Week 9 Essay: Comparisons of Creation

This week, as I was reading through the Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes unit, I quickly became intrigued by the differences in storytelling styles and tones as well as the content of the stories from the various tribes across this region. I focused mainly on the two stories of creation, one from the Winnebago people and the other from the Chitimachas. Possibly due to their geographic separation (the former were concentrated in Nebraska while the latter resided in Louisiana), their thoughts on the universe before the Earth existed as well as their perceptions of a great Creator, from His being to how He conceptualized the world, have some drastic differences.

For the Winnebagos, the form of the "Earth-maker" is not described at all. This story of creation simply discusses an empty universe, except for where the creator himself is sitting. First, he forms a small piece of earth to make the planet that we know today, then he throws some grass on it, taken from his mysterious seat. What is interesting to me is the next description of the first living creatures that he makes: the Earth-maker forms a man but calls him Tortoise. Was this a real tortoise, simply called Man because it was the most complex organism at the time, or was it a human being actually named Tortoise? Regardless of this fact, however, Tortoise acts in the same way the first humans did in the Chitimachas' tale of creation (see below).

In contrast, the Chitimachas described the figure (albeit invisible) of their Creator in more detail, as well as the order of events in the creation of the world. These details are laid out step by step, chronologically, in order to explain the ways of nature.

The tones that each of these tales have are dramatically different from each other. The story of the Earth-maker seems more abstract and is told in more of an existentialist style. The details are not fully fleshed out, and this gives the reader more room to interpret and expand on those that are on the page. On the other hand, the Chitimachas seem to have taken more of a didactic approach to their storytelling, using this tale as a way to explain exactly what happened in the creation of the Earth and why certain events happen--for example, why the Sun shines brighter than the Moon and why humans have a symbiotic relationship with the animals around them.

These are only a small subset of the many different beliefs from Native American tribes all across North America. It would be fascinating to explore other styles of storytelling from other tribes.

-----

Works Cited
"The Earth-Maker" and "Creation"
Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes.
Edited by Katharine Berry Judson.
1914.