Week 2 – 27.01.

2025

Native American Creation Stories

Salinan Indian Creation Story (present-day California)
When the world was finished, there were as yet no people, but the Bald Eagle was the chief of the
animals. He saw the world was incomplete and decided to make some human beings. So he took some
clay and modeled the figure of a man and laid him on the ground. At first he was very small but grew
rapidly until he reached normal size. But as yet he had no life; he was still asleep. Then the Bald Eagle
5 stood and admired his work. “It is impossible,” said he, “that he should be left alone; he must have a
mate.” So he pulled out a feather and laid it beside the sleeping man. Then he left them and went off a
short distance, for he knew that a woman was being formed from the feather. But the man was still
asleep and did not know what was happening. When the Bald Eagle decided that the woman was about
completed, he returned, awoke the man by flapping his wings over him and flew away.
10 The man opened his eyes and stared at the woman. “What does this mean?” he asked. “I thought I was
alone!” Then the Bald Eagle returned and said with a smile, “I see you have a mate! Have you had
intercourse with her?” “No,” replied the man, for he and the woman knew nothing about each other.
Then the Bald Eagle called to Coyote who happened to be going by and said to him, “Do you see that
woman?” Try her first!” Coyote was quite willing and complied, but immediately afterwards lay down
15 and died. The Bald Eagle went away and left Coyote dead, but presently returned and revived him.
“How did it work?” said the Bald Eagle. “Pretty well, but it nearly kills a man!” replied Coyote. “Will
you try it again?” said the Bald Eagle. Coyote agreed, and tried again, and this time survived. Then the
Bald Eagle turned to the man and said, “She is all right now; you and she are to live together.”

From John Alden Mason, The Ethnology of the Salinan Indians (Berkeley: 1912), 191-192.

Cherokee creation story (present-day American southeast)

The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points
by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and
worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and
5 all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this.
When all was water, the animals were above in Gälûñ’lätï, beyond the arch; but it was very much
crowded, and they were wanting more room. They wondered what was below the water, and at last
Dâyuni’sï, “Beaver’s Grandchild,” the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see if it could learn. It
darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no firm place to rest. Then it
10 dived to the bottom and came up with some soft mud, which began to grow and spread on every side

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 until it became the island which we call the earth. It was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords,
but no one remembers who did this.
At first the earth was flat and very soft and wet. The animals were anxious to get down, and sent out
different birds to see if it was yet dry, but they found no place to alight and came back again to
15 Gälûñ’lätï. At last it seemed to be time, and they sent out the Buzzard and told him to go and make
ready for them. This was the Great Buzzard, the father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all over
the earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When he reached the Cherokee country, he
was very tired, and his wings began to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the earth
there was a valley, and where they turned up again there was a mountain. When the animals above saw
20 this, they were afraid that the whole world would be mountains, so they called him back, but the
Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day.
When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still dark, so they got the sun and set it in
a track to go every day across the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot this way, and
Tsiska’gïlï’, the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled; and
25 the Cherokee do not eat it. The conjurers put the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but it was
still too hot. They raised it another time, and another, until it was seven handbreadths high and just
under the sky arch. Then it was right, and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest place
Gûlkwâ’gine Di’gälûñ’lätiyûñ’, “the seventh height,” because it is seven hand-breadths above the
earth. Every day the sun goes along under this arch, and returns at night on the upper side to the starting
30 place.
There is another world under this, and it is like ours in everything–animals, plants, and people–save
that the seasons are different. The streams that come down from the mountains are the trails by which
we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by which we enter, it, but to
do this one must fast and, go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide. We know
35 that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours, because the water in the springs is always
warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the outer air.
When the animals and plants were first made–we do not know by whom–they were told to watch and
keep awake for seven nights, just as young men now fast and keep awake when they pray to their
medicine. They tried to do this, and nearly all were awake through the first night, but the next night
40 several dropped off to sleep, and the third night others were asleep, and then others, until, on the
seventh night, of all the animals only the owl, the panther, and one or two more were still awake. To
these were given the power to see and to go about in the dark, and to make prey of the birds and animals
which must sleep at night. Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the holly, and the laurel
were awake to the end, and to them it was given to be always green and to be greatest for medicine,
45 but to the others it was said: “Because you have not endured to the end you shall lose your, hair every
winter.”

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 Men came after the animals and plants. At first there were only a brother and sister until he struck her
with a fish and told her to multiply, and so it was. In seven days a child was born to her, and thereafter
every seven days another, and they increased very fast until there was danger that the world could not
50 keep them. Then it was made that a woman should have only one child in a year, and it has been so
ever since.

From W. Powell, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, 1897-1898, Part I (Washington: 1900), 239-240.

The Haudenosaune (Iroquois) Creation Story (present-day New York State and Quebec)
Long before the world was created there was an island, floating in the sky, upon which the Sky People
lived. They lived quietly and happily. No one ever died or was born or experienced sadness. However
one day one of the Sky Women realized she was going to give birth to twins. She told her husband,
who flew into a rage. In the center of the island there was a tree which gave light to the entire island
5 since the sun hadn't been created yet. He tore up this tree, creating a huge hole in the middle of the
island. Curiously, the woman peered into the hole. Far below she could see the waters that covered the
earth. At that moment her husband pushed her. She fell through the hole, tumbling towards the waters
below.
Water animals already existed on the earth, so far below the floating island two birds saw the Sky
10 Woman fall. Just before she reached the waters they caught her on their backs and brought her to the
other animals. Determined to help the woman they dove into the water to get mud from the bottom of
the seas. One after another the animals tried and failed. Finally, Little Toad tried and when he
reappeared his mouth was full of mud. The animals took it and spread it on the back of Big Turtle. The
mud began to grow and grow and grow until it became the size of North America.
15 Then the woman stepped onto the land. She sprinkled dust into the air and created stars. Then she
created the moon and sun.