Essay: Heros in American Indian Fairy Tales

Iagoo Telling Stories to the Children, by John Rae (1921)

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   The heroes featured in this unit seem to possess some characteristics that span across all the stories. They all have a sense of innocence, which is exemplified by characters like Shin-ge-bis or the children on the mountain. Interestingly, all of these characters are innocent as a function of driving the story forward: they have a "get-up-and-go" attitude whereas many of their fellow characters  in their respective stories would likely shirk the responsibility and risk of moving forward. Keeping this transition in mind, it's also interesting to note that this quality of innocence also seems to replace the Westernized-hero quality of bravery. By this, I mean that heroes in the American Indian Fairy Tales rarely seem to question their own abilities, as if their confidence was "a given". They do not doubt their ability to be responsible for their choices, so they simply do as they please.
   Another characteristic of heroes that carries across many stories is the quality of being tricksters: they often employ shenanigans on others to get what they want. However, these little pranks rarely, if ever, cause any real harm. And the tricks themselves appear to move the stories forward as well, because they force other peripheral, or at least less central, characters into action where they might not have engaged with the main plot at all. However, their reaction to the heroes' jests or tricks makes them intervene.
   Possibly the most universal trait of the heroes of the American Indian Fairy Tales was that of having an affinity with wildlife and nature in general. This is not surprising, however, because of the obvious traditional important that the Native Americans place on the treatment of and co-existence with nature. All of the characters are able to communicate and befriend animals to come to their aid if needed, and some of the characters can even transform into animals themselves with magic. The heroes further show their affinity with nature by showing a high level of interaction with spirits of nature. However, these relationships with the spirits are not always friendly, and the spirits themselves are often regarded as higher, more powerful beings, so there's occasionally tension between the heroes and supernatural beings as well.

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