Native American Creation Stories

Introduction
What are Native American Creation Stories? A way to teach the people about
who they were, where their ancestors had come from and how the world came to
be. They offer perspectives on what life is and how to understand it, much like
<Christian stories that we have come in the Bible. All native people have stories
from the earliest times, and today we will talk about the Iroquois from the Northeast
and Pima from southwest.
We cannot say for certain which one of the two is more ancient and more
authentic, but of course they are equally significant for native cultures. These
stories were narrated by male and female doctors, some call them Shamans, who
were the second most important people in the tribes. When they died, the original
stories died as well.
Now, what happened thru history? These tribes encountered Christian
missionaries and explorers. Why are they important for us? There are no original
writings, because the stories were a part of oral tradition and not gathered in a
sacred testament or a book (as it is the case with Christian civilizations). In the
second half of the 19th century Christians developed linguistic skills to understand
their language and stories they told. However, what they wrote are only sketches of
original stories. These are only Christian attempts of understanding and translating.
Of course, these stories ended up affected with Christian beliefs, for example in the
Pima story of flood, when the narrator omitted a part of the story on purpose
because he did not want to talk about a man who had many women and children,
but more about that later.
Today we are going to discuss three stories that we have in our readers, Iroquoi
creation story, Pima story of the creation and the story of the flood. This last one I
mentioned, The story of flood is one among the fifteen pre-Colmbian tales
catalogued in Mexico, Central America and the American southwest. Pima version
shows no particular European influence. It is important as a foundational narrative,
it tells of re-creation, re-establishment, re-birth of divine, natural and social orders.
It also tells of the location of the so-called middle of the earth where Pima believed
to live.
Main themes are creation of the world and mankind, elements of good and evil as
binary oppositions. The main points of this presentation will be: the comparison
between Iroquoi and Pima creation stories, because even though they are both
Native American tribes, there are some differences that are worth mentioning; then
the significance of a woman and her position in this matriarchal society, and it is
realy interesting because we know they are really rare; and in the end we will
mention the main differences between Christian and Native American creation
stories.

Iroquois vs. Pima:

These two nations have different versions of the creation theory. In the Iroquois
myth, at the beginning there are 2 worlds, upper and lower, while in the Pima myth,
there is nothing, just a man floating in darkness, like God in Christian religion. In the
Pima myth, God, or creator, existed before anything, and his name was Juh-wert-amah-kai, or the doctor of the Earth, Shaman, while in the Iroquois myth certain
things and creatures already existed before the twin gods were given birth by the
Sky Woman, who conceived without sexual interaction and fell down or was pushed
into the lower world.
The world in the Iroquois myth was created by a turtle which offered itself to be
the ground of the world where later on the twins good and bad mind created, while
in the Pima myth Juhwertamahkai created the world himself, from his perspiration
which he rubbed out of his breast. That perspiration was transformed into a bush
out of which white ants built the earth.
Theories of the creation of sun and moon also differ.
Iroquois believed that the good mind (one of the twins) made the sun and moon out
of head and body of his dead mother, and Pimas believed that Juhwertamahkai
created the sun and moon out of iceballs which he threw into the sky.
As far as the creation of mankind is concerned, the good mind from the Iroquois
myth created man and woman from the dust after his own image, and
Juhwertamahkai created them from the substance he rubbed out of his breast.
Another difference between these two myths is that the Pima myth contains the
legend of the flood which is not present in the Iroquois myth. We can see that, even
though these tribes have similar traditions, their views of the beginning of the world
differ from one another.

Native American stories vs. Christian stories:

As we already mentioned, Native American creation stories were a part of oral
tradition, and they were written down in late 19 th century by Christian missionaries,
what of course affected the stories.
For example in Pima story of the Flood, a part of the story was omitted on
purpose. It was a part that talked about a man who had many women, and with
them many children, what is forbidden in Christian religion, as the commandment in
Bible says: Thou shall not cheat.However, there are many differences between
Christian and Native American creation stories that have to be mentioned.

First of all, Christian religion is monotheistic (believe in one God) and NA is

polytheistic (many creators of this world).
When talking about creator Christian believe that their God is good, his
intentions are good, and you shall not question his will. The difference
between good and evil is clear and specific, whereas with NAs, there is no
clear difference. Creators are good and bad, and there are interchangeable.
Even though bad mind is an obstacle, he is still a creator who helped good
mind creating mountains and reptiles.
In Christian religion God is perfect, isolated and separated from people, he
created nature for man to govern it. With NAs they are prone to making
mistakes, and they are similar to people.
Also in NA creator develops a new forms of life to help him in further creation
of the world (for example, in Pima story, Mr M creates ants who create the
world.)
Also when talking about symbolism of numbers, we already know about
Biblical numbers 3 and 7 (Holy trinity present, past, future; 3 wise men;
Father, Son and Holy spirit; 7 days of the week, 7 deathly sins; Samsons 7
locks of hair)
In Pima myth we can see many thing happening 4 times (4 times he placed
the sun, the moon; 4 times punished people(eat eich other, old, smoking))
Notion of time: Christians look at time is linear whereas Native Americans had
a cyclical understanding of time which can be seen in the fact that the world
was destroyed by a flood, but life was created again.
By not believing in punishment, revenge and redemption, Native Americans
consequently dont have the notion of hell and heaven, as Christians do,
although in Iroquois stories there are upper and lower world; (in lower world:
animals help) They have a holistic approach to the world, believing that
everything is one unity and that every part of the world is good in its own
way.
The Vengeful God from the Old Testament introduces us with the concept of
punishment, revenge and redemption, which are not present in the Native
American stories. God punishes Adam and Eve and destroys the mankind
with the great flood for the sake of revenge.

In the NA story of the Flood creators are affected by the flood, they are a part
of this world and want to save what they had created, whereas in the Bible
God causes the flood and he is not affected by it.
There are different versions of creation of the world in NA, not just one. And
theyve been orally transmitted, while in Christianity there is only one version
of the creation.

Women:
Important is the position of women in Native American society. Matriarchy is a
society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political
leadership, moral authority, and control of property. We can see in these tales that
men are absent at the beginning of the tale (quotation from Iroquois story of
creation: There was a woman conceived.). The woman is a goddess, the one that
gives life, and children inherited mothers name, unlike in Christian societies. This is
a very different approach to women than the Christian one because there Eve has
committed the original sin, thus announcing the fall of humanity. Also, Eve was
created from Adams rib, which instantly makes her subordinate to him, which is not
the case with Native American view of women. In the Pima legend a young man
turns into a woman and even gives birth to a child this interchangeability would
never happen in a Christian world. Also, Virgin Mary was not as important in Bible as
the woman giving birth to twins in Iroquois story is. Mary was mentioned only in few
lines.