Kautantowit's Mecautea's
Spiritual Wisdom Discussions
Warmest of greetings everyone, and thank you for joining with us today. I am 'Hawkeye' Graves, Sachem (Chief), Healer & Spiritual Leader of Oklevueha Native American Church Kautantowit's Mecautea (ONAC KM), firmly rooted in the heart of the Pacific Northwest of Turtle Island USA, and I welcome you to our round-table discussion, which is about Creation according to the historic teachings of our tribal brothers and sisters ancestor relations.
For those of you whom are a bit confused by the term "Turtle Island", I believe that the following tribal teachings of Creation will help you to understand why the land of our earth today is regarded as being turtles.
For those of you whom are a bit confused by the term "Turtle Island", I believe that the following tribal teachings of Creation will help you to understand why the land of our earth today is regarded as being turtles. But before we get into it, I think that we first should address the canvas in which our painting will be created and presented, especially considering the environment to which it will be interpreted from.
As technologically "advanced" as we are told to believe that we have evolved into being scientifically as such the superiority smart species called human beings, comprehending the reality of our ancestor relations is almost an impossibility consciously unless provoked into perceiving it from the eyes of our ancestor relations directly. Today, we are a people who point and quote provable fact opposed to un-provable myth. How soon we've forgotten when legends and myth were all our species had. Of not for the lore of myth, would our species hace strived for the abilities to investigate and in turn prove fact?
Creation, according to our tribal relations ancestors, or "American "Indian" creationism" as it's more commonly known and referred to as, suggests the idea that humans were not created by means of evolution. These truths rely heavily on oral traditions taught from generation to generation by their ancestor relations, not so much on scientific fact. Because of this, the beliefs and wisdom as a whole to be had by our elder tribal brothers and sisters is often seen, and in turn dismissed as being "myth" or "ethnic folklore", even "fairytale" opposed to being considered as having merit and or any factual wisdom contained within it.
You see, one of the true tragedies Still being inflicted today, is in the blatant disregard for the elders of our tribal brothers and sisters and what wisdom hasn't been completely lost to the "Civilizing tactics" force-indoctrinated to the point of extreme violence and abuse, even death and fear thereof. That combined with the continuing "Divide and Conquer" methodology gives confidence to Oppressor at extincting their entire culture sooner opposed to later such as when first declared their ultimate goal... if we let them accomplish it without resistance make No mistake - they will NOT think twice before doing it!
The very same oppressor has already accomplished such disconnection in the rest of we natives born upon this land since the same time period they began targeting the tribal peoples... over 500 years ago, and the same had been accomplished long before then for our boat-blood ancestor relations long before our physical existence here came to be... they, like we were not considered the true Threat, nor the direct bulls-eye as remain the tribally born bloodlines and their cultural history. The technological gadgetry that distract us only help to further that gap if we allow it to as it ultimately distances us from the direct teachings and wisdom to be had by our ancestor and elder relations. Balance and respect remain crucial keys for our advancement as an honorable species.
One of the things that our common oppressor couldn't bring himself to fathom, was how many tribes throughout North america believe that their was an Earth age that was in existence before this one, but ultimately that it is no more because the people of that world did not behave themselves in the ways honorable to Great Creator. According to their wisdom, the Creating Power (Creator) was dissatisfied with their lack of honor, and so he decided to bring a very heavy rain that flooded the whole Earth. This would parallel to "The Great Flood" experienced by the man Noah of the Holy Bible to which most of you are likely familiar with even if only to a minimal degree.
All of the people and almost all the animals upon that earth surface ultimately died... except for Kangi, which was a crow. The crow asked the Creating Power to create him a new resting spot and so the Creating Power decided to create the new world... our Mother Earth of today.
Creator had a huge pipe bag that had all types of animals and birds in it. It is said that out of that bag, Creator selected four animals that felt could survive underwater for long periods of time and then told each animal to grab a clump of mud from underwater. First the dove tried and failed. Next, the otter tried but also failed to reach the bottom too. so then beaver tried but he too also failed at achieving the mission of Great Creator.
Just as Creator was about to give up hope, he decided to try the turtle. Turtle was sent and had stayed underwater for So long that everyone was certain that he had to have drowned. But then, he broke the water’s surface with mud clenched tightly in his mouth, feet, claws and even tucked inside his turtle shell.
The mud became the resting place for the turtle and crow while the Creator shook two long eagle feathers which caused the mud to expand across the water to form a dry surface. The Creator was said to have been saddened for how dry the land was which caused him to cry, and that Creators tears now flow upon our earth as the oceans, streams, rivers, creeks and too, have pooled into what we perceive as lakes.
Creator named this new Earth Turtle Continent, and then released more animals from his pipe bag to freely roam the new Earth. Then Creator created we the species of human beings from red, white, black, and yellow Earth. Creator gave the new people his sacred pipe and told them do good and warned them about what happened to the people before them on the last earth surface when they started living bad in the hopes that they would learn opposed to repeat the lesson.
We have a link to the Lakota "Creation story" here for your convenience if you're interested in checking it out:
We also have a video link to our children's teaching of Creation here also for your convenience if your interested:
The Iroquois teaching of Creation is very similar to that of the one shared immediately above
In their story of "Sky Woman and the Big Turtle" and can also easily fit to and with it.
According to their ancestor relations, the land of our earth was created after Big Toad scooped up mud from the bottom of the sea---in an effort to save Sky Woman after she falls from the sky---and spread it on the back of Big Turtle.
As a result of this, the land began to grow until it was the size of North America. Sky Woman then stepped onto the land and sprinkled dust into the sky. The dust became the moon, stars, and sun. Then Sky Woman then gave birth to two sons (Sapling and Flint) who played a key role in the creation of the remainder of the earth. Sapling brings into the world all that is good (plants, animals, and rivers), while Flint tampers with/aims to destroy Sapling's good creation. The two get into a fight and Flint is defeated but doesn't die. This would parallyl to the biblical story of Cain and Able to a good degree, though obviously with a less tragic outcome than Cain and Able had. According to the Iroquois, Flint's anger was manifested into the form of a volcano.
Then the Spirit of the Sky World came down and looked at the Earth long ago. As he traveled around seeing all of the Earth, he saw how beautiful it was so he then decided to create people to put on it. Before returning back to the sky, he gave the people all names and called them together to speak to them. He said “To the Mohawks, I give corn," which was one of the tribes there (Native American Myths of Creation). Then The Spirits of the Sky World gave the Oneidas nuts and the fruit of many trees. He then gave the Senecas beans. To the Cayugas, he gave the roots of plants to be eaten. To the Onondagas, he gave grapes and squashes to eat and tobacco to smoke at the camp fires.[
In at least three Cherokee creation stories, the world begins as a large, unexplored body of water. The only existing beings are the animals and they all live in the sky. In two of these stories, the earth is a great island floating above the water. In another story, the actual land isn't formed until the Water Beetle volunteers to go and explore what is at the bottom of the large body of water and comes back with mud, which then becomes the land.