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Iroquois Creation Story

The Iroquois consisted of the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga nations. They joined in the early eighteenth century. The Iroquois called themselves People of the Longhouse, it refers to their primary dwelling. The Iroquois built houses that were twenty feet wide and anywhere from forty to two hundred feet long. Each house accommodated several families who shared cooking fires. Their towns contained as many as two thousand people.

There are twenty-five versions of the Iroquois creation myth. One accounts of the myth given by David Cusick "begins with a man and a woman who live together in the sky world on opposite sides of a fire. Although these two do not sleep together, the woman finds herself pregnant and eventually gives birth to a daughter." This is similar to the birth of Jesus, in a Catholic view. A difference between the two stories would be that the Holy Spirit comes and visits Mary and tells her that she will give birth to a son and she is to name him Jesus. "The man falls ill and dies, and the daughter grieves intensely for him. When the young woman is grown, her father's spirit instructs her to make a difficult journey to a place where she will meet the man destined to become her husband. When at last she finds this man, he too is ill, but the young woman cures him. The two marry but do not sleep together; nonetheless, as had happened to her mother, she becomes pregnant. It is at this point the Cusick picks up the story of the woman who 'would have the twin born.'" Another account goes further to tell a toad that hoards water long enough to cause a flood. Here again the story relates to Christian beliefs, Noah and the flood.

Though I am unaware if the Iroquois believed in several or simply one deity, it is easy to see that some Bible stories are similar their creation story. This could make someone believe that a flood did actually occur and that Jesus was born

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