Origin

Creation Stories 

Creation stories helped the Native Americans depict an origin for everything. This was the Natives' way of explaining how and why things came to be. These stories offer important information about a culture's values. There are also different creation stories for each tribe. 

Native American creation myths
http://www.crystalinks.com/creationativeam.html

For example, the Haudenosaunee Creation of the Iroquois. The Iroquois people were also known as Sky people, inhabitants of Sky World. A large tree grew through the Sky World, holding it together. Sky Women was born and later married the Ancient. She was with child. Some stories say that she gave birth to her daughter in the Sky world and then went to earth. Others say that she gave birth to her on earth. Then the world began to take shape (Johansen, 4-5).

Sky Woman
http://www.tinasdynamichomeschool.com/iroquoisconfederacy.htm

Another creation story comes from the Apache. The wold started out with four peopling working on the land. They pulled four pieces of earth off and made into four feet, to keep the earth sturdy. After Black Wind Old Man and Black Water Old Man tested the earth, it was finally strong enough. Then the four people made "hair" for the earth with grass, bushes, shrubs, and trees. They made rocky mountains for bones. Then Black Thunder whipped the earth, causing water to come pouring out, so that earth could breathe. Then the four people adjusted the moon and the sun until it was just right. Finally, "this was the way they made earth for us" (Seelye and Littleton, 10).

Out of all the very different tribes and their very different creation stories, they all describe the beginning of earth. All of the stories tie into nature, which relates back to the religion of the Native Americans. 

Conception of Earth

Most Native Americans believe that the earth was the middle layer of a multilayered world. There is a watery underworld and a sky realm. There is also a pathway connecting the different levels. This pathway is said to be a tree that humans and spirits can pass travel by (Jordan).



Bibliography
Johansen, Bruce E.  The Native Peoples of North America: A History. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2007.

Seelye, James E., and Steven A. Littleton. Voices of the American Indian Experience. Santa

Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2013.

Jordan, Keith. “Religion and Cosmology in the Ancient Americas,” accessed May 16, 2014, http://online.infobaselearning.com/HistoryDatabaseSearch.aspx

Native American Creation Myths. Digital image. <http://www.crystalinks.com/creationativeam.html>
Sky Woman. Digital image.  <http://www.tinasdynamichomeschool.com/iroquoisconfederacy.htm>