The description of the "Emergence Place- being in such close proximity to the village where they presently reside serves the purpose of bringing the living Pueblo Indians closer to their Ancestors. The story about the Pueblo people's emergence also serves to describe their relationship with the land and animals due to their interdependence. In the Pueblo culture all plants, animals, and people emerged at the same place at the same time. In the actual emergence story the badger and the antelope literally opened the entrance to the "Fifth World-, or the Earth, to allow the humans to emerge, illustrating their interdependence and relation to the animals of the Earth. .
"It was necessary for the badger with her long claws to assist the antelope, and at last the opening was enlarged enough so that the people were able to emerge up into the Fifth World. The human beings could not have emerged without the aid of the antelope and badger. The human beings depended upon the aid and charity of the animals. Only through interdependence could the human beings survive."" (Silko, pp.37-38).
Stories like the emergence story help to shorten the gap of time between the Pueblo people and their ancestors, these stories also reinforce the idea of all-inclusiveness about the land, the animals, the people, and time. The concept of all-inclusiveness is a central theme in Native American storytelling and animals are usually main characters .
that teach morals and lessons to the younger generation. For example, cautionary tales warn the listener of being untruthful, vain, greedy, or too proud. In the Wichita Indian story "Coyote Challenges Never-Grows-Larger- translated by Jane Archer, the coyote sees a tiny snake sunning himself on a rock and begins to taunt and tease the little snake about how small he is. The coyote then begins to boast about how large he is and how much larger his teeth are than the little snake's teeth.