Editing Creation myth (section)

===Earth-diver===
{{Other uses|Earthdivers (disambiguation){{!}}Earthdivers}}
The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal (most often a type of bird, but also crustaceans, insects, and fish in some narratives)<ref name=hatt>{{cite book |last=Hatt |first=Gudmund | author-link=Gudmund Hatt |title=Asiatic influences in American folklore |date=1949 |publisher=I kommission hos ejnar Munksgaard |location=København |chapter=Earth-diver|pages=12–36|url=http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/248/1508?lang=en}}</ref> into the primal waters to find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land.<ref>Eason, Cassandra. ''Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols: A Handbook''. Greenwood Press. 2008. p. 56. {{ISBN|9780275994259}}.</ref> Some scholars interpret these myths psychologically while others interpret them [[cosmogony|cosmogonically]]. In both cases emphasis is placed on beginnings emanating from the depths.<ref>{{harvnb|Leeming|chapter="Earth-Diver Creation"|2011b}}</ref>

====Motif distribution====
According to [[Gudmund Hatt]] and [[Tristram P. Coffin]], Earth-diver myths are common in [[Native American mythology|Native American folklore]], among the following populations: [[Shoshone]], [[Meskwaki]], [[Blackfoot Confederacy|Blackfoot]], [[Chipewyan]], [[Nahwitti (trading site)|Newettee]], [[Yokuts]] of California, [[Mandan]], [[Hidatsa]], [[Cheyenne]], [[Arapaho]], [[Ojibwe]], [[Yuchi]], and [[Cherokee]].<ref name=hatt/><ref>{{cite book |title=Indian Tales of North America: An Anthology for the Adult Reader |editor=Tristam P. Coffin |location=New York, USA |date=1961 |publisher=University of Texas Press |page=3 |s2cid=243789306 |doi=10.7560/735064-003 |quote=The most common Indian myth begins with a primeval water, out of which some animal brings up a few grains of sand or mud which a culture hero then develops into the world}}</ref>

American anthropologist [[Gladys Reichard]] located the distribution of the motif across "all parts of North America", save for "the extreme north, northeast, and southwest".<ref>Reichard, Gladys A. "Literary Types and Dissemination of Myths". In: ''The Journal of American Folklore'' 34, no. 133 (1921): 274-275. https://doi.org/10.2307/535151.</ref> In a 1977 study, anthropologist Victor Barnouw surmised that the earth-diver motif appeared in "[[hunter-gatherer|hunting-gathering societies]]", mainly among northerly groups such as the [[Hare people|Hare]], [[Dogrib]], [[Kaska]], [[Beaver people|Beaver]], [[Carrier people|Carrier]], [[Chipewyan]], [[Tsuutʼina Nation|Sarsi]], [[Cree]], and [[Innu people|Montagnais]].<ref>Barnouw, Victor. ''Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977. pp. 59 (map 2), 57, 60.</ref>

Similar tales are also found among the [[Chukchi people|Chukchi]] and [[Yukaghir]], the [[Tatars]], and many [[Finno-Ugric mythologies|Finno-Ugric]] traditions,<ref>Deviatkina, Tatiana. "[https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol48/deviatkina.pdf Images of Birds in Mordvinian Mythology]". In: ''Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore'' Vo. 48 (2011). p. 144.</ref> as well as among the [[Buryats|Buryat]] and the Samoyed.<ref>[[David Adams Leeming|Leeming, David Adams]]. ''A Dictionary of Asian Mythology''. Oxford University Press. 2001. p. 55. {{ISBN|0-19-512052-3}}.</ref> In addition, the earth-diver motif also exists in narratives from Eastern Europe, namely [[Romani people|Romani]],<ref>Kornel, Vladislav. "[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005721066&view=1up&seq=91&skin=2021 Gypsy Anecdotes From Hungary: II-How the Devil assisted God in the Creation of the World]". In: ''Gypsy Lore Journal'' Vol II, No. 2. April, 1890. pp. 67-68.</ref> Romanian,<ref>[[Marcu Beza|Beza, Marcu]]. ''Paganism in Romanian Folklore''. London: J. M. Dent & Sons LTD. 1928. pp. 120-123.</ref> [[Slavic creation myth#Creation by diving|Slavic]] (namely, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian), and Lithuanian mythological traditions.<ref>Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "[https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/7396 Pasaulio kūrimo motyvai lietuvių pasakojamojoje tautosakoje]" [The Motifs of creating the world in the Lithuanian narrative folklore]. In: ''Liaudies kultūra'' Nr. 5 (2002), p. 9. {{ISSN|0236-0551}}.</ref>

The pattern of distribution of these stories suggest they have a common origin in the [[East Asia|eastern Asiatic]] coastal region, spreading as peoples migrated west into [[Siberia]] and east to the [[North America]]n continent.<ref>{{harvnb|Booth|1984|pages=168–70}}</ref><ref>[[Vladimir Napolskikh]] (2012), ''[https://www.academia.edu/4918926/Diving_Bird_Myth_after_20_years_2012 Diving Bird Myth after 20 years 2012]'' (Earth-Diver Myth (А812) in northern Eurasia and North America: twenty years later)</ref> However, there are examples of this [[mytheme]] found well outside of this boreal distribution pattern, for example the West African [[Yoruba culture|Yoruba]] creation myth of [[Ọbatala]] and [[Oduduwa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artsmia.org/world-myths/artbyculture/kingscrown_story.html|title=King's Crown Story|website=The Minneapolis institute of Art}} citing {{cite journal|first=P. C. |last=Lloyd|title=Sacred Kingship and Government among the Yoruba|journal=Africa|volume=30|issue=3|pages= 222–223}}</ref><ref>[[Rupert Glasgow|R.D.V. Glasgow]] (2009), ''The Concept of Water'', p. 28</ref>

====Native American narrative====
Characteristic of many Native American myths, earth-diver creation stories begin as beings and potential forms linger asleep or suspended in the primordial realm. The earth-diver is among the first of them to awaken and lay the necessary groundwork by building suitable lands where the coming creation will be able to live. In many cases, these stories will describe a series of failed attempts to make land before the solution is found.<ref>{{harvnb|Leonard|McClure|2004|page=38}}</ref><ref>[[Stith Thompson|Thompson, Stith]]. ''Tales of the North American Indians''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard university press, 1929. p. 279.</ref>

Among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the earth-diver cosmogony is attested in [[Iroquois mythology#Creation|Iroquois mythology]]: a female sky deity falls from the heavens, and certain animals, the [[beaver]], the [[otter]], the [[duck]], and the [[muskrat]] dive in the waters to fetch mud to construct an island.<ref>[[Harriet Maxwell Converse|Converse, Harriet Maxwell (Ya-ie-wa-no)]]; Parker, Arthur Caswell (Ga-wa-so-wa-neh) (December 15, 1908). "[https://archive.org/details/cu31924055492973/page/n49/mode/1up Myths and Legends of the New York State Iroquois]". Education Department Bulletin. University of the State of New York: 33.</ref><ref>Brinton, Daniel G. ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19347/19347-h/19347-h.htm The Myths of the New World: A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America]''. New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1868. pp. 197-198.</ref>

In a similar story from the [[Seneca people|Seneca]], people lived in a sky realm. One day, the chief's daughter was afflicted with a mysterious illness, and the only cure recommended for her (revealed in a dream) was to lie beside a tree and to have it be dug up. The people do so, but a man complains that the tree was their livelihood, and kicks the girl through the hole. She ends up falling from the sky to a world of only water, but is rescued by [[waterfowl]]. A turtle offers to bear her on its shell, but asked where would be a definitive dwelling place for her. They decide to create land, and the [[toad]] dives into the depths of the primal sea to get pieces of soil. The toad puts it on the turtle's back, which grows larger with every deposit of soil.<ref>Thompson, Stith. ''Tales of the North American Indians''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard university press, 1929. pp. 14-15, 278.</ref>

In another version from the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]], the Wyandot lived in heaven. The daughter of the Big Chief (or Mighty Ruler) was sick, so the [[medicine man]] recommends that they dig up the wild apple tree that stands next to the Lodge of the Mighty Ruler, because the remedy is to be found on its roots. However, as the tree has been dug out, the ground begins to sink away, and the treetops catch and carry down the sick daughter with it. As the girl falls from the skies, two swans rescue her on their backs. The birds decide to summon all the Swimmers and the Water Tribes. Many volunteer to dive into the Great Water to fetch bits of earth from the bottom of the sea, but only the toad (female, in the story) is the one successful.<ref>Barbeau, Marius. ''Huron and Wyandot mythology, with an appendix containing earlier published records''. Ottawa, Government Printing Bureau. 1915. pp. 303-304.</ref>