Iroquois Creation Story Summary

For the Native Americans to explain their existence, they created stories that described how things came to be. These stories are much like the ones that you would find in the Bible, and are very insightful in getting a better understanding of the Native Americans religious viewings. The Native Americans strongly believed in spirits and beings of another world. In the Iroquois Creation Story, these believes are strongly represented by telling the story of two brothers. This story is a representation of how the world was created. There is a good minded brother and a bad minded brother, which are not just brothers but twins. These unborn brothers and their mother were sent to the back of a turtle that in order to secure them from the dangers of the dark world she fell to. In a hurry to be born, the bad minded brother murders

his mother during childbirth. These brothers are continuously contradicting each other's actions throughout this creation.

The good minded brother, or the protagonist, spends his life on the back of the turtle creating only good things.

He even created an orb out of his deceased mother's head, which became the sun and the moon. The bad minded brother, or the antagonist, creates horrible things in defiance of his brother. He tries to make man out of clay that turns into apes. He also creates other things that could be harmful to man such as reptiles, mountains, and great steeps. Like most stories, they have a final battle and the good minded brother overcomes the bad minded brother, sending him to the underworld where he is now the Evil Spirit.

The mother in this passage would be the minor character. Although she is departed from the brothers, she often has influence on the good minded brother. He never met his mother and he still created the sun and the moon out of her orb. This means that the good minded brother had respect for his dead mother and cared for her deeply, while the bad minded brother is the one who brought death upon her. This is just one heartless action of the bad minded brother. He has no care for others which is expressed throughout this

story.

The turtle is not mentioned much in this passage, but he is an important character. He is what saves the mother and the brothers from falling into the darkness of the waters. The turtle is the static character, because it never changes sides or opinions. He is a character the brothers should be thankful for, because without him they might not have survived. The dynamic character is the only person I can not figure out, no one changes throughout the course of this story. The good brother never wanted to harm his brother, he is forced to do so. This could be one way that he changes.

Reading the creation story really puts the Native Americans religion in a perfect view. I think the actions of the bad minded brother were horrible, and the good minded brother had the right to do what he did to his brother. Things like this happen everyday, it expresses the whole “good vs evil” ordeal. I am intrigued by the native americans stories like the Iroquois Creation Story, because they all have important morals behind them. I appreciate reading stories such as this one and would enjoy reading more stories like this in the future.