Native American Stories

The council meeting of the tribal elders in “Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden” is something unique to the Native American stories. None of the European tales have anything like that in them; none of the European characters go to a council of elders for advice. The situation that calls for such a meeting is unique as well—Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden are focusing on themselves and ignoring all tribal traditions, and the villagers are afraid of retribution from angry spirits. Nothing like that happens in any European stories.

 

We also haven’t read any European “creation myths”. Dr. Ochieng’ told us some from Kenya, but we haven’t read any European equivalents to “How Man and Woman Got Together” or “How Mosquitos Came to Be”. I personally think those kinds of stories are really cool, I wish we’d read some more.

 

As someone mentioned in class, the number 4 is also really important in Native American tales (especially noticeable in “The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog”), as opposed to the number 3 in European stories. I can’t explain why this difference exists, but I’m guessing it might be related to 4 seasons vs the number 3 being a big Christian religious number (like “the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”—but that is just a guess.

 

Also mentioned in class, a lot of the Native American stories have an Old Man or Old Woman character (“How Man and Woman Got Together”, “The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog”, and “The End of the World”). Many of the European tales have a parent who may have been old, but the only example of an Old Man or Old Woman in a European tale that I can think of is one of the Bluebeard stories. So while not entirely unique, that character type is much more prevalent in Native American tales.

I think "The Orphan Boy and the Elk-Dog" was my favorite story we read.