Preview

The Walum Olum and the Navajo Origin

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
622 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Walum Olum and the Navajo Origin
The Walum Olum and Navajo Origin Analysis The Walum Olum and the Navajo Origin are two stories about the creation of the earth in Native American culture. Both myths are similar in nature, they could almost be two versions of the same story. The Walum Olum starts out with hust the Earth with no water, no life, absolutly nothing. Then, this god named Manito comes along, and he made the land, sky, water, sun, moon, stars, and just about everything else, including the first man and woman. Oh, and then all the animals, too(Brinbo). Unfortunatly, not everything was butterflies and rainbows when the evil Manito came along. All the annoying insects and came along with him. The evil manito was also a magician who brought illness, death, and quarelling. But all the other manitos were kind and friendly, and they took care of the people. Life went pretty well for the Navajo, too. Thier origin legend started with the Earth already created, and the men and women were getting ready for a major event. The first thing the reader really notices is the use of color imagery, like white cornmeal and Black Body. Anyway, the people are all ready, and the gods appear. They prepare for some sort of ceremony, and then the Mirage People come and walk around everything that the gods had laid down on the ground, and a man and woman appear. The gods made the original people(who were there at the beggining of the story) build a house for them, and the couple became the first husband and wife. Well, the legend doesn't really make much sense at all, because how could they be the first man and woman when there were people at the beggining? Maybe it's not supposed to make sense. The Walum Olum and the Navajo Origin Legend are both myths that explain the creation of the Earth and the first people. The Walum Olum is the creation legend of the Deleware, a Native American people living in the northeastern United States. The Walum Olum describes the creation of the earth

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Navajo people washed and dried themselves. Then they heard the gods four times on the 12th day. The god appeared before them they carried a rarer buck skin and two ears of corn. The gods put the buck skin down with its head in the west then the two ears faced the east. Then the feather of a white eagle under the yellow eagle feather. Moments later two humans appeared one man one woman.…

    • 75 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Lakota story there was a past world with other creatures, were as the one had a vast expanse of empty water. In the Lakota story the humans and animals were sculpted based on the previous world were as in the West African one they were modeled after how the orishas looked.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story, they went from world to world to see what there was there to offer as well as the dangers, each time using their instincts as well as their connection with the earth to guide them as well as help them along the way. Even the mishap with the trickster winding up with the children served a purpose in the end and most assuredly taught the tribe a lesson as a result. The people prayed in the end to bring wind to dry up the mud which in turn created a comfortable world for them to settle in. Only the Navajo creator bears a destruction done by a different galactic force. The coyote, one of the initial beings, in the 3rd world of the Navajo, steals the water monster’s baby which enrages the water monster. As a reaction, the entire 3rd world was flooded by the water monster. Although, the baby was returned to the water monster by coyote upon the demand of Begochiddy, it was too late and the water monster flooded the third world entirely. “Finally, the Locust with his hard head broke through and everyone and everything climbed through the hole that he had made. Begochiddy saw water all around and saw Four Great Powers. When Begochiddy waved to them they let the water recede. Begochiddy went back and told them that the water receded but that they needed someone to walk up there to see if it was dry enough.” (Marcia L. Gerencser, 2014). Incan’s, differing from the Navajo’s, have marriage and love for…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The different stories about how the world was created between numerous diverse cultures are called origin myths, which are stories that explain how things came to be and are probably the first stories human beings told. There are many similarities and differences between the Cheyenne Myth, “How the World was Made,” and the Hebrew Story, “In the Beginning,” that show how each culture views its’ God and humanity’s relationship to each of these. While both stories have animals being created before the humans, it shows the power of a greater being which is perceived differently for how they each treated the animals or humans and how they created the earth.…

    • 244 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Mohawk people tell an amazing story of how the earth was created, this story uplifts both men and women and give a lot of credit to the women also what we call Mother Nature a great importance to civilization. The story starts by saying that the land was covered by water, there was no sun, stars or moon and the only creatures were the creatures that lived in water. There was a great ruler in the Upper World named Rawennio and one day he pulled up a celestial tree from the roots and saw that there was a deep hole, he called his daughter and told her to look into the whole where there was the Lower World he told her that she must go to the world of darkness. The daughter floated downward, the water creatures saw a big light and his daughter fell out the sky, the animals were frightened but then decided to help the woman and keep her in a dry place so the animals dived deep in the sea to find some earth and most of them died trying, the muskrat eventually floated to the top and some earth was clenched in his hands , they took the earth and called it a great turtle and patted the earth on her back, the turtle started growing bigger and bigger and that’s how North America was known as Turtle Island.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the cold, breezy and tall mountains, many stood tall facing the bottom of the earth waiting for the wind to sweep them away into the valley beneath them. Many origin myths usually try and teach a lesson that is relayed to the members of the tribe, usually young children. All of the stories that we read When Grizzlies walked upright, Navajo, and world on the turtles back show different symbols, but all wan’t the same end result- to teach the younger generation about different rules. When Grizzlies walked upright is symbolic in which it teaches the younger generation to always follow the rules of the higher powers and their parents. The Navajo story shows the power and strong influence of wind that goes through the tribe. Finally, world on…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The world is made up of people from different religions, ethnicities, and cultures; and they all have their own-tailored- creation stories. A story that explains how all things came to be and what gave everything meaning. A story that lies the foundation for all beliefs and expectations for the culture. A story that will be told for all generations. It may never be known which story is the true one. One of the more interesting comparisons in cultures is that of the Native Americans and the Puritans.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It’s very odd that the Cherokee and West African stories can kind of share the same story. The Cherokee land (USA) and West Africa are over a 1,000 of miles away and during that time they didn’t have boats or airplanes. So both have something to do with the sky and human where created afterwards. Evidence for this is in the West African “As he bent over the water, he saw his reflection and was pleased.”, and it says that humans came after animals and plants. This is also evident in the Cherokee story” man and woman came after the animals and plants. Though it’s not stated we still know that humans came out of no way. Also they Earth was created for things to live.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The world we live in today is far more complex and variegated, compared to past civilizations and cultures. As time passed, the world population increased and a variety of completely diverse cultures formed. Even though some cultures are completely different, every single one of them has two things in common, a past history and some form of a belief system. Among all of the cultures in this world, one of the most unique and fascinating are the Native Americans. The ancestors of today's Native Americans often explained their beliefs through their phenomenal stories. Probably one of the most commonly used subject among many Native American tribal stories is the creation of the earth, which was visualized differently throughout the many tribes.One of the many famous theories or belief stories in other societies is the Big Bang theory, which represents the creation of the earth on a scientific level or mindset. Throughout history, these theories truly impacted the foundation for many people’s cultures, traditions, belief systems, or simply the way they process information.…

    • 654 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Navajo Culture

    • 2476 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Square foot for square foot, the Two Gray Hills is the finest rug that has come-and continues to come-from the post-Classic Navajo loom.…

    • 2476 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The similarities between the myths and the literacy narratives are human race, and ethnicity. The Hopi and Potawatomi myths both mention the creation of humans of different colors such as yellow, red, white and black. “She made human beings, using yellow, red, white, and black earth mixed with her…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, the Navajo tribe is one of the largest American Indian tribes who practice their rituals to show respect to deities. They value deities, “singers”, and every living organism. The Navajo myths, compared to greek myths, share the similarity of water playing a big factor in clearing evil on Earth. On the other hand, their beliefs of who created Earth differ due to greeks believing that only Gods and monsters created Earth while Navajos thought that humans also contributed to the creation of our…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Considerable attention is given to a specific set of myths: those stories that deal with the creation of the world. Cosmogonic myths try to resolve the problem of man's search for meaning in existence“. Accounts of the beginning of the world are the quintessential form of myth” (Paden, 1994, p. 85). Different stories of creation are evidence of different worldviews. Hopi and Japanese creation myth deals with the origin of human kind. While they both narrate how the world and human being were created, they utilize different metaphors. The Japanese myth imagines chaos at the beginning. Earth and heavens came together to create harmony. Cosmos and order were brought where disorder and infinite operated. Void was filled and many divinities appeared. They were created in order to organize and “preside over the land, sea, mountains, river, trees and herbs” (Japanese Creation Myth). For Hopi, gods…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Navajo Culture

    • 2375 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Reichard, Gladys A. Social Life of the Navajo Indians. New York, N.Y.: AMS Press Inc, 1969. 135 - 139.…

    • 2375 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Iroquois story and the Judeo-Christian story are very similar stories but they also have very different concepts. Both stories explain how the earth was created and who it was created by. They talk about different beliefs and share their opposing thoughts about certain topics.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays