33Indigenous
Haudenosaunee / Iroquois Confederacy Traditions
A sky world is above. Sky Woman falls through an opening. Animals dive, and earth is placed on a turtle’s back. Tellings differ by nation. This is not the Anishinaabe account.
Architecture
Sky Woman, the turtle’s back
Sky Woman falls. The earth is placed on the turtle. The twins shape that world in opposite ways. The Great Law keeps the Confederacy. Death, rebirth, and a future end are not filed.
- 01
Sky world
Above. Sky Woman falls through an opening.
- 02
The dive
Animals bring earth. It is set on the turtle’s back.
- 03
The twins
They do not make the world the same way. Nation names differ.
- 04
Great Law
Relations among the nations. Not a soul-doctrine.
- Time
- Unclassified / Source Needed.
- Agents
- Sky Woman, the twins, the animals of the dive, and Thunderers in many tellings.
- Human slot
- Sky Woman’s descendants, in clan, under the Great Law.
- Break
- The twins oppose each other’s work. Not a devil imported from another row.
Recorded claims
An evidence label is shown only where the kind of source is already established. No label means unclassified. A label is not a judgment. Source Needed means no source is attached yet. It does not mean the claim is false, weak, or disproven.
Origin / Reality
A sky world is above. Sky Woman falls through an opening. Animals dive, and earth is placed on a turtle’s back. Tellings differ by nation. This is not the Anishinaabe account.
Source NeededHuman Nature
People are of Sky Woman’s line, living in clan under the Great Law of Peace. A further doctrine of the person is Unclassified / Source Needed.
Source NeededDeath / Afterlife
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Source NeededRebirth
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Source NeededOther Beings
Sky Woman, the twins, and the animals who act in the creation. Thunderers appear in many tellings. They are not the beings named on the Lakota, Diné, or Hopi rows.
Source NeededOther Realms
The sky world, and this world on the turtle’s back. A further map is Unclassified / Source Needed.
Source NeededWorld Structure / Axis
This world is on the turtle’s back. The opening Sky Woman fell through belongs to the sky world. It is not a world-tree and not a Meru.
Source NeededDestruction / Reset
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Source NeededHow Truth Is Known
Oral telling, the Great Law of Peace, condolence, and wampum as a record. No manuscript canon is filed.
Source Needed
Sources & EvidenceShowHideNo source is attached yet. Source Needed is a research gap, not a judgment.
The tradition or source
What that source says. Not a scholar’s retelling, and not a SCARCE inference.
None attached.
A modern researcher
What a scholar or other modern writer says about the source. Not the source’s own words.
None attached.
SCARCE
What this project infers or sets beside the records. Not what the source said.
None attached.
How we know
Where the evidence comes from, and how far it is from the people it describes. The labels are not a score. They do not rank traditions. A manuscript year, a tradition’s own claim, and a date from the ground are kept apart on the timeline.
Oral tradition of the nations of the Confederacy. What libraries hold is later writing, by nation historians and by outsiders. No manuscript canon is filed, and no start century is assigned.
Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tellings are not one text. A cell names only what those tellings are widely known to share, or it says Unclassified / Source Needed. Wampum is a record. It is not a book, and it is not dated here. No century is assigned here as the start.
Original evidence → transmission / copy → translation / documentation → modern interpretation
01
Original evidence
Recorded oral tradition
The primary mode is oral telling, condolence, and the Great Law. That does not leave an autograph.
02
Transmission / copy
Outside account
Much of the writing in libraries was taken down by visitors. Nation-authored accounts are a different class. The two are not merged.
03
Translation / documentation
Recorded oral tradition
English is documentation. It is not the telling, and it is not one nation’s language.
04
Modern interpretation
Unknown / insufficient surviving evidence
Where a cell says Unclassified / Source Needed, no source was identified. Nothing is supplied from a neighbor’s row. No provenance label is attached.
Already a separate record
- Open that record — The umbrella. It is not this teaching.
The twenty-one questions
Asked of every system. Gaps are recorded as gaps. Nothing here is filled in to make a pattern prettier.
01
Where are we?
On the turtle’s back, under the sky world Sky Woman left. Nation tellings differ. Not the Anishinaabe country.
Read every system on this question02
What is reality made of?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question03
What is a human being?
People of Sky Woman’s line, in clan, under the Great Law of Peace. A further definition is Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question04
What is consciousness?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question05
Where did humanity come from?
Sky Woman falls from the sky world. Animals dive. Earth is set on the turtle’s back. The twins then shape that world differently. Not an Anishinaabe origin.
Read every system on this question06
What happens at death?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question07
Does consciousness return to embodiment?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question08
Where is consciousness between lives?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question09
Are there nonhuman intelligent beings?
Sky Woman, the twins, and animals who act as persons in the creation. Thunderers appear in many tellings. Not the beings of the other rows under this umbrella.
Read every system on this question10
Can those beings become human or appear human?
Sky Woman comes among the animals in human form. The twins are born into this world. A rule for every being is Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question11
Are there multiple realms or worlds?
A sky world and this world on the turtle. Not a Meru, and not the Diné worlds below.
Read every system on this question12
Is there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
No world-tree and no Meru. The world is on the turtle’s back. The hole Sky Woman fell through is an opening in the sky world, not an axis for other nations.
Read every system on this question13
Is the world itself alive?
Animals act, and the land is the turtle’s back. A claim that reality is one organism is not this teaching.
Read every system on this question14
Has civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question15
Does history operate linearly or cyclically?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question16
Is there an opposing positive/negative force?
The twins work against each other’s making. Nation names differ. They are not filed as the Christian God and devil, and not copied from another row.
Read every system on this question17
What is humanity supposed to become?
The Great Law of Peace orders relations among the nations of the Confederacy. A further aim is Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question18
Is reincarnation a destination, punishment, school, growth process, or something else?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question19
What lies beyond the visible world?
The sky world, and beings who are not human. A full inventory is Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question20
How does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?
Oral telling, the Great Law of Peace, condolence, and wampum. No manuscript canon is filed.
Read every system on this question21
Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question22
Why did humanity forget?
Unclassified / Source Needed.
Read every system on this question