to the stage of culture at which he stood, and in some cases still stands. In man in his savage or barbarian condition the sense of reverence as we conceive it is small, and its place is largely filled by fear and superstition. It is only at a later stage, when civilizing influences have to some extent banished the grosser terrors of animism and fetishism, that the gods reveal themselves in a more spiritual aspect.
* * *
Native American creation myths fall into two broad categories, of which the primeval flood myth is the most widespread, being found everywhere but Alaska and parts of the Southwest. In this, standardly myth a water creature – such as the Algonquin’s Muskrat – plunges to the depths of the sea and returns with a mouthful of mud that becomes the earth, this often supported on the back of a Giant Turtle. Since ‘the Earth Diver’ myth also exists in Asia, it can be hypothesized that the Native American versions are echoes of the ancient Asian originals.
Meanwhile, some Plains tribes, as well as the Navajo and Pueblo peoples of the Southwest have a concept of creation in which life emerges from the earth, not unlike a plant sprouting from theground. In the Navajo emergence story it is related how insects climbed up from the Red World to the Blue World, where the birds lived. When this world became too crowded, the insects and birds flew up to the Yellow World, where they found people and animals. When food became scarce, the people, animals, birds, and insects flew up into the Black and White World of night and day. There they found people already created by the gods, and these people taught the newcomers how to farm and to survive. Meanwhile, in the Hopi emergence myth Spider-Woman, a powerful earth goddess, sang a duet with Tawa, the sun-god; Spider-Woman was able to weave the Tawa’s thoughts into solid form, creating fish, birds and other animals, including humans. Spider-Woman then divided the humans into groups, and led them to their homelands, after which she disappeared back into the earth, down through a whirlpool of sand. Among the people of Acoma Pueblo, it is told that the sisters Iatiku and Nautsiti emerged from a hole in the ground, Sipapu, and when Nautsiti was tempted away by the evil Snake, Iatiku bore many children, each of which became an Acoma clan. In the religion of the Pueblo tribes, the emergence myth is physically reincarnated in the construction of the kiva, a sacred underground chamber for worship.
The absence of a primeval flood in the cosmology of the Hopi and Navajo is not difficult to account for. Little about the arid Southwest would ever suggest that a deluge could swamp the earth. Equally, the inclusion of a diluvian motif in the creation myths of the Apache – the Jicarilla, for instance, believed humans emerged from underground on to an earth almost wholly covered by water – despite sharing the same desiccated environment as the Pueblo peoples is easily explained. The Apache were Athapaskan-speakers who had only moved to the Southwest from Canada in the 1500s.
It is important to register that, because it cannot be reconciled with their creation myths, many Native Americans deny the Bering Strait migration theory.
Several Native American mythologies, that of the Apache included, have a high deity, who is creator of the world. Where such a creator ‘Great Spirit’ exists he/she rarely, however, does the fullwork of creation alone, but disappears to heaven, and allows lesser gods to complete the project and supervise the workings of the planet. These secondary gods are often personifications of natural forces and elements, such as the wind. In the mythology of the Iroquois people, for example, the thunder-god Hunin is a warrior who shoots arrows of fire.
The creator is not always separate from his creation. The Lakota (Sioux) people are pantheists, believing that the sun, earth, sky, wind, fire and other elements of the natural, spiritual and human worlds are
* * *
Native American creation myths fall into two broad categories, of which the primeval flood myth is the most widespread, being found everywhere but Alaska and parts of the Southwest. In this, standardly myth a water creature – such as the Algonquin’s Muskrat – plunges to the depths of the sea and returns with a mouthful of mud that becomes the earth, this often supported on the back of a Giant Turtle. Since ‘the Earth Diver’ myth also exists in Asia, it can be hypothesized that the Native American versions are echoes of the ancient Asian originals.
Meanwhile, some Plains tribes, as well as the Navajo and Pueblo peoples of the Southwest have a concept of creation in which life emerges from the earth, not unlike a plant sprouting from theground. In the Navajo emergence story it is related how insects climbed up from the Red World to the Blue World, where the birds lived. When this world became too crowded, the insects and birds flew up to the Yellow World, where they found people and animals. When food became scarce, the people, animals, birds, and insects flew up into the Black and White World of night and day. There they found people already created by the gods, and these people taught the newcomers how to farm and to survive. Meanwhile, in the Hopi emergence myth Spider-Woman, a powerful earth goddess, sang a duet with Tawa, the sun-god; Spider-Woman was able to weave the Tawa’s thoughts into solid form, creating fish, birds and other animals, including humans. Spider-Woman then divided the humans into groups, and led them to their homelands, after which she disappeared back into the earth, down through a whirlpool of sand. Among the people of Acoma Pueblo, it is told that the sisters Iatiku and Nautsiti emerged from a hole in the ground, Sipapu, and when Nautsiti was tempted away by the evil Snake, Iatiku bore many children, each of which became an Acoma clan. In the religion of the Pueblo tribes, the emergence myth is physically reincarnated in the construction of the kiva, a sacred underground chamber for worship.
The absence of a primeval flood in the cosmology of the Hopi and Navajo is not difficult to account for. Little about the arid Southwest would ever suggest that a deluge could swamp the earth. Equally, the inclusion of a diluvian motif in the creation myths of the Apache – the Jicarilla, for instance, believed humans emerged from underground on to an earth almost wholly covered by water – despite sharing the same desiccated environment as the Pueblo peoples is easily explained. The Apache were Athapaskan-speakers who had only moved to the Southwest from Canada in the 1500s.
It is important to register that, because it cannot be reconciled with their creation myths, many Native Americans deny the Bering Strait migration theory.
Several Native American mythologies, that of the Apache included, have a high deity, who is creator of the world. Where such a creator ‘Great Spirit’ exists he/she rarely, however, does the fullwork of creation alone, but disappears to heaven, and allows lesser gods to complete the project and supervise the workings of the planet. These secondary gods are often personifications of natural forces and elements, such as the wind. In the mythology of the Iroquois people, for example, the thunder-god Hunin is a warrior who shoots arrows of fire.
The creator is not always separate from his creation. The Lakota (Sioux) people are pantheists, believing that the sun, earth, sky, wind, fire and other elements of the natural, spiritual and human worlds are
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