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The Earth On Turtle's Back Sparknotes

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In the short story titled The Earth on Turtle’s Back, the author Onondaga explains how the Native Americans feel about other living things sustaining unique power against each other. Onondaga supports his explaining about the source of all life. The author’s purpose is to point out that beliefs are reflected in Native American myths, such as the stories that will be listed in the rest of this essay. The author writes in a reflective tone for the readers. All the water animals were sitting around and they noticed something strange. They noticed something falling from the sky. Two of the swans flew up and tried and caught the falling object. When they caught her, they sat her down and noticed she was not a water animal. She was a mammal because she didn’t have webbed feet. Later, they realized she could not live in the water. So they decided to figure out a way to help her live her the best way she can. She could only live on the (dryland) Earth. A few of the water animals thought that if they could pull up the Earth from the bottom of the deep water, she could live the …show more content…

One by one they went deeper and deeper and deeper, but not of them could manage to pull the Earth from the bottom. Four out the five animals went first and tried to pull the Earth. All four did not succeed in trying their best to pull up the Earth. However, the last animal, smaller than the others, thought the it had all the power to pull the Earth. “I will bring up the Earth or die trying”(Onondaga 22). She swam deeper than all the other water animals. She pulled hard and hard and hard and was able to pull the Earth from the bottom of the water. They placed the Earth on top of the turtle’s shell. “She stepped onto the new Earth and opened her hand, letting the seeds fall onto the bare soil. From those seeds the trees and the grass sprang up. Life on Earth had begun”(Onondaga

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