American Studies M.A.

(2nd Year)
U.X.L Encyclopedia of World Mythology (Rebecca Parks)

Native American Mythology

Native American Mythology in Context
- The Native American people of North America do not share a single, unified body of
mythology, but certain mythic themes, characters, and stories can be found in many of the
cultures;
-

Underlying all the myths is the idea that spiritual forces can be sensed throughout the
natural world: including clouds, wind, plants, and animals- which they shape and sustain;

According to the mythologies of most Native American cultures, people originated in the
places where their ancestors traditionally lived; some tales speak of migrations (Native
Americans are descended from hunting and gathering peoples of northeastern Asia who
migrated across the Bearing Sea into North America during the most recent Ice Age,
which ended around 8000 BCE);

Before the arrival of Europeans, most Native Americans did not use written language.
Many myths and legends were passed from generation to generation in oral form (by
special storytellers who sometimes used objects such as stone carvings, shells, rugs, or
pottery to illustrate the tales. Mythology, religion, history and ritual were not separate
things for Native American peoples. Certain myths could not be told lightly. Many Native
Americans believed that some myths could be told only at certain times, often during
winter nights, a dire fate- such as an attack by snakes- awaited those who told the stories
at the wrong time. Other myths resembled folktales and many involved tricksters.

Core deities and characters:

A. Creators, gods and spirits:
-

Many Native American mythologies have a high deity sometimes referred to as the
Great Spirit- who is responsible for bringing the universe or the world into existence.
Often, the Great Spirit merely begins the process of creation and then disappears or
removes itself to heaven, leaving other gods to complete the work of creation or to
oversee the day to day running of the world.

The high god of the Pawnee people, Tirawa gave duties and powers to the Sun and Moon,
the Morning Star and Evening Star, the Star of Death, and the four Stars that support the
sky. The Lakota people believe the sun, sky, earth, wind, and many other elements of the
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natural, human, and spiritual worlds are all aspects of one Supreme Being, Wakan Tanka.
The secondary gods are often embodiments of natural forces, such as the wind. Ex. In the
mythology of the Iroquois people the thunder god Hunin is a mighty warrior who shoots
arrows of fire and is married to the rainbow goddess.
-

Not all creators are universally good. Napi, the creator god of the Blackfoot people in the
Plains region appears as both wise and as a trickster.

Kachinas, spirits of the dead who link the human and spiritual worlds, play an important
role in the mythologies of the Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, including the
Zuni and Hopi. In hopi mythology, the creator deity is a female being called Spider
Woman.
B. Culture Heroes and Transformers:

In the mythologies of some Indian groups from the Northeast, the culture hero Gluskap
creates humans, returns from death to defeat evil, and protects people from natural and
magical disasters. The myths of some California Indians tell of the Attajen, who teaches
the first people how to make rain and how to fill the earth with plants and animals and of
Chinigchinich, who teaches the wise men how to perform ceremonial dances that will
summon him when they have need of help in the future.
C. Tricksters:
They have a greater place in the folklore of hunter-gatherer peoples than of settled
agricultural groups;
The trickster, who is almost always male, represents uncertainty. He loves to upset things
and spread confusion; the tricksters acts are comic pranks, but they often have a cruel
side as well. Sometimes he ends up being tricked himself (ex. The Eye- Juggler story: the
trickster saw birds tossing their own eyes into the air and then putting them back in their
heads, but when he tried to do the same, he could not put them back).
The trickster appears as hero when his pranks such as stealing fire or the sun- benefit
humans (ex. The trickster Raven).

Animals: - although animals appear in many myths and legends, they seldom have purely
animal characteristics. They talk and interact with people and often change between human
and animal form. According to tradition, in the myth age- before people and animals
became fixed in their present forms- animals could change their appearance whenever they
wished. Some stories tell of an Animal Wife or Animal Husband, as when a human marries a
deer who is disguised as a person. Often the animal spouse is a bear.
-

Native American groups of the Northwest Coast of the US and Canada create carved and
painted logs of wood called totem poles. The animals and spirits on these poles often
come from Native American myths and folktales.

Major myths
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A. Creation:
- In one of the oldest and most widespread myths (found everywhere but in the Southwest
and on the Arctic coast), the earth is covered by an ancient sea. A water creature such as
a duck, muskrat1, or turtle- plunges to the depths of the sea and returns with a lump of
mud that becomes the earth, which is often supported on the back of a turtle. This Earth
Diver myth also exists in northern Europe and Asia.
-

The creation myth of the Iroquois people combines elements of the Earth Diver story
with the image of a creator who descends from the heavens. Creation begins when a sky
goddess- Ataensic- plummets through a hole in the floor of heaven and lands in the
primeval sea (the myth of Woman who fell from the Sky). The animals dive deep into
the sea for bits of earth to support her and the goddess speads them on Great Turtles back
to create the land, and the daughter she bears there becomes known as the Earth Woman.

B. Death: - it came into the world to prevent the earth from becoming overcrowded (the
Shoshone people have the story of Wolf and Coyote).
C. Pairs and opposites: - a number of Native American mythologies feature paired or
opposing characters or qualities as a recurring theme. Twins or sets of brothers appear in
many myths and legends. For example, in Iroquois mythology, Earth Woman gives birth
to the twin brothers Good Twin- who creates life, forests, and food plants- and Evil Twinwho creates impassable mountains, mosquitoes and toad that drinks all the water. Good
Twin finally kills Evil Twin.
D. Key-themes and symbols: scholars have divided North America into different regions
based on patterns of Native American mythology.
-

In the Eastern part of the Arctic region, the myths of the Inuit or Eskimo people focus on
Sedna, a deity known as the mistress or mother of sea animals. In addition to trickster
and transformer myths, the California region produced various myths about animals
and about the deities who started the process of creation. Etc.

Spider Woman
Spider Woman appears in the mythology of several American Indian tribes, including the
Navajo, Keresan, and Hopi. In most cases she is associated with the emergence of life on earth.
She helps people by teaching them survival skills, such as planting crops. She also teaches the
Navajo the art of weaving.
-

In the Navajo creation story, she helps the warrior twins, Monster Slayer and Child of
Water find their father, the Sun.

1 A large aquatic rodent (Ondatra zibethica) of North America, related to the

lemming and the vole and having a dense brown coat and musk (mosc) glands
under a broad flat tail. Also called musquash, water rat.
3

According to the Hopi, at the beginning of time Spider Woman controlled the
underworld, the home of the gods, while the sun god Tawa ruled the sky. Using only their
thoughts, they created the earth between the two worlds. Spider Woman molded animals
and people from clay and she and Tawa said some magic words to bring them to life. She
divided the animals and people into the groups that inhabit the world today and she also
gave men and women specific roles: women were to watch over the home, while men
were to pray and make offerings to the gods.

Another Hopi myth states that Tawa created insect-like beings and placed them in the
First World. Dissatisfied with these creatures, Tawa sent Spider Woman to lead them, first
to the Second World and then to the Third World, where they turned into people. When
sorcerers brought evil to the Third World, Spider Woman led the people to the Fourth
World, the one in which the Hopi currently live.

Spider Woman may be associated with a Mexican deity known as the Great Goddess of
Teotihuacn. Many scholars speculate that this goddess is asscociated with vegetation and
with the underworld, just like Spider Woman.

Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery)

Wakan Tanke is the supreme being and creator of the Lakota Sioux. Sometimes called Great
Spirit, he is similar to the supreme beings found in the myths of many other North American
peoples.
Major myths:
-

Before creation, Wakan Tanka existed in a great emptiness called Han (darkness). Feeling
lonely, he focused his energy into a powerful force and formed Inyan (rock), the first god.
Next, he used Inyan to create Maka (earth) and then mated with that god to produce Skan
(sky). Skan brought forth Wi (the sun) from Inyan, Maka, and himself. These four gods
were separate and powerful, but they were all part of Wakan Tanka.

The first four gods produced four companions- Moons, Wind, Fallinf Star, and
Thunderbird- to help with the process of creation. In turn, these companions created
various gods and spirits, including Two-Legged creatures (humans and bears), Sicun
(thought), Nagi (spirit of death) etc. All of these beings were aspects of Wakan Tanka.
Together, they created and oversee everything that exists.

Wakan Tanka is a spirit force that can be found in all things, from corn to canyons and
cockroaches. This suggests unity and harmony with the natural world. In modern times,
due to the influence of Christian missionaries, Wakan Tanka is often compared with the
all-powerful God of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Some American Indians have
incorporated Christian beliefs, such as the appearance of Jesus, into their existing
mythology of Wakan Tanka.