
"It sometimes happens when we enter into a curious discourse with them(Indians) that they ask us our opinions on the origin of man, and how they came to this country; and when we inform them in broken language of the creation of Adam, they cannot believe, or will not understand relative to their people and the negroes, on account of their great difference and the inequality of colour." It happens to be that some of our curious discourse is answered in the following three creation stories of the The Indians of New Netherlands, The Ottowa Society, and the Sioux. After analyzing each story throughout time you start to get an understanding that each group has its similarities and its differences toward the creation of Earth. Here from the readings of 'Creation Stories' we will focus on the significance of time change and how each story differed then the Christian creation story of Adam and Eve.
In the first of the three stories you read about the Indians of New Netherlands of 1650 and their mindset of how we were brought on this Earth together as a whole. This tribe's belief was in a powerful woman, so powerful that she would be labled a goddess. The woman possessed the power to give birth to three specific animals, animals that she would nurture and take care of. These three animals were a deer, a bear, and a wolf. As the goddess took care of these animals she continued to breed different species among them grafting out different qualities until all of the world's creatures were created, including human beings. "The woman suckled those animals to maturity, and remained a considerable time upon the earth, cohabiting with those several animals, and bringing forth at every birth more than one of a different species and appearance." Every creature carries the certain personality traits of either the innocence of the deer, the braveness of the bear, and the furiousity of the wolf. This carrying similarities towards the other two stories.
The Ottowa Society of 1720 carries its similarities to the Netherlands tribe as it also has a great almighty creator. This time being an animal, and that animal being a hare, a great hare i might add. When the earth was made certain species of animals were spread throughout the earth. As these animals died The Great Hare gave the birth of man through the bodies of the animals. "When the first ones died, the Great Hare caused the birth of man from their corpses." Also similar to the New Netherlands tribe we find that people get their characteristics from specific distinct animals. In this case a bear and a moose are explained. Traits were passed from other various animals as well. Another important aspect of the Ottowa Society is that when man was made, he was given a woman companion, and that the woman would serve to the mans needs as he would hunt and gather. This is a contrast to the first story because of how they glorify the woman goddess, and instead in this piece she is supposed to serve man.
The third and final story is of the Sioux who originated in 1935. This tribe had a slightly different belief of the origination of man. This story starts out with an already human inhabited earth that was not a perfect world at all, and instead consisted of nomadic men who couldnt really act human in general. The "creator" wanted a more perfect society, and thus made a new world explained in this quote. "He had the pipe bag and the chief pipe, which he put on the pipe rack that he had made in the sacred manner. He tood four dry buffalo chips, placed three of them under the three sticks, and saved the fourth one to light the pipe." In order to start the new world, he sang four songs and stomped the earth to crack it and let water flow over the old earth. In doing this he needed the help of an animal that could swim to the bottom and bring up mud to create the new earth. He tried a number of animals, a beaver, a loon, an otter, and finally a turtle. The turtle being the strong, and life enduring, swam down to the bottom for an ample amount of time and brought up the mud. He then sang and created a vast amount of land. He then got the aide of a crow to serve as a messenger to carry out the flow of land. As a similarity to the other stories a special animal is used to create the earth. Although, in this story the people did not have any relation to characteristics served by animals.
As we see through the three stories that were discussed, we look through the time period of the stories (1650, 1720, and 1935) and notice that they carrie similarities and differences in each tribe's belief. Predominantly though, you realize that each tribe carried more similarities then differences. Learning from the tribes belief you find that their understanding of creation is in fact different from the Christian view of Adam and Eve.