Origins
Reflecting Shared Values
Origin stories speak to our creation—as people who descended from the sky, people who rose from the water, people who came from the earth, and people guided by the animals to learn how to be human.
We carried these stories with us from our ancestral homelands to this place we call Oklahoma. Through them, we share glimpses of our worldviews. We remember these things, and we teach them to our children.
Through our stories, we know who we are.
Origin stories reveal the deeply embedded values that inform our respective and diverse ways of seeing and understanding the world.
Every tribe has stories that explain how they came into existence on earth, where they came from, and provide guidance on how they structure their social, political, and religious institutions.
Each tribe has their own distinct Origin story. These stories carry our original teachings, describing how the Creator gifted us with our unique worldviews. These stories carry our rights and responsibilities within our philosophy and scientific knowledge.
Our ancestors instilled within us the values of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relationships. These values are interwoven, as is our culture, art, science, politics, and religion. Our cultures were well established when European nations arrived. They came to our homelands with very different values.
European nations often separated art and culture from science and politics. Their worldviews were very different from ours. Concepts such as land ownership and capitalism did not exist in our world. Europeans exploited these differences to our detriment.
This began our struggle to remain First Americans.
Origin Stories
Listen to and read four Origin stories. Use this organizer to capture your thoughts about the stories.
Caddo story embedded audio TK
Caddo transcript here TK
Pawnee story embedded audio here TK
Pawnee transcript here TK
Yuchi story embedded audio here TK
Yuchi transcript here TK
Otoe-Missouria story embedded audio here TK
Otoe-Missouria transcript here TK
Up Next
In the next section, you will explore the Ancient Roots of First American peoples across North America.