MelissaHagg

My Thoughts on the Native American stories

When reading the Native American stories, I found several of the stories to be rather interesting but I also found many of them to be difficult and hard to comprehend as several of my classmates have also pointed out in their blogs. The aspect that the majority of these readings were possibly not one hundred percent reliable really made me wonder if what I was reading was legitimate or not. As Dr. Jerz explained in class, these stories are told for numerous generations and passed down from one individual to another. This shows as with the childhood game of “telephone” how each person may change the story to fit their acceptance levels.

The Native American story that I found to be the most interesting was called “The Flood.” I believe that I liked the story so much simply because I had to read it over repeatedly to make sure that I was comprehending every aspect of the short story. I found it very interesting that when the boy was traveling to Pinawa that he brushed up against his dead uncle and was instantly a dead man. I found when I was continually reading over this story that I was always trying to interpret what the “bumping up against” might have implied in the story. I believe that after several deliberations that it was essentially the essence of bumping up to a dead spirit. This was exactly how the young boy died. I believe though that the uncle may have been similar to that of an angel that was coming for the young boy after he might have died as well.

When reading the story of Crazy Horse, I found that I have several similarities that were mentioned throughout Erin’s blog entry. I also found that Crazy Horse’s negative viewpoint of the White Man because of the United States Army was also a complete shame. Crazy Horse did not meet every American so for him to actually believe that every White Man was like that of the United States Army is not only unfair but also unjust as well.

I think that it is not only interesting to read these Native American stories but also to study their origins as well. I find that several of the Native American stories are similar to the stories that I have grown up and have been taught both through my religion and studying the stories of Genesis but also the folk tales that are passed down through my generations of origin.