Week 11 Reading Notes: Blackfoot, Part A

The Buffalo Stone - I loved the object in this story. It has the power to bring the owner closer to buffalo so that he/she can kill it. I like how the writing introduces the object first, then goes into the story of how the first one was found.

The Theft from the Sun - This story also has an enchanted object: leggings that set on fire to drive out deer when hunting. I like how this story is an interaction between the sun personified (or at least I assume that is what the intent is) and Old Man. The man kept trying to steal the Sun's leggings and run off but would always wake up in the Sun's home:

"When morning came he found himself still in the Sun's lodge. You see what a fool he was; he did not know that the whole world is the Sun's lodge. He did not know that, no matter how far he ran, he could not get out of the Sun's sight."

I really liked how that part was written. It makes it feel really meaningful. The sun ended up giving the man the leggings but got revenge on him by making him unable to outrun fire the leggings created, which burned the leggings to pieces.

~~~

Bibliography:  Blackfoot unit. Story source: Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Image information: Leggings from the story, image from Wikipedia.