While the idea of a singular creator spirit is an almost universal trait among indigenous tribes throughout North America, the creation mythology surrounding these spirits is as diverse as the tribes themselves. By and large, Indian creation mythology focuses on the act of creation as being the direct result of supernatural forces—great spirits, tricksters, and even humans of mythic origin. Additionally, Native American creation mythology centers for the most part on the origin of land over the origin of mankind. There is, however, a widespread mythos among the Plains tribes that concerns the origins of man as being a direct link to the origins of the land itself. This emphasis on the origins of useable land ties into the indigenous symmetry with nature and the long held belief that man cannot hold title to the land but can merely look after it in the name of the creator spirit.
The Ancient World
Many native creation stories focus on a period of time when the world was devoid of usable land—a period in pre-history when man existed, but was trapped in an ethereal realm made of water (or, in some stories, stone). The Cherokee and Arapaho nations have a similar creation mythology in which land was brought up from the primordial sea through the actions of cultural figures. In the distant past, man existed on a plain made of solid rock that hovered above a single body of water. This world had become overcrowded and its inhabitants, man and animal spirit alike, required arable land. With only the raging sea below, early man was desperate to seek a more suitable habitation. The Cherokee figure Beaver’s Grandchild (personified by a water beetle) was selected at a council of animals to dive down and retrieve mud from the bottom of the sea. When he returned, he brought with him mud from the ocean floor and thus was born the earth. In the Arapaho story, Flap Pipe (who is personified as a mythic figure and has become an object of veneration) challenged all the animals to dive to the ocean floor and retrieve the mud necessary to form the land. Duck and Turtle both dove deep into the sea, but it was Turtle who emerged with enough mud for Flat Pipe to create the land.
Different Perspective
Conversely, among the Mandan there is a belief in the Great Spirit, from whom all creation came. In the practice of Mandan religious rituals, the Great Spirit is held in the utmost esteem. The ceremonies and special dance rituals that the American artist George Catlin was a witness to were a celebration of the power of this venerated spirit. Throughout his travels among the Plains tribes, Catlin encountered similar stories of the creation of the earth and how the Great Spirit gave it to the indigenous tribes to look after, but never to posses. The Sioux tell of the Great Spirit as a living being who held dominion over the world and made man out of the earth. When the tribes were at war, the Great Spirit called them together and announced that they were to inherit the earth in equal measure. This is theme throughout the creation mythology among the Plains tribes. A central creator spirit, who dwelt both within the natural and supernatural realm, is credited with the creation of the earth and the origins of man as well. This is where the central of theme of man predating the earth breaks down into a mythology proposing that the act of creation is the work of a singular entity.
David M Jones and Brian L Molyneaux, Mythology of the American Nations. (London: Hermes House, 2006).
Gilbert Legay, Atlas of Indians. (Hauppage: Barron’s Educational Services, Inc., 1995)
Peter Matthiessen, ed., George Catlin: North American Indians. (New York: Penguin Group, 1989).
Mark St. Pierre and Tilda Long Soldier, Walking in the Sacred Manner: Healers, Dreamers, and Pipe Carriers—Medicine Women of the Plains. (New York: Simon and Schuster,1995).
Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian. (New York: Checkmark Books, 2000).
Carl Waldman, Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. (New York: Checkmark Books, 2006).
