ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the comic element in Native American Indian life. According to a Seneca cosmological myth, there lived a great chief and his aged wife in the up-above-world. The retrieving of mud from the primal depths of the cosmic waters is a common element in Native American cosmological myths, although this is usually preceded by several failed attempts. The Tewa origin myth and worldview informs members of the society about the structure of the inhabited world, their place within this world, human social status, and the relationship between humans, animals, and divine figures. Native American Indians also conceive of nature spirits, as evident with the Sioux and Cheyenne and their reverence for the Black Hills as the home-land of the spirits. The Sioux conceptualization of human nature is an excellent example of how complex and multifaceted it can be imagined. The personification of the individual of humor in Indian cultures is the clown.
