Reading Notes: Pacific Northwest B

Reading Notes: B

As I stated in the last reading notes blog for week 10, this week I have chosen to read stories from Pacific Northwest Native American Tribes. For the second half of the reading I found a one story that would be especially interesting to retell. This includes the story Chinook Ghost 

Chinook Ghost

The story Chinook Ghost is about how a ghost wanted a wife and so he bought the blue jay's sister and took her to the land of the dead. After many questions and much searching the blue jay found his sister and she was surrounded by skeletons. At night the skeletons came to life and were ghost. The blue jay became mischievous and played pranks on the ghost so they banished him. He ended up dying and when he returned to the land as a ghost everything was in pristine condition, unlike when he went to the land when he was alive. 

Since it is so close to Halloween I think that this story about ghost would be very fun to retell. If I were to retell this story I could go into more detail about how the land of the dead was as described by the blue jay when he was alive. It would be fun to use very vivid details to describe how the ghost came to life at night and how everything they used seem to be old and broken. This would make it even more interesting when he returns to the land when he is dead and everything seems to be working perfectly. Also it would be interesting to describe the story from the sister's perspective since she is the one that got taken to the land of the dead first. Also instead of starting the story with something as blunt as "the ghost wanted a wife," I could do a backstory on the ghost and the ghost lands.

(Ghost Forest, pixabay)

Bibliography

Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon. Katharine Berry Judson. (1910) link.