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DescriptionAlthough traditional Muscogee mythology has mostly been lost tohistory, a concerted effort spearheaded by modern ethnographers likeTroy University anthropologist Bill Grantham has allowed today’sSeminole tribe to reclaim some of their cultural roots and oraltraditions, based upon surviving accounts of early European encounters,Christian missionaries, adventurers, travelogues, and various otherhistorical documents. These studies have found that even by the time offirst European contact, two distinct Muscogee Creek mythological andcosmological traditions were in place. Scholars have designated them the“Eastern Creek Tradition” (recited in Yuchi, Hitchiti, and Tuskegee oraltradition), and the “Western Creek Tradition” (recited in Muscogee,Alabama, and Koasati oral tradition). According to Eastern CreekTradition, in the beginning of time there existed a boundless expanse ofwater and air inhabited by immortal water and air beings. Coming in avariety of natural forms—human, animal, and others—these beings behavedas humans. They had families, hunted, traveled, waged war, and performedvarious rituals. A time arrived when these immortals decided to createthe Earth. According to one version, it was Crawfish's decision toretrieve the land from beneath the water, while another traditionattributes a council of beings with the decision. Differing somewhat,Tuskegee myth attributes Eagle, the chief of the immortal beings, withinstructing Crawfish to retrieve the land. According to the Yuchiaccount specifically, soon after the Earth was created, a drop of bloodfell from the Sun as it tracked across the sky for the first time, andfrom where that blood landed, humans sprang. The Yuchi descended fromthese first humans. The Western Creek Tradition has a considerablydifferent account. In Muscogee and Alabama mythology, there is virtuallyno mention of Earth prior to the existence of humans. However, whileMuscogee mythology makes no mention of the creation of the universe,Alabama cosmology recited in the early 20th century explains how the“Great Spirit” (largely a Western Native American concept) created theuniverse and everything in it, with some accounts mentioning that beforecreation, only water existed. Like Native American groups west of theMississippi (and particularly in the Southwest), the Muscogee andAlabama describe humans as having emerged from underground. The Alabamaand Koasati describe humans as having been crafted from clay and asliving underground before emerging to the surface. According to bothAlabama and Koasati creation myths specifically, the two groups camefrom the underworld together, emerging from the roots of a tree at themouth of a cave. According to this creation myth, the Alabama sproutedfrom one side of the roots, and the Koasati came from the other. TheMuscogee human creation myth is essentially the same, except that theirappearance is less specific. They emerged “somewhere in the west,” alocation described as the “foundation of all things” or the “backbone”of the Earth. Most scholars associate this location with the RockyMountains, and they credit the Four Corners area of the United States asbeing the location for the creation myths of Native American groups likethe Pueblo. Though still not commonly understood, Breathmaker became thecreator god of the Seminole peoples (the name is also written as BreathMaker and Maker of Breath), and he became the center of a cycle ofcreation stories.