The European creation stories come from the book of Genesis in the Bible. God created heaven and earth and everything on it in seven days, according to this story. He also created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but punished them for disobeying his edict not to eat the apple of knowledge.
How does this compare with the Native American stories of creation?
What are some of the differences between the creation stories of the Native groups and the creation stories of the Europeans who would later come to the Americas?
4 answers
Oh, thanks! This is helpful.
In the Native American story, "Sky Woman," there's a Good Spirit and an Evil Spirit. The Good Spirit does many good deeds, while the Evil Spirit tries to undo them.
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The Good Spirit created man out of red clay, and continues protecting mankind. So I guess the Good Spirit can be compared to God..? (I know that's very simplistic for now...)
In the Native American story, "Sky Woman," there's a Good Spirit and an Evil Spirit. The Good Spirit does many good deeds, while the Evil Spirit tries to undo them.
...
The Good Spirit created man out of red clay, and continues protecting mankind. So I guess the Good Spirit can be compared to God..? (I know that's very simplistic for now...)
Yep. You're definitely on the right track. :-)
You can search for information easily. For example, I put navajo creation story in Google, and here are the results:
http://www.google.com/search?q=navajo+creation+story&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA
You can substitute any other nation for "navajo" and find different information.
http://www.google.com/search?q=navajo+creation+story&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA
You can substitute any other nation for "navajo" and find different information.