When Europeans came to North America they discovered many different tribes with “as many as 200 languages” (North American Indians, 1986, pg. 57). In Mexico alone, there are “62 living indigenous languages” (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática). How can this be explained? How is it that we can no longer communicate with our kindred nations?

We can search high and low for explanations, however, there is none that answers this so well as the incredible event that took place at Babel. It was here that God confused the tongues of mankind to thwart their rebellion. This explanation of course, is stepping into the realm of the miraculous, but to deny the miraculous is to deny the very existence of God.

Therefore, in light of the common genetic origin of mankind, Babel is the only reasonable explanation for the multiple dialects around the world. In fact, it was the confusion of tongues at Babel that produced all the nations of the world according to the New Testament (Acts 17:26), for it is language, not skin color that determines a person's nationality.

If those who spread out from Babel originally populated the Americas, should we not expect to find among these nations some sort of record to support this amazing event? And for that matter, who could forget such a sobering event like the Genesis Flood?

When we look at the ancient legends around the world, we should not be surprised to find the events that took place before the confusion of tongues common to all nations. One of the aboriginal tribes of North America, called the Choctaws of Louisiana, reproduced in their traditional legends an event that is astonishingly characteristic of what took place at Babel:

“Many generations ago Aba, the good spirit above, created many men, all Choctaw, who spoke the language of the Choctaw, and understood one another. These came from the bosom of the earth, being formed of yellow clay, and no men had ever lived before them. One day all came together and, looking upward, wondered what the clouds and the blue expanse above might be. They continued to wonder and talk among themselves and at last determined to endeavor to reach the sky. So they brought many rocks and began building a mound that was to have touched the heavens. That night, however, the wind blew strong from above and the rocks fell from the mound . . . The men were not killed, but when daylight came and they made their way from beneath the rocks and began to speak to one another, all were astounded as well as alarmed—they spoke various languages and could not understand one another. Some continued thenceforward to speak the original tongue, the language of the Choctaw, and from these sprung the Choctaw tribe. The others, who could not understand this language, began to fight among themselves. Finally they separated. The Choctaw remained the original people; the others scattered, some going north, some east, and others west, and formed various tribes. This explains why there are so many tribes throughout the country at the present time.” (Bushnell, David L., “The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb St. Tammany Parish Louisiana” in Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 48, 1909, p. 30.)

Prescott, in his “Nations of the World”, recorded the traditional beliefs of the Aztec civilization concerning the Flood and the confusion of tongues:

“No tradition has been more widely spread among nations than that of a Deluge. Independently of tradition, indeed, it would seem to be naturally suggested by the interior structure of the earth, and by the elevated places on which marine substances are found to be deposited. It was the received notion under some form or other, of the most civilized people in the Old World, and of the barbarians of the new. The Aztecs combined with this some particular circumstances of a more arbitrary character, resembling the accounts of the East. They believed that two persons survived the deluge, a man, named Coxcox, and his wife. Their heads are represented in ancient paintings, together with a boat floating on the waters, at the foot of a mountain. A dove is also depicted, with the hieroglyphical emblem of languages in his mouth, which he is distributing to the children of Coxcox, who were born dumb. The neighboring people of Michoacan, inhabiting the same high plains of the Andes, had still further tradition, that the boat, in which Tezpi, their Noah, escaped, was filled with various kinds of animals and birds. After some time, a vulture was sent out from it, but remained feeding on the dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on the earth, as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird, huitzitzilin, was then sent forth, and returned with a twig in its mouth. The coincidence of both these accounts with the Hebrew and Chaldean narratives is obvious.” (Nations of the World, Prescott's Mexico vol. 2, p. 385-386, 1898)

Prescott also recorded an amazing Flood and language tradition of the natives at Cholula, where the largest pyramid in the Western hemisphere is located.

“On the way between Veracruz and the capital, not far from the modern city of Puebla, stands the venerable relic,--with which the reader has become familiar in the course of the narrative,--called the temple of Cholula. It is, as he will remember, a pyramidal mound, built, or rather cased, with unburnt brick, rising to the height of nearly one hundred and eighty feet. The popular tradition of the natives is, that it was erected by a family of giants, who had escaped the great inundation [Flood], and designed to raise the building to the clouds; but the gods, offended with their presumption, sent fires from heaven on the pyramid, and compelled them to abandon the attempt. The partial coincidence of this legend with the Hebrew account of the tower of Babel, received, also, by other nations of the East, cannot be denied.” (Nations of the World, Prescott's Mexico vol. 2, p. 386-387, 1898)

Another legend, recorded by anthropologist, Edward B. Tylor stated,

“The Anahuac Indians of Mexico believe that after the flood, the survivors began building a vast pyramid of bricks to reach the heavens. This angered the gods, who destroyed the pyramid by sending down fire from heaven.” (Tylor, Edward B., Anahuac: Or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern, London, Longman & Roberts, 1861, pp. 276- 277).

Many more examples could be given for the evidence of this historical event abounds. Many have gone to great lengths to record the Flood and language traditions of the nations, not only in Mexico, but around the world. Fernando Horcasitas of Dundes wrote, “An Analysis of the Deluge Myth in Mesoamerica”, in 1953. Another researcher, Bill Johnson, a creationist from Spokane Washington, has amassed over 200 Flood traditions from North and South America alone.

Almost every culture has a record of the global Flood in their traditions. Sir James George Frazer in his book “Folk-Lore in the Old Testament” (Vol. 1, Macmillan & Co., London, 1919) describes over 100 Flood traditions from various ethnic groups around the world including tribes from North, South, and Central America.

Each legend may have some variation but most of them have many details in common. A Flood that was global in scale; it was due to the wickedness of man; they were forewarned of the coming judgment; one family found favor in the sight of God; the family was saved on a boat of some kind; many animals were included on the ark; they landed on a mountain; and birds were sent out from the boat.

Jesus verified the Old Testament account of the Flood saying, “the flood came, and took them all away” (Matthew 24:39). The apostle Peter believed in the worldwide Flood saying, “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:6). Peter also said, “God . . . spared not the old world, but saved Noah . . . bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:4-5).

Another remarkable testimony we have today that this great catastrophic event actually took place is the worldwide fossil record, containing billions of dead things that were rapidly buried in the deposition of the Flood and amazingly well preserved in their sedimentary tombs. These fossils are found around the globe, and so are the Flood and language legends that abound among all the tribes of the Americas, including the Maya and the Aztec nations.