Navajo Creation Story Analysis

Origin myths are traditional stories pass down from generation to generation. The Earth’s on Turtle’s Back, When Grizzlies Walk Upright, and from The Navajo Origin Legend all revealed different customs, attitude, and beliefs. These aspects showed the lifestyles and culture of each tribe and how they all came to be. Each myths are far original and different, yet at the same time similar. They focused on natural aspects of how the world came to be. In the story of The Earth on Turtles Back, the Onondagas believed in the world came from a turtle’s back, this showed their beliefs in the animals are the original owners of earth and respects for the animals. Similarly, the Modoc’s also have great deference to animals and especially to grizzlies.

The Navajo people believe that creation began in another world. Originally the Navajo began as insects on the first world. Due to continuous quarrelling the leaders of the realm force them

The Navajo are similar to the Maya, have stories of creation. The Navajo believe that “Before this world existed, and far below it, the First World lay in darkness. Here lived six beings: First Man, First Woman, Salt Woman, Fire God, Coyote, and Begochiddy, the golden-haired child of the Sun. Begochiddy made four mountains in this first world - white to the east; blue to the south; yellow to the west; and black to the north. Then Begochiddy made insects and plants. But conflicts arose and the first beings, tired of the First World and its darkness, decided to leave. At the center of the First World, Begochiddy made a red mountain and planted a giant reed. The first beings gathered all of Begochiddy's creations and crawled inside the hollow

In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford writes of multiple acts of God’s divine providence acting on the Pilgrims during their journey to Virginia and the subsequent founding of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford’s portrayal of events he labels providence, such as the death of the lusty seaman, the finding of the corn seeds by the exploring party, and the repulse of the Native American attack, shows his belief that God acted through natural events and reveals aspects of Puritan theology and thinking.

The lifestyle was fairly lax yet at the same time they knew when they needed to prepare for war or a new move. Some of the customs the Cheyenne had included the smoking of a peace pipe and the prayer made before each smoke. Another tradition was their story telling. Skilled story-telling Indians performed all stories told and these stories were about true-life situations. The Cheyenne tribe actually passed on these stories as well as their customs, religious ceremonies, and traditions orally from generation to generation. This could be the reason on why the Cheyenne were not actually discovered until the 1600s. One of the largest beliefs of the Cheyenne had to do with religion, though. They believed in two deities: the Wise One Above and a God who lived beneath the ground. Also, there were four spirits that lived at the points of the compass that they followed everywhere (Lewis). Because the culture of many Indian tribes differed greatly from the United States, there were conflicts between whites and Indians.

Chester is confused when it comes to religion. After being taught his whole life about Navajo beliefs he is now being introduced to Christianity. This is very confusing for him because as is his begin presented with all this new information, for example the birth of jesus, the trinity, saints, and sacraments. While learning this he beings to question if a navajo belongs at a “white man’s church”. He questions this because of the differences between the two religions; christianity as chester says stands in awe over the creation of the world by god, whereas the navajo focuses on forming a relationship with nature. Because of this when the children are forced to choose between the two religions, they could not. (Nez & Avila, 2011).

The Navajo Indians used to live in northwestern Canada and Alaska. 1,000 years ago the Navajo Indians traveled south, because there was more qualities they had seeked there. When the Navajo Indians traveled south there was a lot of oil in the 1940’s. Today the Navajo Indians are located in the Four Corners.

American culture is made up of many different people, and many of those people come from Indian tribes. The United States Governments Federal Register lists 566 tribes recognized as of August 2012. One of those tribes is the Navajo which can be found primarily in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Navajo culture is one that many people associate with by what is portrayed in movies. People view the culture as land raiding individuals that pillaged and wreaked havoc with anyone and anything they came in contact with.

The Lakota Indians, are sometimes known as the Sioux, but they call themselves the Lakota, which is translated as ‘friend’ or ‘ally’ in their native tongue. Their description of themselves make sense when looking at their seven virtues that they live by, “These are Wóčhekiye (Prayer), Wóohola (Respect), Wówauŋšila (Compassion), Wówičakȟe (Honesty), Wówačhaŋtognaka (Generosity), Wówaȟwala (Humility) and Wóksape (Wisdom) (“Lakota Today”). A culture’s idea of the most importance qualities a good person should have gives a good idea of what kind of people they are. The Lakota’s virtues all revolve around a general concept of respect for everything, compassion, humility, and honesty. These things can either refer to their fellow man, or

The legends said that in the morning on the twelfth day, the Navajo people washed themselves thoroughly. The men and women dried their bodies with different cornmeal. When they were done they could hear their Gods coming in the distance. Their Gods were: White Body, Black Body, Blue and Yellow Body. The Gods carried buckskin and ears of corn when they arrived.

“Our world had changed. What was going to happen now?” A question asked by many, usually after a tragic event has taken place affecting many lives. Kaii Yazhi was a six year old boy when he was forced to leave his mother and be sent away to boarding school. There he was thought that the Americans hated the Navajo people and that they are to be punished if any of the staff was to hear them talk in their native language. The Navajo weren’t accepted, they were thought to adapt to the mother country’s culture. But, It wasn’t until America was threatened by war that the Americans realized that they needed the Navajos. Without them, they would’ve lost the war. But, had the world really changed for the Navajo people. When Kaii came back from the war,

What does God have to do with these two texts; you may seem to ask yourself. During this specific time period God made a big deal to these people’s everyday lives. Jonathan Edwards’s text, “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God”, and William Bradford text, “Of Plymouth Plantation”, both include using religion into their texts. To inform and persuade the audiences that God is always with you no matter what. These texts are similar and different to one another. But also have different purposes to the audience and styles of the texts are written. One author creates a strong message and leaves the audience with fear of God. The other author creates a message that God will always be there ups and downs.

Many of the people in this region refer to themselves as “Native American”. Being that the majority of the region lies on the Navajo Indian Reservations, many of the names and business relate back to the culture of the Navajo. For example, La Chiripada Winery, El Convento Bed and Breakfast, and Taos Pueblo all bare names with Navajo influence. Other small shopping centers and local business embrace the local culture of the Navajo proudly using the deep rooted culture to their advantage, claiming real and authentic experiences.

The diversity of beliefs across the different tribes was interesting; yet nature and animals were common themes throughout the tribal tales. I am fascinated that these stories have survived years of being passed down orally as they were not written down until the Europeans began collecting them in the 1800s. The Iroquois tale of two sons- one good and one bad —seem to personify the fight between good and evil that is found in most religions. Just like God and the Devil compete for souls, these sons fought for control. As often happens, good wins. In the Pima creation tale, Juhwertamahkai created then destroyed man and woman three times as they took up bad habits; on the fourth try he gave up and let them be. While these creation tales don’t match the Genesis story that most of who grow up in the Bible belt learn from a very young age, they do share some common themes: creation of the

Here we have two stories, both depicting the creation of the world through similar ideas of storytelling. The differences in both cultures can be seen by simply looking at differences in the stories. I also think it would be smart if I pointed out that Iroquois was never written down as the Native American’s did not have a written language, thus the story was open to change based on whoever was telling it. But both stories metaphors are easily understood and not vichyssoise or perplexing.