The story of the great flood that lasted forty days and forty nights is familiar to most of us Westerners, Christian or not. The Native American creation stories I read also often mentioned a flood that reset the world too. In “The Earth Dragon” from a tribe along the Northern California Coast, the gods’ first […]
Did the Native Americans have a Musical Culture?
There isn’t an abundance of research on the history of Native American music, however a lot of the information that can be found on their traditions claims that the Natives mostly used music as a tool to practice sacred rituals for the divine. In a book titled, The Healing Forces of Muisc: History, Theory and […]
note for story on page 392 of Erdoes text
As I read the story “Origin of the Gnawing Beaver” I wondered what it meant by the crest. I don’t typically associate crests with Native Americans so I decided to look up what that meant. As it turns out the Haida people to whom the story belongs are known for their art specifically their totem […]
The Magic of 4
I was interested in the commonality of 4 showing up in many of the myths throughout the book. In class we discussed the number 4 being representative of the four seasons or the four cardinal winds but I had a feeling that 4 went deeper than that. I pondered to come up with […]
Black Elk Speaks
I think that the production of Black Elk Speaks ties into our question of the influences on the American Indian Myths and Legends text we are reading for class. Black Elk speaks is the life story of a Lakota holy man who lived during the Indian Wars. This particular book is the most popular books pertaining […]
The Penobscot People and their Corn Mother
The Penobscot people are among the various tribes we have read about in Erodes and Ortiz’s Native American Myths and Legends. Located in the northeastern region of the United States, Penobscot indians resided, and continue to today, mostly in modern day Maine, primarily clustered around the Penobscot River on Indian Island. They, along with several other […]
The Cheyenne Tribe and the Buffalo
I wanted to do a bit of research into my favorite Indian tale we’ve read so far “Arrow Boy.” The book says this story was told by the Cheyenne Indian tribe, who were largely located “in what is now Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota” (http://bit.ly/1eeNLDF). This tribe placed a […]
Losing the Native American Culture in a European Mindset
While reading the myths and legends of the Native American Indians in Erdoes and Ortiz’s collection, many of us began asking the question of the truthfulness of translation. Many of the stories that are recorded in this book are eerily similar to many European Biblical stories of Christianity, despite the fact that these two religions […]
The Modoc Tribe: Honoring Nature
Among the many tribes depicted within these myths and legends is the Modoc Tribe. “The Modoc” holds the meaning, “southerners”. The Modoc tribe held a great respect for animals, seeing them as their ancestors. They also held animals at a high respect because they believed them to be a creation from the Sky god. One […]
I don’t have a funny title…
The myth of the “Corn Mother” reminded me a lot of the resurrection story from the Christian mythos. They both share a self-sacrificial hero who gives their life to save their people. The interesting thing, I think, that unites these stories is that the community is encouraged to eat the flesh of the heroes. In […]
