When creation stories from Native Americans were first orally dictated, they took what they knew from religion and culture to create them. Since that time, the Native Americans were introduced to white settlers and their religions and cultures. The influences from those settlers brought about the evolution of Native American creation stories between the years of 1650-1910, in the areas of religion and women duties.
In the creation story, "The Indians of the New Netherlands Account for the Creation" , from the year 1650, a women is the creator of all living things. It also states that animals are refrences for how human act. "Therefore it is at this time that all mankind, wherever they be, are always born with the nature of one or more of the aforesaid animals. They are timid and innocent like the deer; they are brave, revengeful and just of hand, like the bear; or they are deceitful and bloodthirsty, like the wolves." (The Indians of the New Netherlands Account for the Creation,1650) The fact that a woman was the sole creator for all that lived, proves that women played a large role in the society at the time. Women at this time may have owned the land and took care of children and the home, whereas the man just went to work, "Among the Pueblo peoples fo Arizona and New Mexico,the Hopi and Zuni tribes,men hunted bison and cultivated corn, but women owned the fields, the crops and even the tools." (Nation of Nations, 13) Animals also played a large role in all indian cultures. Indians thought of animals as being their God(s), just as in the creation story, "The Origins of Ottawa Society Recalled".
In relation to the animal Gods of the New Netherland Society, the Ottawa Society also looked to animals as their Gods. The Great Hare is the sole God in the Ottawa Society, and it created the animals and then the humans from parts of the earth. The fact that the Great Hare created the animals first, proved that animals were a key part of the society and that humans were just starting to appear in their world. This creation story also showed the decline of women's purpose in Native American cultures, the Ottawa women were only used for cooking and sewing. In this creation story, they also state that women were made from man, which is similar to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."(Gensis, ch 1, verse 27)
In the year 1935 , when the the creation story, "Remaking the World: A Sioux Story" was written, the bible was still in full effect with the religions at the time. Adam and Eve is one of the most notable biblical stories and the Sioux creation story has many similaities to it. There is one God who creates all and when is unhappy with the world he created, decides to create a new one. Since and Adam and Eve disobeyed God, he changed how he would rule things, similar to starting the world over again.The story of Noah's arc is also prevalent in this creation story. In Noah's Arc, God was unhappy with the world he created, so he destroyed it, leaving only water. The only things God left were the water and an Arc. The reason why Adam and Eve as well as Noah's Arc are used in the creation story is because the white settlers were slowly changing how everyone saw religion. They were all Christians and wanted everyone else to be, thus causing the conquering of lands and change in Native American creation stories.
From the day the white man came, religion and culture of the Native Americans elicited those of the white settlers. The white settlers showed them Christianity and new animals, the two most important things to the Natives. These changes caused the evolution of creation stories from 1650-1910.
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