Every culture has a unique creation story. Creation Myths, “illustrate the many ways  that people have t

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raditionally explained the origin of the earth and its life.” (Railsback) Many very and the Cherokee nation’ creation story is no exception.  They expressed very original ideas to the creation of earth and a unique perspective to how the land was formed.<!--more-->

The Cherokee Creation Myth has an unknown author and time of origin because most of these Native American stories where told through word of mouth or through totem- poles. David of the eagle clan, in Washington State, expresses, “A totem pole is a way to pass on legends and stories from one generation to another. It's like a library for a tribe!” David’s father is a woodcarving artist. I feel that the Cherokee creation Myths are important to the Cherokee culture because so much of their beliefs and culture derive from these creation myths. (Hoyt-Goldsmith) It’s important to humanity to preserve these stories and culture so they aren’t forgotten to history. The Native American population is dwindling in today’s world and they quickly have to give up their traditions to keep up with today’s world. These creation stories give great incite to Native American relics like totem poles and unless these stories are preserved this understanding of their culture may die with it.

The Cherokees believed that in the beginning the earth was covered in water and living creatures lived “above the rainbows”, where it was very crowded. Water beetle dove down under the water and brought back a small piece of mud to the surface. Magically the mud spreads across the earth and someone powerful fastens it to the sky ceiling with rope. In the beginning the land was flat moist. Grandfather buzzard was sent down to find if the land was hardening. When buzzard got tired he flapped his wings and made mountains and valleys through Cherokee country. When the land dried it was dark and so the animals invited sun to down. They gave sun a road to follow and showed him to go east and west, but it became too hot because sun was too close to earth.  Crawfish had his back sticking out from a stream and got burned and it soiled his meat forever. The sun was moved up higher. Someone Powerful asked all living things to stay up for 7 days most couldn’t, but cedar, pine , holly, and laurel; they were granted the ability to not lose there “hair” in the winter and that’s why they are green all the time. On the seventh day man was created and his sister. Man poked a fish at his sister and gave birth every 7 days, but this changed because humans where increasing too quickly and so woman was given the ability to reproduce once a year.  (Legend)

There are variations to the creation story for example one variation on the height of the sun from the earth is that “The conjurers put the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but it was still too hot. They raised it another time, and another, until it was seven handbreadths high and just under the sky arch. Then it was right, and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest place Gûlkwâ'gine Di'gälûñ'lätiyûñ', "the seventh height," because it is seven hand-breadths above the earth.” (How) In the Cherokee nation publication they claim, “They pushed him up (sun) as high as a man, but it was still too hot. So they pushed him farther, but it wasn't far enough. They tried four times, and when they had Sun up to the height of four men, he was just hot enough. Everyone was satisfied, so they left him there.”(Legend)  The reason there are many variations to the story is that these tales where told through word of mouth.  However, the characters like grandfather buzzard and crawfish generally stay the same in the variation of these stories.

Through different creation stories there are many different points that are touched on to explain our earth. As Delahoyde and Hughes explain “, for comparative mythological consideration, gauge a series of creation stories according to how stable they portray the world. For example, if Genesis has the void, or chaos, preceding God's separations and divisions into order, then what deep-rooted Western cultural fear is being expressed? In the Cherokee story, the sky vault is made of "solid rock," so that's reassuring; yet those cords won't last forever. Always note how precarious a culture's cosmos is.” (Delahoyde) Delahoyde explain that both the Genesis and the Cherokee creation stories show a fear of earth’s delicate balance. Both stories predict an end to earth.

It’s common for creation stories to predict an end. It’s also common for creation stories to come up with an explanation for earth’s naturally occurring elements.  In Genesis and the Cherokee stories both touch on the duration of seven days. Seven days represent the seven days in a week, although in the Book of Genesis God made the world in six days and declares the seventh day a holy day. In the story of the Cherokee’s all the living things where told to stay awake for seven days, and this tale is celebrated in Cherokee tradition by fasting (Legend), while Christian celebrate Sunday as a holy day.

The Cherokee creation story is unique because it explains how crawfish meat is spoiled. This is very interesting because it could be a direct relation to allergies or even preparing crawfish poorly. The Cherokee people probably didn’t know how to prepare crawfish properly and got sick off the crawfish meat. Crawfish have to either have their intestines cleaned out to get rid of bacteria that live in their digestive tract, or they have to be boiled. The Cherokee people probably didn’t have the knowledge, and declared the meat spoiled by sunburn in their creation myths to explain why they do not eat crawfish and/or why it makes them sick.

I feel it’s important to preserve the creation stories because so much of the Cherokee culture derives from these stories. For many of years these stories were the answers to their questions about the world. Their entire lives revolved around these traditions that were passed down from word of mouth. Without the conservation of these stories future generations to come will not know the Native American perspective of their culture and only understand the westernized version of the Native Americans.

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Works Cited

Railsback, Bruce. "Creation Stories." <em>Welcome to the University of Georgia, Geology Department</em>. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. &lt;http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSPreface.html&gt;.

Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane, and Lawrence Migdale. "Totem pole." <em>Cricket</em> 20.10 (1993): 11. <em>MasterFILE Premier</em>. EBSCO. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.

"Legend of the Cherokee Creation." <em>Cherokee NC Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina</em>. Cherokee, North Carolina, 2010. Web. 02 May 2011. &lt;http://www.cherokee-nc.com/index.php?page=97&gt;.

"How the World Was Made." <em>Indian Legends</em>. 13 May 2003. Web. 02 May 2011. &lt;http://www.indianlegend.com/cherokee/cherokee_001.htm&gt;.

Delahoyde, Michael, and Hughes. "Cherokee Creation Myth." <em>Washington State University - Pullman, Washington</em>. Washington State University. Web. 02 May 2011. &lt;http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/creation.cherokee.html&gt;.

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