Sky Woman and the Making of Turtle Island

Haudenosaunee tradition tells this story in more than one way, and this retelling follows the shape recorded by Arthur C. Parker (Seneca) and J.N.B. Hewitt (Tuscarora) from named Seneca, Onondaga, and Mohawk tellers, without claiming any single version is the only correct one.

In the Sky World above, a great tree that lit the sky is uprooted, tearing open a hole. A woman, curious or pushed, depending on the teller, falls through it toward the waters far below. Geese or swans, seeing her fall, fly up together and slow her descent, carrying her gently down rather than letting her strike the water.

The animals of the water world below debate what to do; several offer to dive to the bottom of the endless sea to bring up mud for her to stand on, and many fail before one, muskrat in many tellings, succeeds, bringing up a pawful of earth. The Great Turtle offers his back to bear this earth, and as it is spread across his shell, it grows outward into land, this is Turtle Island, the name still used for the continent today.

Sky Woman's daughter is born on this new earth, and her grandsons, the twins Sapling and Flint, are born after her, go on to shape the earth's features in their turn. Their story is told separately on this site as its own entry.