Week 10 Storytelling: An Indian Love Story

"Wait, daddy, before you tuck us in could you tell us about how you and mommy met?" asked the daughter.

"Hmmmm that's an interesting bedtime request... let me see if your mom wants to join in for this one, hold on just a second," said the father.

The dad left the room to go and get the mom. Just as he was leaving the little brother came running into the sister's room.

"Did I hear that dad is going to tell us a story?! Count me in!" said the little brother as he jumped onto his sister's bed.

The two of them got comfy and sat up in bed to wait for their parents to come back. The dad along with the mom entered back into the room and sat down at the end of the bed.

Siblings ready for story time  

"Okay, now that we're all here, you said you wanted to hear about how me and your mom fell in love?" asked the dad.

"Yes!" exclaimed both the kids.

"Well alrighty then, I'll start and your mom will chime in if I start to mess it up," said the dad.

           "Your mother and her sister were the daughters of a very powerful, rich Indian chief. They were beautiful young ladies, and it was about the time that they were of an age to marry that I first saw your mom. You see, I was the sun up in the sky, and my sister, your aunt, was the stars in the sky. We would look down on all the people each day, and one day I happened to see your mother. I saw her standing outside of their families tipi, and a crowd of suitors surrounded her and her sister. However, no matter how many men would ask for their hands in marriage, both your mother and her sister rejected them. I was pretty perplexed, especially when so many of the suitors came bringing jewels, riches, and animals. That's when my sister and I decided we would go down and visit earth and see what these two girls were about.
           To visit Earth, my sister and I had to take on human forms. So during the night we set up a raggedy old tipi for ourselves and I become a boy, a poor dirty boy, while my sister took the form of my very elderly grandmother. When daylight came a crowd of people gathered around our tipi and I could hear them whispering while I laid inside on my pallet; I had a bum leg so I couldn't ever leave that pallet. I heard something about an upcoming competition to win the chiefs daughters, and I told my sister/grandmother to enter me in the competition.
           Four days later the competition happened. It was an arrow shooting contest and we each got two shots to hit a certain eagle perched high up in a tree. My sister/grandmother made me a bow and arrow and pulled the door open on our tipi, from laying on my pallet I shot and hit the eagle... I had won the competition. The chief saw me win but I guess he didn't want to give his daughters to a dirty, sick boy so he declared that there would be another competition and that the next time the winner would for sure win his daughters.
           The next competition was to go up to a mountain pond and set two traps to catch fish, the man who caught a fish would win. I, of course, couldn't make the trek up the mountain so I had my sister/grandmother make me cages and we set them outside our tipi on dry land. The next morning when we awoke my sister/grandmother checked the traps and both of mine were full of fish. When the other men came down from the mountain none of them had caught any fish so I was the winner... again.
           This time the chief sent his daughters to me, but on the way your mother's sister went into the tipi of the Raven family and she married one of their sons. Your mother on the other hand came to my tipi and she became my wife. I was sick and my sister/grandmother told her I was going to die soon so she should go sleep in her father's tipi every night but come and take care of me during the day. She did this for three days and never complained.
           On the fourth night my sister and I decided it was time for us to transform back into our true forms. So, that night our cruddy tipi became brand new and exquisite, my elderly sister turned into a young beautiful sister and I turned into a handsome, healthy young man. When morning came the village was shocked. Your mother came back to take care of me as usual, but was confused at what she saw. My sister greeted her at the door and assured her that I, the now handsome man, was her husband. She came in and sat beside me and she was glad.
           I had the mark of the sun on the back of my hand, and my sister had the mark of a star. I wanted your mother to officially be a part of our family so I dipped her hand into a pot of gold dust and stars covered the back of her hand. Now that I could walk your mother and I got officially married and she fell even more in love with me," said the father as he held the mother's hand.

"Awwwwwww" said the children in unison.

"Yes it is pretty 'awwwww' I would say. Your mother has always had a heart of gold and I love her for that," said the father. And then the parents kissed.

"Ewww get a room," said the daughter.

The mom and dad got up, tucked the kids in, turned off the lights and closed the door "Goooooodniiiiight," said mom and dad.


Author's Note: The Originals story was called "Dirty Boy." In the story the sun and the star of the sky looked upon a village with 2 beautiful girls of the chief who rejected all their suitors. The sun and star went down to earth to see what the two women were about/if the sun could marry them. They made themselves a poor persons hut and the sun became a dirty, sick boy, the stars his old grandmother. The chief had two competitions for his daughters suitor and dirty boy won them both. Finally the chief gave the daughters to him. The eldest disobeyed and married a raven man. The youngest tended to the dirty boy for three days, then on the fourth day the sun and star took on their true form and made a beautiful home, become young and healthy and handsome. The bride was pleased and they lived happily. He gave her stars on her body like they had. As you can see I didn't change many of the original stories elements, I just changed by whom the story was told. I also thought I would try to make it more of a love story and I picked the dad as the story teller because he would know the most since he was the "dirty boy." I also added in some dialogue to make it flow better and to make it easier to picture the story setting of a bedtime love story.  

Bibliography: "The Dirty-Boy" from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929). Web source

Week 10 Reading Diary, Continued: Native American Hero Tales

Reading diary continued for the Native American Hero Tales unit. Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away
This was a really weird story. In the beginning a witch killed a woman and took her two babies out of her stomach throwing one in the river and one behind the curtain in the tipi. The father found the one in the house and raised him, then the two of them got the other one from the river. The boys became rebellious but also heroes; their father kept warning them of dangerous things that existed that they should avoid but each time the disobeyed and found the thing or person and killed it or destroyed it. I found myself saying how many more times will this happen... how many more times will this dad tell them not to do something knowing they will do it. Then, I didn't see much of a point to this story; especially because in the end no death or harm ever actually came to the boys and instead they lived happily forever as heroes. This story had some very weird things happen.

The Son-in-Law Tests
The title of this story definitely gives away what it was about. A father kept killing all of his daughters husbands by tricking them into doing tasks or they lost in competitions and were killed. All he killed except for one who kept beating him at the tasks or outsmarting him. They probably did around 10 different things, all very concisely told but again I was annoyed at how many there were. Finally the father-in law was killed out on the ocean by the son in law calling up the waves. Some weird aspects were in this story as well, the son had to pick and eat lice from the fathers head, etc.

The Jealous Father
Another story involving someone getting left somewhere while the other person paddled away in the canoe. Also another story where people transform between birds and people, it sounds like native Americans really have a strong connection with nature and especially birds. A man had two wives and one gave him a son. But this son fooled around with the fathers other wife so the father left him stranded on an island. A walrus rescued him and took him to the main land. The father sent lightning and other things to harm him but his mother sent the walrus and things to help him. He eventually made it back and he caught the forest on fire and made the sea boil. He burned up his father and saved his mothers. Then they decided to become birds, the son became a whiskey jack.

Whiskey Jack

Dirty-Boy
The sun and the star of the sky looked upon a village with 2 beautiful girls of the chief who rejected all their suitors. The sun and star decided to go down to earth and see what the two women were about/if the sun could marry them. They made themselves a poor persons hut and the sun became a dirty, sick boy, the stars his old grandmother. The chief had two competitions for his daughters suitor and dirty boy won them both. Finally the chief gave the daughters to him. The eldest disobeyed and married a raven man. The youngest tended to the dirty boy for three days, then on the fourth day the sun and star took on their true form and made a beautiful home, become young and healthy and handsome. The bride was pleased and they lived happily. He gave her stars on her body like they had.

Week 10 Reading Diary: Native American Hero Tales

This reading diary will cover stories from the Native American Hero Tales unit. Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

The Jealous Uncle
This was a pretty long story, three pages in length to be exact, but I enjoyed it. In this story the uncle who they called Unnatural Uncle would kill his nephews shortly after birth, his wife made a deal with the mother to say that the next was a girl to protect the baby boy from death. They did this until his teens but eventually uncle figured it out. Then uncle made four attempts at taking the nephews life but was unsuccessful at each. On the fourth he put him in a box out to sea, he washed up to Eagle land and the chief there married him to his daughter. He missed his family so he put on the eagle skin and flew home. The uncle was mistreating his parents so the nephew dropped him into the ocean knowing he couldn't swim. He then went to his parents and flew them with him to his new adopted land. I was glad that the uncle didn't win and that the nephew came back for his parents.

Bluejay and His Companions
A bluejay and his four companions would go out seal hunting and would share with Grouse, a quail, only the bad fatless parts of the seal. He never complained but instead made a big black seal out of wood and set it into the sea. The next day the men caught it and it pulled them far out to sea for a day and a half. When it stopped they realized it was Grouse's doing. They then paddled back towards land and came upon 3 or 4 villages of people. But each of these villages challenged them to some kind of task or battle and each time they won so they were free to leave and carry on. They finally made it back home with one less man and from then on they gave Grouse the biggest, fattest seal.

Grouse the bird

Dug-From-Ground
This story wasn't as entertaining or as easy to follow as the other two. From what I gathered from it, a daughter dug op plants from the ground and her mother warned her not to dig up any with two stocks. But she did it and then a baby followed her home and became her son. The grandmother raised him and the mother refused to look at him, she went out each day a picked acorns. He followed her and picked some and killed a deer and then she called him her son. He then left home and went to a village, he completed several tasks and won all of them and lots of money. After years of being away he went back for his mother and grandmother and picked up their house to move to where he had been.

The Attack on the Giant Elk and the Great Eagle
Giant animals once ruled the earth and they killed humans. There was one human however that decided he was going to end the lives of the giant elk and giant eagle. He used the skin of a lizard and the burrowing of a beaver to kill the elk, but not before the elk created the mountains of the world. Then he took the antlers and killed the great eagle mother and father and her stunted the growth and power of the three baby eagles. A old bat helped him down from the eagles nest and in return he gave the bat the eagle feathers. She kept losing them so he gave her no more and she accepted this fate.