Myth Folklore

I have added a countdown to finals week in my sidebar just so I can know how far it is.

At the beginning of time there was one tribe of Native Americans that lived in the Mississippi Valley. They had no contact with other tribes but knew they were out there. The only way they were able to survive was because the animals in the forest would come and help them. Some would bring vegetables so that the tribe could eat while others would bring other dead animals so that the Native Americans could use them. Whenever the tribe received an animal they would respect it by praying first and then use the entire animal. They wouldn't disrespect the animal by not using all the parts. They believed that since the other animals were bringing them the dead animals the least they could do was to respect the animals that brought them. One day an animal brought a plant to the tribe and placed it near the fire pit. One of the Native Americans thought this was a sign and then threw the plant in the fire. After throwing it in the fire he inhaled the smoke from the flames and understood...

For this reading notes I decided to read a different part of the stories besides from the California tribe. I felt like I learned a lot from the California stories and wanted to learn more about different tribes which I did. They are really different when you think about it because the California stories were mostly about how the world started but the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes was about that a little too but more about the struggle between man and animals and also getting enough food for everyone. One story stuck out to me particularly which was about a boy who wanted food and decided to do a fast so that he may have a revelation. He had his revelation in the form of another boy and they wrestled for a couple of days around the same time. The boy that was the revelation was trying to help and basically died so that the boy doing the fast could get food. He said that the boy with the revelation must bury him and come clean his grave everyday. The next day when the boy wit...

Reading all of these stories was really interesting. It shows how the California tribes came up with their own idea of how the world was started and how little things came to be. The first stories were mostly about how the Sun and the Moon started along with the creation of man. Most of them had different stories but it was mostly the same. It wasn't surprising to me that for the Native American stories they started out with animals in most of them. I have a little bit of prior knowledge and know that animals mean a great deal to the Native Americans. They treat animals with much respect and only kill when they need to. I realized while reading the stories that in the California Native American tribes they talk a lot about coyotes. They hold them in such high esteem and even in some stories they talk about how life started because of the coyotes. It doesn't surprise me because it is the West Coast and there is a lot of coyotes to this very day so I imagine that back then they...