Sacred Stories

Explore the cultural stories featured in Native America Season 1 through animation.

Hopi Origin Story

Many Native American peoples share a belief that they emerged from the earth. For the Hopi and other Pueblo peoples, after they emerge they meet the caretaker of the earth who instructs them to honor Mother Earth by taking care of her. They are instructed to walk to the world’s farthest corners, to learn the earth with their feet and to find their Center Place.

Full Length 4m 21s

Full Length

Hopi Origin Story

4m 21s

Full Length

Haudenosaunee’s Legendary Founding

5m 52s

The Hiawatha wampum belt tells the story of the Haudenosaunee’s legendary founding and wampum’s power to heal. It tells of a warrior named Hiawatha who meets a prophet known as the Peacemaker. Together, with the help of Jigonsaseh, the first Clan Mother, they bring an end to war and create America’s first democracy.

Full Length

A Gift of Corn to the Choctaw

1m 17s

Across the eastern United States and Canada there are over 10,000 sacred mounds. Choctaw traditions link their mounds with their ancestors, corn, and the sky. One story tells of two hunters who feed a poor woman. She turns out to have magical powers and rewards the hunters and their people with corn.

Full Length

Inca Origins

1m 31s

The Qorikancha is closely associated with the Inca origin story. Located at the center of Inca Cuzco, Peru, it is the primary temple of the sun god Inti. As the story goes, Inti gives his children a golden staff and instructs them to find a place where the staff will sink into the ground. There, they build a temple and city.

Full Length

The Teotihuacan Fire Ceremony

1m 47s

At the beginning of time when all was in darkness, the gods gathered in Teotihuacan. Around a great fire they made sacrifices of themselves and in making these sacrifices they created a new cosmic era. To mark this moment of creation, Teotihuacanos conduct the New Fire Ceremony at the base of the Sun Pyramid.

Full Length

The Comanche and the Horse

5m 22s

Today the image of Indians on horseback is iconic. But Native Americans never set eyes on a horse before the 15th century when Europeans bring them to America as a weapon of conquest. The Comanche and other native peoples adapt the horse as a powerful ally in the fight to protect their land and way of life. The Comanche consider the horse a relative and a gift from the Creator.