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2026 - Volume 9 - Number 2

The Role of the Great Spirit in North American Geomythology

Greg Brick * ORCID: 0000-0002-5689-1995
University of Minnesota, College of Science and Engineering, Minneapolis, Minnesota, UNITED STATES

Open Journal for Studies in History, 2026, 9(2), 39-54 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsh.0902.01039b
Received: 2 March 2026 ▪ Revised: 17 June 2026 ▪ Accepted: 10 July 2026

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
The Great Spirit played a wide variety of roles in North American geomythology, involving volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fossils, springs, and caves. This is the first time that the hitherto scattered geo-feats of the Great Spirit have been brought together as a group, forming a geomythic presence of major stature. References to a supreme sacred agency translated into English as the “Great Spirit” recur throughout the North American geomythological literature. I examine that recurring narrative pattern as it appears in foundational works by Dorothy Vitaliano and Adrienne Mayor, supplemented by additional historical and site-specific materials. By assembling these dispersed cases, I clarify a structural feature of North American geomythology while situating it within the colonial history of translation and interpretation.

KEY WORDS: Great Spirit, geoheritage, geomythology, fossil legends, Carver’s Cave, Wakan Tipi.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Greg Brick, University of Minnesota, College of Science and Engineering, Minneapolis, Minnesota, UNITED STATES.

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