Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Facultad de Ciencias Humanas

Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
English Literature
Andrés Mosquera
March 1, 2016

Symbolism in Water in North American Creation Myths.

The meaning of nature differs depending on the culture and the individual perspective of life.
For Native American people, the relationship with nature is unlike to the Western people have.
They have expressed their religious beliefs and genesis through myths and nature has played a
vital role. The way in which they consider natural elements attracted my attention deeply
when I read the four myths. Water is a common in the Native American creation myths read.
So, I will tackle the symbolism surrounding water in North American creation myths.

Floods appear in two of the myths either since as punishment to humanity given by a deity like
Unkeshi, the water monster, in the Lakota Creation myth or as a state of initial conditions like
in the Yokuts Indians Creation myth. In the Lakota´s the sense of the flood was restorative.
Unkheti was allowed to flood the earth because he fought the people and the Great Spirit,
Wakan Tanka, wanted to create a better kind of human being. As reported by Wiget (1994) in
North American mythology exist numerous examples upon the restorative effect of floods.
According to a tale from the Skidi People, Tarawa, the main god, destroyed by flooding the
humankind as their arrogance offended the gods. They were replaced, after the water
subsided, by a family that was saved by a bird, and, thereafter, humans adore birds.

As stated in mythencyclopedia.com, floods in universal mythology have two main senses: one,
“floods become part of a cycle of destruction and rebirth” and two, a” flood reproduces the
original mythological conditions of creation—the formless, empty expanse out of which the
world was created”.

In the Yakouts´ the meaning of the flood is life. The species take human characteristics, Eagle,
the stronger and wiser, Crow, the smaller and dominated; and the duck, the hard worker. Their
lives relies on the water level, the creatures that live within and the mud to create land.

Sea in How the World Was Made in the Cherokee creation myth is a state of lifeless but not
dead. Per se, the ocean, does not create or has life inside. Its function is only to be the surface
upon the land floats. No mention of any creature living below the water´s surface is given in
the myth. In fact, it is like the end of the life for the Indians: “When the world grows old and
worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the
ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this”. Water does not kill anybody,
it is just like the last abode.

Respectively, the meaning of streams and springs are clearly stated as paths and entrance
doors to an underworld in How the World Was Made in the Cherokee creation myth. This
underworld is an opposite world to the outer, but not the hell. That is indicated clearly in the
myth: “We know that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours, because the water
in the springs is always warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the outer air”. In
agreement with Conley (2000), for the Cherokee nation, the distinction between heaven and
hell does not exist, at least, not in way Western people do. However, the inner world is an
“opposite of this one”. If it is winter in this world, is summer in the inner and vice versa.

Stands some symbols surrounding a vital element like water. In Native American Mythology,
the connotations that are given to the natural phenomena related to water and different
water bodies vary as the myths do. In the Lakota creation myth, the flood has a punitive
nature. In the Yakout´s, it is life. The ocean is an expression of lifeless in the Cherokee´s.
While streams are paths and springs are doors to an opposite world in the same myth.

References

 Mythencyclopedia.com. Native American Mythology - Myth Encyclopedia - god,

story, legend, names, ancient, animal, snake, world, creation, life. Retrieved 1
March 2016, from http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Mi-Ni/Native-American-
Mythology.html

 Robert, C. (2000). Cherokees - History, Modern era, Acculturation and

Assimilation. Everyculture.com. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from
http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Cherokees.html

 Wiget, A. (1994). Handbook of Native American literature. New York: Garland.