Fairytale: A tale about fairies; an imaginative or legendary story.
Myth: 1. A story, presented as historical, dealing with the cosmological and supernatural traditions of a people, their gods, culture, heroes, religious beliefs, etc. 2. A popular fable or folk tale. 3. A parable; allegory; especially, the fanciful tales used by Socrates to conclude arguments.
Revelation: 1. The act or process of revealing, or the state of being revealed; also, that which is or has been revealed. 2. The act of revealing or communicating divine truth, especially by divine agency nhis relatios to man.
The story about the forming of the Five Nations and the Great Peace which was brought to them by Daganawideh, the stone canoe, the great Tree, and the Eagle is not a fairytale, it is a myth. Fairytales are'nt the same as myths, as you can see from the definitions above from my Funk and Wagnall's dictionary.
Fairytales are entertainment. They have wonderful, and quite impossible things happen in them, and they may teach a personal lesson to listeners. They are spun from imagination. Remember though, how the Princess spun the straw into gold? We still speak of "spinning straw into gold." It means making something almost worthless into something very precious.
Myths often, (usually) are rooted in fact, and the fact was long ago. The truth in a myth is how Heinrich Schleimann found the nine layers of Troy. Even Hercules and many other heros and gods, and the great story of the Trojan War is rooted in fact. Myths are usually rooted in fact.
Revelation is often full of symbols and prophecies that must be unravelled, and which no one can unravel satisfactorily until the next Prophet from God comes and explains them clearly. This kind of thing is usually part of the proof that this one is really a universal Prophet and not a phony or a deluded one. There are other proofs that each High Prophet must fulfil, but this is a very strong one.
In this myth we see that the sixth Nation, the Tuskarora, only joined in the 1700's AD. That means the coming of Daganewidah was quite a long time before because things were very well established by then. How long before? I don't know yet. Maybe 1500's? Maybe 1200's? Maybe around the time of Muhammad in 680 AD? Maybe I will find out roughly when, some day, but more likely not.
It is true that these native Nations, before Daganawedah came, used to make constant war on each other. That changed, apparently quite suddenly. The Six Nations native peoples say that the change definitely occurred because an extremelywise Being came to them across the lake (this lake is where David and I used tolive. We lived within a three minute walk of the shore. It is, in fact, a great inland sea. It is one of the Great Lakes of Canada.)
He came "in a white stone canoe", which seems to be quite impossible, as stone doesn't float. However, these ancient religious stories often have other things hidden behind the language. You may remember that Jesus called Peter his "Rock"and his name was changed to Petros, which means rock in Greek. Peter wasn't really a rock, though. He was flesh and blood. There is probably some explanation for why the boat was white, which often signifies purity, and why it was made of stone. To give an example from Christianity:
Jesus is said to have "walked on the waters." The story goes on, I believe, that the Disciples couldn't do it. Some people take that literally. They think Jesus walked on the tops of the waves. I believe (I suppose because I'm a Baha'i,) that the waters were the great sea of Divine Knowledge, and that he had full command of it and could traverse it easily. His disciples couldn't do so. From this I could supppose that the water of the great inland sea again stood for the sea of Divine Knowledge. The canoe of purity carried him easily across it and his ability was beyond human. He travelled in a stone canoe, a canoe of purity and faith. It was his rocklike faith that made Simon into Peter, the rock.
This is the way parts of the revelations, written in their own handwriting by the Bab and Baha'u'llah, are explained in their words. The Koran, dictated by Muhammad also has Revelation within it which is symbolic. I mention these because they are directly from their revealers. All the other Holy Books are not directly from their revealers.
Things can have two or more levels of meaning in revealed scripture, and sometimes in mythology. This story and the Great Peace is part of these Native people's Religion. It was spoken of as such by the person who wrote the book about the White Roots of Peace which I quoted in Part 1 about The Six Nations and the Great Tree. When we went to see the enacted myth it was clearly a holy event for the native people present.
Well, those Six Nations are still firmly united, to this day. They have this wonderful story. There is much more to it than I have related yet. I said I wouldhave at least a part 2. You will learn more about the organization of the Six Nations and more of the story in Part 2.
The great tree and all the rest are a symbol of something wonderful. Nature has been used to explain great concepts. There are many huge, noble Pine Trees here in the part of North America in which the Six Nations lived. There are fierce eagles with splendid vision which can see remarkabley far. Daganawidehused the things the people knew well to teach them and to reach their hearts and imaginations. What a wonderful Genius he must have been! He made everything around them symbolic of the new holy knowledge he brought to them about how to order their lives, their politics and keep the peace. Their whole world reminded them of his truth.
You originally asked me if the native Six Nations United Nations had a Tree in their teachings. I have given you the answer with the story of the Great Tree of Peace. Now you might tell me about why you asked about a tree? and about a certain burial method? because I will probably tell you about a burial method, pretty soon in the next part. Remember? -- You were trying to decide whether these may be people from your own part of the world who brought their imagery with them.
You can depend on this story. It is rooted in fact, even if it seem mythical toyou now. Someone came to these people, he managed to get them together for a meeting, (warring though they were through all their past), and gave them imagery that explained to their hearts exactly how The Great Peace should function. After all this long time, this is still the way they function, and all the rest of us haven't been able to reach such a peace yet. I say that the evidence is there that something unusual certainly happened. Someone impressive really came, and their lives changed. They became a people whose genius consisted in getting along with people and in peacemaking. From warring all the time they turned to peace.
When we look at peoples and the archeology and their wonderful material creations they leave or don't leave, we can become sadly misled about their true accomplishments. If their great accomplishment were something contained in words with its temple being within the nature around them, for instance, it would leave little trace among the bits of their wooden houses and lack of gold, silver, statuary, and wonderful buildings and temples, all the things we think of as forming a great civilization. Yet they may have accomplished wonders of civilization as these people did. It is instructive to think about this, I find.
You don't believe in Manifestations of God. I would say there is all the usual evidence here for a great Prophet having come to them, either a Manifestation of God or one who came like Confucius, as a result of a Manifestation of God elsewhere in the world either nearly there, or having recently come and released a new spirit that was tapped by the people and the one who came.
Anyway, watch for part two. I will be waiting for your reply to this, and to part two. :-)
Best always, Mary
