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Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians PDF

350 Pages·2002·0.866 MB·English
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Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians Copyright 2002 by Bill Grantham. This work is li- censed under a modified Creative Commons Attribu- tion-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are free to electronically copy, distribute, and transmit this work if you attribute authorship. However, all printing rights are reserved by the University Press of Florida (http://www.upf.com). Please contact UPF for information about how to obtain copies of the work for print distribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the University Press of Florida. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author’s moral rights. Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers Florida International University, Miami Florida State University, Tallahassee University of Central Florida, Orlando University of Florida, Gainesville University of North Florida, Jacksonville University of South Florida, Tampa University of West Florida, Pensacola This page intentionally left blank Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians Bill Grantham University Press of Florida Gainesville ·Tallahassee ·Tampa ·Boca Raton Pensacola ·Orlando ·Miami ·Jacksonville ·Ft. Myers Copyright 2002 by Bill Grantham Printed in the U.S.A. on acid-free, TCF (totally chlorine-free) paper All rights reserved 07 06 05 04 03 02 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grantham, Bill. Creation myths and legends of the Creek Indians / Bill Grantham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8130-2451-X (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Creek mythology. 2. Creek Indians—Folklore. 3. Legends—Southern States. I. Title. E99.C9 G68 2002 398.2’089’973—dc21 2001041580 The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. University Press of Florida 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611–2079 http://www.upf.com In memory of William Jefferson Grantham, Jr., 1934–1999 This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Part I. Beliefs and Ritual 1. The Role of Mythology 3 2. Cosmogony 14 3. Creek Cosmology 21 4. Souls 38 5. Spiritual Specialists 45 6. Miscellaneous Beliefs 50 7. Sacred Plants or Medicines 55 8. Sacred Time and Space 63 9. Ceremony and Ritual 68 10. Conclusions 83 Part II. Myths and Legends 11. Earth Diver Myths 89 12. Emergence Myths 106 13. Migration Legends 134 14. Relationships Between the Tribes 159 15. Journeys into the Sky World 167 16. Visitors from the Sky World 188 17. Snake Man Legends 199 18. Man-Eating Birds 228 19. Tobacco and Corn: Sacred Plants to the Creeks 235 20. Contemporary Creek Myths and Legends 254 Appendix of Sources 277 Phonetic Guides 285 Glossary of Creek Words 289 Glossary of Geographical Locations 295 Notes 301 Bibliography 313 List of Stories by Author 319 List of Stories by Cultural Group 323 Index 327 Preface In my own search for an understanding of Creek mythology and cosmol- ogy, I realized that no single work existed that encompassed the entire corpus of information available. The myths and legends collected here were published in ethnographies, magazines, travelers’ accounts, and a variety of other formats, many of which have become obscure. This work brings together for the first time an extensive collection of Creek creation myths and migration legends in a format that allows the reader to com- pare the myths and legends and to retrieve information from them easily. It is my hope that historians, anthropologists, folklorists, and students of religion will find this work a useful reference and that people of Creek descent will find it an accurate repository of their myths, legends, and religious heritage. This page intentionally left blank

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