Reading Notes: Pacific Northwest

Reading Notes:

This week for the Native American unit I chose to read stories that originated from the Pacific Northwest.  I was particularly interested in the story How the Old Man Above Created the World, but I also enjoyed How Beaver Stole Fire.

How the Old Man Above Created the World

The story, How the Old Man Above Created the World, is the world creation story as told by the Shasta Indians of the Northwest. In this story the Old Man chisels his way through the sky and makes a pyramid of snow and ice to climb down to earth. The Old Man then planted trees and then made animals from the leaves and sticks of the tree. The Old Man then lives in a tee pee that is a mountain until the white men come and then he leaves. If I were to retell this story I do not think I would change too much of the basis of it, but instead focus on the details. When I read the story I thought of it as being very beautiful and mystical and it would be fun to go into extreme detail about the creation story. My favorite part of the original is when the Old Man blew on the leaf and it became a bird and I think that this type of lyrical detail could be further utilized to create some vivid images about the creation.

(Mount Shasta, credit to Michael Zanger, link)

How Beaver Stole Fire

The story, How Beaver Stole Fire, is based a long time ago when trees and animals could walk and speak like humans. The trees were in charge of holding fire and one cold winter the beaver stole the fire from the pines so that he would not freeze. I think this story would be cool to retell because I would get to describe living trees. If I were to change anything I might tell the story from the perspective of the old ceder tree or even the beaver.

Bibliography

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