myths and legends powerpoint

Native American Creation Myths

The Sacred Earth • In many Native American cultures, the entire earth and all of the living things that inhabited it were sacred. • Native Americans saw animals, plants, and the forces of nature as part of a great sacred cycle of life that humans must treat with deep respect.

The Sacred Earth • Through their tales and songs, Native Americans expressed their view of the sacredness of the natural world. • Native Americans believed that no one person could own land, which instead belonged in common to all people – and other living things – that inhabited it.

A Legacy of Storytelling • The Native American oral tradition began when humans crossed from Asia to Alaska via a land bridge now covered by the Bering Strait.

• As populations migrated south, unique cultures and languages developed in response to different environments. • Thousands of languages, some as unlike each other as English and Chinese, were spoken in the Americas.

A Legacy of Storytelling • Each of these native cultures developed its own stories and mythology. • Sacred stories were often at the heart of religious ceremonies, and in societies where myth and reality merged, rituals were thought to link the spirits of hunters and animals. • Versions of these earliest stories have evolved through hundreds of generations and are still a living part of Native American traditions.

Native American Literature • Oral Tradition

• Creation Mythology

• Origin Mythology

Oral Tradition (Oral Literature) In the oral tradition, stories are passed from one generation to the next aloud rather than being physically recorded.

Creation Mythology A myth is a traditional narrative that arises out of a culture’s oral tradition and that portrays historical and epochal actions and decisions including natural phenomenon, aspects of human behavior, or a mystery of the universe. Creation myths tell how the world and human beings came to exist including explanations of the formation of the Earth and the formation of human life.

Origin Myths Origin myths explain how natural phenomena and various aspects of the natural world such as the wind, stars, sun, and moon came to exist, or why a society has certain beliefs, customs, and cultural traditions.

Archetypes Myths told by peoples around the world share common elements known as archetypes. An archetype is a symbol, story pattern, event, character type or landscape found in literature across different cultures and eras. For example, children with opposite qualities who are born of the same parent. In Iroquois myth, Sky Woman gives birth to twins, one good and one evil. The event explains the eternal struggle between light and dark and between order and chaos.

The Function of Myths Myths and rituals continue to play a central role in traditional Native American cultures. They are used to give people a sense of order and identity, to heal the sick, to ensure a plentiful supply of food, to teach moral lessons, and to initiate young people into adulthood and the wisdom of the tribal past.

How the World Was Made – Cherokee – Great Smoky Mountains

The Sky Tree Huron – Eastern Woodland (An Earthdiver myth)