Reading Notes - Native American Tales (Reading B)

For the second half of the Marriage Tales section in the Native American unit, I noticed only a few more distinctions. For one thing, none of the people are given names. Places and ceremonies have names, but none of the characters is given a proper name. In my Native American philosophy unit, we learned that oral history is really important in the Native American tradition, and that the stories are used to connect all generations to the values and homeland of the community. Stories are used to teach people about what's important to them and to their community. Maybe that's why many of the protagonists are nameless. 

I really liked the stories from the Nlakapamuk people. "The Youth that Joined the Deer" was really interesting in more ways than one. First, I knew off the bat that they were Deer-People. I don't know why the hunter took so long to figure it out, but in keeping with the casual-impossible-phenomena theme, I don't think it mattered too much to him to get to the bottom of things. Until he shared the secret with his people. This story also embodies some characteristics of Native philosophy: sacrifice and working for the good of the community. The deer people were willing to be killed and restored, over and over, to sustain their community. The hunter was sure to teach his people and his children about responsible consumption. We don't just take, we acknowledge that something or someone is missing out on something (including life, maybe) so that we can survive. It's all about balance, as Dr. K is fond of saying. 

I also liked the True Bride story, also from the Nlakapamuk tribe. It was longer, but there were so many weird twists and turns that I was entertained the whole time. I also thought it was interesting because it seemed to be have been told--or at least written--at a later date than some of the other stories in this unit. Where before, all the characters were (or could be assumed to be) Native Americans themselves, this story made sure to point out that some people in the story were white. It also mentioned the layout of the houses and a public hanging. And I'm no American History genius but maybe some details were added into an old story, or this was a relatively newer story. 

And speaking of the evolution of stories: "The Girl and the Turkeys" was basically a Cinderella story with the twist of no happy ending. And I though that this was really cool for a lot of reasons, least of which is: Why would you want to end a story without "And they lived happily ever after?" Oh right--because the primary purpose of stories for communities with strong emphasis on oral history is to teach. So that brings me to my second observation: that every culture in the world has some version of the Cinderella story. There's versions from Asia, Africa, Europe, and now even the first people of the Americas. Either Cinderella was the first story ever invented, or cultural exchange has been happening a lot longer than we thought. 

I don't really know what kind of story to write based on these stories. I'm having a lot more trouble taking the themes in these myths and running with them far enough to make them my own without just copying the original. The most important and prevailing theme in these stories is: disobedience = bad. Which, all in all, is not a bad lesson. But people who behave don't make good stories, as I'm sure we all know. 

"Female Wild Turkeys" via Wikimedia