The most important story humans can tell is the creation myth or cosmogony, which is a combination of the Greek words for kosmos (order and birth) and genesis (genesis). It serves as a guideline for all we do. The creation myths, as all myths, aim to describe a culture’s position and role in the universe. They also have anthropological relevance and logic in modern culture. This paper reviews North American creation myths. It focuses on stories that use soil and Earth as central themes to explain how humans came into existence and how they are connected to the rest of the world. Today’s post-Freudian world would not consider dreams to be untrue tales that are unworthy of investigation. Instead, dreams are symbolic or metaphorical constructs which contain elements about the dreamer and their beliefs. The myths are valuable sources of information about the inner psyches and worldviews of particular cultures. Humans have an insatiable need to tell the story of our lives and explain our place in it. No one can witness or document our origins. Charles Long identified five major types of creation myths by naming them in the classic Alpha: The Myths of Creation. These myths can be combined and varied. Many people have heard of ex nihilo myths about creation. These are most commonly found all over the world. Most Native American creation stories involve soil, which is what emerges and earth-divers myths are. Many of these stories involve clay, dust, and mud being used to create humans. Clay is used by the ex-nihilo creator in the final stages of creation. Chaos myths often use clay as the raw material for molding. All earth-diver stories require clay or other earthen materials. For example, the Hopi goddess Spiderwoman thought of humans by singing, and then made them out of clay. It is no surprise that soil is so prevalent in early creation myths. This is because it is so common in everyday life. For example, soil was used as a raw material to make buildings, paintings and figurines. Earth-diver myths place emphasis on Earth’s creation rather than the greater cosmos. Animals play a significant role in primeval waters and are often associated with a dualistic tension with good and wicked forces. These myths often begin with primordial waters and one or two creators who set out on creating Earth. Many animals assist in the digging deep that is required to retrieve earthen material. North American mythology of earthdivers emphasizes a cultural hero or heroine. However, there are also mischievous tricksters or even amoral characters. Sometimes, an evil brother struggles with a strong brother to take dominance. Algonquian stories of earth-diver myths can be post-flood stories. Anishinabe Ojibwa’s post-flood story tells how Nanabozho the cultural hero and a few creatures survive to create new world. Nanabhozo tried to find mud in the water, but it was too deep. There were many other animals who tried as well, but they all failed. Finally, the lowly Muskrat was chosen. After a long period, he finally floated to safety with only a few pieces of earth remaining in his closed paw. Siouan tribes share earth-diver myths where the creative agent acts more like a trickster than a creator. Coyote, a trickster, is common in Native American myths of the Southwest and Great Basin. Coyote is viewed as unpredictable and ambivalent by the Navajo. He tests the boundaries for acceptable behavior. Coyote sends his Crow to the primeval sea to locate the soil and begin the creation of the world. The mud was then transformed into Earth by Coyotes, which in turn created plants, animals, people, and the Earth. According to the Kukulik Inuits of St. Lawrence Island in Alaska’s Bering sea, Raven served as an Earth-diver. She found sand that could make the Earth and separated the pebbles into sand so that they could make human beings. Divers are often killed in this dangerous dive. Mother Earth created humans, plants, and animals. Mother Earth provides all life. The dive can be viewed in a metaphorical way to enter an unconscious world and search for consciousness. Dundes believes that the myths of the earth-diver are a sign of male envy. The earth-diver myths that include the twin motif are used to reflect the dualities inherent in life and existence. For example, in the Iroquoian myths the bad twin is responsible for dangerous hunting animals while his mother’s preferred twin produces good domestic animals as well as edible plants. Conflicts between opposing forces could be seen as a conflict between hunting-gathering and farming. Myths allow us to mediate Binary oppositions. Or, logically heterogeneous. These include stability and change, state or process, being/becoming, being/becoming, stability and change, state/process, being/becoming, stability and disintegration, and being/becoming. The gradual creation of particular people at a particular location, or emergence site, is a myth called emergent myth. Many Native American tribes of the American Southwest consider this the center or the point where their people originated. Keresan speakers in New Mexico such as Laguna, Zia, Acoma, and Laguna claim that two sisters spirits lived underworld. This was where they were fed and taught by Thinking Woman. Further west, Mother Earth nurtured the Zuni before they emerged from the underworld darkness. Hopi, westernmost Puebloans believes they were guided by Spider Woman through three worlds. As they matured morally and physically, they then entered the Fourth world through a hollow-reed and sipapu. These holes are symbolic holes in houses floors and kivas. Bushnell claims that the Nanih Waiya Cave was the place where humans and grasshoppers emerged via a long passage. The Nanih Waiya Cave is the site of the Choctaw origin myth. The Southeast Creeks, along with other groups, are more concerned about the migration of these creatures after they have emerged from the earth. Arikara, a northern Plains tribe believes they dug their own way out and emerged in east. Mother Corn then guided and nurtured them to the settlement. According to the Kiowa they were led by ants of the underworld through hollow logs and into the real world. Apache myths describe how buffalo built a ladder that led to the hole for underworld creatures using their horns. It is believed that the myths of emergentia are ancient. The metaphor for this is the mammalian natal process. These myths show that people had different birth forms, were often assisted by a Midwife-Goddess, and then went through several stages of struggle before they emerged from the Underworld.
