Rubin Klass

A Native American rendition of a turtle and an eagle on display in Florida.

Today, many people dismiss these theories as myths or naïve deductions from an unsophisticated time. For Native Americans, however, these tales were as believable as the stories in today’s history and religious books.  And it is easy to note the similarities between creation stories from Native American and other cultures.  When retold in a standard, simple, and flatly stated style, common threads are evident.

The Mojave, for example, believe that long ago, people lived underground.  When their food diminished, they sent a hummingbird to the upperworld to search for more.  The bird found much food, and the people climbed out of the ground and moved into this new world.

One day, water rose from the underworld to the upperworld and flooded the canyons, hills, and mountains.  The people chose a beautiful woman and laid her in a hollow tree, which was used as a boat.  They provided her with food to eat until the water receded.  Finally, the land began to reappear, and she was the only person left on earth.  Before the sun rose, she went to a mountaintop and lay there until the sun warmed her.  She then became pregnant with a daughter.  The daughter later returned to the same spot and gave birth to a son.  This is how the world’s people began.

When told in a textbook style, such parables do not present a sophisticated theology, yet we know the cultural and significant impact of ancient creation theories. They are intricate, still-influential belief systems that possessed just as much power in their time as more modern belief systems have today

There are other similarities.   Native American stories often speak of three worlds: the upperworld (made of light), the earthly world, and the lower world (made of darkness).