American Indian Mythology

Background Information American Indian myths and legends were transmitted orally through countless generations by tribal storytellers. These stories are often about nature and the teachings of the tribe’s forefathers. Many American Indian Myths could equally be called folk tales: they seem to be about ordinary people, not gods. However, the American Indian attitude is that everything is animated by divinity. Hence, ordinary people, animals, and places are divine.

The American Indian Worldview Among all tribes there is a strong sense that behind all individual spirits and personifications of the divine, there is a single creative life-force, sometimes called ‘the Great Mystery’, which expresses itself throughout the universe, in every human, animal, tree and grain of sand. Every story, too, is a working out of this life-force.

The Role of Animals An aspect of this outlook is the major role played in the stories by animals, who often speak to humans and assist them. Most tribes thought of individual members of a species as expressions of the spiritual archetype of that species, which in turn embodied a particular spirit power.

The Four Directions Another key feature of the Native American spiritual outlook is found in the powers ascribed to the Four Directions, which occur either literally or in symbolic form throughout the stories. These are often represented by particular colors or by animals. The Four Directions have to be in balance for all to be well with the world, and often a central point of balance is identified as a fifth direction. For example, four brothers represent the outer directions, and their sister the center.

American Indian Storytelling American Indian stories have been told for thousands of years, and they are still being told and retold, reshaped and refitted to meet the audience’s changing needs, even created anew out of a contemporary man’s or woman’s vision.

American Indian Storytelling It is customary on the part of one who requests a specific story to offer tobacco or some other gift to the storyteller. The storyteller uses tobacco to show respect for the spirits who live in the stories and whose names are mentioned. The stories passed down to American Indians by their ancestors are very important because they express what American Indians value and believe. In addition, the stories help people to understand the meaning of their existence, and the existence of other things in the world. From these stories, young children learn how people came to be; they receive explanations of why things are the way they are and instructions on how to live properly.