In the past scholars in many fields have disregarded the
Indians’ attempts to answer a most basic question: Where did we come from? These scholars have
frequently denied the importance of the Indians’ sense of their own origins by
attacking Native American origin stories as fantastic falsehoods or by
dismissing them as irrelevant. In turn
Indians have resisted these attacks on their sense of their own past by
claiming that their origin stories are as valid as those told by
anthropologists, if not more so.
Today, as some historians begin to view history as a creative
as well as intellectual act that can take a variety of narrative forms (White,
pp. 6-7), Indian origin stories are beginning to receive more attention. These
stories deserve this attention because they give the Indians a sense of
identity by providing a setting for significant series of events in Indian
history and by
developing a number of important themes.
One of the most important themes, the theme of change, includes the
transformation of, innovation in, or migration from an unsatisfactory world.
This lecture, based on the work of Andrew 0.Wiget, divides
Indian origin stories into two basic types:
the Emergence story, found in the southwestern
To understand the varieties of Native American origin stories
is to begin to understand the Indians' perspectives on their beginnings as well
as those important conceptual differences about space and time that have made
communication between the Indian and the European-American difficult. It is to
give the Indian a voice to speak for himself.
I. Cultural Roots of Legends
A. Shamanism
(Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy,
pp. 3-l1,
259-66, 308-32)
1. Shamanism, which had it beginnings in
the Stone Age, is at the heart
of
man's religious experience.
2. Shamans, or medicine men, make soul
flights into the sky world or the
underworld
to retrieve the souls of the sick. The
loss of the soul is the
primary
cause of death and disease.
3. The shaman’s journey defines a three-
level cosmology (Visual 1)
connected
by a zenith-nadir axis, or trail, on which the shaman travels.
(See
the visuals included at the end of this lecture ,
below
B. Divisions
of Narrative Time (Thompson, Tales, pp. xvii-xix)
1. An origin period produces either
Earth-Diver or Emergence stories.
These
stories tell about the beginnings of the universe, earth, tribe, or
animals
(Visual 2).
2. A transformation period produces Trickster,
Hero, or journey stories.
These
stories deal with the trans-formation of the original world into
one
more closely resembling the present one.
C. Specialization
of Legend Forms
1. The Earth-Diver story is the basic form
of
story,
which is dominant in the southwestern
to be
part of the Mesoamerican tradition (Long, p. 41; Rooth,
pp. 498-99;
502-3).
2. Unique tribal forms result from
migration and inter-tribal contact
(Thompson, The Folktale , pp. 301-2).
II. Origin
Period
A. Earth-Diver
Stories
1. Area:
Earth-Diver stories occur in all areas of
southwestern
2. Summary: A flood occurs--either a
primeval flood or a deluge with
various
causes given. A few animals survive, usually on a raft on the
surface
of the waters. They feel the necessity of having land. A number of
them
dive for it, but come to the surface dead. A final attempt is made,
often
by Muskrat; and the successful animal reappears, exhausted, but
carrying
mud in mouth, ears, nails, paws and armpits. The dirt magically
becomes
larger until the whole earth is restored. The increased size is
often
brought about by an animal running round and round the bit of land
(Reichard, p. 274).
3. Distinction
a. The Earth-Diver story draws on the
universal flood theme. The
history
of this world begins with the flooding of the proto-world
(Long,
p. 189).
b. The Earth-Diver stories are a natural
outgrowth of shamanism. The
stories
reaffirm the three cosmic zones and the central axis
(overlay
Visual 3 on Visual 1).
4. Cultural Variations
a. Athapascans and Algonquians: The Trickster precipitates the
flood.
The proto-world resembles the present one but is populated
by
demi-urges.
b. Iroquoians The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
precipitates the
flood.
The customs, social structure , and population of the
proto-
world
resemble the present world.
c. Siouans : The Trickster may
cause the flood. The proto-world
resemble the present world.
d. Other Variations: Some versions include a Ymir
story in which a
body,
sometimes that of the Woman who Fell from the Sky, is
transformed
into the sky, stone, vegetation, and water of the earth
(Reichard, pp. 287, 294; Rooth, p.
506; Thompson, Tales
pp.
14 - 17).
B. Emergence
Stories
1. Area:
The Emergence stories occur among the
southwestern
(Rooth, pp. 502-3).
2. Summary: Men, animals, and vegetation
live in a cave in the earth. When
the
earth is ready for people they are instructed in all ceremonies, customs,
and
crafts; they can now emerge to the surface and begin their wanderings
to
their present sites. The corn-mother, the sun twins, or a hero is sent to
lead
them out into tire sun from the dark, narrow cave where they have
lived
in misery. Sometimes the wandering is pictured as a climbing of a
tree
or a vine which, reaching up to the roof of the cave, pierces a crevice
in the
stone; thus men are led into the sun. Sometimes animals are sent to
dig a
hole in the 'heaven' or the roof: the sunlight destroys forever the eyes
of the
mole, or the badger is still marked from his digging. Sometimes
this
climbing or digging is pictured as a flight from the deluge; men
and
animals save themselves in this way by taking refuge in another
world.
Sometimes we hear that people took refuge under the earth in a
cave
to escape the deluge, and this is the reason for their subsequent
emergence
(Rooth, p. 503).
3. Distinction
a. The characters of the Emergence story pass
through a sequence of
multiple
worlds (space) or creations (time) on a journey that leads
to
physical, moral, and social evolution. A
new emphasis is placed
on
the four directions of the earth’s surface (Long, pp. 35-44;
Rooth, pp. 502-3).
b. The Emergence stories retain the
central axis-route of Shamanism
by
stressing the Center, or Place of Emergence (overlay Visual 4
on
Visuals 3 and I).
4. Cultural Variations
a.
or
four lower worlds may be included in other
(Ortiz,
p. 23).
b. Aztecs and Maya: A series of worlds and peoples are created
and
destroyed.
Each new world comes closer to the nature of the
present
world.
c. Other Variations : Some stories vary in their sequence of colors
and
directions. Many stories are preceded by
a Sky Parents
episode
in which the Sky Father and Earth Mother are responsible
for
the creation of the lower world and its people (Long, p. 40;
Thompson,
The Folktale, pp. 311-12; Rooth, pp. 500-1).
III. Transformation Period
A. Trickster
Tales
1. The Trickster--Raven, Mink, Blue Jay, Coyote --represents a past when
there
was "no clear-cut differentiation between the divine and the non-
divine"
(Radin, p. 168).
2. The Trickster's capers often lead to
beneficial byproducts for others. The
Trickster
defines and seals the limits of creation and transformation
(Thompson,
Tales, pp. xviii, 53-77).
B. Hero
Tales
1. The Hero, a distinctly human
character, goes on quests or is subject to
tests.
The aggressive Transformer and the cunning Culture Hero may be
linked
as Hero Twins, sometimes as Rival Twins because of their different
natures
(Thompson, Tales, xviii-xix, 78-125; Thompson, The Folktale, pp.
314-16,
341).
2. The adventures of the Hero Twins deal
with self-education, the progress
toward
maturity, and making the earth hospitable for man (Radin,
p. 166).
C. Journey
Tales (Thompson, Tales, pp. xix, l26~49; Thompson, The Folktale,
pp. 345 - 52).
1. The
human character journeys to another world, often above or below the
present
one, or to another series of world.
2. These tales contain important
information about the cosmology of the
tribe.
Visual
Aids
These visual aids,
created by Andrew 0. Wiget, are included for
use in the preparation
of transparencies.
1. Shamanism
2. Periods of Narrative Time
3. Earth Diver
4. Emergence
