Reading Notes Part A: British North America Unit

Beliefs

• Five worlds, one above the other. Middle is ours, Earth
• “Afraid of nothing”
• War with the mountains
• The mountains used to be human
• “Afraid of Nothing’s” visits cause sickness and death

Creation of the World

• Wyandots- sky people
• The chief’s daughter fell through one world into a world of water
• The swans caught her fall
• The animals had a council meeting to see what to do with her
• Many animals drowned trying to get earth from the sunken tree
• The turtle is holding up earth and if he moves his foot it causes an earthquake

How the Earth Was Formed

• Wisagatcak asked a wolf to run in circles around the raft with a bit of earth in his mouth
• The wolf ran in circles until the animals could no longer see him and this made the earth big enough for all the animals
• They had to wait for the trees to grow up from the raft to get food

Creation of the Earth

• Old Man sent the Sun, Moon, and the Stars into the sky
• He made the earth woman into the Earth we live on now
• Old Man taught the people all that they knew today

Origin of Rivers in Queen Charlotte Islands

• The raven stole the body of water and dropped a little before he flew off which created the rivers in Queen Charlotte

Origin of Haida Lan

• Raven took the chief’s house which was a baby
• He picked the baby up by its foot and shook all its bones out
• He then slipped into the skin and pretended to be the baby
• The raven met with the seagull man underwater and he told him how to create the land

Raven and Moon Woman

• The raven flew up to the top of the mountain and broke the moon into pieces which made the sun, stars, and the moon

Creation of Light

• The animals tricked the chief into saying “Let there be light”, which created the light in the sky

Grizzly Bear and Coyote

• They both sang for darkness and light. They compromised and said it should be half and half.
• They also made the seasons

Origin of Light and Fire

• Raven and Sea Gull
• “If I had not got the light from you, I could not have seen where the fire was kept.”

The Burning of the World

• Not very interesting

Why the Sun is Bright

• The Sun switched robes with a boy who speared a lot of fish
• The robe was so bright on the Sun that no one could stare at him

The Man in the Moon

• An Eskimo went to visit Moon.
• Moon’s wife was the sun.
• Moon had deer meat but could not offer it to the Eskimo until he and his wife danced
• The Moon allowed Eskimo to pick an animal
• Eskimo now has deer and seals

Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson. Read here

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