Iroquois Tribe vs. Seneca Tribe

What is a Narrative?

Why do narratives exist?

Woman Who Fell From The Sky In the beginning, in the Sky World, a pregnant wife asked her husband to fetch the delicacies she craved. But she wanted the bark of a root of the Great Tree in the middle of the Sky World, which none were permitted to touch. Finally, however, he gave in, and scraped away soil to bare the root of the Tree.
Underneath was a hole, and as the woman peered down into it, she fell through. The birds helped transport her as she fell, and the great Sea Turtle received her on his back.
Here, on the Sea Turtle's back, she planted bits of the roots and plants she had brought from the Sky World. And she walked across the turtle's back, planting, praying and creating the Earth that we know as Turtle Island.
The woman who had fallen from the sky then had a daughter, who became impregnated by the West Wind. While in the womb, the daughter's unborn twins began to quarrel about how they should emerge, the left-handed twin refusing to be born in the usual way. Instead, he forced himself out of his mother's left armpit, killing her as a result.
The newborn twins then buried their mother, who became Corn Mother, source of corn, beans and squash, the Three Sisters of the Iroquois. From her heart grew sacred tobacco, used to send messages and thanks to the Sky World.
The two brothers continued to compete with each other as they created the animals and plants, and in the process, represented different ways of living. Right-Handed Twin created the beautiful hills, lakes, blossoms, gentle creatures; Left-Handed Twin, the jagged cliffs and whirlpools, thorns and predators.
Right-Handed Twin was always truthful, reasonable, goodhearted, and "straight-arrow"; Left-Handed Twin lied, fought, rebelled and made "crooked" choices.
Because Right-Handed Twin created human beings, he is known as "Our Creator," and "The Master of Life."
But Left-Handed Twin helped, and invented rituals of sorcery and healing. The world they built included both cooperation and competition, loving kindness and aggression.
After they finished their creations, the continued to compete in other ways - by gambling, by playing lacross, then fighting with clubs.
One day, grasping a deer antler, Right-handed Twin finally prevailed, and killed his brother, throwing the body of Left-Handed Twin over the edge of the earth.
As a result, Right-Handed Twin rules day and the Sky-World and Left-Handed Twin prevails over night and the lower world.
Grandmother Skywoman was furious that Right-Handed Twin murdered his brother, and accused him of wrongdoing.
Angry, and believing that grandmother had always favored the errant Left- Handed Twin, he cut off her head and threw it up toward the sky, where it became the Moon.
Then he threw her body into the ocean, where it became all the fish of the sea.
The Iroquois believe that both Left-Handed Twin and Right- Handed Twin are necessary for the world to be in balance.

This tension and struggle for balance between the two brothers and principles of life is incorporated into Iroquois festivals and cycles of life.

Seneca Creation Story 

     This was a long, long time ago. This was in the land of the sky world. In the sky world, there were beautiful, beautiful trees and wonderful plants with bright colors and delicious fruits to be eaten. There were beautiful animals there and beautiful birds. There was also a young couple in the sky world. As time went on, the wife became pregnant. Her and her husband were very, very happy. They were thrilled at the prospect of having a child. But as her pregnancy progressed, the woman began to have cravings and everyday she would send her husband out to search for something different. One day it was beautiful red strawberries. Another day it was juicy blueberries. Another day she craved beautiful golden flowers. Everyday she had something new that she had to have. These were the results of being pregnant and carrying her child. As time went on, there was a huge tree in the sky world and curiosity got the better of this woman. Pretty soon, instead of wanting the strawberries and the things she had seen long the way, she began to crave and wanted to know what was underneath that tree – she wanted the roots of that tree. Everyday she begged her husband to please push over the tree so she could get to the roots. So finally one day her husband said, “Fine, I will push over the tree if that’s what you desire.” So he went to the big tree and used all of his might. He pushed hard…HARD…and he used all of his strength and sure enough the tree began to move and all of a sudden BAM it fell over. The roots were sticking up in the air. The woman was very curious and so she came over to the hole and was peering deep, down into the hole and wanted to see what was there. She was checking out the roots of the tree. Because she was with child, her belly was very and her balance was very awkward and so as she leaned over and peered to see deep in the hole, she lost her balance. Pretty soon, she began to fall. As she fell, she tried to scramble quickly and grab the roots to hold on. That didn’t work; she only got a handful of dirt. She was falling deep into the water world below and it looked dark down there. It was far, far away. Now, the water world was totally different from sky world. In the water world were the water animals. Pretty soon they noticed there was this tiny fleck coming from the skies and they said, “What is that? What could that be?” Pretty soon the winged creatures, the birds, began to notice the speck high, high up in the heavens. But it was coming closer and closer. As it got closer and closer, pretty soon the animals and the winged birds could tell that this was not another bird and this was none of the water animals. They looked and they were concerned and they said, “What is that creature?” and they said, “It’s a creature from the sky world. It’s different than we are.” The birds got together and they decided the big words with the big, big wings they decided they would open their wings; they would fly up and catch this creature on top of their wings because she didn’t look like she had wings. She didn’t look like a sea creature. How was she ever going to survive? So the great big birds with the big wingspan flew high and they flew underneath her and sure enough they caught her and then gradually they started to come down. As they descended, all the water animals got together an said, “ Now what are we going to do with her? The birds can’t carry her forever.” So pretty soon, the otter decided he said, “ I think there is some dirt or mud way, way down at the bottom of the ocean. IF we brought up some of that mud, perhaps we could put it on turtle’s back and perhaps this creature from the sky world could live and sustain herself on the back of turtle.” So he said, “Let me go. I’ll go get the Earth and the mud.” He took the biggest breath he could. He filled up his lungs and down he went. He splashed and he swam down, down, down, down so deep that the water was black. He couldn’t even see his little paw in front of him. Because the mud was so far down, the little otter, his breath couldn’t sustain him anymore and sure enough he died in the water and floated up to the top. As he floated to the top, all of the other water animals saw his little body and they felt sad. But one by one they took turns diving deep, deep down into the dark water of the sea world. One by one, they floated up to the top because it was a far, far away down. Each one of the animals tried. Pretty soon there weren’t too many left. Finally, the little muskrat stepped forward and he said, “I can do this. I know I can do this. Let me try!” so they agreed that he would go down. So he took a deep, deep breath and down he went. He swam as strong as he could so he could get to the bottom quickly. But it was even deeper than he thought. Just when he thought his lungs were going to explode, he felt the bottom of the Earth. But now it was a long, long ways back to the top. So the little muskrat, as he reached for the bottom, he did get a paw-full of mud. But he didn’t have enough breath left to make it all the way back up to the top. So sure enough his little body floated up and the animals began to see him coming up an they said, “Oh no, brother muskrat hasn’t made it either.” They were sad. One of the little animals noticed that his paw was clenched tight shut and he said, “Look! He has something in his hand!” So they opened up his little paw and sure enough there was one paw-full of mud from the bottom of the deep, deep sea. So they put the mud up on the Turtle’s back and about that time the big birds were coming down with this creature from the sky world. They landed her on the Turtle’s back. She looked around and they thanked the big birds for saving her. She looked around and she saw all the sea creatures floating about in the water. She saw she was on the back of the turtle. She began to give thanks. As she gave thanks, she began to do a shuffle dance on the back of the turtle and that dance spread that little lump of Earth and mud on the turtles back. As she danced, Turtle Island began to grow. It grew and it grew. Today, we say that Turtle Island is mother Earth on the back of the Turtle.