Sioux Creation Story

Author: Traditional Sioux

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE

Country or Culture: North America

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

In the creation account told by modern-day Brulé Sioux spiritual leader Leonard Crow Dog, other worlds existed before the present world. Displeased with the people of the world before the current one, the Creating Power decides to begin the world anew. That world is destroyed by flood, much as the first world had been destroyed by fire.

The Creating Power floats on the floodwaters that cover the earth, floating on the bag that held the sacred pipe, an important ritual object to many of the Sioux people. The flood destroys all human and animal life, except for the crow, Kangi. Kangi flies above the waters and begs the Creating Power to make dry earth so that the crow can land and rest. The Creating Power then takes four animals, each in turn, out of the sacred pipe bag. Each is an animal known for being able to stay underwater a long time, and each is told to dive under the water and find some mud. First, a loon is sent, then an otter, and then a beaver. But none can dive deep enough to find mud. Lastly, the Creating Power sends the turtle.

Crow Dog narrates how important the turtle is to the Sioux people—it symbolizes long life and the ability to endure. The turtle dives and remains under water so long that the other animals believe it has died, but it finally returns to the surface with mud. From this mud, the Creating Power makes dry land, and the crow is able to land and rest. The Creating Power uses two large eagle feathers to spread the land over everything, and soon all the water is covered by earth. Knowing that life needs both the land and the water, the Creating Power soon weeps until the tears create oceans, streams, and lakes.

Then, the Creating Power takes all kinds of animals and plants out of the pipe bag. The various races of humanity are made from different colors of earth and are given the power of speech and understanding. The rainbow is created to show the people that there will never again be a Great Flood to destroy the world. But the Creating Power also reminds the human race that the previous worlds were destroyed because the people did not know how to behave. Now, if the people can live in peace with each other and with the rest of the living things on the earth, all will be well. Otherwise, this world will be destroyed as well.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Sioux people of the American Great Plains region are made up of three large, culturally related subgroups that are each further subdivided into various tribal units. The larger groupings are named for the dialect the people speak. The westernmost and ultimately largest group is known as the Lakotas. A middle group, the Nakotas, historically lived in the valleys of the James River and the Big Sioux River in the area that is now North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota. The eastern bands are called the Dakotas. This creation story comes from the Brulé Sioux—or Kul Wicasa and Heyate Wicasa, as they call themselves—who are part of the Lakotas. There are two Brulé reservations in South Dakota today, the Lower Brulé and Rosebud Reservations, but many Brulé Sioux also live off the reservation or on one of the other Sioux reservations in the region. Many versions of the creation story exist among the various Sioux subgroups.

This creation story shares many similarities with accounts from other cultures worldwide, including some that originated in the ancient world. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, there is an account of a worldwide flood that destroyed most of humanity in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, and in the Gilgameš (Gilgamesh) epic from ancient Mesopotamia, there is also an account of a great flood. The rainbow being seen as a sign that there will never again be a flood to destroy the world is also reflected in the Genesis account. Many other North American native peoples also have accounts of a great flood that had destroyed a previous world. Elements of the Brulé Sioux myth suggest the influence of Christianity on the myth’s development; however, the extent of that influence is unclear.

Two creatures that are important in this story are also significant in many other native cultures. Kangi, the crow, is the only surviving animal before the Creating Power brings forth all kinds of animals again. Many native peoples considered the crow to be a wise, resourceful creature. The turtle brings mud up from below the deep waters so that the earth can be re-created. The turtle was very important to many native tribes. Some referred to North America as a “turtle continent,” and some believed that the entire earth rests of the back of a giant turtle. This creation account shows a close relationship between humans and the natural world, which is typical of many American Indian cultures.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crow Dog, Leonard. “Remaking the World.” American Indian Myths and Legends. Ed. Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. New York: Random, 1984. 496–99. Print.

Crow Dog, Leonard, and Richard Erdoes. Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. Print.

Hassrick, Royal B. “The Universe and the Controllers.” The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1964. 245–65. Print.

Petrik, Paula. “Native American Creation Stories.” Exploring US History. Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason U, 2004. Web. 20 June 2013.

Rice, Julian. Before the Great Spirit: The Many Faces of Sioux Spirituality. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1998. Print.