Extra Reading Diary: Tejas Legends

Rather than do an essay I decided to do the extra reading assignment so that I could read the other half of the Tejas Legends unit (since I only did one half earlier in the week). I really liked the story When the Storm God Rides because it hit close to home. This story detailed why there are islands around the coast of Texas. The Native Americans say they were created by the Storm God. This god had a giant bird that the Indians were scared of. One day the Storm God witnessed the Indians killing birds. He created these little islands for the birds so they could get away from man and be safe. I’m from San Antonio and it’s only two to three hours from the coast depending on where you want to go. During the summer my friends and I like to make day trips down to the beach. It is just really neat to see a story explaining how all of the little islands came about, especially since it is in an area I have been going to for years. In other stories it also discusses Spanish moss and the winds from the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish moss gets really prevalent the closer you get to Louisiana. Once you’re in Louisiana that stuff is everywhere! I don’t think we really have it in San Antonio.  I’m glad I chose to read this unit. On my next beach trip I’ll have to tell my friends how all the islands came about;)

Map of the Texas Coastline and Native American Tribes

Storytelling Week 10: Foolhardy

There was once an old man who had little to his name but he was a good man. He lived his life to serve others but most importantly, God. Unfortunately, the man’s health was quickly failing him. He went to his church and told the pastor all about his troubles. He knew he did not have much time and was very worried about his two boys. He raised them as best as he could but unfortunately despite his best efforts, they weren’t very bright. They relied upon their father and were very cautious of all other people.

The pastor met with the board members of the church after he spoke with the old man. One member who was well endowed took pity upon the man because he had done so much for the church. He took it upon himself to repay the man for all of his kindness. He contacted the man and set up a time to meet one evening. Things however, got worse for the old man. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to make it to the meeting so he instructed his sons to meet on his behalf.

The two boys went to the location of the meeting as instructed by their father. They were spooked by a figure approaching from the shadows so one of them smashed a vase over his head. He was out cold and they feared he was already dead. They went to their father with their news. In anguish the old man realized the boys had killed the board member from church. The shock overtook him and he quickly passed from a heart attack. Due to the boys rash behavior they were subject to living a life of poverty for the remainder of their days.

Author’s Note: This is a more modern version of the story How Sickness Entered the World within the Tejas Legends unit. In the original story there was no sickness in the world. A medicine man knew it was his time to die and he was supposed to meet with a Messenger from the Great Spirit. The Messenger was going to give the man a great deal of information for the rest of mankind. Unfortunately, the medicine man was too ill to make the meeting. He sent to boys in his place. The Messenger went to the meeting in the form of a snake. This frightened the boys and they killed the snake. They reported their actions to the medicine man and foolishly thought nothing would happen to them if they left the carcass somewhere else. The mate of the snake discovered what happened and laid eggs that released sickness amongst all of the people. I wanted to put the story into a more modern setting. Rather than being plagued with illness the two boys in my story will be plagued with poverty.

The Good Man

Bibliography: "How Disease Entered the World" by Florence Stratton, from When the Storm God   Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends (1936). Web: Untextbook

Reading Diary B: Tejas Legends

So I skipped Reading Diary A of this week because I haven’t being feeling well. I waited until this morning to do Reading Diary B in hopes I would feel better. Just my luck, I’m sicker today than I have been! I read the second half of the Tejas Legends unit because I am from Texas so I thought it would be pretty interesting. In this unit, like many others, the Native Americans told stories to explain natural phenomena around them. This half had some pretty interesting explanations such as How Sickness Entered the World, which is pretty relevant to me right now. Sorry for keeping it so short today. I barely felt good enough to get this much done!

Current Status

Essay: Ancient Sciences

Within this Marriage Tales unit there was a common theme of marriage between man and animal. In many of the stories this was the way the Native Americans explained certain behaviors and appearances of animals because of the actions of man. For example in The Splinter Foot Girl, a young girl is married off to a buffalo. Eventually her family misses her too much and decides to secretly take her back. After the buffalo tracks them down and discovers them in a tree he and his herd begin ramming it. They lose a big chunk of their horns, thus explaining why buffalo have such small ones. In addition, the buffalo chief gets his horns stuck in the tree at one point. The people then began firing arrows into his neck to kill him. This was also their explanation as to why the buffalo were so scared of man and would run when they saw them.

Marriage between man and beast is a certainly odd one to read about in our present day society. While going through this unit the reader has to be conscious to the fact that the Native American people had a lot of respect for the animals around them. They were regarded at a much higher “status” than people see them today. The lives of animals were so intertwined with their own and each beast had certain defining characteristics. The stories told make them seem almost human like.

Ancient people used stories such as the one above to describe the actions and the appearances of the world around them. They tried to explain why things happened the way they did and these stories were logical for them. Being a science major I particularly enjoy reading stories like this. Our present day foundation for science has only built upon what our predecessors established.  It is truly fascinating to know the curiosity they had and to see what they came up with as an answer.

Buffalo

Storytelling Week 9: Foolishly Falling in "Love"

Marriage; the one thing every little girl dreams about. They envision their prince waiting at the end of the aisle. Their daddy walking them amongst all of their friends, family, and heaps of beautiful flowers. The fantasy starts early and some spend their whole lives working towards it. Two sisters in particular had set their sights on their perfect days. Both of them foolishly focused on the more material things in life. When they envisioned their ideal groom he wasn’t kind, compassionate, or particularly loving. Their main selling point was if he was handsome or not. The older of the two always saw herself marrying an actor. Someone who was truly handsome and was talented as well. The younger one wished to marry a lawyer, a handsome one of course. Both types of men could provide them with the lifestyle they felt they were entitled to.

As they grew into adulthood their childhood fantasies were never far from their minds. Both of the girls worked hard towards obtaining their Mrs. Degree. They set their sights on the ideal man and finally said I do. Their husbands worked tirelessly to achieve all their goals. The lawyer moved himself and his wife out to New York to become a partner in a big time law firm. The actor moved himself and his wife out to Hollywood so he could be closer to all the stars and the action. The girls were split up for the first time in their lives and although they obtained what they always desired things became very hard for them.

They were away from their family, separated from one another, and trapped within loveless marriages. Realization of their foolishness came far too late. When both of the sisters discussed moving back home with their husband’s things did not go over well. Things were going well for the men and they told their wives that they refused to even talk about such things. Verbally berated on a constant basis the women couldn’t handle it any more.

The sister that lived in New York called one of her brothers and begged him for his help. The sisters had three brothers and all three went into the police force. Immediately they hopped on to a plane and flew out to New York to help their sister. The lawyer knew his verbal abuse of his wife was coming back to bite him when her brothers showed up on his doorstep. They demanded that she go back home with them. With her bags packed and ready to go the woman left her husband behind and didn’t look back.

Knowing her sister was going through the same situation with her husband in Los Angeles, she demanded her brothers do the same for their other sister as they did for her. So the brothers flew out to Los Angeles and did the same as they did in New York. They showed up unexpectedly on their doorstep and took their other sister away from her abusive husband. When the two girls were reunited back home they were happier than they had been in their many months apart from one another. The sisters learned their lesson, got divorces, and vowed to never be so foolish again.

Author’s Note: This is a retelling of The Eagle and Whale Husbands that is within the Native American Marriage Tales unit. Within this story two sisters are playing on the beach with whale and eagle bones. The one with the eagle bones decides she will marry an eagle so one comes along and swoops her away. The other decides to marry a whale so one comes along and ties her to the bottom of the ocean. The two realize how foolish they had been and wish to leave their “husbands”. Their brothers eventually come along and rescue them. I put this story into a more modern sense so that it is more relatable. Blindly going into a marriage then being trapped within it seems to be a very common theme in present day dramas.

Falling in "Love"

"The Eagle and Whale Husbands" by Stith Thompson, from Tales of the North American Indians (1929). Web Source: Untextbook

Reading Diary B: Marraige Tales

The second half of the Marriage Tales unit continued on with the same ideas that the first one held. The biggest factor in this unit is the relationship depicted between man and animal. These stories are still a little off putting to me since they have sexual relationships with each other. Another component that is similar in both the first and second half of the unit is the idea of reincarnation. Both the bison and the deer would keep the bones of the dead and bring the dead back to life. This was particularly interesting in the story The Youth Who Joined the Deer. A man married into a family of deer who could change form to become human. What was so interesting about this story was the fact that the deer would hunt and kill each other for food. After they would eat the meat they would throw the bones of the dead into water and the deer would come back to life.

Big Buck

Reading Diary A: Marraige Tales

I chose to read the Marriage Tales unit for this week. This provided some very interesting readings with the primary focus being humans marrying animals. This is certainly something you wouldn’t see in present day storytelling but this was the Native Americans way of explaining natural phenomena such as why the buffalo is scared of men. A wide variety of animals were utilized in these stories. There was a bear, and eagle, a whale, and several buffalo stories. Unless I find a more interesting piece in the second part of the unit I already have a pretty good idea of what I will do for my storytelling assignment later on in the week with the story of The Eagle and Whale Husbands.

 

Why the Buffalo is Scared of Man