Native Americans have had their own views of how the Earth and humans were created. In general, these stories have changed and adapted over time, likely due to the colonization of the Americas. Three stories in particular show the change in the Native American’s beliefs with distinction. The stories "The Indians of New Netherlands Account for the Creation" (ca. 1650), "Origins of Ottawa Society Recalled by Nicholas Perrot" (ca. 1720), and "Remaking the World: A Sioux Story" (ca. 1935) show that over time the creation stories of the Native Americans become more and more comparable to the settlers’ beliefs.
"The Indians of New Netherlands Account for the Creation" story is different in several significant ways from the "Genesis" version. According to this creation story, the creatures of the world were created by a woman. Also certain, humans share certain characteristics with animals. This is quite different from the version that most settlers believed in coming to America. Most settlers believed in the Bible and that all things were created by God. The reason that the stories are so different can be accounted for by the fact that most settlers in that area did not want to harm or change the Native Americans in that area. "The handful of Dutch and, later, English traders had every reason to keep peace with the Indians."[1] This meant that the Native Americans in the New Netherlands area were not very influenced by European settlers.
The story of "The Origins of Ottawa Society Recalled by Nicholas Perrot" leans more toward the settlers’ view of the creation of the world but still keeps much of its own identity. In this story, the Great Hare is the creator of men as opposed to a goddess. Women aren’t even mentioned in the story which shows the closer relationship to the settlers’ version in which women played a small role in the creation of the world. It however is still quite resistant to European influence as shown by the closeness of nature. The men of the world were created by a hare and share the characteristics of certain animals as in the previous story. These changes can be accounted for by the fact that the settlers had taken more of an interest in Native American tribes and tried to use missionaries to convert them.
In "Remaking the World: A Sioux Story", heavy influence by European settlers can be seen. The flood is one major aspect that this story shares with the Christian belief of the world being drowned in a flood by God. Also, a bird was the main animal in both of the stories for finding land. The most noticeable similarity is the reference to the rainbow. Both of the stories have the creator using a rainbow to signify the end of the flood and the possibility for new life. The likely cause of these similarities is the fact that most Americans were colonizing almost all of America by this time. The Native Americans were being taken over by the settlers in America and basically being controlled by this point.
Over the passing of time, the stories of how the world and men were created became more similar to the version most popularly believed by the settlers of North America. The more these intruders pushed their way into America, the more they pushed their religion upon the Native Americans. As time passed, the stories of how the world and men were created adapted towards the version in the Bible.
[1] Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff. (2006). Nation of Nations. Boston: McGraw-Hill. pg.81-82
Recent Comments