Table Of ContentCrabtree Publishing Company
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MYTHS UNDERSTOOD
UNDERSTANDING
NATIVE
AMERICAN
MYTHS
MEGAN KOPP
Crabtree Publishing Company
www.crabtreebooks.com
Author:Megan Kopp Photographs and reproductions:
Publishing plan research and development: Cover: Thinkstock (except middle center); Shutterstock (middle center)
Sean Charlebois, Reagan Miller Maps: Stefan Chabluk
Crabtree Publishing Company Getty Images: 11
Editor-in-chief:Lionel Bender Library of Congress: 23 (LC-USZ62-50348), 24b (LC-USZ62-88073), 42b
Editors:Simon Adams, Lynn Peppas (LC-USZC4-8937).
Proofreaders:Laura Booth, Wendy Scavuzzo shutterstock.com: 1 (Leene), 4 (CreativeHQ), 6t (karamysh), 10t (Dennis
Project coordinator:Kathy Middleton Tokarzewski), 16 (Rago Arts), 21 (Jamen Percy), 24t (Rago Arts), 30
Photo research: Kim Richardson (Duncan Gilbert), 36t (John C. Hooten), 36b (Josemaria Toscano), 40t
Designer: Ben White (Ryan Richter), 40b (RIRF Stock), 41 (Katrina Brown), 42t (Lori Martin).
Cover design:Margaret Amy Salter Topfoto (Fortean/Aarsleff): 31; (The Granger Collection): 5l, 8, 13, 26,
Production coordinator and Prepress technician: 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39; (Imageworks): 5r, 10b, 17; (topfoto.co.uk): 6b;
Samara Parent 10, 44 r, (ullsteinbild): 33.
Production:Kim Richardson Werner Forman Archive: 13 (Centennial Museum, Vancouver, British
Print coordinator:Katherine Berti Columbia, Canada), 14 (Maxwell Museum of Anthropology,
Albuquerque), 17 (Arizona State Museum), 18 (Provincial Museum,
Consultants:Amy Leggett-Caldera, M.Ed., Elementary Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), 20 (Sheldon Jackson Museum,
and Middle School Education Consultant, Mississippi Sitka, Alaska), 22 (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago), 29
State University. (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago), 37 (Museum of the
American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York), 44 (Private
Cover:Bald Eagle (top middle); Bison (bottom left); Collection).
Totem Pole (bottom middle); Coyote (bottom right);
Native North American tipis (middle center) This book was produced for Crabtree Publishing Company
by Bender Richardson White
Title page:Haida Totem Pole
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kopp, Megan CIP available at Library of Congress
Understanding native American myths [electronic resource] /
Megan Kopp.
(Myths understood)
Includes index.Electronic monograph in multiple formats.
Issued also in print formats.
ISBN 978-1-4271-9060-4 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4271-9114-4 (HTML)
1. Indian mythology--North America--Juvenile literature.
2. Indians of North America--Religion--Juvenile literature. I. Title.
II. Series: Myths understood (Online)
E98.R3K66 2012 j299.7 C2012-906376-2
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CONTENTS
WHAT ARE MYTHS?................................................4
What are myths and how and why did the early
Native Americans tell them? How did myths affect
their traditions and cultures?
ANCIENT NORTH AMERICA.................................6
The first peoples to arrive in North America. How they
spread through the continent and set up several
different nations, each with its own mythology.
RELIGION AND GODS...........................................10
The importance of spirits, visions, and quests in
addition to gods. Myths about the creation of the
world, living a long life, death, and mortality.
THE NATURAL WORLD........................................16
Myths about animals and plants, the climate, natural
disasters, and wonders. How each nation and tribe
had similar myths.
DAILY LIFE................................................................24
Myths about birthrights, family life, respect for elders,
marriage, and the home. The social structure of
nations, tribes, and clans.
TRADE AND WARFARE........................................36
Myths about courage, duty, and loyalty to one’s tribe.
The interaction between Native Americans and
European settlers.
NATIVE AMERICAN LEGACY.............................40
How Native American culture, myths, and beliefs
remain alive today in arts and crafts, movies,
literature, design, and clothes.
Time Chart 45
Glossary 46
Learning More 47
Index 48
WWHHAATT AARREE
M Y T H S ?
M Y T H S ?
Myths are ancient stories passed down
through many generations. Most are NAMING THE PEOPLE
so old that they began as spoken tales.
Native Americans were referred to as Indians
Myths are stories that help people make
or American Indians in the United States for
sense of their lives.
centuries after Italian explorer Christopher
Without myths, ancient people
Columbus mistakenly thought he had arrived
would have been bothered by
in the Indies in 1492. He referred to the
unknowns. Topics such as the creation
people he saw as los indios. In Canada,
of Earth, the Sun, and the stars, the
aboriginal or early native people as a group
origins of humankind, and life and
are referred to as First Nations.
death, would have been very difficult
for them to understand. Myths also
shaped their beliefs and traditions.
There were several thousand different
tribesof people living in North America
prior to European contact in the 1500s c.E.
Each tribe had its own mythology.
Native American myths are rooted in
nature and the belief that everything—
living or nonliving—has a spirit. Many
Native American ceremonieswere based
on myths. Native American mythology,
ritual, ceremonies, and religionare often
difficult to separate. Navajo ceremonies,
such as Blessingway, which is concerned
with healing, creation, and peace, are based
on events and incidents in their mythology.
4
Many Native American myths are late 1800s. The myths still reflect strong
related to the belief that all animals have roots in the oral tradition of storytelling.
soulsor spirits that give them supernatural Stories told on long winter’s nights
powers. Myths about gods who control around campfires taught about right from
the elements are also common. The close wrong and helped explain why things
connection animals and the weather had happened the way they did. The myths also
in people’s daily lives influenced their helped keep ancient beliefs alive, and they
survival, which is why these topics entertained. Native American storytelling
figure so prominently in Native involved a range of accompaniments,
American mythologies. including dance, masks, costumes, and
Other countries have mythologies music. Humor was also used.
shaped and ordered by traditional authors
over many centuries. In North America,
few myths were written down before the Below:On a Pribilof island near Alaska, a traditional
Aleut storyteller and environmental activistuses a
drum to tell his mythological tale to young people.
Left:A photograph from 1906 shows an
Apache elder marking the ground with a
stick while explaining to fellow tribesmen
an ancient myth about the landscape.
5
AANNCCIIEENNTT NNOORRTTHH
AAMMEERRIICCAA
According to archaeologists, the first It is believed the Inuit (formerly called
people of North America arrived in the Eskimo), Aleut, and Athabascan peoples
far northwest about 20,000 to 60,000 migrated to Arctic North America by boat,
years ago. Now called Paleo-Indians, arriving around 10,000 years ago. These
they crossed the Bering Strait land hunters relied on marine mammals,
bridge from Asia. Small, scattered caribou, birds, and fish for their survival.
communities slowly became Later, Subarctic cultures formed, including
established across great distances the western Athabascan-speaking tribes
and in vastly different environments. and the eastern Algonquin-speaking
people. Using snowshoes and canoes,
they hunted moose, deer, and fish.
TRAVEL BEFORE HORSES Tribes of the Pacific Northwest lived in
an area of mild climate with cool summers
Dogs were an important part of early Native
and wet winters. These tribes were hunter-
American tribal life. Before horses, Plains
gatherers, harvesting food from the land
tribes used dogs to haul their travois, or
and sea. Inland, tribes of the Great Basin
sled, carrying food and belongings. In the
and Plateau lived in harsher, semidesert
Pacific Northwest, the Tahltan bear dog was
conditions. They survived on fish, small
a scrappy little fighter used for tracking and
game, nuts, and seeds.
hunting bears. The Qimmiq or Inuit dog
hauled sleds for Arctic tribes. Why Dogs do
Below:A Cree native North
Not Speak is a Kiowa myth, one of many dog
American mother with her
tales in Native American mythology.
children and dogs stands
outside the family tepee.
This photograph was taken
in the early 1900s.
6
PACIFIC ATLANTIC
OCEAN OCEAN
ARCTIC
NORTHWEST COAST
SUBARCTIC
EASTERN WOODLANDS
N GREAT PLAINS
PLATEAU
CALIFORNIA
SOUTHEAST
GREAT BASIN
SOUTHWEST
500 Miles
500 Kilometers
californian tribes enjoyed a pleasant Above:This map of North America shows the main
climate, with warm winters and abundant geographical regions. Native peoples and tribes are
resources from the land and ocean. They usually referred to by region.
did not need to travel far to find food.
In the Southwest, desert conditions
brought long periods of drought and In the Northeast, summers were hot
intense floods. Native American tribes and winters cool. Tribes hunted deer and
hunted and tended crops of beans, squash, harvested corn and wild rice. To the
and corn. Across the Great Plains, many Southeast, Native Americans such as the
tribes were nomadic, always on the move Seminole and creek enjoyed good rainfall,
following herds of bison, which they hot, humid weather year-round, and
hunted for food, leather, and dung for fires. abundant plant and animal life.
7
IN HARMONY WITH NATURE
Native Americans were aware of their
natural surroundings, whether in the
Arctic or on the Great Plains. As a result,
there are common themes in their
mythologies. The themes tell why things
are the way they are in nature and include
animals, plants, geographical features, the
weather, and the Sun, Moon, and stars.
The myth could be about a natural cycle
such as the cycle of light and dark in the
north. During the darkest months of
winter in the far north, the Sun never
shines, and in the height of summer, it
never sets. In an Inuit myth, crow travels
north and south. He knows about sunlight
but, living in darkness, the northern people
do not believe him. crow steals a ball of
light from the south. The ball drops
releasing all the sunshine. crow warns
them it will not last and it will take six
months to rebuild its power again. Above: A carved and painted wooden mask
Myths could also explain landforms of the Kwakiutl tribe of British Columbia,
such as Niagara Falls. One Iroquois myth Canada. The mask represents a sea monster.
suggests the falls were created after a
CREATION MYTHS struggle between the Thunder god and the
Great Snake Monster. The thrashing of
An enduring topic of all mythologies is the
Snake Monster’s tail scooped out the basin
creation of the world. The Cherokee believed
where the water falls. A myth could answer
that a water-covered world was already in
a question about a physical characteristic,
existence and soil was brought up from the
for example the choctaw myth about the
depths by a water beetle to create the land.
theft of fire tells how smoke from the fire
The Pueblo tribe believed that humans
turned the crow’s white feathers black.
emerge into the present world from the
underworld. The Siksika people believed
BEYOND NATURE
in the creator god Napi, or Old Man.
Another common theme in Native
American myths is the power associated
8
