Native American Literature

Indians, we picture them as half naked people causing roucus throughout the land, messing with the settlers, and being completely uncivilized and uneducated. There is no way that these people could have created stories to be passed down throughout the generations but they did and they still are around to this very day. These oral traditinos, or stories that are told by word of mouth, include "The World on the Turtle's Back", which explains to us how our world came to be. The story "Coyote and Buffalo" gives us lessons that easily coralate with the building of a person's character, and finally, "Fox and Coyote and the Whale" persuades us to fight for who and what we love. These tall tales can be influential to our lives as Americans because the stories tell of lessons that could be essential to all of the human race when it comes to developing one's self to become a better soul. The story called "World on Turtle's Back" gives us an idea on how the indians believed the world began. Before there was an Earth there was a skyworld. There, a pregnant lady went to dig up the roots from a sacred tree and was then either pushed into or accidently fallen through a hole that exposed an entire new world underneath. (Page 42, Paragraph 1) As she fell and grasped to the edges of skyworld, reminants of soil and roots were attached to her hands. Luckily, as she fell a group of birds caught her on their wingspan and finally layed her down upon a sea turtle's shell. Then, a heroic muskrat brought up soil from deep within the ocean underneath so the fallen lady could set to work creating land. ( Page 42, Paragraph 9) Soon the pregnant woman gave birth to her child, a daughter, and together the two travel around the turtle's back until land was formed. As her child aged she became magically pregnant by the West Wind. (Page 42) She then gives birth to twins who constantly quarrell, for they are opposites, good and evil. Together they balance the world, inventing opposing animals