An "earth-diver" is a character that is often found in stories of creation. This character is usually an animal, sent by a higher power, to dive into the waters of earth and find evidence of land. Many Native American myths start out this way. In many of these stories, the earth-diver may try and fail to create land before they are finally successful. They'd continually dive underwater and come up with a some dirt each time. This would expand, eventually dry, and turn into land.