Sacred narratives (Native American culture)
Sacred narratives within Native American culture encompass a rich tapestry of stories that explain the origins of the earth and the development of life forms, as well as significant historical events such as migrations and the transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture. Two prominent themes in these narratives are the earth-diver stories and emergence myths. Earth-diver stories, like the Ojibwa tale of Wenebojo, describe a hero's journey to create or re-create the world from the sea, often involving animals that play pivotal roles in the creation process. Emergence stories, prevalent in the Southwest, recount the journey of a people from underground worlds into the present world, symbolizing moral and social evolution.
These narratives are not just creation stories; they also establish the relationships of tribes to their territories and often include migration tales and the origins of clans. Additionally, trickster figures, such as Coyote, are central to many of these stories, embodying complex interactions between nature and society. Many sacred narratives also highlight the origins of ceremonies, following a thematic structure that includes infraction, punishment, guidance, and eventual return, reinforcing community values and healing practices. Overall, these narratives serve to connect individuals and communities to their histories, morals, and cultural identities.
Sacred narratives (Native American culture)
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: Sacred narratives, important to tribal identity and reflecting tribal philosophy, tell of such things as the origin of the world, of the people themselves, and of certain ceremonies
The most ancient and sacred narratives are those that recount the origins of the earth and the development of its life forms. Many of these events also incorporate understanding of historical events such as migrations, establishment of clans, or the transition from hunting-gathering to an agricultural economy. Two major creation story themes are the earth-diver story and the emergence myth; these stories explain how the present world of human beings and society came into being, and both are widely distributed over North America.
Earth-Diver Stories
Earth-diver stories tell of the creation or re-creation of the world. An Ojibwa (Chippewa) story provides an example. The great trickster/hero Wenebojo (or Manibozho) has, by failing to curb his instincts, caused a flood to cover the world; it has left him standing on top of a tree. Wenebojo sends down small animals to bring up a bit of earth, but the first ones fail. Finally, Muskrat floats up dead but with a grain of sand in each paw and in his mouth; Wenebojo breathes life back into Muskrat and then, flinging the grains of sand over the water, creates an island that will become the present world. The previous world was considered to be a different place, one which is now inaccessible to ordinary people. This story told by the Ojibwa has been interpreted on various levels: a psychological/moral interpretation sees Wenebojo as Everyman, who must dive within himself to form his character; a symbolical/historical exegesis notes that the story offers a symbolic union between Wenebojo and the earth, establishing the people belonging to Wenebojo as the appropriate dwellers in this particular place.
Emergence Stories
Also distributed throughout the continent but most concentrated in the Southwest cultural area are emergence narratives of creation. These stories recount the travels of the people as they begin in lower worlds under the earth and move upward through succeeding levels until finally, with the help of powerful beings such as Hummingbird, they are able to squeeze through a narrow passageway such as a reed or hollow log into the present world. The number of underground worlds varies from story to story, as do the identities of the sacred helpers and the natures of the underground worlds.
These are stories of evolution and progression, modeled on the processes of fetal development and birth, which also depict moral and social evolution. Typically, the people begin in a sorry state, sometimes blind or maimed, copulating and killing indiscriminately, and they learn human and humane behavior as part of their progress to the present world. Emergence stories establish the relationship of the people to their territory through the metaphor of being born from the earth; they also include migration stories and establish the origins of clans and tribal laws. The origin stories of the Choctaw show many of these features: the Choctaw origin story tells of a migration from the southwest, from the great cultures of central Mexico, and of an emergence from a sacred burial mound at the center of their homeland along the Mississippi.
Other Creation Stories
Emergence and earth-diver stories are well known and have been published in many versions and texts. Many other stories, equally profound, are less noted. For example, the creation myth of the Achumawi, a small nation living near Mount Shasta in northern California, is a story rich in insight, humor, and mystical understanding. The world emerges from a haze of mist and hills through the thinking and acting of mysterious beings Annikadel, Aether Man, Sun Woman and Moon Man, Coyote, Frog Woman and others. In many stories the first creator is a mysterious or remarkable being such as Annikadel, but in other cases the creator is a familiar creature, such as Grandmother Spider, who, in the Southwest, spins the world from her body and creates things by thinking of them and naming them.
Trickster Stories
The figure of Coyote the Trickster has entered the folklore of the mainstream culture. Originally, Coyote, like the other trickster figures, was a being of supernatural power who determined through his various adventures the shape and function of the present world. Paul Radin’s publication of The Trickster (1956) and subsequent commentary by scholars such as Karl Kerenyi and Carl Gustav Jung made this figure one of the most familiar to non-Indians. The Winnebago trickster story is an extended meditation on the relationship between nature and society as it examines the possibilities and consequences of the behavior of purely “natural” man unmediated by any social structures. It has also been read as an allegory of development from immaturity and infantilism to something approaching adulthood, and it includes an account of trickster’s part in creating the world. The Winnebago trickster is a warrior; other beings that play the part of trickster in different tribes include, besides Coyote, Blue Jay, Raven, and Hare.
Origins of Ceremonies
A great many sacred stories relate the origins of a religious ceremony. These stories often follow a pattern of infraction/punishment-exile/test/guidance/return. The protagonist breaks some rule or law, is punished by exile or even death, receives the guidance of supernatural beings in passing various tests, and eventually returns to the community with a ceremony or song that was learned on the journey and that will help the community heal and sustain itself. A highly elaborated example of one of these ceremonial origin myths is the story of the stricken brothers that underlies the Nightway, the most complex of the Navajo chantways. The journey theme of ceremonial origin myths has inspired contemporary writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, whose novel Ceremony (1977) is structured as such a story.
Bibliography
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Bright, William. Coyote Stories. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Diné bahane: The Navajo Creation Story. Translated by Paul G. Zolbrod. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.
Hale, Horatio, ed. The Iroquois Book of Rites. 1883. Reprint. Edited by William N. Fenton. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963.
Jones, William, ed. Ojibwa Texts. Edited by Truman Michelson. Publications of the American Ethnological Society 7, no. 2 (1919).
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Radin, Paul, ed. The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956. Reprint. New York: Schocken Books, 1972.
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