Creation Story: Native American Version

¶ … Creation Story: Native American Version vs. European Version How did the Native Americans view creation as compared and contrasted with how the Europeans who arrived in North America viewed creation? This paper reviews the creation beliefs (and legends) of both cultures and makes comparisons between them. European / Christian Creation: The King James Bible (Genesis 1) asserts that God created the heaven and earth when there was no form, there was only darkness, and water.

So God spoke, saying "Let there be light: and there was light…" and when God saw the light He had just created with a few words he said the it was "good" so he split the light and darkness. He called the light "Day" and the darkness was "Night." And so the evening and the morning were the very first day of Creation. Sioux Creation Story: The Sioux believed there was a world prior to this present world we live in.

In that first world the people "did not know how to behave themselves or how to act human," the Sioux story explains.

So because of that the "Creating Power" said "I will make a new world." With that the Creating Power got his pipe (Native Americans used pipes in spiritual ceremonies) and then he took four dry buffalo chips (which Indians used for lighting campfires and other fire purposes) and put three under the sticks and "saved the fourth one to light the pipe." Just as in the Christian creation story, in the Sioux story the Creating Power speaks, obviously to himself because there was no one else around, but he also sings.

"I will sing three songs, which will bring heavy rain," he said. So in the Sioux story there is the creation of water; the Creating Power sings three songs and heavy rains fall. By singing a fourth song and stamping four times on the land, "the earth will crack wide open" and "Water will come out of the cracks and cover the land." He did sing, the rain did fall, and water "covered everything." European / Christian Creation: There are clear watery comparisons between the Sioux version and the Christian version.

In the Christian version of Creation God said let there be "firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." In other words, there will be land and between "firmament" there will be water. Continents and oceans were created this way. It is interesting to note that the Christian God spoke but the Sioux Creating Power sang. The Native Peoples had creative ideas. Sioux Creation Story / Christian Creation Story: At first, the animals and people drowned in the Sioux story.

Then the Creating Power pulled four animals from his pipe bag: a loon, an otter, a beaver and turtle. Soon there also came "the shapes of men and women." In the Christian story, God created heaven and then He also created: grass, fruit trees, seasons, stars, "great whales" and "every living creature" that moves, including birds. On the sixth day "God created man in his own image…male and female created he them." Then He "breathed" the breath of life into the man and humanity was born.

The similarities are obvious but with the Sioux story the Creating Power made animals pay a price through punishment before allowing animals and humans to have a second chance. There was no such plot in the Christian version. The question of how Europeans and Natives might have viewed each other differently is a philosophical question with no answer. However, if there had been an opportunity for verbal interaction between the arriving white man and the native peoples, fewer.