Creation Myths and Origins of Humanity
Despite the enormous diversity of cultures in North America, there are relatively few types of myth about the creation of the world. Most Native American peoples attribute the conception, if not the making, of the universe to a supreme divinity or "Great Spirit". This being, known for example as Gitchi Manitou to the Algonquians of the Northeast Woodlands and as Wakan Tanka to the Lakota of the Plains, is gretly revered, but is too passive and vaguely defined to be regarded as a distinct personality. Often its role in myths is only to create more definite figures, such as the widespread deities Mother Earth and Father Sky, or the Sun and the Moon, who god withdraws to heaven. These figures may also be instrumental in the creation of humans.
In most creation stories the active deities include animal figures: for example, in scattered parts of the West the Spider is said to have women a web which eventually formed the earth. But by far the most prevalent creation myth is that of the Earth Diver, an often lowly creature which goes to the bottom of the primeval sea and retrieves mud which then expands to form the earth. The world is often said to rest on the back of a turtle, a common character in the mythology of the Woodlands. Like accounts of a gret flood, which occur in some versions of the creation story, this type of myth has its parallels in Eurasia, suggesting that it may have migrated eastward.
The Origins of Humanity
The creation of the first people is typically attributed to one or more of the divinities involved in the creation of the world. For example, the Pawnee relate how Tirawa ("Arch of Heaven"), their primordial divinity, ordered the Sun and Moon deities to unite and produce the first man, while the Morning Star and Evening star were told to produce the first woman. Among some peoples of the Southwest, the supreme divinity is said to have created the gods mother Earth and Father Sky, who in turn mated to create the first living beings, including peope. The Hopi tell how twin deties first created the animals and then moulded humans are descended from a female progenitor.
The Pueblo peoples and some people of the plains possess, in their "emergence" myths, some of the most distinctive accounts of how people arrived in the present world. Reflecting the concerns of an agricultural society, the myths portray the earth as a fertile mother and all-powerful nurturer which gives birth to humans, animals and plants. The narratives contain implicit moral guidance , as humans are often forced to move upward as a result of their own misbehavior. In some versions, this delinguency causes the destruction of the lower worlds, leaving few survivors. From the point of emergence, humans spread out to their present habitats.
According to where the myths are told, the people may be led on their upward journey by Corn Mother or Spider Woman (divinities representing earth), twin gods, or sometimes a hero figure.
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