Iroquois Creation Myth (The Sky Woman)

(“The_great_turtle_by_better_than_i_was-D4uc019.Jpg (900×675),” n.d.)

One version of the Iroquois creation myth involves the Sky Woman who lived on a floating island in the sky with the sky people. In this place, there was no death or sadness. However, one day the Sky Woman found that she was pregnant with twins, and when she told her husband he became enraged and tore the tree of life from the ground. Through the hole in the floating island, that was created by the tree being torn away, the waters that covered Earth could be seen. When the Sky Woman gazed upon the waters below her husband pushed her into the hole and she fell towards Earth. As the Sky Woman fell two birds saw her and caught her on their backs before she could hit the waters. They brought her to the animals that already existed within the waters, and these animals tried to bring her mud from the bottom of the waters. While many failed to gather any mud one eventually succeeded and placed the mud on the back of Big Turtle. There the mud expanded in size until it was the size of North America. Once the Sky Woman stepped onto this new land she spread dust into the air and created the stars, moon, and sun. When she gave birth to her twins she named one sun Sapling and the other Flint. Sapling was a good and gentle person, while Flint was cold as the stone he was named for. Sapling created all that was good in the world and Flint did everything he could to destroy that which was good. Flint created hardships and the season of winter in which growth was difficult if not impossible. Sapling breathed life into winter to allow it to give way to spring and growth. 

Creation Myths—Iroquois Creation Myth. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from http://dept.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_12.html

The_great_turtle_by_better_than_i_was-d4uc019.jpg (900×675). (n.d.). Retrieved September 18