Legends of the Longhouse: Sky-Woman and the Evil-minded/Good-minded Legends (Seneca Creation Myths)

Opening context and source

• From Legends of the Longhouse (1938), front matter shows Cornplanter (Jesse J. Cornplanter) and the Tonawanda Reservation context; the material is presented as Seneca/Iroquoian myth with translator's notes and a personal letter style from Jesse J. Cornplanter to an audience (Sah-nee-weh).
• Preface tone: the author acknowledges difficulties translating into English and invites readers to “drift along in his Canoe of Thoughts” rather than forcing a rigid literalness; key phrases include “Neh nih Che yonh en ja seh” (When the world was new) and other Seneca terms about dreams and chiefs.
• Visuals referenced: a drawing of the Sky-woman with corn, the Fire-dragon/Blue Panther, corn-pounder and mortar, birds with locked wings, Musk-rat, and Turtle with earth in its mouth; these images accompany the legend as illustration suggestions.

Legend of the Sky-Woman: a creation myth (I)

• Cosmology and world origin
• There is a celestial world where beings (humans, animals, living things) exist as man-beings.
• The world is lighted not by a sun, but by the white blossoms of a great celestial tree in front of the lodge of a presiding chief.
• A Fire-dragon or Blue Panther is tied to jealousy surrounding the Chief’s wife.
• Dreams have high cultural importance; a dream leads to uprooting the Tree of Light.
• The uprooting of the tree creates an opening through which light enters, inaugurating the Sun of today.
• The Chief deceives his wife into looking down the opening, and in anger pushes her through the opening.
• In his anger, the Chief also casts down all man-beings (Corn, Beans, Squash, Sunflower, Tobacco, Deer, Wolf, Bear, Beaver, and other living things) and transforms them into their current forms and sizes.
• After cooling, the Tree of Light is replaced; this marks the beginning of the present world and all living things as they are.
• Sky-woman’s descent and the creation of land
• Sky-woman falls through the upper-world opening and is spotted by water-dwelling and water-fowl beings, who help her.
• Large Birds soar and interlace their wings to form a cradle for her descent; water-animals attempt to obtain mud from the sea bottom to form land.
• The Musk-rat succeeds in bringing a mouthful of wet earth; the Great Snapping Turtle holds the earth on his back as it grows.
• Earth expands on the turtle’s back and Sky-woman begins to walk, scattering earth in all directions and causing vegetation (Red Willow, shrubs, grasses) to appear.
• Birth and courtship of Sky-woman’s daughter
• Sky-woman gives birth to a daughter who grows into womanhood and is courted by various beings who take human-like forms.
• The mother-to-be advises her daughter to reject suitors until a young man of the Great Turtle’s race, who seeks her for his wife, is chosen.
• The suitor arrives at night with two arrows (one tipped with flint). Note: Cornplanter’s version mentions two arrows; some sources say three arrows, but this letter sticks to two.
• Language notes embedded in the narrative
• Key Seneca phrases highlighted by the storyteller: Neh nih Che yonh en ja seh (When the world was new); Ha sen no wa neh (the Chief); Oh eh sen dah (dream).
• The storyteller explains that translations may lose poetic meaning, hence occasional textual placeholders and cultural glosses.
• Visual illustration guidance for students
• A drawing is provided (described in the text) showing Sky-woman with corn given by the Fire-dragon/Blue Panther, a Corn-Pounder and Mortar, Birds with locked wings, Musk-rat and earth on Turtle’s shell.

Legend of the Evil-minded and Good-minded (II): The Three Sisters (Corn, Beans, Squash)

• Continuation from the last letter (the twins episode)
• The young woman bears twins; one emerges normally, the other comes out through her armpit, which causes her death.
• Old Woman (the grandmother) is furious at the daughter’s death and questions which twin caused it.
• The Evil-minded twin speaks and accuses the Good-minded twin; the Old Woman throws the Evil-minded twin away into shrubbery; the Evil-minded twin survives and grows into a man-being; the Good-minded twin is cast away and later revered.
• The Old Woman’s enmity and the two brothers’ fates
• The Old Woman hates the Good-minded and prefers the Evil-minded; the Evil-minded learns from his father (the West Wind) how to create and sustain good things.
• The West Wind teaches him to build a lodge, start a fire, plant and tend crops (corn, beans, squash, tobacco) and warns him of his Evil-minded brother’s jealousy and intention to spoil good things.
• Good-minded’s and Evil-minded’s worlds create and spoil
• Good-minded creates all streams with double current for easy travel; Evil-minded spoils by introducing ripples and falls.
• Good-minded creates fruits, animals, and fish; Evil-minded spoils by putting small bones into fish to hinder future use or cause trouble.
• The old woman’s burial and the emergence of cultivated foods
• After the daughter’s death, the old woman buries her in a shallow grave.
• From the deceased daughter’s body, Tobacco grows from the head; Corn from the breast; Squash from the abdomen; Beans from the fingers; Potatoes from the toes.
• The Good-minded watches and the grandmother cooks corn soup with the newly grown foods; this is narrated as traditional family instruction (the recipe attributed to the sister Anna).

Food, ritual, and a practical element: corn soup recipe (as told by the sister Anna)

• Ingredients and quantities (approximate, as told)
• 2 qts shelled white corn
• 1.5 qts sifted hard-wood ashes
• Optional meat pieces for flavoring
• 0.5 qt colored beans (parboiled)
• Preparation steps (as described)
• Fill a kettle with water to about three-quarters full; bring to boil; add ashes; after burning for about 5 minutes, add corn;
• Boil until corn turns red and hulls loosen (about 1.5 hours); avoid sticking to bottom;
• Remove and rinse in a hulling basket; rinse not too thoroughly; boil again until hulls come off from black kernels;
• Rinse again until the water runs clear; then cook with small pieces of meat for 2–3 hours until tender;
• Parboil and add about 0.5 qt colored beans to the soup; cook together until done.
• Cultural note
• The recipe embodies how food comes from the grandmother and the young foods grown from the old woman’s body—linking myth, harvest, and daily cooking practice.

The Great Gambling Game: Peachstones and Bowl (memory of the Great Struggle)

• The Good-minded challenges the Evil-minded in a Bowl and Counters game to decide who would rule the world.
• Timeframe and method
• Ten days to prepare for the game.
• Grandmother brings Bowl and Plumpits; Good-minded rejects grandmother’s tools (under grandmother’s control) and calls on Chickadees for aid.
• The Chickadees’ aid and the counter strategy
• The Chickadees provide six heads as counters; the Good-minded uses their power for all that is good on earth.
• The outcome and ritual remembrance
• The Good-minded wins; the Evil-minded is thwarted.
• The result becomes a ritual memory: in Mid-winter and Green Corn ceremonies, the Great Gambling Game of Peachstones and Bowl is reenacted to remember the stakes—the control of all that Good-minded has created.
• The Evil-minded’ creations and other consequences
• The Evil-minded creates monsters that devour humans; serpents; causes winds that bring disease; he influences other perils and spoils fruit (e.g., smooth briar-bush fruit and even pine-cones being edible in some versions).
• The Good-minded’ test of identity with a stranger
• After seeing his works, the Good-minded meets a be-friended stranger who doubts his identity.
• A mountain-movement test: the stranger attempts to move a mountain; the Good-minded can move it and turn it; the stranger’s rashness leads to a facial distortion when he turns abruptly to observe the commotion.
• The stranger asks to aid future mankind and becomes the grandfather of the medicine-man; this marks the birth of the Spirit of the Faces.
• The social and cultural role of the medicine-man
• The medicine-man lineage is tied to the Spirit of the Faces; this implies a lineage of healing and spiritual authority in Seneca culture.

Postlude: origins of humans and language of the legends

• The Good-minded eventually creates humans and provides a mate for multiplication.
• The storyteller notes variations across versions and emphasizes that oral tradition can differ; written versions may diverge, but the core myth remains.
• Epilogue phrases and closing salutations
• Dah Neh-hoh.
• Ha-yonh-wonh-ish.
• Material culture reference
• Wooden Trenchers and Stirring Paddle (with corn meal) are described as artifacts associated with the legends’ storytelling and food preparation.

Language, culture, and interpretation notes (connections and implications)

• Dreams and destiny
• Dreams (Oh eh sen dah) guide major cosmological events (tree uprooting, world creation, and the guiding of events).
• Dreams, chiefs, and governance
• The Chief (Ha sen no wa neh) and the celestial world’s leadership connect with the social order of the people.
• Dual creation and duality of beings
• The legend emphasizes both Good-minded and Evil-minded forces shaping the world, reflecting a broader Iroquoian/Native American cosmology of balance and conflict between constructive and destructive forces.
• Creation through collaboration of beings
• Sky-woman’s descent is enabled by cooperation among water-dwelling beings (Birds, Musk-rat, Turtle, etc.), illustrating a cosmology of interdependence among species.
• Ethical and practical implications
• The moral tension between creation/creation protection (Good-minded) and destruction/spoilage (Evil-minded) mirrors human concerns about stewardship, resource management, and moral choices.
• Real-world relevance and continuity
• The legends connect to annual ceremonies (Mid-winter, Green Corn) and to traditional agricultural practices (corn, beans, squash, tobacco) that remain culturally significant.
• Mathematical and numeric references in the text
• Arrow motif in Sky-woman legend: two arrows (the text notes that some versions mention three arrows); the two-arrow version is the focus here: $ext{arrows} = 2 ext{ (versus 3 in some variants)}$
• Ten-day preparation window for the Bowl and Counters game: $ext{duration} = 10 ext{ days}$
• Food recipe quantities (as provided):
  • $2 ext{ qts of shelled white corn}$
  • $1.5 ext{ qts of sifted hard-wood ashes}$
  • $0.5 ext{ qt colored beans (parboiled)}$
• Time estimates in cooking steps: approximately $1.5 ext{ hours}$ for the corn to turn red and hulls to loosen; another $2-3 ext{ hours}$ for final cooking with meat; subsequent rinsing until water runs clear.
• Connections to broader mythmaking and pedagogy
• The author uses a personal, epistolary style to relay myth, offering cultural context and translation notes; the text encourages readers to engage with myths as living traditions rather than fixed documents.

Quick reference guide (key terms and concepts)

• Sky-woman: central figure who lands on Earth and gives birth to humanity.
• Great Turtle and Musk-rat: key land-formers who cooperate to create land for Sky-woman.
• Fire-dragon / Blue Panther: symbol of jealousy and a catalyst in the creation narrative.
• Good-minded vs Evil-minded: dual forces shaping agriculture, ecosystems, and human civilization.
• The Three Sisters: corn, beans, squash; foundational crops in Seneca agriculture.
• The Spirit of the Faces: lineage of medicine-men; rooted in the stranger’s accident and reconciliation with the Good-minded.
• The Great Gambling Game: ritual memory linking myth to contemporary ceremonial practice.
• Dream language: special terms like Neh nih Che yonh en ja seh; Oh eh sen dah; Ha sen no wa neh; etc., which anchor the myth in Seneca linguistic traditions.

Note on structure and sources

• The material is a transcribed, voice-led retelling by Jesse J. Cornplanter (Ha-yonh-wonh-ish) with references to his father’s versions and variants among storytellers.
• The text preserves a mix of narrative myth, practical instruction (the soup recipe), and ethnographic commentary (terminology and translation caveats).

Summary takeaways for exam preparation

• The Sky-Woman myth explains the origin of light and the earthly order, emphasizing the role of cooperation among beings (Sky-woman, turtle, musk-rat, birds) in creating land and life.
• The Evil-minded vs Good-minded narrative frames creation as a struggle between constructive forces and disruptive forces, with a resolution that establishes foods, waterways, and moral order.
• The Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash) symbolize interdependent crops and their linked origins in the myth (bone-and-body-derived foods from the grandmother).
• The Great Gambling Game anchors myth to ceremonial practice, linking mythic struggle to ritual memory and contemporary dance/ceremony forms.
• Practical knowledge (the corn soup recipe) illustrates how myth and daily life are intertwined in Seneca culture, with food preparation embedded in mythic narrative.

Final note

• While there are variations across versions, the core themes—creation through cooperative action, the tension between constructive and destructive forces, and the integration of myth with daily life (food, ceremony, medicine, and communal memory)—run consistently through the text. The author closes with cultural salutations and markers that maintain the oral tradition’s living status.