Great
Turtle
Long ago it was spoken,
in the early beginnings there was no land. There was only the limitless
vault of sky and the infinite waters of ocean. Above the sky there was
a Sky World where living gods existed. In this Sky World there was couple.
While the pregnant woman was gathering food beneath a tremendous tree,
she broke a hole down into the sky and fell, grasping at the plants which
grew among the roots of the sky tree. A long way did she fall. Sea
birds flying in the sky saw the woman falling. They circled together
and formed a flying raft which caught the woman and kept her from falling
into the vast sea below. Some of the sea birds called to the ocean
creatures below to help save the woman. A Great Turtle emerged from
the vast sea and agreed that he could take the woman upon his back.
There she existed. The sky above and the sea all around. Finally
a muskrat appeared he dove to the bottom of the sea and retrieved a small
amount of dirt within the grasp of his paws. With this soil, the woman
grew the plants which remained in her hands.
The story of how the
Great Turtle turned into the Earth continues in the spoken ledgends of
the Iroquois and other groups of First People. The surreal
image of the original tribe of man living on the back of a Great Turtle
which turned into the Earth has been an attractive concept for the development
of this sculpture. Return to Rocknfish
Index Page 
I have been generously
provided with literature about this ancient mythology of the Great Turtle
by the curator of the Noteworthy Mohawk Indian Museum in Amsterdam,
New York To access their website please bookmark their link at
the web page address of: http://www.greatturtle.net/