When Grizzlies Walked Upright Summary

Native American Myths & Culture
Storytelling and myths have been a tradition in all cultures since the beginning of time. One well-known myth is “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” by the Modoc tribe, which is about the creation of Earth. Another myth is “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” by the Onondaga tribe, which is about how a muskrat and a turtle create the world. The two stories are similar because they both are about the creation of the Earth and rely heavily on animals, but they are different because of the importance of gods in the stories. Although the stories are very unalike, they both show that the creation of Earth and its population was mainly because of animals.
One way “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” and “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” are related is because they both center around how the Earth began. In “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, the Sky Spirit was bored in the Above World, so he cut a hole in the sky and created Earth from the magic in his fingertips (Erdoes and Ortiz 19). In “The Earth on

Turtle’s Back”, it tells us that Earth was created by a muskrat diving to the bottom of the ocean and grabbing a handful of Earth, then putting it on the Great Turtle’s back, which grew so large that it became the whole world (Caduto and Bruchac 18). The stories show their differences in culture because the Modoc tribe’s story relies heavily on gods, which shows that their culture believes gods are incredibly important, whereas the Onondaga tribe shows that animals played a more significant role in the story, which shows their appreciation and respect for animals. Although they are two very different perspectives of the making of the Earth, both these stories show how the Earth was created, or at least how their culture believes it was created.
Another reason the two stories are similar is because they both rely heavily on animals. For example, in “The Earth on Turtle’s Back”, it says that the Sky Woman nearly died falling out of the sky, then two swans saved her. It then says that all of the animals tried to help make Earth in order to help the Sky Woman, and eventually a muskrat retrieved the Earth and then placed it on the Great Turtle’s back, which then grew into the world. Had it not been for the animals in this story, the world would have never been created (Caduto and Bruchac 18). Whereas in “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, it says that after the daughter of the Sky Spirit married the eldest son of the grizzlies, they had many children which we later find out becomes the Modoc tribe. If the daughter had never married or had children with the bear, the tribe would not have been created (Erdoes and Ortiz 21). Therefore, although interpreted in different ways, both of the stories state that animals are very important.
One way the myths are different is the importance of gods and spirits in the stories.

In “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, the Sky Spirit is the most important factor in the creation of the world, because he literally created the Earth from the magic in his fingertips. Everything on Earth is completely because of him (Erdoes and Ortiz 19). Whereas in “The Earth on Turtle’s Back”, there is nearly no reliance or importance of gods in the story. The only mention of gods and their importance in the creation of Earth is that the Sky Woman fell out of the sky, which gave the animals the idea to create Earth for her, and that she placed some seeds to create trees on Earth. But in the actual creation of the soil and the world, there was little to no importance of her being in the story (Caduto and Bruchac 18). So even though the two stories are similar in many ways, they are different when it comes to the importance of gods and spirits in the creation of the

world.
In conclusion, the two stories, “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” and “The Earth on Turtle’s Back”, are very similar, but obviously have some contrasting factors. They both share similarities such as including animals in their stories, and are about how the Earth was created, but they are different because of the way gods and spirits are presented in the story and how important they are to the story. The themes in the two stories seem to be that the most significant role in creating Earth was the roles of the animals. In “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, they show the theme of animal importance by saying that their tribe, the Modocs, were descendants of grizzly bears, and they respect them in modern day society by making a law that prevents anyone from killing a grizzly and immediately burning anyone who was killed by a grizzly bear. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back”, they show the theme by literally saying that the ground and the entire world was created by animals, the most important being swans, a muskrat, and a turtle. So although they are two different stories from two different tribes, they both show that animals are very important parts of society.