The Earth on Turtle's Back

Tonight I read "The Earth on Turtle's Back" in my literature book. It was a myth from the Native American Onondaga tribe. In the story, it said that all of the earth was covered in water and the sky was something called "skyland" where there was a tree that had four white roots which stretched north, south, east, and west. There was an ancient chief whose wife had a dream about the tree being uprooted. So the chief uprooted the tree, and the wife fell down to earth. The animals in the water knew she wouldn't be able to live in the water, so they tried to bring up the earth. They all tried, and the tiny muskrat brought it up nearly killing himself, and they needed somewhere to put the earth, and the turtle said to put it on his back. So they brought the muskrat and placed its paw against the turtle's back, and they say that there are marks at the backs of the turtles' shells from its paw. So after that, the chief's wife started life on earth. I liked reading this story. I thought it would be boring at first but when I read it it was very interesting to me. I think that this was a way for the Onondaga tribe to determine where the earth came from. It was also a way to describe how the turtle had markings on its back.