Beginnings The First Americans

But Where did they come from? The First Arrivals The first people began to arrive on this continent as early as 12,000 – 30,000 years ago But Where did they come from?

The First Arrivals The first people began to arrive on this continent as early as 12,000 – 30,000 years ago But Where did they come from? The Bering Strait, right??

Yes and No

Due to recent archeological and anthropological evidence, authorities have been able to determine that it was not just one race of people who settled this land, but many.

Early Civilizations

Major American Tribes Navajo Iroquois Algonquin Cherokee Apache Comanche Zapotec Olmec Maya Aztec Toltec

Major American Tribes The Aztecs - Largest tribe in the Americas - Est. Population of around 350,000 - Covered an area from Guatemala to Mexico City (Tenochtitlan) – or over 80,000 square miles 6th – 16th Centuries

Major American Tribes The Maya - Most scientifically advanced of all the American tribes - 2,500 B.C. – 16th Century A.D. – Yucatan Peninsula

Literature The literature of the early Americans is mostly religious or mythical in nature. One commonality of Native American literature is the creation myth.

Creation Myths Of all the archetypal stories that have transcend race, culture, and geographic separation, the creation myths are the most common. Almost every civilization has created one.

There are common themes, such as: Order from chaos One supreme creator A great flood Other times, some stories can be quite unique.

Pima Iroquois Maya

Examples from Around the World Old Testament 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Examples from Around the World The Sumerians When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being,

Examples from Around the World India 1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? 2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever. 3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit. 4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.

Examples from Around the World The Greeks In the beginning there was an empty darkness. The only thing in this void was Nyx, a bird with black wings. With the wind she laid a golden egg and for ages she sat upon this egg. Finally life began to stir in the egg and out of it rose Eros, the god of love. One half of the shell rose into the air and became the sky and the other became the Earth. Eros named the sky Uranus and the Earth he named Gaia. Then Eros made them fall in love.

Examples from Around the World The Mayans Here is the story of the beginning, when there was not one bird, not one fish, not one mountain. Here is the sky, all alone. Here is the sea, all alone. There is nothing more –no sound, no movement. Only the sky and the sea. Only Heart-of-Sky, alone. And these are his names: Maker and Modeler, Kukulkan, and Hurricane. But there is no one to speak his names. There is no one to praise his glory. There is no one to nurture his greatness.