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David Cusick- The Iroquois Creation Story
“Among the ancients there were two worlds in existence. The lower world was in great darkness; - the possession of the great monster, but the upper world was inhabited by mankind;” (Norton 18)
David Cusick was born around 1780, probably on the Oneida reservation in upstate New York. His father, Nicholas Cusick, was a Revolutionary War veteran and an interpreter for the Congregationalist mission to the Seneca. David's younger brother, Dennis Cusick was a watercolor painter, and together the two brothers help establish the early Iroquois Realist Style of painting. Wikipedia.
In “The Iroquois Creation Story” is the story of the beginning o f the world and how good and evil started in the earth. In the story David Cusick describes an island and people who used to live there, the island was up on the sky and according to Cusick the sun and moon were not created yet. The woman, who was pregnant of twin curiosity falls into down into the dark worls, which is the earth and animals, helped her.
By this time, only animals and plants used to live in the earth, and the woman with her twins started our generation. The woman gave birth to the Twins who were named Enigorio and Enigonhahetgea. There grew up fast and they both started to fill the earth with their creations. The story explains how the animals, rivers and the seasons were created. According to Cusick, the brothers were different from each other, Enigorio was good and he created many useful things for the earth; good and strong animals for people, rivers and plants that people could eat. Enigonhahetgea on the other hand was always trying to destroy what his brother had produced and creating monsters, thorns and volcanoes.
Eventually, they decide to fight, and the good wins, making Enigonhahetgea live up on the sky, and becomes a evil spirit, far from the earth. I thought that this is a very interesting story, Cusick does a good job describing the earth and how it begins. But the most interesting part is the twins being related to “good and evil”, which remains me the biblical passage about Cain and Able, who were also brothers and represented “good and evil”.
