North America in general:
The primordial environment is for almost all tribes a watery one, from which different beings bring up mud to make the earth. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 75]
Netsilik Eskimo:
A flood killed all animals and humans except for two Shaman. They copulated, and their offspring included the world's first women. [Balikci]
The giant Inugpasugssuk waded into the ocean to hunt seals. His penis stuck up out of the water so far away that he thought it was a seal putting its head up, and he struck it by mistake. He fell backwards in pain, and that raised a wave that flooded the whole district of Arviligjuaq. [Norman, p. 233]
Norton Sound Eskimo:
In the first days, all the earth was flooded except for a very high mountain in the middle. A few animals escaped to this mountain, and a few people survived in a boat, subsisting on fish. The people landed on the mountain as the water subsided and followed the retreating water to the coast. [Gaster, p. 120]
Tlingit (S Alaska Coast):
People were saved from a universal deluge in a giant ark. The ark struck a rock and split in two. The Tlingits were in one half of the ark, and all other people were in the other half. This explains why there is a diversity of languages. [Gaster, p. 119]
Hareskin (Alaska):
Kunyan ("Wise Man"), foreseeing the possibility of a flood, built a great raft. He told other people, but they laughed at him and said they'd climb trees in the event of a flood. Then came a great flood, with water gushing from all sides, rising higher than the trees and drowning all people but the Wise Man and his family on his raft. As he floated, he gathered pairs of all animals and birds he met with. Some time later, the musk-rat dived into the water looking for the bottom, but he couldn't find it. He dived a second time and smelled the earth but didn't reach it. Next beaver dived. He reappeared unconscious but holding a little mud. The Wise Man breathed on it, making it grow. He placed it on the water and continued breathing on it, making it larger and larger. He put a fox on the island, but it ran around the island in just a day. Six times the fox ran around the island, by the seventh time, the land was as large as it was before the flood, and everyone disembarked. To lower the flood waters, the bittern swallowed them all. Now there was too little water. Plover, pretending sympathy, passed his hand over the bittern's stomach, but suddenly scratched it. The waters flowed out into the rivers and lakes. [Gaster, pp. 117-118]
Tinneh (Alaska):
The deluge was caused by a heavy snowfall one September. One man foresaw the flood and warned his fellows, but in vain; the flood covered their intended mountain escape. The one man survived in a canoe, and he rescued animals from the waters as he sailed about. In time, he sent the beaver, otter, muskrat, and arctic duck to dive into the water in search of earth, but only the duck succeeded. The man spread the slime on the water and breathed on it to make it grow. For six days he embarked animals upon the new island; then the land was large enough for he himself to go ashore. [Gaster, p. 118]
Haida (Queen Charlotte Is., British Columbia):
A strange, funny-looking woman came to a village and sat by the water's edge at low tide. As the tide rose, she moved up a little and sat down again. The tide kept rising, following the woman, until it covered the whole island. The people saved themselves on rafts. The various rafts landed in different places, which is how the tribes became dispersed. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 472-473]
Kaska (N Inland, British Columbia):
A great flood came; people survived it on rafts and canoes. Darkness and high winds came, which scattered the vessels. When the flood subsided, people were scattered all over the world, and when they met again long afterwards, they spoke different languages. [Gaster, p. 119]
Squamish (British Columbia):
When the Squamish saw the great flood coming, they made a giant canoe and a long rope of cedar fibers with which they fastened the canoe to a giant rock. Into the canoe, they put every baby, a young man and woman to be their guardians, and food and water. The waters rose and drowned everyone else. After several days, the man saw Mount Baker in the distance. He cut the rope and paddled south to it, and made a new home there. The outline of the canoe can still be seen halfway up the slope of Mount Baker. [Clark, pp. 42-43]
Tsimshian (British Columbia):
The flood was sent by the G-d Laxha, who had become annoyed by the noise of boys at play. [Gaster, p. 119]
Skagit (Washington):
The Creator made the earth and gave four names for it –for the sun, waters, soil and forests. He said only a few people, with special preparation for the knowledge, should know all four names, or the world would change too suddenly. After a while, everyone learned the four names. When people started talking to the trees the change came in the form of a flood. When the people saw the flood coming, they made a giant canoe and filled it with five people and a male and female of all plants and animals. Water covered everything but the summit of Kobah and Takobah (Mts. Baker and Ranier). The canoe landed on the prairie. Doquebuth, the new Creator, was born of a couple from the canoe. He delayed getting his spirit powers, but finally did so after his family deserted him. At the direction of the Old Creator, he made people again from the soil and from the bones of the people who lived before the flood. [Clark, pp. 139-140]
Skokomish (Washington):
The Great Spirit, angry with the wickedness of people and animals, decided to rid the earth of all but the good animals, one good man, and his family. At the Great Spirit's direction, the man shot an arrow into a cloud, then another arrow into that arrow, and so on, making a rope of arrows from the cloud to the ground. The good animals and people climbed up; the man broke off the rope to keep the bad animals from climbing up after them. Then the Great Spirit caused many days of rain, flooding up to the snow line of Takhoma (Mount Ranier). After all the bad people and animals were drowned, the Great Spirit stopped the rain, the waters slowly dropped, and the good people and animals climbed down. [Clark, pp. 31-32]
Once a big flood came. People made ropes of twisted cedar limbs and used them to fasten their canoes to mountains. The flood covered the Olympic Mountains. Some of the ropes broke, and the canoes drifted to the country of the Flatheads. That is why the Skokomish and the Flatheads speak the same language. [Clark, p. 44]
Quillayute (Washington):
Thunderbird was once so angry that he sent the ocean over the land. When it reached the village of the Quillayute, they got into their canoes. The water rose for four days, covering the mountains. The boats were scattered by the wind and waves. Then the water receded for four days, and people settled in many areas. [Clark, p. 45]
Nisqually (Washington):
The people became so numerous that they ate all the fish and game and started to eat each other. Theywere so wicked that Dokibatl, the Changer, flooded the earth. All living things were destroyed except one woman and one dog, which survived atop Tacobud (Mt. Ranier). From them the next race of people were born. They lived like animals until the Changer sent a Spirit Man to teach them civilization. [Clark, p. 136]
Warm Springs (Oregon):
Twice, a great flood came. Afraid that another might come, the people made a giant canoe from a big cedar. When they saw a third flood coming, they put the bravest young men and fairest young women in the canoe, with plenty of food. Then the flood, bigger and deeper than the earlier ones, swallowed the land. It rained for many days and nights, but when the clouds finally parted for the third time, the people saw land (Mount Jefferson) and landed on it. When the water receded, they made their home at the base of the mountain. The canoe was turned to stone and can be seen on Mount Jefferson today. [Clark. pp. 14-15]
Joshua (S Oregon):
In the beginning, there was no land, and Xowalaci (The Giver) and his companion lived in a sweat house on the water. One day land appeared. Xowalaci made it solid, and he made more solid land by dropping five mud cakes into the ocean and telling them to expand when they hit the bottom. He looked on the sand of the new land and saw a man's tracks. This worried him, and he told the water to overflow the land and recede again. But he found more tracks again after that, so he caused a second flood. He repeated the process five times with no different results. Finally he gave up and said, "This is going to make trouble in the future!" and there has been trouble in the world since then. Later, Xowalaci made animals, and his companion made a woman from smoke and married her. [Sproul, pp. 232-236; von Franz, p. 174]
Shasta:
Coyote encountered an evil water spirit who caused water to rise until it covered Coyote. After the water receded, Coyote shot the water spirit with a bow and ran away, but the water followed him. He ran to the top of Mount Shasta; the water followed but didn't quite reach the top. Coyote made a fire, and all the other animal people swam to it and found refuge there. After the water receded, they came down and found new homes. [Clark, p. 12]
N California Coast:
As people slept, it rained day and night. Humans and animals were all washed away by a flood which covered everything. Later, the gods recreated them. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 108]
Pomo (N Central California):
One day, the Thunder People found trout in their spring. At first, the people were afraid of them, but driven by hunger, the people ate them, except for three children who were warned by their grandmother not to eat them. The next morning, all but those three children had been transformed into deer. The children went to a very high mountain. Rain came and flooded all but the mountaintop. The children asked an old man what he could do; he said he didn't know, but he dug all night while the children slept. In the morning, he woke the children. The flood was gone, and the world was beautiful. [Roheim, pp. 153-154]
Everybody abused the two little boys that Coyote lived with, so he decided to set the world on fire. He dug a tunnel at the east end of the world, filled it with fir bark, and lit it. With his two children in a sack, he called for rescue from the sky. Spider descended and took Coyote back up through the gates of the sky. When they came back, everything was roasted. Coyote drank too much water and got sick. Kusku the medicine man jumped on his belly, and water flowed out and covered the land. [Roheim, p. 154]
Salinan (California):
The old woman of the sea, jealous of Eagle's power, came with her basket in which she carried the sea. She continually poured out water until it covered the land, almost to the top of Santa Lucia Peak where the animals gathered. Eagle borrowed Puma's whiskers, made a lariat from them, and lassoed the basket. The sea stopped rising, and the old woman died. Eagle told Dove to fetch up some mud, and he made the world from it. Eagle made the first people from elder-wood. [Sproul, p. 236]
Luiseño (S California):
A great
flood covered high mountains and drowned most people. A few saved themselves on a knoll called Mora by the Spaniards and Katuta by the Indians. The hill still has stones, ashes, and heaps of seashells showing where the Indians cooked their food. [Gaster, pp. 115-116]
Kootenay (S British Columbia):
A
small gray bird, despite the prohibition of her husband (a chicken hawk), bathed in a certain lake. There she was seized and raped by a giant in the lake. The bird's husband shot the monster, who swallowed up all the water. The woman pulled out the arrow, and the water rushed forth in a torrent. [Kelsen, pp. 147-148]
Yakima (Washington):
In early times, many
people had gone to war with other tribes, but there were still some good people. One of the good men heard from the Land Above that a big water was coming. He told the other good people and decided they would make a dugout boat from the largest cedar they could find. Soon after the canoe was finished, the flood came, filling the valleys and covering the mountains. The bad people were drowned; the good people were saved in the boat. We don't know how long the flood stayed. The canoe can still be seen where it came down on Toppenish Ridge. The earth will be destroyed by another flood if people do wrong a second time. [Clark, p. 45]
Spokana, Nez Perce, Cayuse (E Washington):
These tribes also have traditions of a flood in which one man and his wife survived on a raft. Each tells of a different mountain where the raft landed. [Gaster, pp. 119-120]
Algonquin (Upper Ottowa River):
Long ago, when men had become evil, the powerful serpent Maskanako came and fought with them. The serpent brought the snake-water rushing, spreading everywhere, destroying everything. Then the waters ran off, and the great evil went away through a cave. [Kelsen, pp. 146-147]
Blackfoot (Alberta and Montana):
The Sun, the Moon, and their two children "Old Man" and "Apistotoki G-d" began creating the world. They were given sand, stone, water, and the hide of a fisher with which to complete the creation. A flood came, and they could save only those four things. Later, they create an old man, a dog, a man, and a woman. After a second flood, only those four are left on earth, and they create the rest of the world. [von Franz, p. 163]
Micmac (E Maritime Canada):
Kuloscap defeated the cruel Ice Giants at various contests. Then he stomped on the ground, and foaming water rushed down from the mountains. He sang a song which changed how everyone looks, and the Ice Giants became large fish. [Norman, p. 115]
Greenlander:
When the world was flooded, some people were turned into fiery spirits; all the rest drowned but one. Afterwards, he smote the ground with his stick, a woman sprung out, and the two of them repopulated the world. Proof of the flood is found in the form of sea fossils on high mountains. [Gaster, p. 120]
Montagnais (N Gulf of St. Lawrence):
Messou was hunting with his dogs, when his dogs got caught in a large lake. Messou entered the lake to rescue them, but the lake overflowed, covered the land, and destroyed the world. Messou sent a raven to find a piece of earth, but the bird could find none. He next sent down a muskrat, which dived and returned with just a tiny amount of land, but enough for Messou to form the land we are on. Messou restored branches to the trees and took revenge on those who had detained his dogs. He married the muskrat and by it peopled the world. [Brinton, p. 225]
Being angry with giants, G-d commanded a man to build a large canoe. The man did so, and when he embarked, the water rose till no land was visible anywhere. Weary of seeing nothing but water, the man threw an otter into it. The otter dived and brought up a little mud, which the man breathed on and caused to expand. He placed the earth on the water and prevented it from sinking. After awhile, he placed reindeer on the new island, but they completed a circuit of the island quickly, so he concluded it wasn't yet large enough. He continued to blow on it and grow it, then he disembarked. [Gaster, p. 117]
Chippewa (Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin):
While the medicine man Wis-kay-tchach was hunting, his young wolf was killed by some water lynxes. Wis tried to kill one of the lynxes to get revenge. First, he turned himself into a stump at the edge of a lake. Frogs and snakes tried to pull the stump down, but Wis kept himself upright. The lynx, suspicions lulled, went to sleep. Wis returned to normal shape and, though warned to shoot the lynx's shadow, forgot and shot its body. He shot a second arrow at the shadow, but the lynx escaped into a river, which then overflowed and flooded the whole country. Wis escaped in a canoe. [Kelsen, p. 147, Roheim, p. 157]
The evil serpent Meshekenabek carried off Manobozho's cousin into a deep lake. Manobozho caused the sun to shine fiercely on the lake to drive out Meshekenabek and his companions. When they emerged, Manobozho shot an arrow into the serpent's heart. The serpent, in his dying rage, stirred up the waters of the lake and spread waves over the land. Fleeing, Manobozho warned the Indians also to retreat to a mountain top. The waters still rose, though, and Manobozho made a raft for them to take refuge on. However, Manobozho couldn't disperse the flood without some earth to use as a nucleus. Muskrat finally succeeded in diving for some dirt, and Manobozho used it to make the waters recede. [Howey, pp. 291-293]
A wolf which Wenebojo considered his nephew and which hunted for him was captured and killed by the manidog, evil underwater spirits. To get revenge, Wenebojo turned himself to a stump and waited for the manidog to sun themselves. When they emerged, the king was suspicious of the stump and had a snake squeeze it and a bear claw it, but Wenebojo withstood these attacks. When the manidog slept, Wenebojo shot and wounded the king and the next to the king, then he ran away as the water was rising behind him. Woodchuck saved him by digging a shelter until the water receded. Later, Wenebojo encountered an old woman who was treating the wounded manidog. He killed and skinned her, put on her skin, and disguised as her went to the wigwam of the wounded manidog and killed them. As he ran away, he heard a roar of water behind him. He climbed a pine tree on a hill, and the tree stretched higher, saving Wenebojo from the flood. Wenebojo asked loon to dive down to get some dirt, but the loon died in the attempt. Otter and beaver failed similarly. Muskrat, however, was able to get a few grains of dirt before he passed out. Wenebojo used this dirt to recreate land. Wenebojo cut up the body of the king manido and made a lake of fat from it. The animals that ate or touched it acquired fat in their bodies. [Barnouw, pp. 64-69]
Cheyenne (Minnesota):
One particularly hard winter had "great floods" in addition to earthquakes and volcanoes. The people spent the long winter in caves. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 113]
Cherokee (Great Lakes Area & E Tennessee):
A dog stood at the river bank and howled piteously. Rebuked by his master, the dog said a flood was coming, and he must build a boat. Furthermore, the dog said, he must throw him, the dog, into the water. For a sign that he spoke the truth, the dog showed the back of his neck, which was raw and bare with flesh and bone showing. The man followed directions, and he and his family survived; from them, the present population is descended. [Gaster, pp. 116-117]
Dakota:
Unktehi, a water monster, fought the people and caused a great flood. The people retreated to a hill, but the water swept over them, killing them all. The blood gelled and turned to pipestone. Unktehi was also turned to stone; her bones are in the Badlands now. A giant eagle, Wanblee Galeshka, swept down, saved one girl from the flood, and made her his wife. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 93-95]
In another version, the thunderbirds fought and defeated Unktehi and her children before the waters washed over the highest mountain. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 220-221]
Caddo (Oklahoma & Arkansas):
Four monsters grew large and powerful until they were high enough to touch the sky. One man heard a voice telling him to plant a hollow reed. He did so, and it quickly grew very big. He, his wife, and pairs of all good animals entered the reed. Waters rose to cover everything but the top of the reed and the heads of the monsters. Turtle destroyed the monsters by digging under them and uprooting them. The waters subsided, and winds dried the earth. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 120-121]
Tsetsaut:
A man and his wife went up the hills to hunt marmots. There, they saw that the water was still rising. They enclosed their children, along with supplies, in hollow trees. All other people drowned. [Roheim, pp. 159-160]
Choctaw (Mississippi):
A prophet was sent by the high G-d to warn of a coming flood, but nobody took notice. When the flood came, the prophet took to a raft. After several months, he saw a black bird. He signaled it, but it just cawed and flew away. Later, he sighted and signaled a bluish bird. The bird flapped, moaned dolorously, and guided the raft towards where the sun was breaking through. Next morning, he landed on an island with all kinds of animals. He cursed the black bird (a crow) and blessed the bluish one (a dove). [Gaster, p. 116]
Natchez (Lower Mississippi):
A great rain fell so abundantly that it extinguished all fires and caused a flood which drowned all but a few people who saved themselves on a high mountain. A little bird named Coüy-oüy (a cardinal) brought fire from heaven again. [Gaster, p. 116]
Navajo (Four Corners Area):
For their sins, the gods expelled the Insect People from the first world by sending a wall of water from all directions. The Insect People flew up into the second world. Later, in the fourth world, descendants of these people were likewise punished. They escaped the floodwaters by climbing into a fast-growing reed. Cicada dug an entrance into the fifth world, where people live today. [Capinera, pp. 226-228]
Yuma (W Arizona & S California):
Komashtam'ho caused a great rain and started to flood out the large dangerous animals, but he was persuaded that people needed some of the animals for food. He evaporated the waters with a great fire, turning the land to desert in the process. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 81]
Pima (SW Arizona):
Three times the great eagle told a seer to warn the people about a great flood that would soon come, but the seer ignored him. Scarcely had the bird gone for the third time when a tremendous clap of thunder was heard, the earth trembled, and a great green wall of water roared down the valley and destroyed everything in it. Szeukha, Earth maker's son, saved himself by floating on a ball of gum. He rescued a few people from the great eagle, who had kidnapped them earlier and kept them in his nest. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 473-475; Gaster, p. 115]
Papago (Arizona):
Back when the sun was closer to the earth, Coyote foresaw the coming of a flood, gnawed down a great cane, entered it, and sealed the opening. Montezuma also took warning an prepared a boat for himself. Only they survived the flood, which covered all the land. They met again on the top of Monte Rosa, which rose above the flood waters. To ascertain how much dry land was left, the man sent Coyote to explore. Coyote reported that there was sea to the west, south, and east, but seemingly endless land to the north. The Great Spirit, with the help of Montezuma, restocked the earth with men and animals. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 487; Gaster, pp. 114-115]
Hopi:
The people repeatedly became distant
from Sotuknang, the creator. Twice he destroyed the world (by fire and by cold) and recreated it while the few people who still lived by the laws of creation took shelter underground with the ants. When people became corrupt and warlike a third time, Sotuknang guided them to Spider Woman, who cut down giant reeds and sheltered the people in the hollow stems. Sotuknang caused a great flood, and the people floated in their reeds for a long time. They emerged after coming to rest on a small piece of land. They still had as much food as they started with. Guided by their inner wisdom (which comes from Sotuknang through the door at the top of their head), the people traveled on, using the reeds as canoes. They went northeast, finding progressively larger islands, until they came to the Fourth World. When they reached it, they saw the islands sink into the ocean. [Waters, pp.
12-20]
Jicarilla Apache (North New Mexico):
Before the Apaches emerged from the underworld, there were other people on the earth. Dios told an old man and old woman that it would rain forty days and nights. People were warned to go to the tops of four mountains (Tsisnatcin, Tsabidzilhi, Becdilhgai, and another whose identity isn't known), and not to look at the flood or sky. The people didn't believe the old couple. When the rains came, only a few people made it to the mountain tops and shut their eyes. Those who looked at the flood turned into a fish or frog (as did some who were caught in the flood); if they looked at the sky, they turned into a bird. After eighty days, Dios told the 24 people remaining to open their eyes and come down. These 24 people went into mountains. Eight other people survived the flood who were able to travel by looking where they wanted to go, and they were there. These people told the Apaches about the flood before going into two mountains themselves. Around the turn of the millennium, the surface of the earth will again be destroyed, this time by fire. [Opler, pp. 111-113]
When people still lived in the underworld, the chief, after an argument with his mother-in-law, decided that men and women should live apart for awhile, so the men all moved to the other side of a river, and the chief prayed to Kogulhtsude (a water spirit) to widen the river. After a long time, Coyote found a baby in a whirlpool in the river and took it out to raise himself. But the baby was Kogulhtsude's child, and he sent water out to draw it back. Some people were drowned and turned into frogs and fish; the other men and women escaped together to a tall mountain. Coyote used his magic to make the mountain grow, but the waters kept rising, finally overflowing onto this world. The people suspected Coyote was causing the trouble and found the baby hidden under his coat. They threw the baby into the water, and the water receded. The people went down into the underworld again. When they later emerged, the surface of the earth was covered with water from that flood. The four Holy Ones made black, blue, yellow, and glittering hoops and threw them in each compass direction, and the water receded. They commanded the winds to dry the land further. [Opler, p. 20, 265-268]
