Myth And Memory Essay, Research Paper

They Dance in the Sky is a collection of Native American sky myths. It is a basic introduction into the skylore of the first Americans, retelling American Indian folklore and tales of mythology. They are allegories or parables written in the English language, collected by scholars in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. The stories tell tales of many different things such as: how to act or obey the customs of a tribe, why things are the way they are, or how we came to be. Generally they are standards to live by. The myths in the book are from many different tribes throughout the United States. Most of them have never been published before this. They are stories of the night sky’s stars and constellations. Traditionally, Native Americans believe that humans are an integral part of nature and should live in harmony with it. If people want to learn how to live, they must carefully observe the rules and cycles of the natural world.

The book is divided into chapters mainly according to tribe. The first two however concentrate on specific stellar patterns. The rest of the book is divided into the area of the country the tribes were settled and then separates the stories by specific tribes. The first chapter focuses on Pleidas, a small but important cluster of stars. It is relatively faint, but easily recognisable and helped many groups in defining a calendar. In the United States, it disappears in early spring, which symbolises that it’s time for the beginning of the planting season. It’s reappearance in June means that it’s the end of it. Native Americans knew that the seeds needed to be planted immediately or they wouldn’t mature before the autumn frost. Pleidas is easy to pick out. The first chapter shows how different tribes interpreted this constellation in different ways. Some of them include seven stars, with one of them being fainter than the rest. Other tribes only see six, and sometimes refer to the seventh that has burnt out.

Included are two examples of the legends of the Pleidas as told by two different tribes. The first comes from the Onandaga Tribe, settled in Upstate NY. The second is told by the Shasta Tribe, settled in Northern California. They are two very different groups living in opposite ends of the country.

Bright Shining Old Man

” One autumn many years ago, a band of Onondaga Iroquois were walking toward their winter hunting ground near a lake in southeast Canada. They had to travel slowly, because the land was wild and rough. When they finally arrived at the place they called Beautiful Lake, they were very thankful because, as in years before, they found much game and fish there. Clear water flowed from many springs in this lovely valley nestled among the hills.

Tracks in the water, the chief of the band, thanked the Great Spirit for their safe arrival and for the abundance of wildlife. ‘We will camp here for the winter,’ he told his people. ‘It will be a good winter.’ Everyone was happy. They knew they would prosper in this peaceful valley by Beautiful Lake.

Soon autumn ended and the weather turned colder. Eight children from the band tired of helping their mothers and fathers in the daily chores and began to dance by the lake to amuse themselves. They picked a quiet place away from the village. Each day they met and danced for hours at a time. Though they got hungry and light-headed, they still danced on and on.

For a long time everything went well. Then one day, while the boys and girls were dancing, a glorious old man appeared to them. He shone like silver in the late autumn sunshine and was covered from head to toe with a cloak of brilliant white feathers. His gleaming hair was very long and white. He was kindly, but he warned the children not to keep on dancing or something terrible would happen to them.

The children didn’t want to hear his words; they continued to dance. Each day, Bright Shining Old Man, as they called him, came and warned them, but the children ignored him.

One day the children decided to take food along with them so they could stay out longer the next day. They asked for food but their parents refused. ‘You must eat at home as usual. Then you may go out and play.’ But they resolved to dance all day long just the same. After a while, the children became hungry, and the hunger made them light-headed. Then slowly, little by little they began to rise into the air. Suddenly one youngster cried, ‘Don’t look down, something strange is going on. We seem to be dancing on the air!’

‘What great fun!’ thought the children. At first they were excited and pleased, but soon dancing on air frightened them. Now they couldn’t stop or they would fall to the earth below. Bright Shining Old Man looked up, shaking his head. He watched them rise farther and farther up into the Sky Country.

‘If only they had listened to me,’ Bright Shining Old Man thought sadly.

Soon an old woman in the village noticed that the boys and girls were floating away. She called and called for them to come back, but they did not stop dancing. Then the whole band gathered below and tried to call the children back, but to no avail.

All this time the children kept on dancing faster and faster. They did not look down. One small boy recognises his father’s voice above all others. The chief, Tracks in the Water, called loudly to his son. ‘Come back, come back!’ The boy looked down and saw his father. At one he became a falling star. The other children just kept floating up, up far into the sky. The Onandaga call the Oot-kwa-tah.

Now whenever the Onondaga Iroquois see a falling star, they are reminded of Oot-kwa-tah, the band of headstrong dancing children.”

Raccoon’s Children and Baby Coyote

“Raccoon and Coyote took part in a tribal dance one night. On their way home they noticed a squirrel hole and, close by, it’s secret back door. Squirrel ran in the back door as Coyote and Raccoon were sitting nearby wondering how to get their supper.

‘You take the front door and I will take the back door,’ said Coyote.

‘Reach in and see of you can get him,’ replied Raccoon.

They both reached in their holes. Raccoon felt sorry for Squirrel and let him escape through the front door while Coyote was reaching farther and farther into the back door.

‘I have him!’ shouted Coyote.

‘No silly, that is my hand you grabbed!’

‘It is Squirrel,’ snarled angry Coyote.

‘Stop pulling,’ begged Raccoon. ‘You are hurting me!’

But Coyote continued pulling at Raccoon’s arm until he pulled it off, killing him.

Coyote went home and told his children to go get Raccoon. ‘We will have a fine dinner tonight,’ he said.

The children brought back Raccoon, and pretty soon they were all sitting down to a fine dinner indeed. All, that is, except Coyote’s youngest son. His selfish father would not let him share the dinner.

Littlest Coyote was angry as well as hungry. He sat and thought for a while and decided to tell Raccoon’s children what had happened. He told them that his father had killed their father. The little raccoons thanked Littlest coyote and urged him to go back home. They would avenge their father.

The next day while Coyote was out hunting, Raccoon’s children went to Coyote’s cave and killed all his children except Littlest coyote. Then they decided to take him away and run away to Sky Country.

When Coyote came home, he could not find his children. Running through his cave, he found nothing. He ran to Raccoon’s empty house and searched every room. ‘Where are my children?’ he asked himself.

As he asked the question, he happened to look up toward the sky and saw Raccoon’s children and Littlest coyote rising higher and higher. He tried to follow but could not.

Raccoon’s children are the Pleides. Littlest Coyote is the small star closest to the Pleides In the coldest winter, raccoons stay in their holes while the Pleides shine bright in the night sky. In early summer, when raccoon’s are out hunting all night, the Pleides are not visible in the night sky.”

They Dance in the Sky uses memory to tell these myths. The authors both study Native American culture. Jean Guard Monroe grew up in the American Southwest and studies Native American art and folklore. Ray A. Williamson is a Scientist and writer who writes articles on Native American skylore and astronomy. The myths in their book are taken from scholars that collected and recorded them. This happened because it was apparent that they could be lost within the Anglo European culture that was taking over the land.

In Native American culture, tales were told by a storyteller. Adults as well as children listened and discussed the ideas and meanings with the tellers. It was like a performance. Gestures as well as words combine to tell the story. Most tribes didn’t even have written languages, they still don’t even have them today. The master storytellers learned the legends from elders and passed them down by generation. In most tribes, storytelling was part of the education. Children would repeat each sentence after the teller, learning each story completely. Most stories were explanations of natural phenomena’s. They placed the unexplainable into metaphoric terms. In many instances, the sun moon and the stars are considered sacred. They learned a lot from watching the sky. All their stories were told orally though, and not in any of the European languages that the settlers in America spoke. The authors retelling the story said their information is taken from “scholarly books and in unpublished notes of scholars” ( Monroe and Williamson, 1987). Although these translations are surely holding a certain degree of accuracy that is probably pretty high, information is most likely lost. An attempt to interpret each individual tribe’s language provides legitimate room for error. This is especially because a big part of the stories are the movements and gestures. The authors state ” Written down, the stories often lose much of their liveliness and power. We have attempted to make them more accessible without unduly embellishing. We have clarified the stories where details are vague in the original” (Monroe and Williamson, 1987). This quote directly questions the authenticity of the myths. Firstly, they are admitting that by putting the myths into written words they are changing them. They are meant to be acted out. Secondly, they have chosen to clarify the stories for us. This means they personally interpreted them. Given their Native American backgrounds, they are most qualified to do this. It is important to realise that the myths in the book are interpreted though. This again lowers the credibility to the fact that we are receiving the same tales that the master storytellers told. Other clues within the text show us that these myths should not be taken as direct replicas of the originals. For example, in some myths, certain constellations are unrecognisable to us. Problems like this can occur for many reasons. It could have been the translating, the interpreting, or maybe a change in the skies since the time of the myth. Another problem the authors run into is when they find two different versions of a myth for the same constellation by a single tribe. This again could be for a number of reasons, yet we will most likely never surely know.

Overall, this reconstruction of myths for a contemporary collection is just that, contemporary. The myths have clearly been rearranged in ways we will never know. This is not to say that they hold no truth, obviously they do. By putting native stories into the English language in modern times, we can not expect complete accuracy though. This book is for entertainment; it’s not scientific explanations of our natural world. It is myths used by Native Americans to explain unknown means and forces. The authors have recreated them for the legends to live on.

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