Essay: Indian Mysticism

(Image Information: Comanche Camp by George Catlin (1834);
Web Source: Texas Indians)

As I got further and further into the Tejas Legends unit, I began to realize a recurring motif. In each story, something supernatural always seemed to play a key, if not major role in the story. Whether is was a talking animal, or someone with a mysterious power, it was always something out of the ordinary. While it is often the goal of storytelling to preserve one's culture, I think it is often the Native American stories that best do this. Their stories represent their belief in the supernatural, their gods, and their strong connection to the land. They treat the land not as something they live on, but rather something they live with. They believe they coexist with the land, and this shows in their storytelling.

In Why the Woodpecker Pecks, a group of people in a tribe do not heed the advice of the medicine man, and eat a plant that is off limits. It is during this time that a god sees their children in danger and places each one of them in a tree for safety from the sun and coyotes. When the parents realize the children are gone, they beg the god for mercy, and he turns them into birds (woodpeckers).

In other stories such as The Plant that Grows in Trees, The Maiden who Loved A Star, and How Sickness Entered the World (among others), there was much more magic at hand. All of these stories well represent the Native American belief that one must respect his/her elders, the gods, and nature in order to live a full and happy life. Among all of these stories, there’s good little life lessons too (see Why Hummingbirds Only Drink Dew for gambling tips).

These Tejas Legends did a very good job, in my opinion, of representing not only good life lessons for children and young adults, but they also did a great job of giving a view of what life for Native Americans was like. They are a very proud, honorable people who coexist with nature.

Reading Diary B: Tejas Legends

Here are some notes from Tejas Legends Pt. B

Why Hummingbirds Drink Only Dew

“Like many people, the hummingbird and the heron had the bad habit of gambling.” Another interesting anthropomorphised story to start off the second half of this unit. I like the quote. It’s almost like this is a sort of twisted children’s bedtime story used to teach kids not only about the reason that hummingbirds drink only dew but also that gambling is a bad habit and should not be done.

(Image Information: A ruby-throated hummingbird;
Web Source: Wikimedia)

The Maiden Who Loved A Star

This is a story of a young girl who, while out one night, sees a star and thinks that the star winked at her. She desires so badly to be with the star that she asks a witch what the best way for her to die is so she may be among the stars. The witch says she cannot die so young, but she does take her out and turn her into a bush. When the star sees this, he bursts and covers the bush in white dust and blossoms. Its an Indian love story.

How Sickness Entered the World

In this story, a dying medicine man sends two young man to receive a message for him from The Great Spirit. While the two men are waiting, a snake comes towards them. They kill the snake and wait a while longer, but no one appears. When they return to the medicine man, they tell him of the snake and the medicine man is astonished. They killed the messenger. The two boys, in an attempt to avoid bad fortune, take the snake to another wigwam of a rival tribe. This tribe does the same to another, and this repeats for some time. Finally, the snakes wife finds every tribe that the snake has been to and lays an egg. Each egg contains a different sickness.

Reading Diary A: Tejas Legends

Here are some stories from Tejas Legends Pt. A

How the North Wind Lost His Hair

This story, much like the previous one, and I’m sure like all of those that follow, is interesting because of the style of Native American storytelling. I am always fascinated with their ability to anthropomorphise anything. In this story, the old, cold North Wind attacked the young, warm South Wind. The South Wind was fed up with this and so he spun the North Wind around by his hair until he ripped some of the hair out (creating Spanish Moss).

The Plant That Grows in Trees

This is the story of how mistletoe came to grow in trees instead of on the ground. Again, a thunder bird speaks with a talking mistletoe plant, is moved by its words, and helps it to grow in the trees.  

Why the Woodpecker Pecks

“There was a time when woodpeckers used to be Indians.” That pretty much sums it up right there. Indians disobey their medicine men, and a God hides the Indians children in a tree. Then, they are turned into birds who use their beak to try and get into the tree.

(Image Information: Woody Woodpecker; Web Source: Hero Wiki)

A Tribe that Left Its Shoes

This story holds off on the anthropomorphism. Instead, the medicine man gives the tribe’s moccasins a little magic. After losing their island to a volcanic eruption, the tribe reaches the mainland and leaves their painted moccasins behind so that one day they can return. After time passes, they see that where each moccasin was left, an orchid grew in its place.

The Swift Blue One

This is a story about the king of horses. A fast, majestic, Spanish, blue horse that could not be controlled by Indians because they did not speak the horse language. One day, a Spaniard, afraid for his life, promised to teach a young Indian the language of the horse, and he did. This Indian was the only one who could ride a horse. When he died in battle, the rest of the tribe decided to set the horse free.

Commenting Review Week

(Image Information: Meow)

At the beginning of this class, I was wondering what kind of (if any) interaction there would be among students in the class. Of course, I was wondering about a lot of things because this is my first online class I’ve taken at any level of schooling. I really like how the course is laid out, and I like that I get to interact with different people each week, and learn more about them.

While a lot of the comments on storytelling are just interesting to read weekly, it is the project commenting that I feel I gain the most from. I really appreciate getting feedback from people on little things they catch that my untrained eye does not. But also, I appreciate the bigger comments and suggestions about how my storybook looks, if I should find a different image, use a different font, etc. Everything is really helpful and very interactive.

Usually, my comments are things that people are doing well. I like to tell them what stands out he most to me and what I think there best parts are. In addition to these things, I try to throw in little punctuation errors or other small things that I see. It may help that I haven’t read a bad storybook/portfolio yet, so I don’t really feel like I need to make any serious suggestions to anybody.

Writing Review Week

(Image Information: A really cute cat has appeared!)

At the beginning of this class, I was nowhere near the average (borderline crappy) writer that I was in my prime. Being a Biochemistry major, the most writing I do is for lab reports, so I hadn’t done any writing analysis or creative writing for a long time. After about three of four weeks in this class, I evolved from a child who was just learning to write the alphabet to a pretty crappy writer (sort of evolving from a magikarp into another magikarp). Now, I can comfortably say that I am a very middle-of-the-pack, mediocre writer. Maybe by the end of all of this I’ll be a beautiful gyarados… or maybe just a shiny magikarp… or just anything better than a magikarp.

Between the weekly essay, storytelling, and the project, there are plenty of writings to do in this class, so there are plenty of opportunities to improve your trade and try to catch them all (not really a relevant reference, but now I just have pokemon on my mind). It’s also really helpful to get feedback from fellow students and the teacher. Anyways, this class has really been valuable to my return to mediocre writing ability, so I appreciate that. Togepi.