Frank Joseph, in his fascinating book, Survivors of Atlantis, writes about many stories from tribal sources all over North America, that describe a version of the story of Noah and the Great Flood.
An Iroquois version talks about a land in the far east where an entire people lived. All of them drowned except for one lone survivor who escaped by leaving in a large boat along with many animals. After many days lost at sea, he sent out a dove, who returned from the west with a willow branch in his beak. Every year, the Iroquois featured the dove in a spring festival – which took place when the willow bloomed.
A similar ceremony was held by the Sioux, Chickasaw, Pima, Okanogan, and Mandan. George Catlan, known for his early paintings of Native Americans, wrote about the Mandan ceremony, in the early nineteenth century, noting that it gives an account of the Great Flood that destroyed nearly everyone. Only one man escaped in a big canoe. The Mandan remembered the willow twig which the bird carried in its beak – and that the great flood covered the earth for forty days.
Catlin wrote that he had found this story among 120 tribes that he had visited. He also noted that many totem poles were said to have been made “at the time of the great flood.”
Both the Hopi and the Algonquin traditions tell of their ancestors being warned that the Gods would sink the land beneath the sea. After this the “Father of the Tribes” built a “great reed raft” on which he sailed away with his family and many animals.
In addition to these Native American stories, recalled by Frank Joseph, there are hundreds of other stories, from cultures all over the world, with remarkably similar details. In the two very well-known versions – there is the Greek account of the sinking of Atlantis in a Great Flood, which appears to be the same story as the Biblical Great Flood, from which Noah escaped after building the ark along with a pair of every animal. Then from the ark he sent out birds, including a dove, to find land.
From India, in the Hindu version, Manu rescues a tiny fish and raises him. He grows up to be huge and turns out to be Matsya, the fish incarnation of the God Vishnu. Matsya, after having been released into the ocean, returns later to warn his friend Manu of an upcoming flood, and Manu builds an ark to save himself and the seven sages. Instead of saving the animals – he saves the seeds of the earth’s plants.
How shall we explain the fact that this nearly identical story is told all over the world as if it were a true ancient event?
Well, there’s only one simple possibility. That is to consider that it may be a true story.
Graham Hancock along with a whole host of other writers have published dozens of very intriguing books suggesting that this is an account of a true event (or perhaps a series of events). During the time following the last Ice Age, the seas rose – perhaps a hundred meters – with the melting of the ice – thereby creating great floods and destroying an ancient, advanced civilization. The rising of the seas at this time is an accepted scientific fact. A few people survived and were scattered across the earth.
It’s worth looking into. You might start with Graham Hancock’s books.
Please note the correction below, in the comment by Dr. Prasad.
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© Copyright, Sharon St Joan, 2022
