The Oneida Creation Story

The Oneida Creation Story is the oldest tradition of the Onyota’aka (People of the Standing Stone) and is one of the greatest pieces of oral literature of Native North America. Ancient elements of Iroquoian cosmology are the heart of the saga: Sky-world, the fall of Sky-woman, the creation of Earth upon Turtle’s back, and the creation of mankind and early society by the twins. Various versions have been passed down from generation to generation, but the story has never before been published in the Oneida language. The Oneida Creation Story makes this majestic and beautiful story available in both Oneida and English for the first time. This special bilingual edition also features earlier translated versions of the Creation Story, a discussion of its cultural and historical contexts by Oneida Indian historian Anthony Wonderley, and lexicons cross-referenced to the story.

Library Journal

This is the first time that the Oneida Creation Story, perhaps the most completely documented representation of human and world origins in North America, has been simultaneously reproduced in English and the Oneida language. This account is one of a number of versions in which the basic ancient and traditional elements of this tale are preserved. Key elements of Iroquoian cosmology include the Sky-World, the fall of Sky-Woman and her landing on Turtle's back, the origins of humankind and society, and the moral battles between the brother Twins. The book's history of the research on the Oneida Creation Story, which documents temporal changes in format and plot, is highly useful, and the editors include three lexicons organized by phrase, word, and stem. An appendix provides two additional early English versions of the Oneida text. Lounsbury (Oneida Verb Morphology) and Gick (linguistics, Univ. of British Columbia) have done a great service to Oneida linguistic studies, the discipline of linguistics, and, most importantly, the efforts to preserve the Oneida language.--John E. Dockall, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Oneida elder Demus Elm first told the Oneida Creation Story to the renowned linguist Floyd G. Lounsbury in 1971. Lounsbury is the author of Oneida Verb Morphology and other works. The transcription and translation of the story were completed with the assistance of Harvey Antone, a relative of Demus Elm, and Bryan Gick. Gick is an assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics and Speech Sciences at the University of British Columbia.