Reading Week 10: Great Plains, Part A


The Great Plains stories that I was able to read this week had many interesting details that were associated with them. I liked how they described the world before life was on it. That it was just water everywhere – then the water would recede at the beckoning of an animal to one of the gods (or land would arise up). This supernatural sounding landscape, that would be molded before human’s eyes is an image that will probably stick with me – it’d be a good way to open some kind of creation story (or a story about the way things are).

Other types of stories that I saw during this unit included ones that described the first time the Native Americans started having a tradition. Examples of this were: smoking of a peace pipe/why they would do that and why/how a pole was to be worshiped. The stories seemed almost dreamlike at certain points, with impressive feats (or seemingly important details) would be casually brushed over. I feel like one of the most important stories to this unit was, “Sacred Legend”. In this story, Omaha Native Americans are described finding out the basic discoveries of their culture – eating game, making fire, making a tipi, and fur clothing. This, to me, gives a closer perspective to how certain Native Americans interpret their ancestors through their stories. The ancestors are seen as a creative people, who were able to problem solve their way into integral parts of their cultures.

Final story types that I enjoyed/can pull ideas from are the ones relating to animals, where they are personified (and in some cases, made human) and some insight into their behavior is given. An example of this is when a hunter kills an eagle, goes back to his tribe to brag about it, and when they start a dance a mysterious man shows up, killing 7 of them.


Peace Pipe from the Lakota People

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

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