Reading Notes W2: The Creation, Part A

"The Creation" (Maidu) p.23-35

• The beginning of the story starts off with a "Godlike" creature known as the Earthmaker scouring Earth at a time when nothing was on the Earth.

• Earthmaker finds the next character, Coyote. Earthmaker asks Coyote about finding land among the Earth to no avail.

• Earthmaker continues to talk about the Earth, and talks about how he wants to travel the Earth looking for land. Earthmaker proclaims he will be happy if he can see just a tiny bit of land while traveling the area.

• Earthmaker and Coyote come across a small bird's nest. Earthmaker decides to expand this tiny object and stretches out the bird's nest into a large piece of land.

• The next character to be introduced is the meadowlark, a creature that is said to expand lands and keep them stuck together.

• Earthamker and Coyote ask meadowlark about the making of the world. Meadow lark explains that he knows nothing, and that the brilliant two creatures that inhabit the world (Earthmaker and Coyote) must design this world as their own.

• Coyote explains that he wants all creatures who inhabit this world to have blood. The blood of everything is a symbol of their creation and shows them their origin. Meadowlark concurs with this idea of blood, and thus becomes a creature (presumably a bird) and flies away.

• Earthmaker wants to make the land bigger, and wants there to be enough land so that many creatures can inhabit the land.

• Earthmaker goes on to create two white creatures, one that is male and one female, he does this does this once more but with black creatures instead.

• Earthmaker believes that all creatures should have a name and place within the world, and that every one of them should belong to a country, that also has a name.

• After many winters, Earthmaker finally comes up with the concept of humans.

• He began making humans in pairs, proclaiming that these humans will have names, and bare children that will also carry on names.

• Once Earthmaker felt that his job was complete, he traveled to the middle of the world, built a house there, and decided to live there from then on.