Divinities and Heroes

Native Americans believe that the Great Spirit directs all creation and that the powerful deities and cultural heroes, who liberated the world from chaos and gave human beings the objects and knowledge necessary for survival, are in the hands of the world’s day-to-day functioning. They attribute supernatural beings or personifications of the divine, such as the Coyote in the southeast, Nanabush, Gluskap, the Great Liebre, Wisakedyak, in the forested areas, and the horn in the northwest. These cultural heroes can also be evil and deceptive.

Myths about the origin and organization of the heavens are found throughout the United States, often mixed with other myths. The Tsimshian of the northwest coast, for example, say that a greedy chief guarded the celestial bodies until Cuervo stole them, who threw them into the sky, while other peoples tell that the heavens were arranged in a more careful and systematic way.

The supreme spirit Tirawa assigned a position and a portion of his power to each celestial body, according to the pawnee. Shakuru (the Sun) moved east to live there every morning to provide light and heat, while Pah (the Moon) moved west to provide nightlight. The Morning Star, the Evening Star, Death Star and the four that hold the sky were also given positions.

A spider can be a cultural hero, as in the Cherokee myth about fire theft, and often plays an important role in the creation of the world. Fire did not exist at the beginning of time, but one day the god of the thunder sent a lightning to seize the trunk of a hollow sicomoro on an island. The Water Spider woven a small can of cloth and put it behind. He went to the tree, put a scroll in the vessel and gave it to each being.

The logic that death creates space for life and that space on earth is limited is accepted in most accounts of the origins of death.

Native Americans are more concerned about this world than the other, which is often imagined as a place very similar to what we see, but with more hunting, so there are few myths that describe the life of ultratumba. The villages of the plains are known for their "Happy Hunting Land".

Native Americans maintain that the elemental gods and spirits are in charge of the forces of nature, to whom the Great Spirit delegates its various powers, such as the Sun, the Earth, summer, winter, rain, lightning, and the four winds. Thunderstorm is one of the most powerful forces. Many peoples in the plains believe in gods and spirits of the Earth, the Fire, the Water or the Air (the Thunder is a god of the Air), while the foresters divide the Gods and Spirits between those who dwell on the earth and the waters (such as the Thunderbird) and those who live below, usually evil and headed by deities such as panteras or horned snakes. Indigenous deities are divided into two groups: elemental gods and ancestral spirits, known as kachinas. The kachinas serve as intermediaries between humans and the gods and present themselves as masquerading personifications in rituals.