Reading Notes Week 10: Great Plains Part B

Today’s readings included some Native American ghost stories, which are a bit different than the traditional ghost stories that most think of. In these, the ghosts are physical beings, present, ever-watching within certain areas of the woods. Hunters have to take precautions to avoid the ghosts while protecting themselves. In one of the stories a hunter is circled in upon, like a rabbit in a snare, by a multitude of ghosts – when one gets close enough to attack him, the hunter shot it in the head, sending them away. Normally, when I think of ghosts, I think of entities that can’t be harmed by normal weapons such as a gun – only by supernatural related objects. Other stories that I quite liked were the ones that dealt with the animals. In a bunch of stories, the rabbit was the “main character” where a couple of things were explained about why the rabbit is the way that it is.

A depressing story that I read within this unit was in the second one called, “The Wakanda” where a boy winds up drowning in the lake and his parents want him back because they can hear him through the ground (a great unnerving detail). They then have these two shaman-like men talk to the water god, asking for the boy back. Unfortunately, since the boy ate food down there, if he leaves, he will die. For some reason, the parents are okay with this and trade for the boy to come back. He dies– happily ever after? I wasn’t sure how to feel about this story. It had dark elements mixed with fantasy that culminated in a child dying in front of his tribe. Maybe it was to be a warning for children to be careful around bodies of water that could take their life. Overall, a very good read today.

Snowshoe hare eating grass

"Myths and Legends of the Great Plains" written by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).