Hi hilgren,

Saturday, December 23, 2006, 9:12:42 PM, you wrote:

> Sheheke gives this answer when asked about where
> his people had come from and tells them a fantastic story about a
> flood cermony where they have an alter they call an ARC(ship) and it
> had brought them to this world.
"The lord of life created the first man, Lone Man. As Lone Man went along, he
met several animals, deciding that they must have been created before him. Lone
Man asked a duck to bring land up from under the water, and this was the first
land. Another man came along, and at first Lone Man thought the man was his
son. The second man suggested that both men sit and the first man to rise was
the son of the other. After ten years, Lone Man rose, thinking that the other
man was dead. The second man then declared that he was Lone Man?s father. The
lord of life asked the Lone Man to create the north bank of the Missouri, and
when he did, he made it flat. The lord of life said that it was not good
because it would be impossible to sneak up on buffalo and deer, and that men
would not be able to avoid each other and would kill each other.

Along with the land, Lone Man created more animals, medicine pipes,
tobacco, and humans before becoming one of them and helping them. When an enemy
tried to drown Lone Man?s people with a flood, Lone Man built a wall around
them. Because of this, the Mandan built a sacred ark in the middle of their
village: a wall made of wood poles with a hoop around it to show the highest
level of the water.

In his book An Indian Winter, Russell Freedman explains: "According to Mandan [a
tribe that was near the upper Missouri River] belief, the First Man was a
powerful spirit, a divine being. He had been created in the distant past by the
Lord of Life, the creator of all things, to act as a mediator between ordinary
humans and the countless gods, or spirits, that inhabited the universe." Mandan
belief even included a flood legend. "Once, when a great flood swept over the
world, the First Man saved the people by teaching them to build a protective
tower, or 'ark,' that would rise high above the floodwaters. In his honor, every
Mandan village had a miniature replica of that mythical tower-a cedar post about
five feet high, surrounded by a plank fence."
Catlin however wrote ""During the whole of this day Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the
first or only man) travelled through the village, stopping in front of each
man's lodge, and crying until the owner of the lodge came out and asked who he
was, and what was the matter? To which be replied by narrating the sad
catastrophe which had happened on the earth's surface by the overflowing of the
waters, saying that 'he was the only person saved from the universal calamity;
that he landed his big canoe on a high mountain in the west, where he now
resides; that be has come to open the medicine lodge, which must needs receive a
present of an edged tool from the owner of every wigwam, that it may be
sacrificed to the water; for,' he says, 'if this is not done there will be
another flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big
canoe was made.'"

This has been used to prove Mandan ties with Atlantis, that they are descendants
of the 12 tribes of Israel, and now evidently that they are part Viking (where
does that 1/6th come from?). To me it simply shows missionary influence upon
the Mandan creation story.

Doug

--
Doug Weller Moderator, sci.archaeology.moderated
Director and Moderator The Hall of Ma'at http://www.thehallofmaat.com
Doug and Helen's Dogs: http://www.dougandhelen.com
Doug's Archaeology Site: http://www.ramtops.co.uk