Different Creation Views Among Native Americans and Europeans

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The Native Americans and Europeans had many influences that affected their outlook when they first encountered one another. These influences have different stories and views that pertain to the origin of life and how the earth was created. For example the Native Americans had stories that were passed down from generations that would be reshaped in different tellings. On the contrary the European Christians obtained their stories from books that had been written in earlier years such as the bible and Aristotle’s work. Despite their differences all of their beliefs were affected by the accounts which then made their encounter with each other and the relationship with human beings.

The creation story in Aristotle’s views affected the thinking and behavior of Native Americans and Europeans when they first encountered each other and their thoughts of humankind’s relationship to nature. For instance the Native Americans had two stories of creation. Both dealt with animals and plants helping humans or being one with each other. In the story Ramon Pane humans lived in caves and would turn into animals or a part of nature when they were exposed to the sun. In the other creation story, “A women who fell from the sky” has a woman who falls from heaven onto the sea. Animals that live in the water come together to rescue her and because of this they create a place for her to stay which then becomes the earth. The women then has a daughter which planted potatoes East instead of West and therefore becomes pregnant with twin boys. The boys grow up and create land, animals and plants for the earth, because of this Europeans could have perceived Native Americans as satanic human beings because the Natives did not believe that God created the wo...

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...is would affect the relationship between different groups such as the Europeans and the Native Americans. The Europeans might consider the Native Americans barbarians because they believe that the origin of life came from “crazy” events. This would maybe lead into the Europeans thinking that they are above the Native Americans because there barbarians and that they should be slaves to them.

Many things were influenced when the Native Americans and Europeans encountered one another for the first time. There views on humankind’s relationship to nature, the relationship of men and women to each other, and the relationship between different groups of human beings were influenced. They were influenced by the stories that the Native Americans passed down from generation to generation, the story that the Europeans believed from the Bible, and the views of Aristotle.

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