The first few stories are about a rabbit and his grandmother. In the first story the rabbit tries to catch a bunch of grouse in a bag, but the grandmother lets them go. In the second story the rabbit needs flint for his arrows and ends up killing a bear chief to get it! I think it is interesting how clever the rabbit seems to be in both of these stories. It is also interesting that the Sioux explained how few bears they have in the area by saying a rabbit killed them with a club of flint...
The third story in this selection is about a woman that lives with wolves for a while to escape from her abusive husband. I do not like the ending of this story because she ends up going back to him and they 'reconcile'. Which I am not sure is a good thing.
The next few stories are all about mischief and seeing unnatural things! One a boy tricks his friends that he is a dead medicine-woman come back to life. Another a boy sees a little army of men swimming in a lake. These stories all seem to focus on a young boy.
The next story is about the discovery of corn. This was very interesting since it mostly focuses on a hermit that prepares medicine. This was cool to see the Sioux's legend on how corn was found and taught about.
I enjoyed reading the next story about a future-telling butte. Several Indian warriors would visit it to see if it would actually tell the future. I think it is cool to see this side Indian culture because the more magical elements are sometimes left out due to the importance of historical elements. This story also pointed out the importance of buffalo for the Indians.
The final story for this reading is about a turtle. The turtle is extremely wise and the chief of the Sioux uses his wisdom to help make decisions with an unbiased opinion. I liked this story because it was interesting to see the animals wisdom being revered above others. It was sad that the turtles wife had a child with another man, but realistic because the turtle decided to sleep for an entire winter!
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| A beautiful turtle painting from creating sacred communities |
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