The World On The Turtle's Back: The Story Of Corn And Medicine

Comparison and Contrast of Native American Creation Stories

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key similarities, and difference between two Native American stories of how the world and its inhabitants came to be. These two stories are “The World on the Turtle’s Back,” and “The Story of Corn and Medicine.” These stories come from the Iroquois and the Cherokee people respectively, and are their creation stories. “The World on the Turtles Back” tells of a pregnant woman who was pushed from the heavens by her husband. When she fell she was helped by the animals of the world below, a world of water. She asked the animals to bring her mud from the bottom of the water and when one did, she placed the mud on a turtles back and began to walk around. In turn, it grew into the Earth. After the Earth had grown, she sowed plants she had clutched when she fell. She lived in this world and later on she gave birth to a daughter. Even later the daughter matured and she meets and unknown man, shocked by the sight of another person after being isolated for so long she faints. The man then pulls two arrows from his quiver and places them on the

A small beetle goes to the bottom to retrieve a piece of mud. That mud, then grows into the Earth, which is suspended by ropes which are foretold to break one day. When the mud had dried the animals came down and put the sun into the sky, and were told to stay awake for seven days. Only the owl and panther and a few others stayed awake, so they were able to see in the night while the others slept. The same thing happened to the trees and that’s where evergreens come from. Later humans came and they reproduced so quickly it seemed they might not survive but they did. Later there seemed to be less and less room for the animals, so they decided to create the diseases people suffer from