Long ago the world was covered in water, many creatures lived in the sea and the air above them. There came a time when Mother Earth was ready to give birth to her new children, but these new creatures were not water creatures so they needed somewhere to live. The sea creature wanted to help Mother Earth. They had heard stories of earth far below the waters and the turtle agreed that if they could get some earth, he would hold up the land for Mother Earth and her children. Each animal took a turn trying to reach the bottom and each animal failed. Finally the brave little muskrat tried. He swam and swam until he could see the bottom. He knew that he couldn’t make it there and back to the surface, but he kept swimming until he was able to grab some earth. The other animals waited until they saw poor muskrat’s body rise to the surface. All the animals were sad but they saw that muskrat was able to do what none of them could; he had gathered some earth in his little paw. They took the earth and placed it on turtle’s back, and turtle began to grow and grow. Mother Earth now had a place for her children to live, she cast seed about and the land became beautiful and full of life. Turtle’s back became a huge island that sits in the middle of the waters and is known today as America.