The Myth Of The Indian Creation Myth

Today, there are many theories on how the world was created however people have been speculating on how the Earth was created for years. It dates all the way to the Native Americans. The story “The Osage Creation Account” and “The Navajo Creation Myth” have both similarities and differences. First, both stories put strong emphasis on nature. Secondly, The Osage Account focuses on one specific animal whereas the Navajo Myth touches on many different creatures. Thirdly, both stories each have a completely different version on how the world was created.

Every culture has its own past belief on how everything was created; Gods, lands, plants, animals, creatures, and humans all have a unique story to be told throughout the ages. But it is plain to see there is some overlap between ideas on how everything was made. Take the Greek Mythology, the most popular and well known type of mythos, has connections to other cultures like Nordic and Native American. But of course, each story has their own twist or other idea to it, as well.

For thousands of years, scientists have tried to interpret the concept of creation. However, before people had access to modern scientific equipment, they told creations stories. A creation story is a myth that explains how and why the earth was made. A few cultures with differing opinions on creation are Europeans, Cherokee Indians, West Africans, and Hawaiians. Europeans tell the story of Genesis and God creating the earth in seven days and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Cherokee Indians believe that the earth was created by a water beetle. In West African culture, they teach the Golden Chain story, and Hawaiians have the Kumulipo story to explain their beliefs on creation. Although each story follows a basic guideline, they all have distinct disparities.

In the Western world, the most well-known creation story is in Genesis (Myth A), in the Old Testament of

Myths – as they are known to most of the world – give insight into the pasts of various countries and religions as the people saw them. They have been used to explain phenomenons in nature or describe the tales of courageous and important men and women throughout history. Creation myths in particular define how the Earth itself was created, along with the universe, heavens, hell, people, and creatures that exist today. Genesis of Christian mythology, for instance, tells the story of how the single deity God spoke and formed everything from day and night to man and woman. Various African creation myths, such as with the Yoruba, explain the creation of the Earth through at least a couple gods working together and all life

Hinduism considers no specific moment of origin. They believe everything as timeless and always existing. The oldest religious text of Hinduism are the Vedas (Veda means knowledge) containing hymns to various deities of sun, moon, earth, sky, wind, and night. These deities were not considered the creators, although Brahman is considered the “all in one force” (Halverson). Brahman is “the womb of both the existent and the nonexistent” (Shattuck) and responsible for establishing the earth, sky and atmosphere the creator and primary cause of reality.

The general purpose for all myths is to bring an understanding of unknown. The ancient people widely used myths to explain new phenomena and occurrences. The lack of scientific modes of theory formulation caused the people of old to come up with myths to fill the vacuum with the knowledge that existed during their time. The need by man to explain his origin and the origin of the universe led him to the formulation of creation and origin myths. Men of olds came up with myths to explain the mysteries they had no clue about including creation.

Take the Salinan Indian Creation Story for instance. Most creation stories explain the world as being created by a male human-like figure. This is not the case, for the Salinan people. They believe that they were created by a bald eagle. This bald eagle with the help of a coyote gave man life (The American Yawp Reader). The Hebrew creation story that has formed the basis of

Origin myths deliver stories explaining how the world, humans or objects came to existence. Describing where the nation comes from, they are very important to the culture of given region. Therefore, each nation developed its own stories and beliefs; however, there are many similarities between myths of various religions and cultures. A good example would be Native American stories about origin and their resemblance to Greek mythology or to the Bible. Similarities can be seen in different spheres such as creation of humankind or even in the story about flood.

All humans are interested in their origins and trying to account for their existence through creation stories. Native Americans tribes are no different from the rest of humanity. The tribes’ stories explain how people came into existence, how they came to be live on the lands they do and the how people interact with nature and each other. These trends can be seen in the legends of three tribes hailing from New England to the Great Lakes Region.

The creation of the world in Islam's perspective begins with Allah–God creating the heavens and the earth all within six days. He then created the sun, the moon and the planets with each their own term of existence. Allah created the entire universe with water as well as animals. After doing so, he created the first man–Adam from clay. God then told his angels–including Shayṭān (the devil, who was the only angel made of fire) to bow down to Adam. All of the angels obeyed except for Shayṭān who refused to do so, claiming that he was more powerful because he was fire and Adam was made of clay, which caused Allah to become conflicted with the devil thus banishing him from heaven. Shayṭān then decided to create hell to challenge God's people (humans) and influence them to go against God and go to hell instead of heaven. The second human created was Eve aka Hawwa that came from Adam’s right rib, she was a mate for him that had the same nature and soul. Before Adam and Eve lived on earth, Jinns (Allah's creation of spirits, similar to genies) used to live on planet earth. Adam and Eve were banished to earth after eating a forbidden fruit that the devil influenced them to eat.

We now see these theories as inaccurate, due to the fact that they have been replaced by newer scientific models. In a modern light, it can be stated that creation myths describe not the origin of our cosmos but rather these myths allow us to gain a broader understanding of ancient theories and beliefs. During the time of their invention however, these myths were precisely an honest interpretation of the outer world, and therefore they served the exact purpose which is stated in their title, to explain the process of creation.

We all know that our mothers and fathers gave us birth, and grandmothers and grandfathers gave our parents birth. However, what about the beginning? What does the beginning look like? Who created the sky, the earth, the mountains and rivers, the plants, the animals, and the human beings? How was the world created? What happened to the creator? These questions have puzzled and are asked by every people. However, no one has yet found the answers, and I have heard people saying that the creation of life is as impossible as the natural creation of an airplane from a stack of waste. With the willingness of knowing the self, ancient people tried to create mythological stories

Creation stories written great time periods away from one another are shown to be very different. Our earliest creation story, the Atra-hasis and a more recent one, the Yijing were written centuries away from one another, this can be proved by the beliefs of the people. The Atra-hasis told its people to worship the gods and complete their tasks whereas the Yijing only described how man could utilize the earth for further development. Similarly, the Atra-hasis and Rig Veda have the same differences. When written in different time periods, creation stories do vary.

How were human beings created? How has life come to be? How was the earth created? These are some very important questions that humans have tried to answer for ages. In an attempt to answer these questions, different cultures around the world developed different beliefs. Some believe that they are many gods watching over them, while others believe that there is only one supreme God. Some believe that humans were created by an explosion while others believed that a God or gods created them. Today, I will be analyzing two different creation stories, Genesis, the Christian creation story and “The Creation and Emergence” story by the Jicarilla Apaches. While some differences between the two are evident, the similarities are noticeable.