Delaware (Lenape)

(map)

A deluge covered the whole earth. A few people survived on the back of a turtle which was so old its shell was mossy. A loon flew by, and the people begged it to dive and bring up some land. The bird dived but could not reach the bottom. Then he flew far away, came back with some earth in his bill, and led the turtle back to some dry land. There the people settled and repopulated the country. Those saved by the turtle became the Turtle Clan.

Frazer, 1919, 295; Bierhorst, John. Mythology of the Lenape (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1995), 30, 43.

After the Great Spirit created the earth, he flooded it. He sent various animals diving for earth. At last the muskrat succeeded. He put the earth on the turtles back, and it increased in size.

Bierhorst, John. Mythology of the Lenape (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1995), 44.

The Walam Olum --- literally, "red-painted tally," --- is a manuscript, first published by C. S. Rafinesque-Schmaltz in 1836, depicting Lenape pictographs and their translation. It relates Lenape creation and flood accounts, migrations, and a list of chiefs. Rafinesque wrote that the manuscript, along with wooden sticks with the original pictographs, were obtained in 1822 "by the late Dr. Ward of Indiana, of the remnant of the Delawares on the White River." The manuscript was long thought to be genuine, but now most scholars believe it to be a hoax, the narratives assembled from numerous sources.

Long ago, when men had become evil, the Strong Serpent Maskanako came. He was the foe of people, and they became embroiled, hating and fighting each other. The small men (Mattapewi) fought with Nihanlowit, keeper of the dead. The Strong Serpent resolved to destroy all men, and the Black Serpent brought the snake-water rushing, spreading everywhere, destroying everything. At the island of the turtle was Manabozho, grandfather of men and beings. Men and beings swam, seeking the back of the turtle. Sea monsters destroyed some of them. The daughter of a spirit helped them into a boat. They beseeched Manabozho to help. Manabozho prayed to the turtle to make them well again. Then the waters ran off, and the great evil went away by the path of the cave.

Kelsen, 1943, 146-1147; Nelson, 1931, 185.

Steven Williams, Fantastic Archaeology (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), 98-115.

For a contemporary Lenape telling of the creation/flood myth influenced by the Walum Olum and folklore from neighboring tribes, see Hìtakonanu'laxk, The Grandfathers Speak (New York: Interlink, 1994), 44-52.