American Literature

Leslee Lagunas
Ms. Fitzy
American Lit.
Per.2
“The Earth on Turtle’s back” and “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”
Did you know that the Native Americans have a great respect for the natural world?Native belief essentially held that the land was a gift from the creator, to be used in common by all of the society for survival and sustenance. The creations myths “The Earth on Turtles back” and“When Grizzlies Walked Upright” display the presence of creator/ Master Spirit. Both myths contains a little bit of sacrifice, has animals, food, they pray, suffer, disaster, and death. Native AmericanReligion Connects to Native American Literature. Native American religion believed in cosmologies, creator/mastor spirit, divine assistance and immortality of the soul. A cosmology is a creation myththat is told orally. A creator/mastor spirit is either the evil or the good that its goal is to please the creator. Immortality of the Soul is the afterlife. Divine assistance is the priest/shames.Native American literature writing was orally and they link the earth-surface people with the plants and animals, the rivers and rocks, and all things believed significant in the life of America’s firstpeople. The writing would tie Indian people to the earth and its life through a spiritual kinship with the living and dead relatives of Native Americans.
The creation myths “The Earth on Turtle’sback” and “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” both shows evidence of the earth creation. In “The Earth on Turtle’s back” a cosmology is “From the seeds the trees and the grass sprang up. Life on earth hadbegun.” It’s evident that there was life because of all the creations that started with the seeds. A creator/master spirit is “The tiny bit of earth fell on the back of the turtle…it began to grow largerand larger until it became the whole world”. It’s obvious that the turtle is going to grow bigger which is a success. In “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” a cosmology is “When he put a big log on...