He uses her head for the sun and other body parts for the moon and other heavenly bodies (Cusick, n.p.). Tapahonso's poem connects the newborn female infant with an August sunset, steam, and hot rocks. That Tapahonso chooses to describe the birth of a female infant is significant. Through this choice, in addition to her references to both mother and daughter in terms of natural occurrences, Tapahonoso establishes that the earth is not only born of a female, but is a female. Thus, in her poem, the earth is both the mother and the daughter, but is always feminine, just as in Cusick's creation myth the earth is made from the remains of a dead mother who died birthing its creator.
Though both Cusick and Tapahonso's works identify an important trait in Native American folklore, the existence of a female and motherly earth, the works do this in very different ways. Cusick's work is prose, a story or myth that is meant to explain some universal truth for the listener. Though it is beautiful in its prose, its true beauty is in its content; its purpose is to inform the reader about how the earth was created. For this reason, readers are awed more with the sophistication and symbolism of an earth divided into good and bad by two twins born of a mother whose body now shines in the sky than the artful language and description in the story. On the other hand, Topohonso's poem primarily uses language to establish a beautiful sound worthy of the Native American oral tradition....
Though "A Breeze Swept Through" does not contain the melting of Navajo and English words that some of her other poetry boasts, it too is beautiful in its musical style (American Passages). The poem is meant to be read out loud, and one can best make out the beauty of creation and mother daughter relationships by hearing the poem read. Thus, both Cusick's myth and Topohonso's poem establish the earth as a feminine, motherly character through different styles.
Though Native American voices were silenced for far too long in the realm of United States literature, they have now been set free and are singing on the books shelves of many U.S. libraries. Though many Native American writers compose on similar themes, differences in style between authors can be extensive. David Cusick's Iroquois Creation Myth and Luci Topohonso's "A Breeze Swept Through" excellently illustrate this fact as both works detail the existence of a feminine and motherly earth but accomplish this through two wildly different literary styles.
Works Cited
American Passages: A Literary Survey. 2003. DVD. Norton, 2003.
Cusick, David. "The Iroquois Creation Myth." Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Shorter Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois, 2003. n.p.
Kalter, Susan. "Finding a Place for David Cusick in Native American Literary History."
Native American Literature. 27.3 (2002): 9-42.
