The Earth on Turtle's Back

I thought this was an interesting story. I liked the way the author made the story by using stories that have probably been passed down for a long time. I also liked that the author made it like on the shells of turtles all of the markings are from the tiny muskrat. I didn't really understand the whole searching for earth part. I didn't really get why they had to go so far underwater to find the earth. Another thing that i liked was at the end of the story when it says that she spread the seeds on earth and that the trees and grass sprang up. I could really picture this happing in the story for some reason. I also liked the determination of the tiny muskrat that swam and found earth. No one would have thought that the muskrat would have found it.