The creation story was an important tale for the matron to tell the children of the clan.

It gave the children a way to explain

why the world behaved in the way they saw it. It especially taught the children of the clan the cultural traditions.

In the beginning there was no world, no land, no creatures of the kind that are around us now, and there were no men. But
there was a great ocean which occupied space as far as anyone could see. Above the ocean was a great void of air. And in
the air there lived the birds of the sea; in the ocean lived the fish and the creatures of the deep.
Far above this unpeopled world, there was a Sky-World, Here lived gods who were like people-like Iroquois. In the Sky-
World there was a man who had a wife, and the wife was expecting a child. The woman became hungry. She kept her
husband busy finding delicious things for her to eat.
In the middle of the Sky-World there grew a Great Tree which was not like any of the trees that we know. The tree was not
supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky-World. It was a sacred tree that stood at the
center of the universe. The woman decided that she wanted some bark from one of the roots of the Great Tree. So her
husband dug a hole among the roots of this great sky tree.
The floor of the Sky-World wasn't very thick, and he broke a hole through it. His wife was filled with curiosity. He wouldn't
get any of the roots for her, so she set out to do it herself. She bent over and she looked down, and she saw the ocean far
below. She fell through the hole. As she fell, she frantically grabbed at its edges, but her hands slipped. However, between
her fingers there clung bits of things that were growing on the floor of the Sky-World and bits of the root tips of the Great
Tree.
And so she began to fall toward the great ocean far below. The birds of the sea saw the woman falling, and they
immediately began flying wingtip to wingtip. They made a great feathery raft in the sky to support her, and thus they broke
her fall. But of course, it was not possible for them to carry the woman very long.
The great sea turtle came and agreed to receive her on his back. The birds placed her gently on the shell of the turtle, and
now the turtle floated about on the huge ocean with the woman safely on his back.
But the woman needed earth under her feet, so she asked the animals of the Endless Waters for help. None of the other
animals could dive deeper than the muskrat, so he was called on to swim down and find earth.
The muskrat dove deep down into the water. Finally, he touched soft mud. He scooped up as much as he could and
returned to the surface. All the animals helped spread the earth onto the turtle’s back.
As the animals worked, the Sky Woman began to walk in counterclockwise circles around the turtle’s back. As she walked,
the turtle began to grow. The woman walked in larger and larger circles around the turtle’s back and the turtle grew and
grew and grew.
Finally, the turtle was the size of the earth we know today. Together the Sky Woman and the animals built lakes and
mountains and forests and vast plains.
The woman had a daughter who became the Earth Mother. Earth Mother bore three daughters Corn, Beans and Squash,
and twin sons, the evil-minded Flint and the good-minded Sapling.
The good son, Sapling, created the sun, the moon, plants and other animals; he created all the pleasant things we have on
earth. His evil brother Flint destroyed much of Sapling’s work - he created what was unpleasant in the world we know.
When Sapling created fish, Flint gave them hard bones. When Sapling created berry bushes, Flint gave the bushes thorns.
When Sapling created summer, Flint made sure there was a winter. Sapling then created different kinds of humans. He
filled their minds with good thoughts, but his brother made sure to give them evil thoughts too.
From yellow bark Sapling created the Asian race. From sea foam he created the Caucasian race. He created Africans from
dark clay, and from red clay, he created the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois people.
But these different humans could not live together in the same place; they were constantly at war. Each race was then
separated and put into each of the four corners of the world. The world is still carried by a giant sea turtle over the endless
waters and the different races still make war to this day