EPISODE 876 IN THE BEGINNG…A CREATION STORY…SKY WOMAN FELL FROM THE CLOUDS
EPISODE 876 iIN THE BEGINNING…SKY WOMAN FELL FROM THE CLOUDS…
alan skeoch
Sept. 29 2023
NOTE: THE story of Sky Woman fascinated me . Why? Because her rescue was done by
the creatures on earth. There exists harmony between humans and all living things
in this creation story. Seems a nicer CREATION STORY than Adam and Eve.
SKY WOMAN
An excerpt from a book you will never read
titled YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND, a book I wrote in the hope
it would improve young Canadians understanding of our native people.
The book never got that chance.
“Where did we come from?”
“How did we get here?”
“What was the FIRST CAUSE?
“Can something be created from nothing?”
Questions such as these have bedevilled thinking people . These questions do not seem
to have bedevilled non-thikeers as much. So I write this for thinkers.
When I wrote YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND some time ago the trigger mechanism in
my brain was the Turtle legend common to many aboriginal peoples in eastern North America.
It is a story…a legend….a myth…a ‘belief’ that makes more sense than Adam and Eve
because the story is in harmony with other living creatures on planet earth.
Initially, like Adam and Eve, the ‘giant Turtle’ story was told orallly and therefore changed a
little with each telling. But the essence never changed, The story was recorded in print after the arrival of Europeans.
Relatively recently.
No doubt my version differs from other versions. So be it. I write this as if it was told tome by a wise
aboriginal leader. A woman.
IN THE BEGINNING
“In the beginning” the earth was covered in water. There was no land.
The gods lived in peace abed the clouds with covered the earth.
One day a tree fell over and poked a hole one clouds.
Sky Woman was curious and she peeked through the hole at the watery
earth below. She leaned over too far and fell through the hole in the clouds.
She was falling faster and faster when a loon saw her. The loon flew under and
Sky Woman landed on the loon’s back.
She was heavy and the loon cried out to the creatures below for help lest Sky Woman drown.
The Great Turtle told the Loon to ‘let Sky Woman land on my back’
But the back of the turtle was too small so the turtle gathered all the
living creatures in the watery world for a conference.
“Sky Woman needs more space.”
And so the water animals…the loon, goose, beaver, otter and muskrat began to dive
down deep in the water world. ‘They tried to reach the muddy bottom
They tried often but failed. Then the lowliest of the water animals, the
muskrat, made one last effort. The muskrat dived deep…too deep
to keep alive ….but, in the muskrat’s last living act clutch a paw of
mud which was carried to the top of the water.
The other water animals opened the muscrat’s paw where it
clutched a ball of mud. “What should we do?” they asked.
Then the wise old turtle said. “Press the mud on the edge of my
body.” And when they did so the mud began to grow larger
an larger unitil the back of the turtle became the land we know
today.
WHERE DID OTHER HUMANS ORIGNATE?
Sky Woman was piegnant when she fell. In time she bore two
sons. The sons did not like each other. One son was good
and one was bad. They fought bitterly and the bad son
nearly killed the good son. Both lived
As might be expected various speakers in an oral society
would make changes But the essence of the story is still intact
-a water covered plant
-gods living above the clouds
-a fall through a hole in the clouds
-Sky Woman falling
-rescue by a loon or a goose
—haven provided by the Great Turtle
-need for living space
-all animals attempt to get mud
– most fail
-lowly muskrat succeeds
-mud multiplies to become land in the watery world’
-Sky Woman was pregnant and had two sons
-one son was good, the other was evil
-they fight
STORIES OF CREATION ALL ORIIGINATED AS ORAL STORIES TOLD OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
EVENTUALLY THEY WERE TRANSCRIBED AS WITH THE BOOK OF GENESIS AROUND 500 BC
OR IN THE TIME OF NOAH…
AND THE ABORIGINAL CREATION STOIES TRASCRIBED BY EUROPENS IN HE 19TH CENTURY.
BOOK OF GENESIS
Genesis 1:1 forms the basis for the Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) and some scholars still support this reading,[5] but most scholars agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds, this is not the preferred option,[6][7][8] and that the authors of Genesis 1, writing around 500–400 BCE,
Most of the myths from this region were first transcribed by ethnologists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These sources were collected from Native American elders who still had strong connections to the traditions of their ancestors. They may be considered the most authentic surviving records of the ancient stories, and thus form the basis of the descriptions below.[2][better source needed]
Northeast (Southeastern Canada and Northeastern US, including the Great Lakes)
From the full moon fell Nokomis – from The Story of Hiawatha, 1910[3]
Myths from this region feature female deities, such as the creator, Big Turtle;[4][5] and First Mother, from whose body grew the first corn and tobacco.[6] The two great divine culture heroes are Glooskap[7][8] and Manabus.[9]
Other stories explore the complex relationships between animals and human beings. Some myths were originally recited as verse narratives.[7]
