THE folklorist who has been primarily interested in the historic Western
cultures is likely to think of folktales and myths as being essentially different
both in narrative content and in their significance to the people who tell
them. Though this differentiation has some validity for such peoples as the
Greeks and Hindus, ¹ it breaks down almost completely for the North
American Indians. Most groups will, indeed, recognize a difference between
tales which belong to the present world and those which are supposed to
have happened in a previous one, and in some tribes there are found
myths explaining the origin of certain rituals and known in detail only
to the initiated or to the priesthood. But these classes of tales flow freely
into one another. Insofar as the differentiation exists in the minds of tellers,
it seldom seems to be important. Collectors of American Indian tales betray
this indifference, since they publish their collections sometimes as "tales,"
sometimes as "myths," and sometimes merely as "traditions."

Nevertheless, though sharp distinctions from other tales cannot be main-
tained, most of the tribes do tell stories about their beginnings, and some-
times about superior beings; and these it is convenient to speak of as
"creation myths." Such myths differ a good deal in various parts of the
continent. Sometimes, but rarely, a real attempt is given to account for
creation; but more often these origin tales are nothing more than reports
of important changes taking place in an already existing world. These
changes may involve the creation of the present earth, or particular features
of it, or even of the heavenly bodies; and, more frequently, the creation and
conditioning of men and animals.

ABOUT the nearest approach to the true creation myth in aboriginal North
America is found in a sacred story of the Zuñi of New Mexico. It was taken

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