Post #1:Birds of a Feather: From Doves to Crows

             Every culture has a story to explain how they came to be. Three of these creation stories come from the New Netherlands, the Ottawa, and the Sioux and while they are certainly different, there are common threads running through them such as the role of animals, women, and a supreme being. The stories were old oral traditions the people had passed down among themselves and were unique. After the Europeans made contact with them, the stories showed the influence Christianity had upon the Native Americans.

            The first story has men evolving from animals, a common theory even today. The second story explains things a little differently with the first, true appearance of a supreme being – The Great Hare – who prompted the creation of man from the corpses of animals. The third story clearly shows when Christianity began to take a stronghold on the Native Americans. There is a supreme being who is angry with the world because the men are evil. Therefore he drowned them all in a great flood, an almost identical version of the Noah’s Ark story found in Genesis, Chapter 7. Later in the story a crow is circling around the globe looking for land to rest upon, like the dove that Noah sent out and returned with an olive branch. This evolution of the stories coincides with the settlers coming over from Europe and starting churches and towns where the Native Americans would have had contact with them and heard the stories from the Bible.

            The Native Americans’ stories started out with animals being the creators of man and the different tribes springing from the different species. Later on as the years go by Christian symbols appear and become intertwined with the originals as the Europeans spread their beliefs and tried to convert the natives.

            Out of these three legends, the first story is the purest form of Native American mythology before European corruption. This truly shows the influence nature has on them and the presence of Mother Earth as shown by the woman who gives birth to the three animals, a deer, a bear, and a wolf, which represent certain traits in a man.

            The creation stories retain some of the basic beliefs but the details to explain them are redone by the Christian point of view.

Comments

[Megan Williams]

The title for the blog is very catchy and makes me want to read it. The title is also relevant to the topic at hand. The sentence in paragraph two that starts out as "This evolution of these stories..." is confusing. It may be better stated as, "The evolution of these stories...". In paragraph three of the blog, examples or a more elaborate discussion of the topic would be powerful. The same goes for paragraph four, which makes a great point that is otherwise lost because of no elaboration on it. Good job, next time try to elaborate more on the great points you have made.

[Stephanie Gunter]

As Megan said, the title of your blog is real catchy, a short common phrase always work as a good eye catcher. I also agree with Megan on the aspect of elaboration, you make good points you just need to elaborate on them. This is an overall good blog. The first paragraph however, becomes a little confusing because you didnt really let the readers know who the New Netherland, The Siux or The Ottowa. Also in the first paragraph, you should let the reader know why it is so important that the three groups had both and similiar and different creation stories. Other then that you have a nice blog... Good job:)

[Alejandro Medrano Rodriguez]

I have to say that your title is very unique and one of the best that I have seen. Just by reading your title I decided to read your Weblog, so keep it up with your good titles. It seems to me like the second sentence in the introduction is a run on so just be careful with that. I think that your introduction(including the thesis statement could be improved. It seems that you need to be more specific at times. It seems to me like you get the main points but you need to evaluate more. You concentrate more on one story when you should provide details for all three because they are all equally important. I also did not see the point of putting the last sentence by itself. So you seem to know what you are talking about but try to orgonize it a little more and remember that details always make things better.