Third Set of Questions for EN 211

 

Above is a picture of the Amtrak Station in Wishram, WA.

Good evening :)

Just to let everyone know that pictures of the whiteboard are now posted on MyMC.  (Thank you, Orlando!)  The two pictures from today's class are "creation myths" and "coyote tricksters."  Please let me know if you need additional information after looking at them.

On Monday we will have a guest lecturer on American Indians in our region.  We will also read the Raven and Rabbit stories at the following blog entry:

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/01/trickster-tales-for-2014.html

On Wednesday, we will move on to travel narratives (Columbus et al).

Here are some questions for you.  Feel free to come up with your own questions for your blog or to include some summaries of the readings, especially as we move on to more complicated texts.

-- What would you like to present on for your first presentation?  Why?

-- What do you know about the Native Americans in our region?  What would you like to know?

-- Have you been to the American Indian Museum (or an American Indian museum, other than the one on the Mall)?  What did you like about the museum?  What did you find confusing?

-- Here is an interesting link to a story where Coyote ends the practice of allowing women to be chiefs among the Wishram:

http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2717

How does this story fit with the other stories about Coyote?  How does this story help you to understand Coyote's role?  Or his attitude towards women?

-- Compare and contrast the stories about Raven and Rabbit to the ones about Coyote.  

-- How do you define the trickster?  Does the trickster exist outside of Native American literature?  Where?

-- Discuss the trickster in pop culture.  Here are links to the videos that we watched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZK2-Tfc84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2jYnplIiGk

-- Why is the trickster entertaining?  

-- What purpose does the trickster serve?  What does he teach the storyteller's audience?

-- Here is an Inuit story about Sedna, the Goddess of the Sea.

http://www.hvgb.net/~sedna/story.html

Compare and contrast this story to the Raven tales.  How does Sedna's story help you understand the Raven tales and their cultures more?

-- What have you learned about Native American cultures from reading their literature?

-- Feel free to research one of these cultures in more detail.  What are some distinctive features of the culture?  Where do its people live today?  Where have they lived?  Describe the gender roles in the society.  Does YouTube have any videos about this group?  How does this information help you understand the group and its literature in more detail?

-- Coyote has attracted the attention of creative writers.  Raven has attracted visual artists.  Rabbit's influence is limited to folklore and, of course, Bugs Bunny.  Why do you think that is?

-- Why are these stories worth reading?  Why are they worth studying?

I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk

Second Set of Questions for EN 211

Above is a picture of the grandmother who is telling a story about Coyote, using the medium of string.  Below is a Tlingit Raven dancer.

Good evening :)

I hope that everyone enjoyed our entry into Native American literature -- and American literature.  On Friday, we will discuss the Navajo creation myth of the Emergence and the Coyote tales at this blog entry:

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/01/trickster-tales-for-2014.html

Also, here is a link to a Haida story on the Flood:

http://www.pyramidmesa.com/haida1.htm

We will cover the other trickster tales on Monday, time permitting.

Here are links to the videos we watched pieces of in class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJOd_HuCal0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J65NZJ-W_U

These videos may be worth looking at as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCjooh6oUSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qdcG7Ztn3c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un3QcybRFc0

Here are some questions to mix in with Monday's (or perhaps Friday's).

-- In what ways are these stories we've looked at literature?  Why?  How could they fit into a class like EN 190 or your high school classes?

-- In what ways are these stories more like myths (like the Greek tales)?

-- In what ways are these stories more like artifacts like a pot or a piece of jewelry?

-- How do the storytelling videos help you understand the stories more fully?  Should an anthology of Native American literature also include a CD or website with videos?  Why?  Why not?

-- How did the information on orality help you understand the stories more fully?  

-- What does the story of the Emergence add to our understanding of Native American creation myths?  Or to your understanding of Navajo culture?

-- Compare the Haida story of the flood to other stories of the flood (Genesis, Gilgamesh, etc.) that you know.  What does the Haida story add?  How is it particularly American?  (Note that the Haida live in British Columbia and Alaska.)

-- Based on the stories about Coyote, what does a trickster seem to be? Do any stories contradict the others?  Why?

-- Based on the stories about Coyote, what is he like?  Do any stories contradict the others?  Why?

-- If you are familiar with Looney Tunes' Coyote, how is that Coyote different from the Native American Coyote?  How are they similar?

-- What do the stories about Coyote tell you about the cultures they come from?

-- Here are some more stories about Coyote.  What do they add?  Do they contradict any of the earlier stories?  

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore86.html

http://www.snreview.org/0205Lockwood.html

-- If Coyote were to go to Montgomery Country or DC, what would his adventures be like?  Why?

 

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk

First Set of Questions for EN 211

(Several Native American nations depicted North America as a turtle or '"turtle island.")


Welcome on board :)

I enjoyed meeting everyone and am looking forward to our semester together.  

Our guest speaker just emailed me to say that she has to reschedule.  Instead, she will be presenting her Prezi on Monday, Feb. 3.  So, on Wednesday, we will focus on the following Native American myths/stories:“Origin of Folk Stories” (Iroquois), “How the World was Made” (Cherokee), “The Story of the Creation” (Akimel O’odham).  Each story is in our book.  

Here are links to the poems by Cheryl Savageau, which we read and discussed:

http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/savageau/poems/Lookingfor.html

http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/savageau/poems/Powwow.html

Here is information about the Abenaki:

http://www.native-languages.org/abenaki.htm

See the two links below for more general background about Native American nations, literatures, and creation myths:

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/01/native-american-folktales-for-spring.html

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-creation-myths-for-spring-2014.html

Finally, here are a few questions for your journals.  Be sure to skim over them and see which speak to you.

-- How do Ms. Savageau's poems help us begin our readings in Native American literature?

-- How does Native American literature help us begin American literature?

-- How do these stories fit into your idea of literature?  How do they not fit in?  Why?

-- What do the creation myths have in common?  How are they distinct?

-- What can we learn from reading creation myths?  (See my blog entry on Joseph Campbell's discussion of creation myths: http://szlykworldlit.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/joseph-campbells-the-power-of-myth-creation-myths/  )

-- What can we learn from reading myths from other cultures?

-- Compare these Native American creation myths to others that you are familiar with or to Genesis.  How does this comparison help you understand these myths more fully?  Might these myths have been revised to resemble Genesis more closely?

-- How does geography appear to shape these creation myths?

-- What can you tell about each culture from reading its creation myth?  (Note: some scholars argue that we fall into cliched thinking when we say that Native Americans have a close relationship with nature.)

-- If you are familiar with Sherman Alexie's writing, use it to discuss the creation myths that we are reading.  How does it help you?  How does it get in your way?  Who is the audience for each (Alexie's writing and the myths)?

-- How is myth different from literature?  How is it similar?  Feel free to refer to some of the ideas mentioned in my review of Karen Armstrong's A History of Myth:  http://szlykworldlit.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/karen-armstrongs-a-short-history-of-myth/

-- The creation myths were originally stories told to an audience.  It is true that the nations developed written languages, but how might the concept of orality affect our readings for Wednesday and our understanding of them?

http://szlykworldlit.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/orality-and-literacy-book-review/

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk

More Trickster for 2014

Native American literature is known not only for creation myths but also for trickster figures such as Coyote, Raven, and Rabbit. The picture of the coyote above is from Wikimedia Commons.

To begin with, here is the site where I found the Mayan tale "Coyote and The Hen" and the story of "Coyote's Adventures in Idaho" as well as stories about the other tricksters.  I really like that this site notes where a number of tales come from.  

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/loreindx.html

To find out which stories come from our area, here is a map.   

Here a professor from Pittsburg State University in Kansas discusses the trickster in Native American culture.  This site also contains links to various tribes' stories about Coyote.  

 https://web.archive.org/web/20110222015434/http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html

The author of this site from the College of the Siskiyous in California discusses Native American traditional prose narratives in general:

http://www.siskiyous.edu/Shasta/fol/nat/index.htm

(The picture above is from Trinity University's online journal on trickster studies.)

For more detailed information, see Wyman P. Meinzer's contribution to a 1995 symposium on the coyote in the American Southwest:

 https://web.archive.org/web/20090730021916/http://texnat.tamu.edu/symposia/coyote/p30.htm

Here are a few more stories about Coyote:

http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/wa.html

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/legend_001.htm

http://www.siskiyous.edu/Shasta/fol/nat/flood.htm

http://www.siskiyous.edu/Shasta/fol/nat/coyote.htm

  

Other trickster figures are Raven and Rabbit.  As you will see below, different tribes in different regions had their tricksters.  Alaska and the Pacific Northwest had Raven.

To see Gordon Miller's watercolor of Raven, see this link below:  

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/nwca/nwcam11e.shtml

In the Southeastern U.S., Rabbit was the trickster.  

Here is a link to Professor Hanlon's article:  

http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/rabbitotter.htm

Then once you move to Africa and the Caribbean, the trickster is Anansi the Spider.  In South Carolina, this figure is called Aunt Nancy.

Tricksters appear in other cultures' stories as well.  Reynard the Fox, a figure from French folktales, is depicted below.  (The picture comes from Wikimedia Commons, but it originally appeared in a children's book from the 1860s.)

Trickster Tales for 2014

Here are the Native American stories about Coyote:

Here is a link to "Coyote and Bull," a story from the Nez Perce tribe.

http://www.ucan-online.org/legend.asp?legend=5913&category=8

"Coyote as Medicine Man" is also known as "Coyote and the Mallard Ducks":

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Coyote-And-The-Mallard-Ducks-NezPerce.html

"The Origin of Eternal Death" is also known as "Coyote and Eagle go to the Land of the Dead"

http://www.native-languages.org/wishramstory.htm

In this story from the Shoshone, Wolf tricks Coyote:

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/legend_001.htm

"Raven Brought Fire to the People" is a Haida story:

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/HowRavenBroughtLighttotheWorld-Haida.html

Here is another Raven story ("Raven and His Grandmother") from the Aleut:

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore27.html

Closer to us geographically is "Rabbit and Fox," an Iroquois story:

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore40.html

"How Rabbit Brought Fire to the People" is a Creek story:
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore61.html

Enjoy!

Dr. Szlyk

More Creation Myths for Spring 2014

We will start off EN 211 with some Native American creation myths, so I thought that I would post a few sites that my students in a mythology class found.  Not all of these myths are from the Americas, however.

The picture above is of Bill Reid's sculpture of Raven and the First Men, a creation myth from the Haida nation, a people from Canada's Pacific Northwest.  The sculpture is now in Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology.

Let's begin with an overview from Worldhistory.net, a British site.  This overview will give you the differences and the similarities between various creation myths (Greece, Japan, The Bible's, and so on).

http://historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab83

Wikipedia's overview is more extensive with many more examples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth

The Haida's creation myth here explains the sculpture above & below:

 https://web.archive.org/web/20100106124356/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/firstnations/haida.html

You may also enjoy this creation myth from Hawaii:

http://www.mythome.org/hawaiicreation.html

Here is a painting of the goddess Pele  by Arthur Johnson.

 


These Cherokee myths recount the origins of various parts of creation like game animals, corn, and medicinal plants.

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore80.html

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore82.html

Being a New Englander, I have to include the Mik'Maq's creation story:

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore21.html

As a point of comparison to the Native American creation myths, here is a link to a retelling of Genesis' creation myth, originally from Washington State University.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_1/hebrew_creation.html

The picture below is one of British poet and artist William Blake's illustrations from Paradise Lost.  In this illustration, Satan is spying on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  This picture is from Wikipedia, and the illustration itself is in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.Or you may prefer to read the Japanese creation myth of Izanagi and Izanami, a story that my student found to be beautiful yet tragic.

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Iz-Le/Izanagi-and-Izanami.html

 o put these stories into perspective, you may want to look at what Joseph Campbell and others have had to say on myths and sacred tales:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/perspectives1.html

Native American Folktales for Spring 2014

 

 Just to brush up on our geography, I thought that I'd post a map of the Pacific Northwest, the part of our country where the Coyote Tales we read came from.  (The map is from Sheppard/Wood Distributors, a commercial warehouse and distribution company from Boise.)

"Coyote and Bull" and "Coyote and the Mallard Ducks" came from the Nez Perce, so I thought I would begin with a little information about this people, but while we are posting maps, I will post a map of the territory held by the Nez Perce in the 19th century.  This map is from the Chief Washakie Foundation's web site.

Adam Kittleson's article from Minnesota State University at Mankato's E-museum is a good place to begin.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100228202717/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/nez_perce.html

This history is from the Nez Perce tribal government's official website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100122032113/http://www.nezperce.org/history/nimiipu.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20100213233815/http://www.nezperce.org/Official/historyfaq.htm

For more detailed information, see this article by Deward E. Walker, Jr. and Peter N. Jones:

http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/walker.html

The Nez Perce were also among the many peoples that the Lewis and Clark Expedition met on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/nez.html

The Nez Perce were also known for their Appaloosa horses:

http://www.nezperce.com/npedu13a.html

If you don't know what an Appaloosa horse looks like, here is a picture below. The picture is a public domain photograph from Wikimedia Commons.
Chief Joseph (1840-1904) was also one of the most famous Nez Perce.  For his story, see this link:  http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm

This biography is also interesting:

http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/chiefjoseph/chiefjoseph01.htm

The picture of Chief Joseph below is from Wikimedia Commons.  It was taken in 1877.

Here Jeff Head writes about his travels along the Nez Perce trail.  The pictures are beautiful!

http://www.jeffhead.com/magruder/index.htm

On to the Wishram, the people who gave us "Coyote and Eagle in the Land of the Dead."  They once lived along the Columbia River, the border between Oregon and Washington.  At one point, they were relocated to the Yakama Reservation, about 100 miles north of this area.

As you may see from this free map from the Map Company, quite a few groups lived in this area.  The map below shows where the Wishram live now as part of the Yakama Confederation.

Here is a little more information about the Wishram:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_tribes_064_13_33.html

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/wis.html

For more information about the Yakama Nation, see this site.  Scroll down past the ads for an interesting article.

http://www.ohwy.com/wa/y/yakamana.htm

Below is a Wikimedia Commons picture of Wishram petroglyphs at a site called Wishram Village.  It is now part of a national park near The Dalles, Oregon.


Scroll down for more information about Wishram Village or Nixluidix:

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMYPK

The picture below is from www.waymarking.com.



The story of She Who Watches is also from the Wishram:

http://www.lensjoy.com/gallery/20.htm

The photo below is by Chris Carvalho.


With the Shoshone and "Wolf Tricks the Coyote Trickster," we return to Idaho.  Finding a map for the Shoshone is particularly difficult since their one-time territory was so large.  The map below is from Boise State University's magazine Idaho Issues Online.  Here are a few pieces to put together, but I will provide only an overview and focus on the Shoshone within Idaho since the story about Wolf and Coyote is from the Lemhi-Shoshone.

For more information about the Shoshone, see these sites:

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_tribes_017_11_8.html

This site also includes audiofiles as well:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080515074417/http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/program301.html


Lewis and Clark's guide Sacajawea was a member of the Shoshone although she had been kidnapped away from her tribe and sold into slavery.  The illustration below is from the Chief Washakie Foundation's website.

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/sacajawea_001.htm


Here is a web article on Chief Washakie, an Eastern Shoshone chief who lived into the 20th century.

http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/washakie_2/index.htm

Below is a picture of Idaho's Snake River, along which the Shoshone lived.  This picture came from the University of Montana-Missoula's Regional Learning Project.



Leslie Marmon Silko (whose poems I read on Monday) is descended from the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.  As we learned from reading "Franz Boas' Visit," she also has white ancestry.  The map below is from Prof. S.J. Crouthamel's site for his course, Introduction to American Indian Studies at Palomar College.

The Pueblo is a much larger group, but I thought I'd begin with an overview.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090222025653/http://www.cabq.gov/aes/s3pueblo.html

Writing in 1932, James Paytiamo explains how the Laguna Pueblo came to be and were named.

http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=508

This history is more formal and less anecdotal:

http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=665



This profile essay on Leslie Marmon Silko also gives you a little background on the Laguna Pueblo.

https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~rnelson/woman.html

Here is an extended interview with Ms. Marmon Silko:

http://www.altx.com/interviews/silko.html

The Laguna Pueblo are also known for their pottery:

http://www.clayhound.us/sites/laguna.htm

The picture below is also from www.clayhound.us .


I will finish up with information about the Anishinaabe, Gerald Vizenor's background.  This people lives in the upper Midwest, in Minnesota.  Specifically, Vizenor is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation (see the map from Native Wiki further below).

 
For more information about the Minnesota Chippewa, see the site below:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090404051854/http://www.mnchippewatribe.org/a_brief_history.htm

This site has quite a bit of information about the White Earth Reservation:

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/mn/whitearth.htm

With our current interest in biodiversity and local food, the wild rice has become more and more important:

 https://web.archive.org/web/20100113111156/http://www.savewildrice.org/

A branch of the Anishinaabe are based in Canada.  Anishinaabe-Canadian Norval Morisseau's work is depicted below.  I found this image at virtualmuseum.ca , an online collection of images from Canada's museums.