III. Characteristic Features

B. Mythology

Rituals were meant not only to communicate with spiritual beings but also to pass down tribal traditions. One of the most common rituals among Native Americans was the recounting of myths, which contained a wealth of religious knowledge. Myths provided communities with a cosmogony, a story of how the world came to have its present form; a worldview, a picture of how the various aspects of the world are related to one another; and an ethos, a code of behavior for human beings.

1. Creation Myths

Through their oral traditions, Native Americans told how the processes of creation occurred, often through the transforming activities of creative deities, cultural heroes, and tricksters. These stories were not meant to be authoritative assertions about the origin of the world: A single people often recounted several different stories to explain the origin of the same phenomenon. Rather, these stories were means by which Native Americans examined the spiritual and physical conditions of their existence—the origins of humanity, the place of human beings in the cosmos, the sources of sustenance, the reasons for death, and social institutions such as marriage.

There were several recurring types of creation myths. In the widespread story of the earth diver, floods covered the primordial landscape, requiring animals to dive into the depths to retrieve a piece of earth from which to form the present earth. Many failed before one finally succeeded. In emergence stories, common throughout the Southwest, humans climbed up from the underworld, beset with problems of their own making, in order to find a place on the surface of the earth. There they received their languages, foods, and clan identities and ultimately migrated to their traditional homelands

Various cultural regions had their own characteristic creation myths. In the Northeast, the Iroquois told of a woman who fell from the sky world. With the help of birds and other animals, the present land was formed on the back of a great turtle. The woman's grandsons—one good, one evil—created the various opposing forces, such as medicines and poisons, that affect human life. In the Northwest, the cultural heroes Star Child and Diaper Boy were said to have come into existence when two young women married stars and returned to earth. The heroes helped establish the rules of tribal life, including marriage customs. In the Arctic, the Inuit recounted how a young woman married a seabird. When her father tried to bring her back home in his kayak, the bird agitated the ocean. To save himself, the father threw his daughter overboard and cut off the joints of her fingers as she attempted to grasp the boat. From the joints came all the food sources necessary for human life, including seals, walruses, and whales.

2. Trickster Myths

It was common for creation myths to be intertwined with other mythic themes. For example, emergence stories often included an earth-diver sequence, and young women who married stars in myths in many cases later fell from the sky to give birth to their heroic offspring. Tricksters played a prominent role in this body of lore. These figures were often depicted as solitary coyotes, hares, or ravens, and almost invariably they were male. They represented the chaotic elements within the cosmos, the pleasure-seeking instincts within the moral order.

One famous trickster is the figure of Coyote. In the Navajo story of creation, the Holy Persons methodically placed stars in the sky and plants on the earth. Coyote came along and scattered these elements about, creating the world as it exists today. Coyote also kidnapped the Water Monster's baby and caused a great flood, which brought human beings to the surface world. He seduced a virtuous maiden and taught her witchcraft. He caused disagreements and fights, and for every act he performed, he had a partially plausible justification. Coyote is also widely credited with ensuring the finality of death.

Despite their creative energy, Native American tricksters such as Coyote were regarded as negative examples. They were viewed as antisocial braggarts, bungling imitators, troublemakers, and buffoons. For instance, although the Ojibwa trickster Winabojo functioned partially as a cultural hero—stealing fire for human use, taming the dangerous winds, perfecting the strategies that made successful hunting possible—he also brought about the great flood by killing too many animals and thereby angering the spirits who were their protectors. Frequently, his helpful creativity was seen as an accident, such as when he dashed madly through the brambles but made nutritious berries from his blood.

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