The Iroquois Constitution

This story is about the five nations and how the leader Dekanawidah wanted to have laws they needed to follow through with so their nations would all get along and not fight. They had a tree with roots that came out of it and lead to thee 4 directions. This tree was meant to represent peace and strength. If they obeyed these laws that they made they can trace themselves back to the tree and they would be welcomed. I think the only thing bad about this story was that the laws that they made up to live by and obey weren't really laws. They were mostly ways that you should live your life by. I don't think it's that bad if you disobeyed some of the things that they talked about but I think it's better to try to set some standards like those to live your life by and try to follow them. I don't really like this story because the way the were punished was not fair at all. They may have deserved something but it was unnecessarry for them to be punished like that. This story was alright but not thrilling.

The Navajo Origin Legend

When I read this story I didn't really understand the meaning. The four gods did everything in fours, such as the direction they placed the buckskin and the cornmeal to create the first man and women from the mirage people. I found it very weird that this was their way of "creating" people and I did not enjoy reading it at all.

The Earth on the Turtle's Back

This story is trying to explain that way back when the Earth was created, the ancient chief was represented as God and the people in heaven. One day when his wife has a dream something is telling her that she needs to get rid of the giant tree because there is something special about it. They uprooted it after a couple of tries since no one could do it because it was too hard for everyone except for the strongest one, they saw that where there once was great big roots was now a land which is known as Earth. The wife went to go look and happened to fall through where she was caught by two birds. The animals realized she wasn't like them and that she couldn't live on water so they had all the animals try to go find "Earth" burried deep in the water. Only one little animal came up with a small piece of Earth that they put on the back of a turtle that later became more spreadout and grew to be the completed Earth. The seeds she held onto from when she fell from the sky became the soil that everything grew from to create what we have now today. This story was a little confusing to me about how the trutles helped explain the origin myth. It made me feel that i could understand thar when the tiny piece of earth fell on the back in the turtle that it grew larger and larger and thats why it became the whole world. I didn't exactly enjoy reading this passage but I did what I needed to do.

When Grizzlies Walked Upright

When I read this story, I didn't really understand how a Sky Spirit came down from the sky and created earth. He created a mountain with trees, rivers with fish and otters. Also when the sky spirit took his family down from the sky to live on the mountain the daughter "flew away" and down the mountain because of the wind spirit. And when the daughter flew away, she met a grizzle bear that she fell inlove with and made a family with. People and bears making a family is not possilbe. This story confused me also at the end when the grizzlie sets out to find his child he somehow got cursed. Now all grizzlie bears from that moment on would walk on all four legs and never speak again.

Journal of the First Voyage to America

When Columbus first arrived at the cape of the island he began to love the landscape. He described the trees as being quite abundant and the birds song as being so exquisite. As he was wondering the island he became face to face with the natives that were settling there. When they realized they were discovered they fled with their goods to the mountains abandoning their houses. I think that the natives should have stayed on their ground and met with Columbus because maybe they could have benefitted from each other. If food or shelter was a problem for either of them, then they could have helped one another.

I'm Caroline but a lot of people call me Cal : )