Reading Notes - Native American Tales (Reading A)

This week, I read the Sioux Nation's story unit. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I really liked these stories. They were a strange mix of anthology and just pure entertainment. A lot of these stories were more light-hearted, or maybe I was able to read them in a light-hearted manner because I wasn't getting my wires crossed (last week, I had a ton of work to do including a Native American book report, which required a lot of intensity so I was reading everything with intensity). 

One thing that I know I can learn from these stories is that a story can be short but still entertaining and impactful. I tend to write and write and write in my own stories, and I think that it would be a good exercise for me to practice being more concise and try to still create a god story. 

I also noticed a lot of the consistent elements of Native American stories, namely: origin stories for why things are the way they are, animals acting as helpers for people, animals acting with human attributes, and spirits influencing human life. 

I had a fleeting idea for one story, seeing as I need to start looking for inspiration for my next story for the portfolio project. I really liked the Story of the Lost Wife. In it, a young woman, mistreated by her husband, runs away and is taken in by a tribe of wolves who learn how to care for her and give her shelter for a year. Later, when she is reunited with her own people, she makes sure that the wolves aren't hunted by her family. In fact, she ensures that they are fed with a surplus of buffalo meat before permanently rejoining her tribe. I think that this would be an interesting story to write from the woman's perspective, or from a family members perspective. It's kind of a "new" (technically old) take on the whole feral child thing. Or like the Jungle Book. 

I'll read the second half and see if any other stories really speak to me. 

"Howl" by Sim33 via Pixabay