American Indian creationism

American Indian creationism refers to a belief among Native Americans that rejects the scientific theory of evolution and other scientific ideas of human origins, arguing that American Indians originated in North America.^[1] It has deep roots in Indian tradition and religion. Vine Deloria, Jr., an American Indian author, theologian, historian, and activist, was influential in its recent development. According to the Wikipedia article “Flood Myth,” a very common factor that is present in most American Indian creation stories is the deluge. Usually the deluge, or great flood, is used to form the Earth or to rebirth the Earth. Just like the story in the Bible with Noah and the Ark, oftentimes in American Indian creation stories, the flood is used to cleanse the Earth and re-purify it.^[2] The website “Oral Tradition,” explains how oral tradition is extremely important to Indian culture. If there was no oral tradition, there would be no story telling; therefore, no one would know these creation stories today. Often, these stories were used for amusement in the tribes or to learn the origin of his or her clan.^[3] Outside sources, such as the website “Native American Myths of Creation”,^[4] and the book “The Myths and Legends of the Pima” written by William Lloyd,^[5] provides the creation myths of certain American Indian tribes in order to give insight to their beliefs.

Creation myths by tribe

Cherokee

In at least three Cherokee creation stories, the world begins as a large, unexplored body of water. The only existing beings are the animals and they all live in the sky. In two of these stories, the earth is a great island floating above the water. In another story, the actual land isn't formed until the Water Beetle volunteers to go and explore what is at the bottom of the large body of water and comes back with mud, which then becomes the land.

The Cherokee tribal myth is given to us in the website “Native American Myths of Creation”: It explains why some animals have to hibernate and why some plants die in the winter and re-bloom in the spring, and why others stay awake/green all year long. The Great Spirit told the animals and plants to stay awake for seven days straight. Those that stayed away for all seven days, like the pine tree and cedar tree, they stayed green all year. But the other plants who did not last seven days and fell asleep they loose their leaves at winter. The animals that stayed awake all seven days gained the ability to see at dark and those who did not stay awake can not see in the dark.^[6]

Apache

Myth 1: According to the Apache, nothing and no one existed in the beginning except two creators, Tepeu and Gucumatz.^[7] One time, the two creators sat with each other and created the world. Whatever they thought came into existence, so they thought up the entire earth (birds, trees, land, water, etc.). The two creators wanted beings that could praise them, so they created beings of clay that didn't last very long, as they fell apart when wet. Their next set of beings were made of wood, but caused much trouble and didn't satisfy Tepeu and Gucumatz, so the two creators sent a flood to get rid of their creation and start anew.

Myth 2: The website “Native American Myths of Creation” supplies the Apache tribes’ myth: There was nothing- no Earth, sun, or people. But then a thin, yellow and white disc appear in the sky with a small man with a white beard sitting on the disk. He is called Creator, the One Who Lives Above. He created light. He then created a girl by putting the sweat from his head onto his hands, rubbed them together and thrust them forward. The little girl appeared on a cloud. The girl is called Girl-Without-Parents. Creator sang “I am thinking, thinking, thinking what I shall create next,” which he sang 4 times which is his magic number. He wiped his face and rubbed his hands together and flung them forward and that created Sun-God and Small-Boy. With now there being 4 gods there is not enough room on the small cloud so Creator made the galaxy: big dipper, wind, lightning, clouds, and lightning. Creator then sang “Let us make Earth. I am thinking of the Earth, Earth, Earth: I am thinking of the Earth,” which he sang four times. All four gods shook hands which combined their sweat which created a ball. Each god kicked the ball which enlarged it- this created the Earth.^[8]

Iroquois

In the story of Sky Woman and the Big Turtle, the land is created after Big Toad scoops up mud from the bottom of the sea---in an effort to save Sky Woman after she falls from the sky---and spreads it on the back of Big Turtle. The land begins to grow until it is the size of North America. Sky Woman then steps onto the land and sprinkles dust into the sky. The dust becomes the moon, stars, and sun. Then Sky Woman gives birth to two sons (Sapling and Flint) who play a key role in the creation of the remainder of the earth. Sapling brings into the world all that is good (plants, animals, and rivers), while Flint tampers with/aims to destroy Sapling's good creation. The two get into a fight and Flint is defeated but doesn't die. Flint's anger is manifested into the form of a volcano.^[9][10] The website “Native American Myths of Creation” gives information pertaining to the Iroquois tribes’ myth: The Spirit of the Sky World came down and looked at the Earth long ago. As he traveled around seeing all of the Earth, he saw how beautiful it was so he then decided to create people to put on it. Before returning to the sky, he gave the people all names and called them together to speak to them. He said “"To the Mohawks, I give corn," which was one of the tribes there (Native American Myths of Creation). Then The Spirits of the Sky World gave the Oneidas nuts and the fruit of many trees. He then gave the Senecas beans. To the Cayugas, he gave the roots of plants to be eaten. To the Onondagas, he gave grapes and squashes to eat and tobacco to smoke at the camp fires.^[11]

Navajo

Myth 1- The website “Native American Myths of Creation” furnishes the information connecting to the Navajo tribes’ myth: First Man, First Women, and their children (Changing Twins) entered this world from the bottom of the Lake of Changing Waters. The First Man and Women create a mountain which they populated with plants and animals. On top of the mountain they placed a black bowl with two black eggs in it. Then put a rainbow over the mountain to fasten it down. The first twin gathered clay from the river to create a bowl and the other twin found twigs and formed them into a water basket. They then gathered stones from the ground and turned them into utensils and weapons like spears, knives, axes, and hammers to use.^[12]

Myth 2- The website “Native American Myths of Creation” provides the story for the second Navajo tribes’ myth: Navajos call themselves "DinE", meaning "The People". This creation story has three underworlds where events occur that create the Fourth World, which is the world we live in today. This fourth world is called “Glittering World.” They enter this world through a magical reed. The First Man was created in the east where the black and white clouds meet, and First Woman was created in the west where the yellow and blue clouds meet. Spider Women, who taught the Navajo women how to weave, was also in the Glittering World. Once they were in the Glittering World, they built a sweat house and sang the Blessing Song. Then they all meet in the First House to name the 4 sacred mountains surrounding them and used four sacred stones to create the limits of their homeland. The Holy People then put the moon and sun in the sky and started arranging the stars but the Coyote became impatient and threw the rest of the stars in the sky randomly. They made clouds, trees, and rain.^[13]

Lakota

The website “Native American Myths of Creation” offers the story for the Lakota tribes’ myth: The Earth that was before this one, the people of that world did not behave themselves. The Creating Power was dissatisfied so he decided to bring a very heavy rain that flooded the whole Earth. All the people and almost all the animals died except for Kangi, which was a crow. The crow asked the Creating Power to create him a new resting spot so the Creating Power decided to create the new world. Creating Power had a huge pipe bag that had all types of animals and birds in it. He selected four animals that could survive underwater for long periods of time. He told each animal to grab a clump of mud from underwater. First the dove tried and failed. Then the otter tried but also failed to reach the bottom. Next the beaver tried but he too also failed. The Creating Power was about to give up hope but decided to try the turtle. The turtle had stayed underwater for so long everyone was sure he had drowned. But then he broke the water’s surface with mud clenched in his mouth, feet, claws and turtle shell. The mud became the resting place for the turtle and crow while the Creating Power shook two long eagle feathers which caused the mud to expand across the water to form a dry surface. The Creating Power was saddened for how dry the land was which caused him to cry which now are the oceans, stream, and lakes. He named this new Earth Turtle Continent. He released more animals from his pipe bag to roam the new Earth and created human from red, white, black, and yellow Earth. He gave the new people his sacred pipe and told them do good and warned them about what happened to the people before then when they started living bad.^[14]

Comanche

The website “Native American Myths of Creation” delivers the information referring to the Comanche tribes’ myth: The Great Spirit used dust from 4 different locations and mixed it together to create the Comanche People. These people were possibly gods because it says “These people formed from the Earth had the strength of mighty storms,” (Native American Myths of Creation). In the process of making these people, a demon also was created and it started to torment the Comanche People. The Great Spirit sent the demon away to a bottomless pit. This demon is the poisonous animals we know today because the story says “To seek revenge the demon took refuge in the fangs and stingers of poisonous creatures and continues to harm people every chance it gets.” ^[15]

Chinook

The Chinook creation story is given to the reader from the “Native American Myths of Creation” website: The creator of the Earth is called “Talapas” and he created plants to grow all over Earth. He created animals which he placed on the surface of the Earth Mother and the animals did good there. Talapas then had T’soona, which means Thunderbird, to take special eggs from Earth Mother and put them on top of Kaheese. The Old Giantess didn't want the eggs to hatch so he started breaking them open before they were ready to hatch. The Spirit Bird swooped down from Otelagh, which is the sun, and caught Old Giantess on fire. Once the remaining eggs hatched, they were known as T'sinuk (Chinook).^[16]

Pima

The book “The Myths and Legends of the Pima” written by William Lloyd, gives the information relating to the Pima tribes’ myth: In the beginning there was nothing- only a man named JuhwertaMahkai (The Doctor of the Earth). He rubbed on his breast which created moahhahttack, which is Earth. He created a bush which he then generated ants to live on the bush. The white ants enlarged the Earth. He created a person from out of the shadow of his eye. He called him Nooee, meaning the Buzzard. Juhwertamahkai made water which he formed into a frozen phere which is now the moon. He made the sun and then created the mountains and food to eat from plants. He used the water he created to make the stars by putting the water in his mouth and spitting it into the sky. He again rubbed on his breast to create two dolls which will be the first two humans- man and women. They repopulated until the Earth was completely full. But with there being so many people, there was not enough food supply, so they begin to eat each other. Juhwertamahkai did not like this so he allowed the sky to fall while him and Nooee escaped. This happened two more times and Juhwertamahkai killed them and recreated Earth. The new people on the new Earth did not have drinking water so Nooee flew around so cut out valleys with his wings in order to collect water.^[17]

Potawatomi

The website “Native American Myths of Creation” gives the story relevant to the Potawatomi tribes’ myth: Anishnabe, the first person, was the only human on Earth at this time. The Creator of Earth told him to name all the plants and animals and was accompanied by a wolf. He realized he was the only one of his species and grew lonely. He went to the Great Lakes and heard a beautiful singing voice coming from across the water. The song the women was singing about was how she was making a home for the man. He fell in love and knew he had to make it across the water to see her. A few days later he figured out how to cross the water and walked upon a lodge where the beautiful women lived with her father, Firekeeper. Their marriage would set the guidelines for the roles of men and women in marriages for years to come. They had 4 sons who each traveled in the 4 directions of Earth. The first son traveled north and saw that the snow melting cleaned Mother Earth. He married the daughter of the Spirit of the North. He was given sweetgrass. The second son traveled east and he learned the essential power of fire. He married the daughter of the Spirit of the East, and was given tobacco in order to communicate with the Creator. The third son went to the south which is where seeds, and other things that give life, come from. He married the Spirit of the South's daughter. He was given a gift of cedar, which can be used to clean the home and purify the food. The fourth son traveled to the west where the mountains are located. He married the Spirit of the West's daughter. As a gift, he was given sage and learned how the sun sets represents the circle/cycle of life. The eagle uses its wings to fanned the smoke up from the sage and cedar to show The Creator that man is still good and to stop him from destroying man. The Creator thought the people were bad but the eagle knew they weren't so when the eagle fans the smoke up into the air it is a sign for The Creator to show him his people are faithful, good, and that they still believe in him.^[18]

Criticisms of the belief

American Indian creationism suggests the idea that humans were not created by means of evolution. These truths held by American Indian creationists rely heavily on Native American oral tradition, not scientific fact. Because of this, the belief as a whole is often seen as "myth" or "ethnic pseudoscience." H David Brumble, an English Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, has openly expressed his criticisms toward this belief in some of his works, including his article, Vine Deloria, Creationism, and Ethnic Pseudoscience.^[19]

Vine Deloria Jr. and critics

Vine Deloria Jr., a Native American author and activist, was influential in the development of American Indian creationism, but of a different kind than what is summarized in the above sections on legend and oral tradition. His book Red Earth challenges scientific fact and claims that the findings of research on human evolution are myth, a "hilarious farce" (p. 182).^[20] Legends and traditional stories are not anti-scientific because they are from the realm of literature and verbal art. In contrast, Deloria alleges that Native American creation stories and oral tradition actually contradict scientific research. Red earth describes a time when he made a trip back to his reservation and delivered a speech. Deloria suggested that a stegosaurus sighting by the Sioux people (sawtooth-backed "monster," according to the Sioux tale), recorded in a story, is proof that dinosaurs did not actually go extinct millions of years ago.^[21] His rejection of the scientific evidence on human evolution, early migration and the first settlement of the Americas has sparked significant opposition by researchers and scholars from a number of fields.^[22] One of his main critics, H. David Brumble, refers to Deloria's views as being a type of ethnic pseudoscience, or "affirmative-action science."

References

External links

• Indian Tribes' Creationists Thwart Archeologists

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