Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Week 11: Reading notes: Part B: Sioux

The Pemmican Man And Unktomi
 Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie McLaughlin (1916)
Wild Buffalo: Wikimedia


  • man dressed in buffalo fat and organs
  • Unktomi is a spider, and has a large family
  • Untktomi and his family saw the man who was covered in buffalo, and wanted to devour it
  • When the man noticed be began throwing off the buffalo items and the spider and his family ate them
  • He continued to run away and even got into the water, the fat pooled at the top of the lake
  • The spiders sucked up this too
  • Spiders went around the lake and saw two men, one was Wakapapi
  • Instructed them to fight
  • The pounded beef man died, and the spiders ate him, the other fat man ran away
  • The fat man skinned a deer and climbed in a tree and suspended the meat
  • The spider family saw this, but thought they were in the water due to the reflection
  • Used rocks to build, but they made him sink to the bottom
  • Unktomi died and a fish ate him
 Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa (1901)
  • huntsman Patkasa= turtle
  • Saw deer that he was standing above as a gift
  • Iktomi (deer) tapped him on the shoulder after he had given thanks
  • But how...
  • Two were going to battle for the deer
  • Patkasa was more afraid of being called a coward than of losing the deer

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