Indian studies are difficult because tribes often go by many names.
They have loose associations/confederacies with one another.
Iroquois creation story
according to the footnotes in your text there are some 25 versions of the year according creation story. What are some reasons for so many versions?
Orator not written down
different tribes/regional
change over time
influence of the person recording the tale/personal bias or political agenda
language translation
Today we have different versions of the Bible such as the King James version the NIV the American Standard Bible
When the church split in England, Protestants separated from the Catholic church.
In addition, three major world religions today share commonality: Christianity, Judaism, Muslim
Today's fastest growing religion, the Mormon Church, also shares history rooted in Judeo-Christian/Muslim faiths.
I assume most of you are from a Judeo-Christian background, and while it's not critical that you be a Bible scholar, the influence of the Jewish and Christian faiths on the early works in American literature is undeniable and unavoidable, and you may want to refer to biblical text throughout the semester to help enrich your understanding of the material presented. Even if you've never entered a church or synagogue, you're probably familiar with the creation story from the Holy Bible as it appears in Genesis. What I would like you to do is to take the next 10 minutes and make a list of the similarities that you see between the Iroqouis creation story in the one found in the Bible.
Iroqouis creation story
How does this creation story parallel Judeo-Christian creation?