Week 11 Reading: Pacific Northwest American Indian Tales, Part B

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This is a continuation of my Pacific Northwest American Indian unit notes. I chose this unit because I have been to the Pacific Northwest three times. Each time I did some outdoor activities, and I absolutely loved the climate, foliage, and land. This helped me envision the imagery in these tales. Some of the stories in the second half had a different feeling than the first half of the unit. Often, they were more action-packed and the storylines sometimes went in bizarre directions which made it difficult to remember what exactly happened. Also, I noticed that a lot of the paragraphs were shorter and that sentences were often choppy and clipped. I prefer the writing style of the first half of this unit.

One of these strange tales was a Nez Perce story, Cry-because-he-had-no-wife. The story title is the main character’s translated name, and he really does cry through most of the tale. Because of this, I did not find him to be a very likeable character. He sets off at a young to find a particular girl and make her his wife. At first, he stops at the home of a giant who is eating a roast out of human legs. Then, he turns himself into a dog to cross a large mountain that crushes people. Finally, he arrives at the girl’s home who has a horse that kills for her. He manages to pass this horse, gets the girl, and takes her back to his home. While there, the girl says that she will make the boy’s grandparents young again if they obey her. They do not obey her and consequently die. After this, the two head back to the girl’s home. I did not understand the point of this particular story and it was a very incoherent read.

I did enjoy, however, the two stories of the Thunderbird. In the first Tinne tale, The Golden Age, a boy goes to cut a fish and ends up releasing the Thunderbird. The second tale was a Klamath creation story, Origin of the Thunderbird, which I found even more interesting. In this tale, the Earth is only water and the Thunderbird is the only creature. He swoops down to the water and touches it, creating land. Then he creates animals and plants, and lastly, people. It was interesting to read the origin of man. One day, a giantess happens across the nest of the Thunderbird and accidentally broke one. From this were born the Chehalis Native Americans.

If you would like to read these tales, click here: link.

Judson, Katharine Berry. Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest. 1910.