Reading Diary A: Native American Hero Tales

Three Crow Horsemen, by E. Curtis.

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One of the first stories to be told in this unit is Bluejay and His Companions, which is a story about the whimsical adventures of the hero Bluejay and how he manages to get back home after a run-in with a neighboring village tribe. The story starts out with Bluejay, his master and companions seal hunting, after which they tease a fellow native, Grouse, about not being good enough to eat the fat (the most succulent part of the seals) as opposed to the poorest, leanest parts. However, Grouse gets back at the crew by getting them lost at sea for a night.

    They wake up the next day to find themselves on the coast, which leads to a small village. Here, the locals challenge the group to many shows of strength, skill and willpower with members of their own tribe. The first trial is a climbing contest, which Bluejay wins for his team. The next is a seal catching contest, which Bluejay also wins. The next is an endurance test: Bluejay's entire crew must stay awake for five days, while pitted against four other men from the tribe. On the fifth day, however, Bluejay and his crew realize that the tribe's men have fallen asleep and make their escape back home.

The next story in the unit is Dug From Ground, which is a tale about parental acceptance of a boy named Dug From Ground by his non-natal mother. First off, an old woman's daughter, who is a virgin, wonders why her mother always tells her not to pick the two-stalked roots. She finds out the day that she does pick one: a baby rolls out of the ground where the root was, and the daughter takes the baby back to the village. However, the baby's now foster mother ignores him, and the baby is instead taken care of by the girl's mother. 

    The boy grows up, watching his original foster mother from afar. He notices that she goes off somewhere to watch the sun set, and always brings back a pile of acorns with her. WHen the boy gets to the age when he can hunt, the foster mother says "When he can figure out where I get the acorns from, and when he is able to kill a white dear, then I will call him my son." He does this, and hence fulfills a prophesy by the immortals of his village.

Here's the link to the Unit