Native American Literature Essay

Native Americans believed in many myths. Each tale is different based on the traditions, religion, and aspects of certain tribes. These mythological tales no only changed the Iroquois' outlooks on life, but they told of tribes past and how they were created. Each tribe passes down these myths from generation to generation and each storyteller adds something new. Native Americans worshiped these beliefs of their traditions, morals, and even of the earth. One life myth told in the Iroquois nation was the tale “How the World Was Made” tells the story of how the bond between humans and animals was strong enough to create land. In this myth it is said that the entire earth was once just water. The animals and humans were eager for more room and wanted to have a proper resting place. So they sent animals down to search for a resting place and once it was found the mud began to grow and turned into islands. This myth has qualities that still show in our generation today. The bond between animals and humans is still great, and although we aren't going to create land with this bond, we do save lives with it. Another myth is “The World on the Turtle's Back” and it tells the story of a pregnant woman who fell from the sky kingdom and was saved by a turtle. The world was still water so there was a sky kingdom where all the animals and humans lived. There was a tree with a hole at the bottom and as the sky woman peered over the hole and fell she caught a handful of dirt from the tree's roots. When she placed the dirt on the turtle an island grew on the water and created land. This story relates to me today because I, too, had an animal save my life once and that goes along with showing that the bond between animals and humans is still a great deal. A third life myth commonly told throughout the Iroquois nation is the tale of “Sky Tree” which took place in “The World on the Turtle's Back”.