Iroquois Creation Legend Analysis

I have never been one with strong held believes in the creation of humans or life on earth from god or gods. I lean heavier towards the theory of life evolution. How does what I believe in and what I have read on American Indian beliefs compare to one another. Also how their creations myths and legends compare to my current beliefs and the Christian and other teachings I grow up with. I will be looking at the Apache, Navajo, and Iroquois creation myth and legend stories. One of the first American Indian creation I read was the Iroquois creation legend. Their story tells us that immortals one where also no new sky people where born. They lived on floating island in the sky. The world below them was covered in water. Where birds and other …show more content…
Unlike the Navajo the Jicarilla Apache have a creation from what one would view as a Creator God and lesser spirit gods. The Creator God first created animals and plants then human man and from man was created human woman. They all lived in a inner world that was dark it was the lesser spirit gods that grew tired of the darkness and wanted to create light which soon disappeared under an eclipse. All the animals and human working together to locate the sun that had disappeared built a mountain which from the top they could see an outer world, Earth where the Sun was bright and much of it was covered in water. With the power of the winds and animals they blocked much of the water to expose land for them to emerge into the outer world, Earth. Everything was alive, plants, animals, rocks, water and fire and all spoke the same language. The spirit gods decided that all life needed to speak different languages. Over time many of the Jicarilla went there separate ways and direction and spoke different languages and formed different tribes, only the Jicarilla Apache stayed on the correct path and speak the original language of …show more content…
The Apache legends holds to a single creator for humans, animals, insects, plants, that follow similarly to christian beliefs. All of them differ on how humans came to live on earth. The Apache and Navajo hold to the belief that human emerged from a inner world or worlds, while the Iroquois hold that humans started from a fallen god from the skies above. Another area that is also similar between all of them is the point that as sometime before current humans or as some refer to themselves as First People occupied earth, there was a great flood or water that covered the