There is a creation but the animals and beings that transpire from his creative process take him by surprise: "I should like to see the things that have been created" he says, upon surveying the animals (11). For Maheo, the beings he meets are also much more powerful than Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve have no knowledge, not even of their own nakedness. God gives them free will to choose to eat of the tree and to Fall, but he knows that they have fallen and what they will do before they do it. The beings Maheo confronts have knowledge that Maheo does not have, even though Maheo existed before their origin and Maheo is the creator God: "I do not see You, but I know that you exist," says a goose, who takes him by surprise. "I do not know where You are but I know that you must be everywhere" (11). The goose gives Maheo good advice about reforming the world: "birds are not fish!" she cries, noting that the creatures he has created get tired and need a place to rest (11). Maheo complies with the goose's demand. In contrast, the God of Genesis does not tailor his request to the demands of Man and Woman, even though when he perceives demands, like Adam's loneliness, he compassionately addresses them. God "planted a Garden eastward in Eden," and planted Adam there, Adam did not have to advise him to create an appropriate habitat for man, like the animals of the Cheyenne myth (165). "To make such a place, I need all of your help, all of you," cries Maheo to the animals as he finishes...

In contrast, the God of Genesis needs nor solicits no aid and judges harshly any being that deviates from His will, like the serpent to whom he says: "upon thy belly thou shall crawl and dust shall thou eat all the days of they life" (167). There is no question that eating from the Tree of Knowledge, because God prohibited it, was wrong of Adam and Eve, and it was wrong of the serpent to question God. Maheo does create a woman from man's rib like the God of Genesis, but he continues to creatively intervene in human affairs, not to punish, but to create buffalo, and he acts without judgment: "Maheo is still with us" and taking human advice as well as giving needed gifts to humanity (15).
The comparison of these two stories suggest that the Judeo-Christian tradition views the creator God as a more punitive and powerful being than the Cheyenne, who see the creator god Maheo in continual dialogue with humanity and his creation. Before making judgments about the cultures that produced these myths, of course, it is important to remember that both of these books are translations, and the culture of the translator affects the story. The King James Bible was created by English, Protestant translators of a Hebrew document, and two American translators are giving their point-of-view of Native American culture and religion in the form of Maheo. However, so long as this is kept in mind, valuable insight can still be gained in contrasting the different…