Haudenosaunee reflection paper PDF

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Summary

After watching the video animation on the origin story of the Haudenosaunee people, we were required to write up a reflection of the video, and then compare this culture's creation myths with other creation myths that we studied in class....

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Alexandria Bowers REL 3022, Wright December 5, 2018 Haudenosaunee Creation Story Reflection The creation story of the Iroquois, or, as they refer to themselves, the Haudenosaunee, moves away from the Meso-American motif of creation, death, and rebirth, and it instead focuses on the struggle between good and evil, light and dark, and creation and destruction--which is more commonly seen in the Greek myths (though some of the mythic retellings of the Greek often include some form of the life-death-rebirth cycle) and those of the Judeo-Christian religions. Another contrast that the Haudenosaunee creation myth held, when compared to the other creation myths that we studied this semester, was the location of the tribe itself--they occupied what is now marked as New York State, which is much farther north than the previous locations of any indigenous peoples that we have reviewed--which were mostly from Central, Meso-, or South America. The creation story begins with the Sky-Woman being evicted from the celestial realm after the World Tree was uprooted--for either some wrong-doing of her own in breaking a taboo or for her husband’s jealous treachery. Comet guides her on her fall, as do the waterbirds, and soon after establishing herself on Turtle Island, she gives birth to a daughter. Many suitors approached the daughter as she aged and grew, but her mother found none of them worthy. An avatar of Turtle Island (he seems to be a humanoid representation of the world-turtle itself, not just a representative of the inhabitants of Turtle Island) approaches the daughter-whose name translates as Breath of the Wind--and Sky-Woman accepts him as a suitor worthy of her daughter. The turtle then presents Breath of the Wind with two arrows, and she falls pregnant.

This holds a few similarities with the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary from the JudeoChristian creation stories--the turtle presented Breath of the Wind arrows which led to a powerful pregnancy, while the angel Gabriel “visited” the Virgin Mary to inform her of her powerful pregnancy. Breath of the Wind is pregnant with twins; within the womb, the twins communicate, and the left-twin eventually causes the death of Breath of the Wind during birth. This association of “left” with “destruction” is similar to the concept seen in Judeo-Christian lore, where lefthandedness was seen as collusion and association with the Devil. In an attempt to gain favor with Sky-Woman, the left-twin blames the death of her daughter on the other. The fact that the twins were raised by their grandmother is another similarity with the Hero-Twins of the Maya Popol Vuh creation texts. In the animation-version of the Haudenosaunee creation story that we viewed in class, it does not appear as if Sky-Woman held more favor with one twin over the other--this was possibly a nod to the fact that both creation and destruction, life and death are necessary to existence. The central tenants of the creation story were the twins: Flint (the left-twin) and SkyHolder (the right-twin). The twins held a few parallels to the Hero-Twins of the Maya creation text Popol Vuh, but only in the sense that they held the fate of the rest of creation in their hands. There were more similarities between the twins of the Haudenosaunee and some of the characters of the Christian biblical creation stories, such the archangels Michael and Lucifer or the twins that Eve bore, Cain and Abel. Michael and Abel, from Judeo-Christian mythology, were both associated with creation, tolerance, growth, and life; Sky-Holder was also associated with creation, life, day, and summer--he was the twin who began to fill the world with life and beings, while also providing

the sunflower that gave the world its light. Lucifer and Cain, from Judeo-Christian mythology, were both associated with destruction, jealousy, regression, and death; Flint, of the Haudenosaunee creation story, was associated with similar things: destruction, death, night, and winter--he was the twin who held jealousy in his heart (much in the way that Lucifer did, when the Creator began nurturing humans and their growth over that of his angels) and created things that destroyed and brought about death. Though both sets of concepts were necessary to the creation and continuation of the world, it was still easy to see the moral divide between both parties. Toward the end of the Haudenosaunee creation story, Sky-Holder has created the heavens and stars, and among the heavens were two paths that one would follow after death--that of the righteous, good, and warm, or that of the bitter, jealous, and cold-hearted. It is easy to see yet another similarity in this portion of the myth with its counterpart in Christian mythology--the good and kind-hearted will follow one path after death, while the mean-spirited and cruel will follow a different path after death that does not bode well for the soul....