Sky Woman Mohawk Creation Story As the Mohawks and other tribes of the Iroquois Nations tell the story, there was no earth in the beginning. Instead, there were two levels—a great ocean that stretched farther than anyone could see, and far above this, the Sky World. In the Sky World lived an ancient chief and his young wife. And in the middle of the Sky World grew a magnificent tree that produced many kinds of fruits and flowers, and had enormous roots that spread north, south, east, and west. The man and his wife, Sky Woman, were expecting a child. Sky Woman decided that she needed some bark from the root of the tree—perhaps for medicine, perhaps to eat. As the husband dug around the base of the tree to expose a large root, a hole broke through. Curious, Sky Woman leaned over it—she could see the water below. But then she slipped. As she fell down through the hole she frantically grasped at the tree roots and the seeds on the ground. The birds gathered to rescue Sky Woman, stretching out their broad wings in a raft to catch her and slow her fall. As Sky Woman approached the water, a great sea turtle came up from the ocean floor. The birds let Sky Woman down on the turtle’s back. Sky Woman thought she would die. But the creatures of the ocean came to help her. She asked them to dive down and try to find some earth in which she could plant the seeds and roots that she had clutched in her hand. Only the muskrat succeeded, resurfacing with a small clod of dirt in her paw. The muskrat placed the dirt on the turtle’s back, and it began to grow and grow, until it became the whole world. Sky Woman planted the seeds and the roots, and the world became green. In time she gave birth to a girl, who in turn would gave birth to twin boys. These twins represent a balance in nature. John Fadden, Mohawk John Fadden’s drawings illustrate Sky Woman, who is pregnant, falling from the Sky World, the birds that attempt to slow her fall, and the great sea turtle, who carries her on his back.