Native American Creation Stories

Native Americans have been portrayed by explorers and immigrants as savages and incompetent people, when really they have an intelligent and insightful way of looking at life and religious views.

One story that stood out to me was from the Alsea tribe. The origin of death was portrayed by two cousins and their two sons. One mans son became sick and died and mourned him for five days. On the fifth day he visited his cousin and asked if his child should come back and his cousin replied, no you should become well again. Shortly after, the other cousins child became sick and died. After visiting his cousin and asking the same question, his cousin replied, "you didn't want it this way at first. Therefore, people will always die but will never come back."

After reading this many thoughts began to flow through my mind. What if the first child came back? Would everyone who died be able to come back? Sometimes I wonder if people really would come back from dying if that first child had.