American Literature Kmhs English Department 2015-2016 1

AMERICAN LITERATURE KMHS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 2015-2016 1 THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD The Beginnings of American Literature: Native American Traditions and the First Puritan Settlers OVERVIEW TEXTS & CONTEXTS 1 The Pre-Colonial Period TIMELINE 1 Key Terms allusion Calvinism jeremiad Puritan Puritan plain 2 HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE A CHEROKEE MYTH The Cherokee were the first Native American tribe to accept citizenship in the United States and are still the largest recorded population of natives. They originally migrated from the Great Lakes region centuries ago and settled in the Southeast, primarily the Carolinas and Georgia. As Europeans appropriated their land, the Cherokee were resettled in the Great Plains, and their official headquarters is now Tahlequah, Oklahoma. This account was recorded by English language folklorists in the 19th century and first published in 1913 by Katharine Berry Judson. 3 How the World Was Made earth was fastened to the sky with four cords, but no one remembers who did this. At first the earth was flat and soft and wet. The animals were anxious to get down, and they sent out different birds to see if it was yet dry, but there was no place to alight; so The earth is a great floating island in a sea of water. At the birds came back to Galun'lati. Then at last it seemed to each of the four corners there is a cord hanging down from be time again, so they sent out Buzzard; they told him to go the sky. The sky is of solid rock. When the world grows old and make ready for them. This was the Great Buzzard, the and worn out, the cords will break, and then the earth will father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all over the sink down into the ocean. Everything will be water again. earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When All the people will be dead. The Indians are much afraid of he reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired; his this. wings began to flap and strike the ground. Wherever they In the long time ago, when everything was all water, all struck the earth there was a valley; whenever the wings the animals lived up above in Galun'lati, beyond the stone turned upwards again, there was a mountain. When the arch that made the sky. But it was very much crowded. All animals above saw this, they were afraid that the whole the animals wanted more room. The animals began to world would be mountains, so they called him back, but the wonder what was below the water and at last Beaver's Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day. grandchild, little Water Beetle, offered to go and find out. When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it Water Beetle darted in every direction over the surface of was still dark. Therefore they got the sun and set it in a the water, but it could find no place to rest. track to go every day across the island from east to west, There was no land at all. Then Water Beetle dived to the just overhead. It was too hot this way. Red Crawfish had his bottom of the water and brought up some soft mud. This shell scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled. began to grow and to spread out on every side until it Therefore, the Cherokee do not eat it. became the island which we call the earth. Afterwards this Then the medicine men raised the sun a handsbreadth in the air, but it was still too hot. They raised it another time; 4 and then another time; at last they had raised it seven one or two more were still awake. Therefore, to these were handsbreadths so that it was just under the sky arch. Then it given the power to see in the dark, to go about as if it were was right and they left it so. That is why the medicine men day, and to kill and eat the birds and animals which must called the high place " the seventh height." Every day the sleep during the night. sun goes along under this arch on the under side; it returns Even some of the trees went to sleep. Only the cedar, the at night on the upper side of the arch to its starting place. pine, the spruce, the holly, and the laurel were awake all There is another world under this earth. It is like this seven nights. Therefore they are always green. They are also one in every way. The animals, the plants, and the people are sacred trees. But to the other trees it was said, " Because the same, but the seasons are different. The streams that you did not stay awake, therefore you shall lose your hair come down from the mountains are the trails by which we every winter." reach this underworld. The springs at their head are the After the plants and the animals, men began to come to doorways by which we enter it. But in order to enter the the earth. At first there was only one man and one woman. other world, one must fast and then go to the water, and He hit her with a fish. In seven days a little child came down have one of the underground people for a guide. We know to the earth. So people came to the earth. They came so that the seasons in the underground world are different, rapidly that for a time it seemed as though the earth could because the water in the spring is always warmer in winter not hold them all. than the air in this world; and in summer the water is cooler. We do not know who made the first plants and Review Questions animals. But when they were first made, they were told to watch and keep awake for seven nights. This is the way young men do now when they fast and pray to their medicine. They tried to do this. The first night, nearly all the animals stayed awake. The next night several of them dropped asleep. The third night still more went to sleep. At last, on the seventh night, only the owl, the panther, and 5 THE SKY TREE A HURON MYTH The Huron (also called the Wyandot) lived in the Northeastern woodlands by the Great Lakes. Today, many still live on a reservation in Quebec, Canada. Huron first came in contact with French settlers in the St. Lawrence Valley in the 17th century. Jesuit missionaries successfully converted many Huron to Catholicism, and the tribe maintained largely peaceful relationships with European settlers. “The Sky Tree” is a creation myth that dates from the earliest days of Huron oral tradition. 6 “The Sky Tree” “My husband,” she said, “when I cut the tree, it split in half and then fell through a great hole. Without the tree, there can be no life. I must follow it.” In the beginning, Earth was covered with water. In Sky Then, leaving her husband, she went back to the hole in Land, there were people living as they do now on Earth. In Sky Land and threw herself after the great tree. the middle of that land was the great Sky Tree. All of the As Aataentsic fell, Turtle looked up and saw her. food which the people in that Sky Land ate came from the Immediately Turtle called together all the water animals and great tree. told them what she had seen. The old chief of that land lived with his wife, whose “What should be done?” Turtle said. name was Aataentsic, meaning “Ancient Woman,” in their Beaver answered her. “You are the one who saw this happen. long house near the great tree. It came to be that the old Tell us what to do.” chief became sick, and nothing could cure him. He grew “All of you must dive down,” Turtle said. “Bring up soil weaker and weaker until it seemed he would die. Then a from the bottom, and place it on my back.” dream came to him, and he called Aataentsic to him. Immediately all of the water animals began to dive down “I have dreamed,” he said, “and in my dream I saw how I and bring up soil. Beaver, Mink, Muskrat, and Otter each can be healed. I must be given the fruit which grows at the brought up pawfuls of wet soil and placed the soil on Turtle’s very top of Sky Tree. You must cut it down and bring that back until they had made an island of great size. When they fruit to me.” were through, Aataentsic settled down gently on the new Aataentsic took her husband’s stone ax and went to the Earth, and the pieces of the great tree fell beside her and great tree. As soon as she struck it, it split in half and took root. toppled over. As it fell, a hole opened in Sky Land, and the tree fell through the hole. Aataentsic returned to the place Review Questions where the old chief waited. 7 FROM OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION BY WILLIAM BRADFORD William Bradford (1590-1657) was born in Yorkshire, England to an affluent farming family. After numerous deaths in his family, Bradford was orphaned at the age of seven and was sent to live with two of his uncles. A long period of sickness in his youth meant that Bradford could not work the land, so he would spend most of his time reading the Bible.

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