Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Certification
Professor :
Horga Stefania
May 2016
Student:
Cirstian Adelina
Contents
Argument................................................................................................................................ page 1
Introduction............................................................................................................................ page 3
Chapter I - Navajo Emergence............................................................................................... page 4
1.1 The myth....................................................................................................................... page 4
1.2 The Lone Man.............................................................................................................. page 5
1.3 The Changing Woman and the Warrior Twins.............................................................. page 5
Chapter II The Light of Raven............................................................................................ page 6
2.1 The Raven who steals the Light................................................................................... page 6
2.2 Other stories of the Raven............................................................................................ page 7
Chapter III Journey to the sky and the Sun Dance.............................................................. page 8
3.1 The Myth...................................................................................................................... page 8
3.2 The Origin of the Milky Way....................................................................................... page 8
3.3 Spilled Stars.................................................................................................................. page 8
Chapter IV Myths of the Far North..................................................................................... page 9
4.1 The Sea Goddess.......................................................................................................... page 9
4.2 The Sun Person and Alignaq........................................................................................ page 9
4.3 The Boy Shaman........................................................................................................ page 10
Chapter V Other Deities and Myths.................................................................................. page 10
5.1 Mountainway.............................................................................................................. page 10
5.2 The Spider Woman..................................................................................................... page 11
Conclusion............................................................................................................................ page 11
Bibliography......................................................................................................................... page 13
Argument
After the first people arrived in North America, they spread out far and wide across the
continent, settling in scattered communities and adapting to the wide range of local conditions.
As a result, the Native Americans formed a multitude of separate peoples or nations, and the
cultures of these different groups vary a great deal. Their rich mythologies, which still play an
integral role in their lives, are equally diverse. From my point of view, their rich mythologies and
legends are quite varied and still play an important card in their lives.
First of all, the lives and myths of Native Americans are highly varied, there are some
similarities from one group to another, and these often reflect region and environment. People in
the northwest, for example, traditionally lived in settled villages of wooden houses. Families told
stories of their clan founders, the people who originally created these settlements and who took
the form of mythical animals, represented on intricately carved totem poles. There were similar
settlements in the southwest though here the architecture was more likely to be in mud-brick,
not woodand large pueblos housing many families were commonplace. The myths of the
southwest describe the origins of the people of the area, with an emphasis on emergence
stories and the beginnings of agriculture.
Second of all, Native America is where the animal myths abound, as do deities who
control the elements or spirits of nature that embody the local geography. In the eastern United
States, spirits of wood, lakes, and rivers are prevalent, reflecting the particular area of the
country. Further north, there are yet more distinctive cultures, such as those of the Arctic, where
the myths involve many stories of animals, such as seals or fish, who are the hunter-fishers
quarry, but are respected as being creatures with souls, like people.
Thirdly, for Native Americans, myth has always been closely related to daily life. The
ancestors who gave the tribes of the northwest their identity, the weather gods of the Great
Plains, the animals of the Arcticall have long been seen as having a real impact on real people.
Often, such myths explained thunder and other mysterious natural phenomena, which could
affect the farmers crop or the hunters quarry, thereby influencing the peoples very survival.
Many myths were closely tied to special occasions; these were only to be told as part of a
ceremony, often one performed at a set time by a priest or shaman. All were stories of power,
told for generations, and of crucial worth to their people. They retain their power for Native
Americans still.
All in all, if you do not already recognize the importance of the Native myths and
ceremonies, chances are you wont be able to understand or appreciate most of what follows in
American history like the American Revolution or why colonies appeared in the first place
before United States of America was formed. All these myths and legends were stories of power,
told for generations, and of crucial worth to their listeners and narrator. Native people believed
these stories, took them real and this shaped their personality and beliefs. As far as I am
concerned they retain their power and knowledge for Native Americans still and with such power
they stood against British Army and gained independence they are now the most powerful
country in the whole world.
Introduction
Many Native American myths could equally be called folktales: they seem to be about
ordinary people, not gods. However, the Native American attitude is that everything is animated
by divinity. Hence ordinary people, animals and places are divine. Often the people are not even
named, or are given a convenient tag, such as Rabbit Boy raised by rabbits. Nor is there much
attempt to characterize them. Universal principles are held to be more important than individual
traits even in many of the Native American Indians of today.
Among all tribes there is a strong sense that behind all individual spirits and
personifications of the divine, there is a single creative life-force, sometimes called the Great
Mystery, which expresses itself throughout the universe, in every human, animal, tree and grain
of sand. Every story, too, is a working out of this life-force.
An aspect of this outlook is the major role played in the stories by animals, who often
speak to humans and assist them. Most tribes thought of individual members of a species as
expressions of the spiritual archetype of that species, which in turn embodied a particular spirit
power.
Native American myths include all the types found worldwide, such as stories of creation,
and of heroic journeys. However, they are particularly rich in trickster myths. Notable
examples are Coyote and Iktome. The trickster is an ambiguous figure who demonstrates the
qualities of early human development (both cultural and psychological) that make civilization
possible, and yet which cause problems. He is an expression of the least developed stage of life,
which is dominated by physical appetites.
The myths of the Navajo people of southwest North America focus in the Emergence, a
myth also recorded in the legends of other southwester in tribes such as the Pueblo. It tells how
the first people travel upwards through a series of different world before arriving in this world,
which is widely described as the fourth world. Other related myths talk about Changing Woman,
the Earth goddess; her children, the warrior twins; and various other figures who are injured or
lost, and approach the gods to be healed.
The native cultures of North America have long been fascinated with the sky, using the
movements of heavenly bodies to time key rituals and predict the changing seasons. Some of the
most popular myths deal with the sun, moon, and stars, and somelike the Blackfoot sun dance
talealso narrate the journeys of ancestors to the sky. Besides explaining the role and movement
of these heavenly bodies, these stories account for the apparently random arrangement of the
stars, said to be the result of someone scattering them across the sky.
The most people of the northern region of North America traditionally lived by hunting
and fishing in the cold Arctic seas. Their myths, therefore, feature stories of the sea and its
deities, including tales explaining the origins of sea animals and the fluctuations in the
availability of creatures such as fish, seals, walruses, and whales. Many spirits figure in these
myths; among peoples such as the Inuit, shamans were said to be able to communicate with
them, often with the help of Inua, spirit helpers who took animal form.
form initially. They began to quarrel among themselves and, becoming dissatisfied with their
world, climbed upwards, until they reached the Second World.
When these First People reached the Second World, or the Blue World, they were as
unhappy as they had been before. Everyone quarreled and there was widespread discontent. First
Man decided that they should leave this world too, and move on to the next. He took an abalone,
a white shell, turquoise, and jet, and made a wand that carried the people up to the Third World,
or the Yellow World. This too was an unhappy place. The people lived sinfully and their
unnatural ways brought them misery. Then a great flood came to destroy the world. First Man
realized that the people needed high ground to escape the flood, and built a tall mountain. Then
he planted a cedar tree, a pine tree, and a male reed, but none of these were tall enough to reach
up into the next world. So he planted a female reed, and this was sufficient for the people to
climb into the Fourth, or Glittering, World.
When the First People arrived in the Fourth World, they performed a Blessingway
ceremony, and built the first sweat lodge for meditation and healing. They brought up soil from
the Third World and built sacred mountains. First Man constructed houses for his people, and put
the sun and the moon high up in the sky to create day and night. He was helped by Black God
and Coyote, deities from the First World. Black God tried to carefully arrange the stars in the sky,
but Coyote became impatient with his slowness and scattered them hastily across the sky.
Finally, the people could live happily and prosper.
were different, the boys were born together and were therefore always considered to be twins.
Eventually, even the sun accepted Child of Water as his own son. The boys grew up as rapidly as
their mother, and one day decided to visit the sun to ask for his help in defeating the evil spirits
and monsters that roamed the land. When they reached the suns house, he gave them powerful
arrows and the knowledge to slay the evil spirits. Together, the warrior twins rid their land of evil
by defeating a number of creatures, including a man-eating antelope called Teelget, gigantic and
fearsome birds of prey called the Tsenhale, and a scaly monster known as Yeitso.
For many tribes of North America such as Haida, Raven is a creator entity. One story
describes how Raven over the ocean carrying pebbles in his beak. With these pebbles he made
the stars and planets. Then he beat his wings to make a great wind that blew river beds and
valleys into existence, building mountains at the same time, the ground was fertilized by his
droppings. Finally, Raven either created the first humans or watched them emerge into the world.
Trickster Raven also influenced the creatures to come out.
A story from the Queen Charlotte Islands, on the Canadian coast, tells how Raven was
once white. He befriended the daughter of Chief Grey Eaglethe guardian of the sun, moon, and
fireand stole his precious hoard. He flew around the sky, putting the sun and moon in place,
while carrying a brand of fire in his beak. The smoke blackened his feathers, and when the fire
grew too hot, Raven dropped it on some rocks. This is why fire appears when two rocks are
struck together.
Iatiku, the mother of the people, told them that it was safe for them to travel southwards to their
homeland. She gave a girl called Kotcimanyako (Blue Feather) a bag to carry and forbade her
from opening it. But Kotcimanyako was a very curious girl and could not resist opening the bag.
As soon as she untied the bag, thousands of stars spilled out, flying around in all directions until
they finally settled in the sky. The girl quickly tied the bag up again but only a few stars were left
inside. When the Cchiti Pueblo reached their homeland, Kotcimanyako showed Iatiku what she
had done, and they carefully put the remaining stars in their rightful places in the sky. These were
the stars whose names are known to the people.
and that she would be able to tell merely by looking at him what the prospects were for the food
supply on Earth. If she saw him upright or bending backwards, there would be food aplenty for
the people. Then they should share their food with the old and helpless. But if he was bent
forwards, they should expect that caribou would not be very plentiful, so they should build up
their stores.
Conclusion
American history is filled with folklore, and Native American mythology that makes for
wonderful campfires tales. They explained natural phenomena and the relationship between
humans and the spirit world. Their sacred beliefs are largely formulated and expressed in saying
and narratives having some resemblance to the legends of European peoples. Though each tribe
has its own beliefs and sacred myths, many have much in common.
While a Great Spirit constitutes the basis of Indian theory, the tribes believe in multiple
deities, which are surrounded by mythology. In accordance with their views of nature and spirit,
they constantly appeal to these powers, at every step of their lives. They hear the Great Spirit in
every wind; see him in every cloud; fear him in sounds, and adore him in every place that
inspires them. While cultures and customs varied among the tribes, they all believed that the
universe was bound together by spirits of natural life, including animals, water, plants, the sky,
and the Earth itself.
Native American culture struggled to survive after the white man invaded their lives.
Living through forced moves, war, starvation, diseases, and assimilation, these strong and
spiritual people managed to keep their many legends and stories alive. Passed down through the
generations, these many tales speak of timeless messages of peace, life, death, and harmony with
nature.
As they grew a cultural national personality, this made them conservative for their
beliefs, and for that they had a lot to win. America became a great force today for what it was in
the past. Their future related to their past, they won against the British invaders because they had
a stronger belief and national personality that united them in the weakest times.
The Native Americans were storytellers. In my opinion, this was the way things were
passed along to the next generations that followed. For this reason the aged people made it a
point to remember every detail so they could relate it at a later time. They were the word and
picture carriers making history and spiritual values alive and important. In recent time we have
made our old ones think they are not so important. We spoof their stories and make them feel
foolish. The truth is that we are ignorant of what is precious and how to appreciate age. Rigidity
can creep in and set even the young mind if there are no soft memories, no laughter, no times too
deep for tears. Age is grace, a time too valuable to waste.
Bibliography
Book sources:
1 Philip Wilkinson, Myths and Legends, DK Publishing ( June 15, 2009), pp. 280-290
2 Neil Philip, Myth and Legends Explained, DK Publishing (July 30, 2007), pp. 92 -96
3 Richard Erodes, American Indian Myths and Legends, Pantheon (January 1, 1984),
pp. 105-127
4 Robert Lake-Thom, Spirits of the Earth: A Guide to Native American Nature
Symbols, Stories, and Ceremonies, Plume (August 1, 1997), pp. 50-79
5 Ella E. Clark, Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends, Checkmark Books
(March 1, 1992), pp. 247-269
Internet sources:
1 http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-legends.html
2 http://www.native-languages.org/legends.htm
3 http://www.indigenouspeople.net/stories.htm