Cascadia cosmology
Several legends around the world imitate or replicate 1, creation or 2, a massive deluge. Sometimes these legends merge 1 and 2. Many good 'captures' (archiving) of these legends in the northwest US are found in Ella Clark's INDIAN LEGENDS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. In September 2015, 50th edition copies of this collection were available in that region.
'Cascadia' for these purposes runs from Mt. Shasta north.
Due to his education at UW in Seattle, to his explorations in Cascadia, and to the "living" lab of the event of Mt. St. Helens, Dr. Steve Austin [1] provides an underlying 'layer' of geologic reality to these cosmological recollections.
Familiar Cosmological Elements
Biblical readers will find the following types of material, once the 'layer' of spiritism or animism is understood. That is, native American legend will often refer to archetype animals as people. There is reason to think that actual notable, clever people stand behind these. Sometimes they are honorable, sometime evil. In the 2nd legend of Clark's collection, there is the term 'animal-people'. The original Modoc term for that is needed, for in the 1st legend, the account results in the appearance of a race which is half-spirit, half-grizzly. [Just as a reminder, this is all to be handled or interpreted within the usual hermeneutics of these legends]
CREATION
CREATION BY FORMATION
ORIGIN OF OCEANS
ORIGIN OF SPECIES
ORIGIN OF GENDERS
ORIGIN OF SIN
MIXING OF DIVINE AND EARTHLY RACES
ANCIENT LEADERS OR EXTRA-CAPABLE HUMANS
DELUGE
CATASTROPHE
SURVIVAL ARK
SURVIVAL OF ANIMAL SPECIES
ORIGIN OF ETHNICITY
ORIGIN OF ETHNIC CONFUSION, HOSTILITY
There are probably more, but if 500 tribes having some type of deluge legend does not mean anything positive for Genesis 1-11 in the anthropological world, perhaps this short list will. This list, of course, is formed from accounts heard from the 1800s on, and 8000 miles from the setting of Genesis 1-11.
Approach to Legend or Myth
Our approach to such myth should be that of C. S. Lewis in "The Myth that Became Fact" in GOD IN THE DOCK. That is, given the Bible's description of the world as in revolt (people are in denial of sin or some other essential component of God's truth), and yet knowing that the NT affirms God has left witness all around, we should expect:
1, to find such legends everywhere 2, to find such legends in disrepair, confusion, mistaken, fragmentation
Lewis insists that if we do not find both 1 and 2 around the world, then there is a mistake in the Bible. But we do. There is an abundance, and there is a lot of effort that goes into covering up what should be there. Therefore, a collection like Clark's from such early-modern-time verbal renditions is extremely valuable. Not least because of their distant location. An amazing amount of clarity has 'traveled' across the earth. Which leads me to the following note.
To return to Dr. Austin's work (and perhaps others), here is an illustration of the overlapping importance of these legends. That is, due to their far-flung location, it is phenomenal what has been preserved here. Dr. Austin shows in one flood geology lecture why he believes land and mountains formed on day 3 have such an important role in the deluge when the fountains of the deep were opened.[2] That is, the land masses were spread as the deluge account was taking place.
In "Mt. Shasta and the Grizzlies" from the Modoc people, we find that a daughter is sent by the Sky Spirit, residing in Shasta's volcano, to speak to the Wind Spirit about calming the winds because there is too much smoke in their home. The daughter is delighted to make the trip to the top of Shasta (from inside the cone) because the oceans did not exist until the Sky Spirit brought his family to Shasta. She would love to see the ocean, even though there is a fatal risk involved in doing so.
When "Mt. Shasta and the Great Flood" is told, all animals were at risk without the help of Coyote who kept a small fire going on top of Shasta that some could see and swim to. This saved enough of each species to go forward.
There is no strict correlation of these two. The creative work of Sky Spirit in the former did not include creating earth (which was already there below Shasta) but merely filling it. This may have been after the flood. He did not "need" earth or others, however, he was "tired of being cold" up in the ice and snow overhead (a physical factoid to ponder). The girl who wanted to see the ocean, and the chronological detail that the ocean had just appeared, reminded me, for one, of the view of the Pacific basin in Dr. Austin's reconstruction of land-drift events in the deluge.
Obviously, there are many, many fragmentations of the list from Genesis 1-11, and that is what we should expect. But they will push the honest inquirer to Genesis 1-11, not away from it, with the realization that though Genesis is only brushing up against various geological, biological, and astronomical subjects, it is more reality-based than most 'closed system of natural cause and effect' thinkers admit. It is neither fantasy, nor Eastern-religion illusion, nor hallucinogenic.
Expressions in both Genesis and Cascadia cosmology may be found to be primitive, but underlying each is a cosmological events with its imprint in space and time, though the sheer distance of Cascadia from the ancient near east results in low-resolution mental images.
