Thalita Ribeiro
September 29, 2011
Native American Creation Myths
Many people have their own personal beliefs about how the Earth came about. Now, many
modern day people believe that The Big Bang Theory and evolution created the Earth and humans. In
the past, people believed in their own cultural revelations and creation myths. For example, take the
Native American people. They used animals, nature, and the Gods to answer all of life’s questions. They
also believed that creation myths each have their own cultural revelations that compare and contrast
with each other in many different ways.
One of the biggest similarities this is presented into each of the three Native American myths is
belief in a higher power. But in each story, the Sky Chief is presented differently. In the stories “The
Earth on Turtle’s Back” and “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” there is a single Sky Chief involved. In “The
Earth on Turtle’s Back” it says, “There was an ancient [sky] chief in the Skyland”
(Caduto and Bruchac, 19), and in “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” it is stated, “Before there were
people on earth, the Chief of the Sky Spirits grew tired of his home in the Above World…”(Erodes and
Ortiz, 21). In the myth “The Navajo Origin Legend” the higher power(s) are presented differently than
the other two myths. In this myth, there isn’t just one God, there are four, which are knows as the White
Body, Blue Body, Black Body, and Yellow Body (Matthews, 24).Based on what is read here, it is
concluded that each tribe has a hierarchy of Gods involved in their political systems. In the Onondaga
and Modoc tribes, their culture was reigned by Sky Chiefs, and so the people would want to model the
Gods. For the Navajo tribe, however, there are similarities in the culture’s beliefs in higher power,
except the difference is that they believe in a plural amount of Gods.
In each of the three myths, they all have different views on the creation of mankind. In “When
Grizzlies Walked Upright” it says, “[The Sky Chief] found [his daughter], and learned that the strange
creatures she was taking care of were his grandchildren…” (Erdoes and Ortiz, 23). In the myth “The
Navajo Origin Legend” it is stated, “The white ear of corn had been changed into a man, and yellow ear
into a women” (Matthews, 25). The difference between these two myths and “The Earth on Turtle’s
Back” is stated in the line, “[The Sky Woman] stepped onto the new Earth and opened her hand, letting
the seeds fall onto the bare soil” (Caduto and Bruchac, 20). For the Modoc tribe, they believe that the
creation of mankind came from interspecies mating. For the Navajo tribe, they believed that they
needed to hold ablutions and used corn meal, buckskin, and eagle feathers in the ceremonies. Also, they
believed that wind gave life. For the Onondaga tribe, they believe that the creation of mankind came
from when the Sky Woman put seeds on the Earth.
One last similarity between all three of the Native American myths is that they all believe in
some sort of marriage. In the myth “The Earth of Turtle’s Back” it says, “[The ancient chief of Skyland]’s
young wife was expecting a child…” (Caduto and Bruchac, 19). In the myth “When Grizzlies Walked
Upright” it is stated, “When she became a young woman, [the Sky Chief’s daughter] and the eldest son
of the grizzly bears were married” (Erdoes and Ortiz, 23). It is also said in the myth “The Navajo Origin
Legend, “First Man and First Woman entered it, and the Gods said to them: ‘Live together now as
husband and wife’” (Matthews, 25). Out of these three lines from each myth, it can be concluded that
each tribe shares views on marriage. The Onondaga tribe shows marriage when it says the Sky Chief’s
‘wife’ fell into the hole. With the Modoc tribe, it demonstrated marriage when the daughter of the chief
of the Sky Spirits gets married to a grizzly bear. For the tribe Navajo, it shows marriage in the end of the
myth, when the Gods tell the First Man and First Woman to “Live together now as husband and wife”
(Matthews, 25).