The Iroquois Myth Story

There are various diverse creation myths from Native American cultures, though many hold similar characteristics. One of the more common forms of creation myth seems to be emergence myth. Generally, in the emergence myth, instead of seeing how the world is created, we see how the people arrive in an already created world. This particular story type is commonly found in Native American cultures from the southwest (Ryan). The Tewa Pueblo version of this myth, entitled How the People Came to the Middle Place, has been collected and written down by the anthropologists Alice Marriott and Carol K. Rachlin in their book, American Indian Mythology. The myth was told to them by two separate sources, Maria Martinez of San Ildefonso and Leonidas

Did you know that the Haida peoples live on a group of islands called the Queen Charlotte Islands today? There are multiple types of native american tribes living in Canada and the area around it. Some of those tribes are the Haida, Iroquois, Inuit, and more! This essay will be about three of the Native American tribes from Canada, the Inuit, Haida, and Iroquois. I will be speaking to you about how the tribes are alike and how each tribe is unique from one another. Such as, the Haida are the only ones, in this essay, who live on islands. As I said, I will be speaking to you about the similarities and differences between the Inuit, Haida, and Iroquois.

The League of the Iroquois is a historic confederacy comprised of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and later the Tuscarora tribes. Coming with the message of peace, Deganawida tried to convince the tribes to become “one mind, one heart, one law.” He saw the advantages of coming together as a united people and the foolishness of the constant infighting. Upon the formation of the league, the Mohawk chief Hiawatha made strings of wampum as a symbol that became significant in diplomatic meetings and treaties.

How come they have never met each other? Hey, but they all live in Canada and all met the Europeans! I wonder if the Europeans ever mentioned one tribe to the other? Anyway, the Inuit, Haida, and the Iroquois are the same in many ways but are a lot different.

Before the arrival of Europeans in the 1600’s, the Five Nations of the Iroquois lived under a constitution that had three main principles, peace, justice, and the health of mind and body. The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy offered compelling evidence of Native American rich and sophisticated cultures with their well established democratic government with a form of religion and a strong matriarchal system before the advent of Europeans.

Nothing is so fundamental yet so important to the freedoms we enjoy as Americans as the United States Constitution, which guarantees our right to do and say as we please so long as it does no harm. The Iroquois Federation preamble describes the purpose of the government set up by the government in their statements the emphasis is placed on perfect peace for the welfare of the people. Their focus was fighting for, the liberty of the people.

The Iroquois people consisted of many different tribes rather than one big group. These groups included the Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk, Cayuga and the Tuscarora. The Iroquois have occupied the Eastern Woodlands for over 4,000 years. The Iroquois tribes first settled in the Eastern Woodlands located in the Eastern United States. This area had thick forests, rivers, hills, and mountains. One thing the Iroquois were best known for were their longhouses. These longhouses were estimated to be longer than the length of an entire football field. Inside of the longhouse, there is an aisle in the middle and living space on either side. The longhouses were matrilineal, so when a marriage occurred, the family would move into the longhouse of the mother. The Iroquois usually lived in clans, or groups of families.

The Iroquois creation story there exists two planes the Nothing and the Great Blue. In the Great Blue there lived a woman who dreamed dreams has a dream about a tree that brings the light, but the blossoms on the tree blocked the light and this frightened her. When she awoke she begs the men of her village to cut down the tree, but not understanding the men dig around of the tree to allow more light to shine through. The tree fell through the hole the men dug and left only darkness. The men blamed the dreamer of dreams for there being no more light and the men grabbed her and threw her through the hole where the tree used to be. As the woman fell a hawk caught her and slowed her fall. The hawk unable to carry her forever called to the other creatures to help find solid land for the woman to live upon. Unable to find dry land the animals dove into the depths and came up with mud which they began to pile on the back of a gigantic turtle. The animals became excite by their work and made the entire Earth. Till this day the Earth

There are many Iroquoian nations, including the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, the Wenero Nation, and the Five Nations of the Huron Confederacy, but the term Iroquois only applies to the six nation confederacy of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onandaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and the Tuscarora, who were added to the league well after its formation in 1713. The Iroquois were settled across central New York with the Mohawks farthest East, closer to the coast, and the Seneca farthest west. The term Iroquois is based on a Basque term meaning “killer people” and while it is the commonly used academic term the Iroquois prefer to refer the themselves as the Haudenosaunee, meaning “People of the Long House”. At their peak, just prior to contact with Europeans, there were likely around 22,00 individuals in the Five Nations of the Iroquois. The Iroquois are identified archaeologically using a collection of characteristic traits: they grew maize, beans, and squash (referred to as the three sisters) using swidden agriculture, in addition to hunting and gathering; they lived villages consisting

The Northeast had great forests and many rivers and lakes. The Iroquois is one of the tribe that lived along the St. Lawrance river which is located in what is now known as New York State, so that they had some natural resources such as woods and animals meat.

The difference in writing styles between the Iroquois Creation Myth and Christopher Columbus’ letters is very significant. The Iroquois Creation Myth is much more mystical and entertaining while Columbus’ letters are more formal and simply recounting events. Though the two pieces of literature have their differences, there are still some similarities. The Iroquois Creation Myths focus on nature and animals. Likewise, when Christopher Columbus is writing his letters, he describes the nature around him in great detail.

Before the Americas were colonized or even discovered Native Americans populated it. In North America there were different tribes distributed along the continent. These tribes all lived according to their environment. Their whole culture and lifestyle depended on it. Although there were no established states or regions; climate, weather, and physical environment changed throughout the territory.

In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling

1). The reason for the construction of the Iroquois confederacy, or the league of the Iroquois, (Haudenosaunee) was the impeding factor of disunity between the tribes. Hienwatha, a Mohawk Iroquois, lived in Ontario and observed the disunity between the Iroquois tribes. In an attempt to unify the nations, he approached rival tribes and argued the benefits of unification. Initially, his idea is shut down by the elders of each tribe. The changing climate that started to occur, however, increased confrontations between tribes. Hienwatha yet again tries to explain to the Iroquois people about the possibility of peace and is rejected again. He then alludes the nations to a weaved belt of wampum shells which supposedly illustrated the connectedness of the five Iroquois nations. He traveled among the nations, of which all then supported the idea of unity, and was able to form a seemingly impenetrable force.

Throughout history, and all over the world, mythology has been developed as a way of explaining the unknown and coping with one’s existence. Why does the sun shine? Well, seemingly, to generations past, something is controlling the universe, so there must be a god in charge of the sun and many other natural phenomenon. During the creation of Native American myths, “there was much in the way of free-range food, but hunting wasn't as easy as getting up in the morning, taking a stroll and shooting a few passing bison with your bow” (Godchecker). Times were tough, “even Plains societies who lived off the prolific buffalo fell under the threat of starvation at times” (Godchecker). Finally, “when herds were found, the people were grateful and