Week 9 Reading Diary: Native American Marriage Tales

For Week 9 we were told to focus on Native American stories and I decided to read the Native American Marriage Tales. Stith Thompson's anthology, Tales of the North American Indians, was a pioneering work in comparative studies of Native American storytelling. This reading selection contains Thompson's stories of animal brides and animal husbands, along with some fairytale-type stories that are a blending of European and Native American storytelling styles.

The Piqued Buffalo Wife: First of all, this reading continues with my animal theme I have been doing for all my readings and storytellings. I really enjoyed this story because it focuses on emotions with animals are how the buffalo is related and involved in a boys life. I have connected buffalos to Native Americans but I never knew the reason for this. I had always just seen pictures. Now, from this story I have a greater understanding of that relationship and what it means to the tribes.

(headdress of the Matoki Society; photo by Edward Curtis)

The Dog Husband: once again going along with the animal theme. Dogs are my favorite animals so it is no surprise that this story stood out to me. Different from the story above, this story is about a young girl and a dog as opposed to a young boy and a buffalo. It is another great story about that relationship and bond. However, this story has a lot of heart ache with her parents and family not agreeing and respecting her and the dogs love. Overall I think it was a very interesting read.