A black and white definition of history is that history is measured by the presence or absence of change over a period of time. A simple investigation into the three creation stories of The Indians of New Netherlands Account for Creation, The Origins of Ottawa Society Recalled by Nicholas Perrot¸ and Remaking the World: A Sioux Story, show considerable change that is directly correlated to the location of the tribes as well as the significant amount of influence put upon them by the Europeans that were in the process of colonizing them. From 1650 to 1910 an obvious impact can be seen in the beliefs of the Indians of New Netherlands, the Ottawa Society, and the Sioux due to the religious and philosophical pressures placed upon them by the impending Europeans.
All three of the stories had many similarities, including the use of animals, natural states, and an overall more powerful higher being that is noted as most responsible for the actual creation of the earth. The first story attributes the actual creation to a "… before mentioned beautiful woman or goddess gradually descended from heaven, even into the water, gross or corpulent like a woman who apparently would bring forth more than one child…" (reader page 3), while the second story lays the power in the hands of "the Great Hare" who raised man from the corpses of the once fruitful animals who are strewn all across "… the places which each kind found most suitable for obtaining therein their pasture…" (reader page 4). The third story has the "Creating Power" as the overall most powerful being in comparison to the Great Hare and the goddess from the first story. A primary difference that shows the European influence is that in the first two stories the greater being is a woman and in the third story the Creating Power is a male which illustrates the belief that men being greater than women.
In the first and the third stories the indigenous people believed that the world started off predominately as water or the planet was flooded by the higher power. The second story however states that the world was a solid mass of land which similarly goes along with the European trend of dominating the land. However the most evidence comes from the change in religious input within all the stories. In the first story one of the natives was quoted as saying "the world was not created as described in the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis…" alluding to the point that the indigenous people had no interactions or connections with the bible or Christianity. However by the time one gets to the third story, there are noticeable allusions to biblical stories, such as the days and nights of rain which would end in a rainbow just like the story of Noah’s Ark. When all the facts are added up, it is evident that without the heavy European influence, these various stories would be much more nature involved and more spiritual rather than full of stereotypical standards.
Organization is the key here. The second paragraph, I don’t know if your talking about the women’s roles or the “creating power” in each story. You mention the frequent use of animals, but really expand on that point. In the third paragraph, you start talking about Christianity out of the blue. Basically, just state one point you are going to make then do the evidence for that one point and so on. Another thing is that a reference to the textbook is something that’s required so it is good to have that one. Also it might help the reader if you would briefly summarize the stories you read. You had a very strong beginning; I really liked your first sentence. Couple that with examples from the text and a little more organization and you’ve got it.
Posted by: Whitney Howell | September 25, 2005 at 08:04 PM