Legends Among Indigenous Peoples of an Ancient Global Flood

What indigenous peoples have legends of an ancient global flood, in which some humans and animals survived in a boat?

ChatGPT was used to research this question. It returned the answer that many indigenous societies around the world preserve flood or deluge legends—some of which include elements such as a great inundation, divine judgment, and a vessel or floating refuge in which humans and animals survive.

Do those legends (or legends of creation with some similarities to Genesis) present any logical contradiction to the Oral Torah given to Moses at Mount Sinai, and the Written Five Books of Moses, being the direct word of G-d? None whatsoever. From the Torah’s own perspective, all humanity originally shared a common origin — Adam, Hava (Eve), and later, Noah, Naamah and their family. That means:

• Early humans either witnessed or descended from those who witnessed the aftermaths of creation of the first human couple, and then the global flood.
• As people scattered and formed new nations after the Tower of Babel, those memories could survive as distorted oral traditions.
• The Torah, then, preserves the authentic version provided by G-d, while other cultures retain faded or mythologized echoes.

Ramban (Nachmanides) and others note that universal memory of the flood supports the Torah’s account rather than undermines it — since such memories imply that a real, memorable event occurred early in human history.

So, instead of disproving the Torah, widespread flood stories can be viewed as corroborating evidence of a shared ancient experience remembered in different forms.

Legends of a great flood among indigenous peoples

Below are several examples (not exhaustive) of indigenous or local cultures whose traditions include a flood—with varying degrees of “boat / ark / floating refuge + survival” motifs.

But first we mention the oldest known Sumerian Flood Story that survives on a fragmentary clay tablet. It was discovered at Nippur (modern Nuffar, Iraq) and written in Sumerian cuneiform. In this story, the chief god becomes angry because humans are too noisy and disturb the gods’ rest. He decides to destroy humanity with a flood. Another god, disagrees and secretly warns a righteous man Ziusudra, advising him to build a large boat. Ziusudra obeys and loads it with “the seed of life of every kind,” including animals and family. A violent storm and flood sweep the land for seven days and seven nights. All of humanity perishes; only Ziusudra and those with him survive.

The Americas

Ojibwe (Anishinaabe, North America): In an Ojibwe version, a man named Waynaboozhoo builds a raft for himself and animals to escape a great flood.[1]

Apache / Pueblo tribes (Southwest U.S.): Among Apache traditions, there is a figure Kuterastan (the “Noah” of Apache), who foresaw a flood and built a vessel (called a “tus”) sealed with gum, in which survivors rode out the flood.[2]

Cochiti (Pueblo, New Mexico region): They have a tradition of a “great boat” carrying animals and provisions; after the flood, a white pigeon is sent to test when the land is again dry.[2]

Aztec / Nahua (Mesoamerica): In Aztec myth, Coxcox and his wife survive a great flood by floating in a hollow cypress trunk or boat that comes to rest on a mountain.[3]

Inca / Andean peoples: In the Inca myth of Unu Pachakuti, Viracocha sends a flood and spares two people. In some versions, those two float to Lake Titicaca in a wooden box.[4]

Asia & Pacific

Hawaiian / Polynesian: In Hawaiian tradition, Nuu builds an ark (or vessel) to survive a great flood, landing on the peak of Mauna Kea.[5]

Korean / East Asia: The folktale Namu Doryeong features a boy riding atop a fallen tree (serving as a kind of boat) during a flood; he rescues animals and eventually becomes progenitor of new humanity. While not a “boat” per se, it’s a floating refuge motif.[6]

Nakhi (China, Southwest China / Yunnan region): In Naxi mythology, Coqsseʻleelʻee is the sole survivor of a great flood (caused by moral transgression). He survives with divine help and later finds a goddess wife to repopulate humanity. (This is more a survival story than a detailed “boat + animals” narrative, but still analogous.)[7]

Pacific Northwest Indigenous (e.g. Klallam, Quileute): Many of the Northwest Coast tribes have flood stories involving canoes, tied boats, people floating until land emerges, etc. For example, among the Klallam, people build strong canoes in anticipation, tie them, some float off, men and animals survive in canoes.[8]

Igorot / Bontok (Philippines): In early collected texts, a great flood covers the world; only a brother and sister survive on a mountain (often called Mt. Pokis/Polis); culture-hero Lumawig dries the waters and repopulation follows. This story does not involve an ark.[10]

Ifugao (Philippines): Variants have a catastrophic flood/deluge where Wigan and Bugan survive on separate summits, commonly named Mt. Amuyao and Mt. Kalawitan; again, this is flight to mountains, not a boat making landfall.[11]

Caveats & Observations

Scale and “globalness”: Many of these indigenous flood myths are not unambiguously “global floods” (i.e. covering the whole earth) in the same way as the Biblical Noah story. In many cases, the flood covers a region, valley, or mountain valleys, or is metaphorical.

Variation in vessel types: The “vessel” is often not a formal ark, but can be a raft, boat, hollowed trunk, canoe, or even a floating tree trunk.

Animals + humans: Some versions explicitly mention animals being saved; others focus more on human survivors.

Cultural exchange influences: In some regions, particularly where contact with missionaries or external literate cultures occurred, flood stories may have been syncretized with Biblical or other flood narratives. For instance, some Pacific Northwest flood myth elements resemble Christian flood stories, possibly due to missionary influence.[8]

Archetypal motif: Scholars often observe that flood myths are a near-universal motif (or at least very widely occurring) across human cultures — they may reflect common human experiences with flooding, river overflows, rising seas, or memory of ancient hydrological changes.[9]

Sources:

[1]: https://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/cmagproject/ethnomath/legend/legend9.htm “Native American Legends-Waynaboozhoo and the Great Flood”

[2]: https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/flood-legends/flood-legends-americas-part-1/?srsltid=AfmBOor_nc2nTqxHoSj0MYQOUBQneEn9br5aw6PQ_ON-r70daY8w-srD “Flood Legends from the Americas, Part 1”

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxcox “Coxcox”

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unu_Pachakuti “Unu Pachakuti”

[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu%CA%BBu “Nuʻu”

[6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namu_doryeong “Namu doryeong”

[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coqsse%CA%BBleel%CA%BBee “Coqsseʻleelʻee”

[8]: https://www.pnsn.org/outreach/native-american-stories/other-stories/the-flood “The Flood | Pacific Northwest Seismic Network”

[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth “Flood myth – Wikipedia”

[10]: https://sacred-texts.com/asia/pft/pft28.htm “Igorot: The Flood Story – Philippine Folk Tales”

[11]: https://home.curioustaxonomy.net/FloodMyths/08Sund/ifugao.html “Flood Folklore: Ifugao”

Compiled by Dr. Michael Schulman, Director of Ask Noah International