s Rebellion took place in 1676. 1,000 freedmen took down an Indian revolt, torched Jamestown, and chased William Berkeley out of town (he was the governor). So What?
After reading the Cherokee origin myth it demonstrates that they value the four directions, North, South, East, and West. In the story the directions are named “sacred”, showing that they must have a great deal of importance to the people. The directions were also used to divide the barren land at the beginning of the myth. Without the directions people would have had no way of knowing where they were or where they were going. The directions assisted people in their travels as well.
According to the legend, the first people of the Fifth World were given four lights but were dissatisfied with the amount of light they had on Earth. After many endeavors to slake the people, the First Woman engendered the sun to bring warmth and light to the land, and the moon to provide coolness and moisture. These were crafted from quartz, and, when there were bits of quartz that were left behind by the carving, they were tossed into the firmament to make stars. Like the Navajo, the Hopi believe there were worlds afore this one. The modern era is believed to be the Fourth World, and each world that came afore this one ended with the appearance of “the blue star.”
In every civilization that has graced our planet at some point, each has wondered about how the world, and its people were created. Depending on the location of the civilization, and the influences from other civilizations, each early civilization has created some form of tale to explain how the world and it people were created. For this essay, I would like to review, and compare the Aztec’s creation story, and the Japan’s creation story.
Long ago, people wondered about how we, as people, came to the Earth. Story-tellers would go around the villages and tell amazing stories about how the Earth, humans, and life were created. Many myths came from these oral stories. Three of these myths that were created are called The Earth on Turtle's Back from the Onondaga tribe, When Grizzlies Walked Upright from the Modoc tribe, and the Navajo Origin Legend from the Navajo tribe. All three of the myths play an important role on if there is a higher power, how we view the world was created, and beliefs on how other creatures and forces helped create what we believe in.
Unlike the Christian creation myth, no god or creator is visible at the beginning of the Navajo creation myth. After the insect people leave the first world, they go to the second world where they meet the bird people and not long after are asked to leave because they
The differences between light and dark, good and bad, are blurred in the Iroquois Creation Story. The narrator captured two different views in this story, blurring the line between what is considered right and wrong. The Iroquois Creation Story does not have just the black and white, but also the gray areas as well. It makes readers question what is really good and what is bad. The overall use of light elements gives the story a light feel, but also has a dark undertone when looked at closely.
The Makah Indians had a creation story about how the animals and birds were created. It was about the Two-Men-Who-Changed-Things. The men arrived when the world was still young so they decided to build the world. The two men had changed a variety of people into different animals, birds, and trees and plants. The men judged the animal on what they did or have done.
The Navajo and the Modoc: Mythological comparison In the myths “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” and “The Navajo Origin Legend”, we get a glimpse of the beliefs of traditional Native American societies. The former myth is one told by the Modoc tribe of Oregon, the other is told by the Navajo tribe of the American Southwest. The different uses of animals, spirits, and women’s roles help create an illustration of society before colonization. These myths do also differ on these themes and on how they are presented.
How the World Uniquely Begins Native American myths and the Christian Bible both offer stories about how the world began.. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” and Genesis 1, both tales have similar values and ideas. These two stories compare in that both tell the importance of water, the fact that Earth came out of the water, and the existence of supreme beings; in contrast, each story has a unique idea of how the world came into being. “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” a story from the Onondaga tribe, an original Native American group, is a myth which relates a story about the beginning of the world. Water is below the Skyland and it becomes an issue when the Great Tree is uprooted.
In various cultures, traditional stories of a universal beginning relate to the beliefs and rituals that are prevalent within that society. Although these creation stories differ among cultures, all display similar characteristics which constitute archetypal settings of creation myths, such as a great tree, the landmass from a watery chaos, and the fall of man. In the Iroquois’ creation myth, “The World on the Turtle’s Back”, the display of archetypal settings parallels the creation depicted in the book of Genesis, but underlying each similarity are differing interpretations which allow for the stories to relate to its specific culture. In both “The World on the Turtle’s Back” and the Genesis creation story, a prominent characteristic is the great tree connecting heaven and earth.
The Iroquois creation story is a renowned Native American myth written by a Tuscarora historian, David Cusick. He is also the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, which is known to be the first Indian-written history printed in the English language (Radus). The Iroquois creation myth exists in twenty-five other versions. It describes how the world was created from the Native American perspective. It begins with a sky woman who falls down into the dark world.
The Iroquois creation story is a renowned Native American myth written by a Tuscarora historian, David Cusick. He is also the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, which is known to be the first Indian-written history printed in the English language (Radus). The Iroquois creation myth exists in twenty-five other versions. It describes how the world was created from the Native American perspective. It begins with a sky woman who falls down into the dark world.
And in The Iroquois Creation Story it states “ 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”(David Cusick). Now these two sections of writing are abundantly similar. Especially when the bible states that God created the Heavens and the Earth, The Iroquois Creation
This event supports the reason why the Cherokee Indians do not customarily eat Red Crawfish, further validating that this story is a creation