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The Iroquois Creation Story

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After reading the works from the Iroquois, John Smith, Christopher Columbus, and Samuel de Champlain I can see that a higher power can take many forms. The Ancestral beginnings of the Iroquois is told in the Iroquois Creation Story written by David Cusick. Most consider this story to be a myth but to Cusick it was history. The Iroquois Creation myth starts with a sky woman who is pregnant with twins, a good child and an evil child. These two children would shape the world, a world that just so happens to be a great turtle. In almost all stories of creation an omnipotent power is ever present. The higher power in the Iroquois Creation Story is the good twin, Enigorio. The bad twin Enigonhahetgea (pg22) represents the opposition. The story of the Iroquois creation sounds very similar to the stories we have read in the Bible. The struggle between good and evil, God and the devil. The upper world where mankind resides and the lower world in darkness with monsters sound a lot like heaven and hell. God or in this story Enigorio is the light representing life and creation while the devil or Enigonhahetgea is the darkness representing evil and destruction. Both sides offer a path that can be chosen therefore categorizing all things to come as good or bad, right or wrong. I feel as if the Iroquois Creation Story is based on the classic tale of good prevailing over evil but with more of a fantasy aspect. In a story like this evil must be present to keep the scales from tipping therefore it can never be truly defeated. It makes you realize no matter how beautiful the world we live in and how amazing life can be, there is and always will be a dark underbelly lurking along the edges. In the essays from Christopher Columbus, John Smith, and Champlain the existence of a higher power is harder to define. They have higher powers in the form of kings and queens but also believe in God and his favor. It becomes difficult when mankind itself starts belie

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