Native American Oral Tradition

Native AmericanOral Tradition

The Origins of Literature • The origin of what we call American literature predates the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. • Oral tradition is the foundation of literature • Early rock carvings and petroglyphs are perhaps the first examples of written language

Newspaper Rock (UT)

Newspaper Rock (UT) petroglyphs

“A Storyteller and His Art” N. Scott Momaday • “We have no being beyond our stories.” • “Our stories explain us, justify us, sustain us, humble us, and forgive us. And sometimes they injure and destroy us.” • “Perhaps the greatest stories are those which disturb us, which shake us from our complacency, which threaten our well-being.”

Stories & Storytelling • “Make no mistake, we are at risk in the presence of words.” • “We are shaken and soothed in turn by stories.” • “…the central function of storytelling is to reflect the forces, within and without us, that govern our lives, both good and bad.” • “Stories are pools of reflection in which we see ourselves through the prism of the imagination.” -from “A Storyteller and His Art” – N. Scott Momaday

“The belief that words in themselves have the power to make things happen—especially words in extraordinary combinations—is one of the distinguishing features of native American thought; and it may be said that for the people who share this belief a connection exists between the sacred and the verbal, or to put it in more familiar terms, a connection between religion and poetry.” - John Bierhorst, The Sacred Path

Words are powerful Words are sacred Words are magical: they can bring about physical change in the world The Oral Tradition

The Oral Tradition • Words must be spoken with great care • The speaker must be careful, clear & deliberate, for he will be taken at his word • There is a connection between the sacred & the verbal; to be careless in the presence of words is to violate a fundamental morality

Three Stories The Arrowmaker The Kiowa Brothers The Death of Chief Sitting Bear

The Arrowmaker If an arrow is well made, it will have tooth marks upon it. That is how you know. The Kiowas made fine arrows and straightened them in their teeth. Then they drew them to the bow to see if they were straight. Once there was a man and his wife. They were alone at night in their tipi. By the light of the fire the man was making arrows. After a while he caught sight of something. There was a small opening in the tipi where two hides were sewn together. Someone was there on the outside, looking in. The man went on with his work, but he said to his wife: “Someone is standing outside. Do not be afraid. Let us talk easily, as of ordinary things.” He took up an arrow and straightened it in his teeth; then, as it was right for him to do, he drew it to the bow and took aim, first in this direction and then in that. And all the while he was talking, as if to his wife. But this is how he spoke: “I know that you are there on the outside, for I can feel your eyes upon me. If you are a Kiowa, you will understand what I am saying, and you will speak your name.” But there was no answer, and the man went on in the same way, pointing the arrow all around. At last his aim fell upon the place where his enemy stood, and he let go of the string. The arrow went straight to the enemy’s heart. From The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday. University of New Mexico Press, 1969.

The Arrowmaker • The Arrowmaker and his wife survive not because of the arrow but rather because of language and words. • He is “a man made of words”– his survival is contingent on his knowledge of language and his enemy’s lack of knowledge. • The story illustrates the importance and power of language in the oral tradition.

The Kiowa Brothers On a raid against the Utes, one of two brothers was captured. The other, alone and of his own will, stole into the Ute camp and tried to set his brother free, but he too was captured. The chief of the Utes had respect for the man’s bravery, and he made a bargain with him. If he could carry his brother on his back and walk upon a row of greased buffalo heads without falling to the ground, both brothers would be given horses and allowed to return in safety to their home. The man bore his brother on his back and walked upon the heads of the buffalo and kept his footing. The Ute chief was true to his word, and the brothers returned to their own people on horseback. From The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday. University of New Mexico Press, 1969.

Kiowa Brothers • The chief is true to his word even though he has nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing so. • The chief fulfills his promise of freeing the brothers andgiving the valuable commodity of horses to the brothers. • The chief never for a moment considers or would consider going back on his word.

The Death of Sitting Bear Set-angya, or Sitting Bear, was chief of the Kaitsenko Society, the Crazy Dog or dog soldier organization of the Kiowa tribe. It was composed of ten men only, the ten most brave. They were the first and last security of the people. If they should die, everyone should die. Each one of them wore a long sash, so long it trailed the ground, and carried a sacred arrow. In the time of battle, each of these Kaitsenko warriors must, by means of his sacred arrow, fix his sash to the ground, and he must stand his ground to the death.

Set-angya’s son was killed on a raid in Texas, and Set-angya went there and gathered up the bones of his son, and from then on he led a hunting horse that bore the bones of his son on its back. At night he placed the bones in a ceremonial tipi and invited all the people, saying, “Come, come. My son is at home tonight. Come and visit him. Come and pay your respects.”

Set-angya was imprisoned at Fort Sill. Along with two other chiefs, White Bear and Big Tree, he was placed in the bed of a wagon, to be taken to the railroad, then sent to Fort Richardson to be tried for the raid on the Warren wagon train. As they were going along in the wagon on the grounds of the fort, Set-angya began to sing the song of the Kaitsenko. At this, the others became very upset, because that song was sacred. It could only be sung in the face of death. And when he had sung the song, he said to Set-tainte and Big Tree, “You see that cottonwood on the side of the road ahead? By the time we reach that tree, I will be dead.” He then pulled a knife, which he had somehow hidden about him, and he attacked the teamster, stabbed him in the leg. The guards, riding close beside the wagon, shot him dead. But he was true to his word. Adapation of a story from The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999.

“By the time we reach that tree, I will be dead.” “But he was true to his word.” The story illustrates the sacred nature of language. The Kaitsenko Society (Crazy Dogs or Dog Soldiers) Chief Sitting Bear The Death of Sitting Bear

Myths

Myths • The heart of the oral tradition is the story. • Myths: traditional stories passed down from generation to generation, which explain why the world is the way it is. • They characteristically involve immortal beings and contain magic or the supernatural

Myths • Myths attempt to explain things such as • Natural phenomenon • The origin of humans • The customs & religious rights of a people • Events beyond people’s control

Myths • Through myths and legends we can see social orders and daily life: • how families were organized • how political structures operated • how men caught fish • how religious ceremonies felt to the people who took part • how power was divided between men and women • how food was prepared • how honor in war was celebrated

Myths • Myths teach the values and ideals of a culture -what that culture holds as important. • Myths are the stories that a culture uses to create coherence in its life, values, and symbols.

Myths • In myths a culture tells its story of origin and its understanding of the major issues of life and death. • Myths are not stories in isolation: they express a culture’s whole life—all that it is and all that it values.

Myths • Myths and legends are not told merely for enjoyment, education or amusement: they are believed. • They give concrete form to a set of beliefs and traditionsthat link people today to ancestors from centuries and millennia past.

Legends and myths are unique in the way they are told and the regions and landscapes in which they are set. Yet there are some universal recurring themes and images: • the sacred four directions: North, South, East, West in various forms • the children of the sun • the twin brothers who bring culture • worlds piled on top of each other • primordial waters • perpetual destruction and recreation • powerful heroes and tricksters (Veeho, Rabbit, Coyote, Spider Man)

Creation Myths • Myths and legends of human creation and origin reflect in myriad ways a common belief that people are a living part of the natural world, brother and sister to the grain and the trees, the buffalo and the bear.

Genesis: The Christian Creation Myth • God is the creator of mankind; mankind is granted dominion/power over all other creatures on earth • God created Adam (man) out of clay/earth

Genesis: The Christian Creation Myth • God created Eve (woman) from Adam • Adam & Eve can have everything they want except fruit from the tree of knowledge (eating from this tree represents a desire to be God-like) • It is Eve’s (woman’s) weakness that causes their expulsion from the Garden of Eden

“In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the power of God was moving over the water. Then God said, “Let there be light” –and light appeared. God was pleased with what he saw. Then he separated the light from the darkness, and he named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night.” Evening passed and morning came—that was the first day.”

Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day. … The snake replied, “That’s not true; you will not die. God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.” The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it.” …

God asked, “Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?” The man answered, “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it” The Lord God asked the woman, “Why did you do this?” She replied, “The snake tricked me into eating it.” God said to the woman, I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth. In spite of this, you will still have desire for your husband, yet you will be subject to him.

The Power ofTHE WORD

John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” • “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” • In John’s Gospel Jesus is the “new Adam” • Genesis: God creates the world by speaking: “And God said…” • The spoken word or just words/language have the power to create (and thus destroy).

Kiowa Origin Myth “You know, everything had to begin, and this is how it was: the Kiowas came one by one into the world through a hollow log. There were many more than now, but not all of them got out. There was a woman whose body was swollen up with child, and she got stuck in the log. After that, no one could get through, and that is why the Kiowas are a small tribe in number. They looked around and saw the world. It made them glad to see so many things. They called themselves Kwuda, “coming out.” From The Way to Rainy Mountain – N. Scott Momaday

from The World on the Turtle’s Back– Iroquois creation myth “In the middle of the Sky-World there grew a Great Tree which was not like any of the trees that we know. It was tremendous; it had grown there forever. It had enormous roots that spread out from the floor of the Sky-World. And on its branches there were many different kinds of leaves and different kinds of fruits and flowers. The tree was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky-World. It was a sacred tree that stood at the center of the universe.” (text, p 23)

“The woman decided that she wanted some bark from one of the roots of the Great Tree—perhaps as a food or as a medicine, we don’t know. She told her husband this. He didn’t like the idea. He knew it was wrong. But she insisted, and he gave in. So he dug a hole among the roots of this great sky tree, and he bared some of its roots. But the floor of the Sky-World wasn’t very thick, and he broke a hole through it. He was terrified, for he had never expected to find empty space underneath the world”

“But his wife was filled with curiosity. He wouldn’t get any of the roots for her, so she set out to do it herself. She bent over and she looked down, and she saw the ocean far below…She fell through the hole…And so she began to fall toward the great ocean far below…

from The World on the Turtle’s Back– Iroquois creation myth “They [the twins] buried their mother. And from her grave grew the plant which the people still use. From her head grew the corn, the beans, and the squash— ‘our supporters, the three sisters.’ And from her heart grew the sacred tobacco, which the people still use in the ceremonies and by whose upward-floating smoke they send thanks. The women call her ‘our mother,’ and they dance and sing in rituals so that the corn, the beans, and the squash may grow to feed the people.” (text, p 26)

Coyote and Buffalo - Okanogan [Buffalo Bull] gave Coyote a young cow, the youngest cow, and he said, “Never kill her, Sink-ka-lip! Take good care of her and she will supply you with meat forever. When you get hungry, just slice off some choice fat with a flint knife. Then rub ashes on the wound and the cut will heal at once…But after a while he became tired of eating fat, and he began to long for the sweet marrow-bones and the other good parts of the buffalo.”

‘Buffalo Bull will never know,’ Coyote told himself, and he took his young cow down beside a creek and killed her… Coyote had to return to his own country without a buffalo. That is why there never have been any buffalo along the Swah-netk’-qhu.

Devil’s Tower • The Native American myth of the boy who turns into a bear is common among many tribes of the Great Plains. • The myth explains the natural phenomenon of Devil’s Tower and of the Big Dipper.

“Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them…

They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.”

Devil’s Tower, Wyoming Lakota: Mato Tipila, which means “Bear Tower” http://www.nps.gov/archive/deto/home.htm

Their names for the monolith include: Aloft on a Rock (Kiowa), Bear's House (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lair (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lodge (Cheyenne, Lakota), Bear's Lodge Butte (Lakota), Bear's Tipi (Arapaho, Cheyenne), Tree Rock (Kiowa), and Grizzly Bear Lodge (Lakota). • The name Devil's Tower probably originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Col. Richard Irving Dodge when his interpreter misinterpreted the name to mean Bad God's Tower. This was later shortened to the Devil's Tower.

http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/bears/teachersguide/background.htmlhttp://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/bears/teachersguide/background.html

Native American Oral Tradition