Extra Reading Diary: Creation and Longevity Achomawi (Pit River, California)

Creation and Longevity

Achomawi (Pit River, California)

Once again, it is awesome how this unit perfectly goes hand and hand with my music class. Right now we are talking about tribes from the Plains. We learned how important the Eagle is to the several different Plains tribes and this story highlights that. Like I have mentioned before, I really enjoy creation stories because they are all so unique and it is cool to see how each group of people believe they were created. This creation story was interesting to me because it told the story of two creators. Usually, the creation stories that I have read only had one main creator. This story has both Coyote and Eagle as creators. 

(Majestic Eagle)

Storytelling Week 9: How One Smurfette Became Two

How One Smurfette Became Two

Long, long ago there was a Smurf village with many smurfs living there. Far, far away in the Southern Smurf village, there were rumors of a smurfette living there. When he heard about the rumor spread to the Northern Smurf village, Brainy Smurf travelled down to the Southern Smurf village and married Smurfette. As he looked at his wife, Brainy Smurf pleasantly thought to himself, “Ha! I have married Smurfette, the only lady smurf in the village, while Vanity Smurf, the son of our leader Papa Smurf, has no wife.”

What Brainy Smurf didn't know was that Vanity Smurf had also heard the rumors about Smurfette living in the southern Smurf village and had decided to travel there to marry Smurfette himself. Once Vanity Smurf arrived, he stood in the hallway to the Smurf hut and overheard Brainy Smurf talking to himself. Hearing what Brainy Smurf said, Vanity Smurf decided to wait until everyone in the house was sound asleep. Once he was sure everyone was asleep, Vanity Smurf snuck into Brainy Smurf and Smurfette’s bedroom and began to drag Smurfette away by her shoulders. Brainy Smurf awoke with a start as he heard Vanity Smurf dragging Smurfette away. He ran to the hallway and dove for Smurfette and grabbed her by her feet. As Vanity Smurf pulled one way, and Brainy Smurf pulled another, poor little Smurfette became a Smurf tug-of-war rope. The two Smurfs pulled and pulled until suddenly, they pulled helpless little Smurfette in two. Vanity Smurf carried Smurfette’s upper body back to the Northern Smurf village. Once there, he carved wood to make Smurfette complete. The new Smurfette of the Southern Smurf village was a very skilled dancer but, she was not so skilled at doing intricate needlework in sewing furs. This is because she had wooden hands. The new Smurfette of the Northern Smurf village was a horrible dancer because her feet were wooden but, she was very good at sewing fine stitches in the furs. Because of this one event, all of the Northern Smurfettes are skillful with their hands and all of the Southern Smurfettes are beautiful dancers.

(Smurfs and Smurfette)

Author's Note: This story is the Inuit origin story of the first woman. In the story, two men split the only woman in their village in half as they were fighting over her. When I read the story, I instantly thought about the Smurfs and how Smurfette was the only female Smurf in her village. Thoughts of all of the Smurf men fighting over her filled my head. 

Bibliography: I based my story off of the Inuit origin story The First Woman that is from the book Myths and Legends of Alaska edited by Katherine Berry Judson (1911).

Reading Diary B: Alaskan Legends(Continued)

The First Woman

Eskimo (Bering Straits)

As I was reading this story, all I could think about is the TV show The Smurfs. Like the woman that lived in the southland, Smurfette was the only woman living among the male Smurfs. I wonder how she and the woman that lived in the southland felt. Did the Smurfs fight over Smurfette the way the men fought over the woman?

I did enjoy the story of the first woman. It was very cool how they explained why the women of the south and the women of the north are talented in different areas. When I was reading about how the men were fighting over the woman all I could picture is them pulling her like a tug-of-war rope and I couldn’t help but laugh. I was glad that they just split the woman in two instead of accidentally killing her. If this story was a part of the Asia and Africa unit then the woman probably would have died because there was a lot of murder involved in the stories in that unit.

The Boy in the Moon

Eskimo (Lower Yukon)

I have read a few moon and sun origin stories and almost all of them involve lovers. The moon is the woman/girl and the sun is the man/boy and vice versa. The use of food (berries and meat) to explain why the moon fades in Alaska is something I have never read before.

(Smurfs and Smurfette)

Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

Myth-Folklore Unit: Alaskan Legends

(Myths and Legends of Alaska)

I chose this unit because we just finished learning about the Haida and Inuit people in my Native American Music class. I really enjoy origin and creation stories. These stories are always fun and interesting. It is cool to read about the different beliefs that people have. I noticed that the number 4 is used a lot in these stories (4 days, 4 years, Raven waves his wings 4 times). In class, we learned that the number 4 is sacred to a lot of tribes because it is connected to nature through the 4 seasons, connected to the 4 directions, and connected to the 4 elements.  I also really enjoyed the polar bear and mosquito origins within these stories. I thought it was funny how the mosquitoes were told to bite people instead of bite/eat animals. In hindsight, I don’t think that was the best thing to tell the mosquitoes. I thought the story of how the reindeer lost their sharp teeth was interesting as well. Who would have known that the sweet little animals that we associate with Christmas and Santa Clause used to be vicious little creatures that terrorized and ate people. 

(Reindeer)