Biography

The Iroquois people originally were composed of five nations -- Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga -- and were joined by the Tuscarora of North Carolina in the eighteenth century. Called "People of the Longhouse" because they lived in long dwellings that accommodated several families, the Iroquois occupied the lands northeast of lakes Ontario and Erie around the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and southeast of the lakes toward the Hudson River. Women played a dominant role in the culture, owning property and making major social decisions while the men engaged in warfare or hunting. The Iroquois creation story, which exists in some twenty-five versions, had been passed down through oral tradition until David Cusick, a Tuscarora, transcribed and translated it in the nineteenth century.

Explorations

The Iroquois creation story teems with life, diversity, and change. Particularly compelling within it is the idea of the good mind and the bad mind. The version of the story printed in NAAL was collected and set down in 1827 -- after decades of bitter and fruitless warfare with the advancing white culture and with other native American nations. It may be important to remember that historical situation -- tellers in a world on the wane -- when contemplating this story about a world being created.

1. While a narrative in the European tradition might suggest that the woman who fell from the sky and the good twin are "central" characters, the Iroquois story highlights the importance of the other characters and the interdependence of all. Make a list of the characters in the myth, and try to explain each one's particular contribution to the creation. How important is the turtle? What is gained from the contrivances of the bad twin?

2. What do you see in comparing the landscape of this creation story to the landscape of Eden as it is imagined in the Western tradition?

3. Locate and read another Native American creation story on the World Wide Web, and discuss it in light of the Iroquois material in NAAL. Or open a link to an online display of traditional art from one of these cultures. What relationships do you see between the aesthetic or cultural values suggested by this art and the values suggested by the stories? As outsiders, do we face similar interpretive problems when we look at visual art (in this transcribed and digitized form) as when we read the transcribed oral narrative?

Other sites to consult:

• Iroquois Oral Traditions. Part of the Iroquois Literature section of the Indigenous Peoples' Literature site.
• Iroquois tribal history, maintained by Lee Sultzman.
• Iroquois Confederacy Information, despite its disclaimer, a rich source of articles, stories, treaties, and music related to the Iroquois.
• Mi'kmaq vs. American Cinderella: Values Comparison. These freewheeling pages include commentary by contemporary Native American writers living in Canada. Acerbic and often funny, these pages open questions about cultural differences between European and Native American values; story-telling strategies; and about ways in which Native American tales were transformed, in their substance and tone, by white translators who sometimes heard what they wanted to hear.