Adelynn White 3
In the story “ World on the Turtle's Back” we are first introduced with a cloud-like world which
represents their heaven and where all people began. After the women fell she is caught by the
birds and placed on the turtle's back where later the earth starts to form. Once this happened
the daughter of the women gave life to two boys which symbolizes the creators of life. One
brother creates herbivores and the other creates carnivores. As they do this the reader slowly
starts to grasp the symbolism behind the actions of the two brothers. What the readers begin to
realize is that balance is the key to what catapults the world forward. Without the carnivores
there would be too many herbivores and vice versa. Without hardship comes no growth. Like
the two brothers, there is good and there's evil. The characteristics and lessons in many native
stories teach us about the rich history and imperative life lesson that every person has to learn
throughout life. The stories inspire people everyday and make people want to obtain what these
great characters stand for in whatever aspect they see fit.
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Native American literature are stories typically made up to explain something that they couldn’t
scientifically due to lack of technology. Most stories have characteristics that include being in
touch with nature, is in relation to their environment, and usually has some poetic lines in the
stories. They would tell these stories to one another and pass them down through the generations
to eliminate questions they may have about their environment. An example of these explanations
would be in the story we read early on about the bear’s tail. There must have been a question
about why the bear's tail is so short so they came up with a story about how a fox tricked the bear
and his tail ended up ripping off. This story was also told by the Iroquois which was a Native
group in the North-Eastern part of America where they see a primary amount of bear and fox.
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The myths and legends of the Native Americans differ from tribe to tribe. However there
is a common theme behind them all; these myths and legends serve to explain the meaning
behind the natural phenomenons of the world. The Native Americans were disconnected from
the world and sciences, therefore they created their own meaning to nature's wonders. For
example, the Iroquois “World on the Turtle’s Back” explains the need for good and evil in the
world. “The right-handed twin made the deer, and the left-handed twin made the mountain lion
which kills the deer” (pg 42). Without the mountain lion, or evil, there would be too many deer
in the world, therefore setting the world off balance. The Iroquois tribe knew of the evils of the
world, however they had found that without those evils the world would not be balanced. This
tribe believed that there were two gods who were the reason behind this balance, and they told
this legend as a result of their knowledge. Another example is in the Seminoles; “The Milky
Way.” In this legend, the Seminole say that the Big Dipper carries good souls that have passed
away along the path of the Milky Way, where they will find The City of the West. This tribe saw
the Milky Way in the sky, and believed that it is where they would go when they died. While the
stories of the tribes are quite different from each other, they both bring peace of mind. They
explained what was unexplainable for their time and gave something for the tribes to believe in.
Today, most people choose to believe the science behind these natural phenomena, however
there are still some mysteries of nature that legends try to explain.