Reading Notes (B): Tales of the North American Indians

Eagle in a Tree
Eagle

Native American Hero Tales unit. Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929), http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-native-american_10.html

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away

Red Woman and the Twins

A grizzly, gory story about an evil Red-Woman who kills a pregnant woman, whose husband was away hunting. She cut open the pregnant woman’s belly and finding twins, tossed one behind the tipi curtain and one in a spring. She put a stick through the woman to make her look as if she was alive and standing. She also burned her lip to make it look as though she was laughing. He husband came home, tired, from hunting and saw his wife standing and laughing at him. He pushed her and she fell and her stomach opened up and he knew that the Red-Woman had killed his wife

The Father and the First Boy

A boy named Thrown-behind-the-Curtain befriends a lonely, poor man. He eats with the man , who he calls father, and asks the man to make him two bows. The man makes the bows and hides and watches the boy to see what he was up to with the bows. The man discovers the boy playing with a smaller boy. When the father questions the boy, he responds that the young boy has sharp teeth like an otter, but if the man makes him a suit of rawhide, then he will go get the other young boy.

The Second Boy Comes Home

The father and son trick Thrown-in-the-Spring out of the water. Thrown-behind-the-curtain catches him and they take him high up in the mountains where the spring water can not help him. They burn incense and he becomes human. The three of live together.

Waking the Mother

The boys decide to wake their dead mother. They tell her that her stone pot is dropping, her hide dresser is falling, and then that her bone crusher is falling. The mother adjusts her hair and says she has been sleeping a long time and follows the boys home.

The Old Woman and her Pot

The boys were never told to go behind the tipi because an old woman lived there. She had a pot that boiled and when she saw something, she would tip the pot and the object would be drawn into the pot and boil to death. The two boys snuck up on the old woman, who was sleeping, and reversed the pot, tipping it toward her, and she boiled. They took the pot to their mother.

Over the Hill

These curious boys ventured over the hill, after their father told them not to, and found a large alligator-like serpent. Inside the serpent were dead and dying animals and people. When the boys questioned what the kidneys were, the alligator responded that it was his medicine. When asked about his heart, the alligator said that this is where he makes his plans. One of the boys cut the heart off and the alligator died. They freed the animals and people and took part of the heart back to their father.

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away (cont.)

The story continues with the curious and unruly twins being told not to go near the three trees because the trees would bend and kill everything in their way, not to go near a tipi over the hill because it had snakes that would approach anyone sleeping and enter the body through the rectum, and not to go near the man living on the steep cut bank because he will push people over the bank and allow his father in the water below to eat them. They stole the moccasins of fire and burned up the man and took the moccasins home. Their father, who scolded them for each deed, obviously not very well, told them that something would happen to them because they killed so many bad things. Sure enough, a Thunder-Bird asked them to kill the long otter that lived in the lake and ate all the young ones. The arrows they made didn’t stop the otter, they threw hot rocks down the otter’s throat, and then the otter curled up and died. The Thunder-Bird then returned them to their home.

The Son-in-Law Tests

This story has three main characters: Wemicus, an animal-trickster and manitou spirit and father; Wemicus’ daughter, who after having many husbands who were killed by Wemicus’ tests, attempts to help her current husband any way she can. The son-in-law succeeds in outwitting Wemicus in every test tried on him. The wife warns him of the burning mocassins, poisonous snakes, and poisonous lizards instead of lice. The son-in-law, with the wife’s advice, succeeds in all of them. He also beats the gulls with a paddle and flies home. Another scheme involves whoever can say the words the fastest to the tree causing it to fall on either Wemicus or the husband. The final test is a race in the canoes. Wemicus makes a sail and the husband does not. When the wind comes up, Wemicus’ canoe turns over and Wemicus dies. The husband goes to the spot where Wemicus’ canoe sunk and alas, Wemicus had been transformed into a big pike. An origin story in the end.

The Jealous Father - Cree

Aioswe had two wives, when the son of one of these wives grows up, he becomes very jealous. The father deserts the son on an island. The mother conjured up a Walrus to help save her son’s life and carry him safely across the water, but Aioswe’s father had conjured a Thunderstorm to kill the Walrus. On his way home, he met an old woman, who had been sent as a wish from his mother for safety. She gave him the stuffed skin of an ermine as a weapon to protect himself in his journey home and detailed the danger that he would face.

The Jealous Father (cont)

The son tricks the two blind hags that had been conjured by his father into killing each other. Later on his journey he uses the ermine to trick dogs into believing that he is not in the hole under the bones. He makes it home and sings stronger than his father and says that he is going to set the world on fire, even the water. He launches an arrow into the forest and it is soon on fire. A second arrow is shot and the lake and water begin to boil. He tells his father to get into a bark basket with bear’s grease and then draws a circle on the ground and places his mother in it. The wicked old father burned to death and the mother lived. She became a robin and the son became a whisky jack bird. They flew off together.

Dirty-Boy

The Brother and Sister - Sun and Star decided to try a chief’s beautiful daughters who had rejected many men in marriage. Star took on the role of an old woman dressed in rags and Sun was a dirty boy with sore eyes. The Chief declared a shooting contest open to all men and the winner would get his daughters for wives. Whoever, with two shots, kills the eagle perched on the tree wins the daughters. Coyote wanted to win but missed. Sun asked his grandmother to help him shoot and his first arrow hit the eagle's tail. The second arrow hit the eagle's heart. Wolf, who was standing near Dirty Boy’s lodge, claimed that the he had shot the arrows. Star picked up the eagle and took it to the Chief and claimed the daughters for her grandson. The chief did not want to give his daughter to Dirty Boy because he was bedridden, sore eyed, and scabby-faced. So, the chief said the next day there would be one last contest and whoever wins this time will get his daughters

Dirty-Boy (cont)

The next contest involved each man setting two traps for fishers in an attempt to catch a light fish and dark fish in two nights. Coyote cheated and set ten traps and came home with nothing. Sun asked his sister to make traps and set them on each side of the lodge. The next morning all the men came home with nothing, but Star had two fishers in the traps. The Chief could not break his word and had to give his daughters to Dirty-Boy. On the way to Dirty-Boy’s lodge one of the girls stopped by Raven’s house and became the wife of Raven’s oldest son. She felt its was better to marry the ugly Raven than the dirty, sicky Dirty-Boy. The youngest girl went to Dirty-Boy’s lodge and the grandmother told her that her husband was sick and would soon die and that the wife should return to her father’s house at night and come in the daytime to help Dirty-Boy. The Raven family laughed at the youngest sister and dressed the older sister in fine clothes. However, the girl continued to attend to Dirty-Boy. Finally Sun and Star revealed themselves as a handsome boy and a young woman. Their old lodge became a beautiful lodge. When the wife entered, the handsome boy pushed her head in the copper pot and a liquid ran over her and turned to stars. He tipped over the pot and it created a gold-dust pathway in which she would use as a trail when she would go see her father.