Like many cultures, the American Indians passed down their own beliefs which describe the creations of Earth and people. Depending on the tribe, location, history, lifestyle and external influences each story contained its own unique variation. The following will compare and contrast the Cherokee and Navajo belief in creation as well as delve into the viewpoints of each tribe and their relationship with the earth, animals and other people. It is hard for a person to understand why particular cultures act and believe the way they do without understanding their belief and history. The Cherokee Indians told creation stories for the Milky Way , Earth , as well as man and woman .…
A Succinct Summary and Tactical Timeline Illustrating High Points of the Constitution Iroquois Confederacy Perhaps a somewhat startling starting-point, a sincere analyst and reviewer of history will likely not deny the odd factoid that the U.S. Constitution can trace its direct lineage back to the blazing campfires of the old Iroquois Confederacy and its enduring axiom: “In all councils of governance, take heed the effect of any action upon the next seven generations” (Seventh Generation homepage, 2017). However, the linkage and lineage is not limited – in any way – to sloganeering or idle reminiscing: Threaded intricately throughout the majestic tapestry of the tribal confederacy – and the ensuing, seemingly unrelated Constitution…
Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel Richter is--without question--one of the most effective studies of Native American history. Richter’s previous book, The Ordeal of the Longhouse, which viewed the European invasion of northeastern America from the perspective of the Iroquois peoples of modern New York, reveals the same masterful grasp of early American history. However, the similarities stop there. Facing East turns on its head the instilled perspective of westward expansion from the early sixteenth century well into the nineteenth.…
The intended audience of the article “ The Indians' Old World:Native Americans and the Coming of European”, are the general public and historians because the article shows how a lot of people give more importance of American history after Columbus rather than before Columbus and criticize how historians know much less history prior to arrival of columbus in 1492. For instance, the author Neal Salisbury states that “historians now recognize that Europeans arrived, not in a virgin land, but in one that was teeming with several million people (435)”. 2. The author’s main argument is that there was densely populated society before European arrival, how certain patterns and processes originated before and after contact with the Europeans.…
Explain why American Indians were so diverse in 1491. Before 1491, the New World remained untouched and relatively undiscovered by Europeans. Native American tribes had developed unique cultures and customs similarly to how Europe had many different countries. Without horses to make transport easier and with varied climates, the tribes remained more or less separated from one another and therefore developed vastly different ways of life and adaptations to the land. Because tribes outside of a close proximity rarely contacted each other, a myriad of languages developed with little resemblance to one another.…
“The World on the Turtle’s Back” through a gender point of view A origin story is based on the point or place where something begins, It gives people a moral and how they should live their life or where they go when their life ends. “The World on the Turtle’s Back” is a origin myth created by Native American, the myth provides explanation, teaches moral lessons and reflects their culture’s beliefs. The origin myth provides many stereotypical examples of a women and how they are the caretakers of the world.…
“The World on the Turtle’s Back” by the Iroquois Tribe is a creation myth. Joseph Campbell classified the four functions of a myth: metaphysical, to instill awe; sociological, to support customs; cosmological, to explain the world and the unexplained; and pedagogical, to guide people. This story fulfills each of these functions when the woman falls through a hole in the sky world and the earth is created by dirt from the bottom of the ocean. Her descendants each have a part of creating the customs and the earth as it is now. One of the most important functions that this story has is sociological, which explains the customs that they have.…
After finally getting out of the old world, the European explorers land upon a “New World” meeting the new, native peoples forming a relationship between them. This relationship was not quite ideal for each group; European exploration and colonization into the “New World” had a strong negative impact on the native people. The impact of exploration and colonization on the native peoples was enslavement, disease, and the forced changing of the natives religious views. Upon entering into the “New World” and meeting the native peoples, European explorers felt these natives were inferior to them and began to enslave them. The native people were forced to change their own land and “they planted their lands with all the trees and fruits” according…
In modern times, the western approach towards nature and Life is practical in the sense that it can all be explained by a scientific phenomenon. Due to this mentality, spiritual connections to our roots, nature and Life, are abysmal. To Linda Hogan, writer of Dwellings, this inauspicious approach confirms a detachment from “the treaties once made with [nature]”(11), to which Native Americans dearly hold on to. Throughout Dwellings, Hogan recounts significant experiences that enable her to inch closer to her roots and raise her awareness on the beauties of Life.…
The ‘New World’ directed by Terrence Malick and Walt Disney Pictures ‘Pocahontas’ directed by Eric Goldberg, Mike Gabriel show two different approaches to the John Smiths 1604 account of his journey to Virginia. They both differ in their approach to the way they represent the ‘New World’ and the ‘Old World’. Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ is an animated, musical romantic drama that is directed at its main audience of children. It loosely follows the plot line of John Smith’s accounts and history, to develop a much more lovable, cute and enchanting variation of the ancient tale of Pocahontas. In the film it seems that Disney’s main objective with their adaption was to portray a strong female main (Pocahontas), a love story, and a moral lesson more so…
In the Iroquois Creation Story and the Navajo Creation story, the common theme is the Manifest Destiny. Both stories talk about the origin of the some of the American groups. In the Iroquois Creation Story and the Navajo Creation Story, they talk about how the world came into existence, and the only places which are mentioned are on the American continent. The theme of manifest destiny is well spread out in both stories as the first talks about the fight between the good and the evil. The theme of manifest destiny is always accompanied by plenty of struggles among the characters.…
In the creation myth “The World on Turtle’s Back” the Iroquois Native Americans describe their beliefs about the creation of the world and humanity. The myth exhibits many archetypal settings and greatly resembles the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. The differences between the two creation stories’ archetypal settings, however, illustrate the greatest difference between the two cultures; monotheism and polytheism. Both “The World on Turtle’s Back” and the Book of Genesis involve a tree that connects heaven to earth. In the Iroquois story, it is the “Great Tree… [that] had grown there forever….…
Two Worlds Become One How does the Iroquois Creation story show similarities and differences from the Christian Creation story? In “The Iroquois Creation Story” by David Cusick, connections can be made with the Christian Creation story.…
Neil Salisbury and Joyce Appleby composed two articles about the era the “New World”. The two articles are closely related and have several similarities, for instance they both talk about how the discovery of the “New World” affected certain people. Salisbury went into great lengths about the indigenous people of the Americas, and Appleby wrote about how the encounter affected the Europeans. Both of the documents have substantial arguments and both are greatly supported, however, it was brought to my attention that Mr. Salisbury’s article was far more convincing than Ms. Appleby’s. Neil Salisbury uses artifacts to defend his argument, but he also states, “… a number of scholars have been integrating information from European accounts with the…
When Europeans came to North America for the first time, they called it The New World, because to them it was a land that was mysterious in many ways. The native population that lived in North America was nothing like that of Europe and the environment of North America was even more foreign. There was no way of knowing the effect of European settlement and what the consequences of their actions would be on the native people and the land. Before the invasion of Europeans in North America, the Natives had a system of living. Their way of life and ability to live off the land were soon challenged by European expansion and technology.…