Last Name 1 First Name Engl-2327 Prof. Martin 19 July 2006 Were You There? I once saw a t-shirt that had an image of several dinosaurs and text, which read, Were You There? The message was clear to me; the designer of the shirt was arguing the controversial subject of Creation verses Evolution. The point was well taken; no one can really know for sure how life began, because no one was there. While modern society has scientific evidence and stories passed down from generation to generation as the only indication of how mankind and the planet we live on began, but none of this evidence is truly concrete. As found in Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations, David Cusick s account of The Iroquois Creation Story depicts one version of how North America and her inhabitants came to be. While the story obviously has many unique characters, there is also an inarguable similarity to the Christian version of Creation found in the Biblical Book of Genesis. The story also includes reference to several other Christian beliefs. Susan Kalter suggests, Cusick taps into a concept of the commonality of all humanity and dialogizes the assumed meanings of the Bible. Since the Iroquois version of the creation of humankind recalls the Christian version, it lends credence to it and to the handing down of both ancient accounts (22). Andrew Wiget, however, claims, In the elaborate corpus of oral tradition, Native American peoples did not distinguish among political, religious, military, or other kinds of history. Similarly, the first histories written by Native Americans tell their stories in a holistic manner. Regardless of
Last Name 2 Cusick s intentional or non-intentional religious references, this work mimics that of Christianity in several areas. The Iroquois Creation Story begins: Among the ancients there were two worlds in existence. The lower world was in great darkness; -- the possession of the great monster; (Cusick 21). The Christian account reads, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters (Life Application Study Bible, Gen 1:1-2). Commonalities include the reference to two worlds, darkness and a being that looked after the lower world, or earth. In both accounts the earth is not only dark, but also completely covered in water, and void of dry land. While the Iroquois version continues to record information about Enigorio, the good mind, and Enigonhahetgea, the bad mind, the Biblical version immediately records the order of creation. However, the major difference in how God created the world, and how Enigorio created the world was that God spoke everything, except man, into existence and Enigorio formed his creation. The image that fills my mind while reading the description of Enigorio s creation is that of a child playing with clay. The order of creation differs in the two accounts. Every Sunday School lesson on creation divides the work into daily events. On the first day, God created light. He created the sky on the second day. Next, He created the dry land, which was followed by vegetation of all kinds. On the fourth day of creation, God made the sun, the moon and the stars. The fifth day He created all the animals of the sea and the air. The land creatures were created on the sixth day, followed by the creation of man. In the Iroquois description, Cusick indicates that the land was already formed, along with shrubs on the land, before the good mind began the work of creation. Enigorio began this great endeavor by forming the sun, moon and stars, then he
Last Name 3 formed numerous creeks and rivers on the Great Island, and then created numerous species of animals of the smallest and the greatest, to inhabit the forests, and fishes of all kinds to inhabit the waters (Cusick 22). Even though the specific order of events differs slightly, the general arrangement is still similar. The creation of man in both accounts, however, is almost identical. The formation of man in the first book of the Bible reads, God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Life Application Bible, Gen 1:27). And the Lord God formed man of dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (King James Bible, Gen 2:7). In similar fashion, Cusick records, he formed two images of the dust of the ground in his own likeness, male and female, and by his breathing into their nostrils he gave them the living souls, and named them Eagwehow, i.e., a real people; and he gave the Great Island all the animals of game for their maintenance (Cusick 22). The similarities in the creation stories are unmistakable, but there are other Christian ideas that penetrate throughout Cusick s tale as well. According to the notes in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, the woman in Cusick s creation story who conceives the twins who create the world, refers to a second generation of sky women to become pregnant without sexual activity (21). In the Christian faith, Jesus, the Son of God, is believed to have been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. There is also a biblical account of feuding twins born to Rachel, the wife of Isaac. The children struggled together within her; and she said, If it is so, why them am I this way? (Life Application Bible, Gen 25:22). While these two did not enter the world through their mother s side, Jacob and Esau continually quarreled, and Jacob, the younger, became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel while Esau was shamed. The twins in Cusick s Creation story fought not
Last Name 4 only in their mother s womb, causing her death, but also fought to the death, with the good mind beating the bad mind. The Iroquois concept of the good mind and the bad mind is also a theme found in the Bible: good versus evil; God and Satan. This Biblical theme begins in the Garden of Eden with the temptation of Eve, and continues through the book of Revelation where once and for all, Satan is defeated for all eternity. In The Iroquois Creation Story, the good mind, succeeded in deceiving his brother (the bad mind) and he crushed him in the earth; and the last words uttered from the bad mind were that he would have equal power over the souls of mankind after death; and he sinks down to eternal doom, and became the Evil Spirit (Cusick 23). Christians believe in the eternal doom of Hell for all those who choose not to believe in the saving grace of Jesus death on the cross. In spite of his apparent reproduction of missionary interpretations of Iroquois Spirituality, Sherry Brydon argues that he lent obvious support for [native] religious expressions (qtd. Kalter 3). While Cusick incorporated the missionary stories he had heard, he also held true to the Native American belief of the importance of nature and the unity of animals with humans. Does this story give any firm evidence in the debate between Creation and Evolution? No, not really, but The Iroquois Creation Story is still a fascinating account, and I believe that when different cultures have similar accounts of past events, those events do become more and more credible. Personally, I believe in The Big Bang Theory: God said it, and BANG!, it happened (Bickel).
Last Name 5 Works Cited Bickel, Bruce, and Stan Jantz. God Said It and BANG! It Happened. Nashville: Tommy Nelson, 2001. Print. Cusick, David. "The Iroquois Creation Story." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2003. 21-23. Print. Kalter, Susan. "Finding a Place for David Cusick in Native American Literary History." MELUS 27 (2002): 9-34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 July 2006. King James Bible. Gen. 2:7. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1987. Life Application Study Bible. Gen. 1:1-25:22. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. Wiget, Andrew. "Native American Literature." Twayne's United States Authors 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 July 2007.