The World on a Turtle's Back: An Iroquois Creation Story (80 Points)

Many Indigenous peoples have stories about creation. These tales explain how they came to be and how they ended up in their homeland.
When we read these stories we are able to get an idea of their beliefs before  Europeans came to North America.

Many of the northeastern Indigenous groups shared a legend about creation. According to this story, the world was created on the back of
a  giant sea turtle. There are many different versions of the legend. The one that we share here comes from the Iroquois of New York State.

This version was written down in 1816 by  John Norton. He was the son of Scottish and Cherokee  parents and was adopted into the
Mohawk tribe.

The tradition of the Five Nations tribes goes as follows:

In the beginning, before the earth was made, the country above the sky was where Superior Beings lived. Ruling above them was the Great
Spirit. The daughter of the Great Spirit became pregnant in an unlawful way. This made the Great Spirit very angry. He pulled up a tree by
the roots and threw his daughter through the hole that was created. But to make sure that she didn’t get destroyed, he ordered a Great Turtle
to come up from the bottom of the waters to wait on the surface of the water to catch her. When she had fallen on the back of the turtle, she
found some mud on its back to form the earth. Soon she had increased the size of the mud ball to the size of a little island.

The baby that was born to the Great Spirit’s daughter was a girl. As she grew up, the earth grew bigger under her hands. When the young
woman was old enough to be married, the Spirits who were roaming about in the heavens took on human forms. Many of them proposed
marriage to the young woman, but her protective mother turned down each offer.

QUESTION 1 DOK 1 32 ALIGNED STANDARDS 15 points

According to the text, how was man created? SELECT AN ANSWER

A. Heavenly Spirits took on human form.

B. The Great Spirit sent them down when he banished his daughter to the hole.
C. The Great Turtle formed them from the mud on his shell.
D. The Great Spirit's daughter birthed humans.

QUESTION 2 DOK 2 32 ALIGNED STANDARDS 15 points

According to the text, how was man seen?

A. As sex users.
B. To protect their land.
C. To give women children from their sperm.
D. A great Kingsman.

QUESTION 3 DOK 3 32 ALIGNED STANDARDS 50 points

Why does Teharonghyawago want to find the cave Tawiskaron was hiding?

A. Teharonghyawago and Tawiskaron loved to play hide and seek.

B. Teharonghyawago knew his brother kept the majority of the corn harvest there.
C. Tawiskaron lived in a cave, and Teharonghyawago wanted to visit him.
D. Tawiskaron was catching and hiding all the animals the Great Spirit had created for humans to enjoy.

NAME: ______________________ DATE: __________________ CLASS PERIOD: ___________________