Essay Week 9: Pacific NW

This week I read from the Un-textbook in the Native American section a unit call Pacific NW! I really had a blast reading the stories within this particular unit and I would like to start out by saying tat I would definitely suggest everyone read this unit! I was particularly excited about the origin stories within this unit. If you are interested I wrote about my favorite stories in the Pacific NW unit here. I really love the Pacific North West and that is why I was so excited to see it in the Un-Textbook. I am really glad that we get to spend two weeks on Native American Mythology and Folklore. 

Mount Hood, Oregon

Being a student at the University of Oklahoma, I have found that Native American heritage affects my life in many more ways than I ever thought would be possible. From working at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and with the Native American Curator there to working at the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey with Native American Artifacts and Burials it is truly inspiring to see Native culture all around me. I think my favorite story from this unit is the Native American origin story How Old Man above Created the World. I choose not to use it for my storytelling post because I did not think I would be able to retell the story with my own spin on it. Actually, that was a theme I found throughout the Native American Unit. It was hard for me to retell these stories because the originals were already so bold and interesting. I think in the end I choose to retell a great story and it worked out well. Again, I would definitely recommend this unit to anyone who is interested in reading it! 

Week 9 Storytelling: The Origin of Countries

Once in the history of the world, was a great field and that field was full of plants and crops that were precious for the life of the people who lived in the area. One day a monster of sorts came to the field and decided this is where he would like to live his life. He was a greedy creature that was interested in none other than himself. He was very large standing taller than most trees, his head seemed to scrape the clouds. He had horizontal stripes up and down his body and he wore the ugliest of all sweaters! He refused to share the precious crops with the people that lived in the area. 

One day the bulldog heard of the injustice that was happening in the plains. He decided being the most courageous and cunning of all animals to investigate the situation and attempt to help the people. He set off on his new adventure all the while trying to think of how to trick the creature. Just before he arrived at the edge of the crops he had finally rendered a plan to deceive the ugly sweater wearing monster and save the people of the plains. 

Being so cunning the bulldog started tending to the crops and this soon came to the attention of the creature. With a mighty roar that sounded like the howling of mighty winds the monster awoke and ran to the bulldog. “Why do you take MY crops?” The Monster asked. “Oh... Mr. Monster I am gratefully sorry, but I am the crops health inspector and your crops are not healthy enough for consumption. I am going to have to confiscate all your crops, but do not weep for your loss because I have brought you new crops that will be the healthiest crops ever!”

Superhero Bulldog

“Well, thank you inspector. I really appreciate it.” Said the creature. 

So the bulldog set out to harvest all of the “rotten” crops and when he finished he gave the ugly sweater wearing creature a bag of seeds. But, these seeds were not ordinary seeds they were laced with Ricin, a powerful poisonous drug that would cause instant death. 

Once the monster was dead the bulldog cut him up into little pieces. He planted the pieces in different areas of the world and this is how there came to be different countries! He also gave the harvested crops to the Plains people who waited so patiently for their crops. 

Authors Note: The Origin of Tribes - For this story I retold a story that explain the origin of Tribes. So it starts with a very pristine and beautiful lake were a giant beaver lived. Animal people wanted to fish in the lake, but they could not because the giant beaver named Wishpoosh would kill the people. A coyote decided to challenge the great beaver. He began fishing and was quickly attacked. The coyote speared the great beaver and Wishpoosh fell to the bottom of the lake drag gin the coyote with him. The coyote fought back though and soon the had created many lakes from the fighting. Finally coyote being so cunning allowed Wishpoosh to swallow him and coyote then cut open his intestines and dragged the giant beaver to shore. He cut Wishpoosh up and from various body parts created different tribes!

Week 9 Reading Diary: Native American Pacific NW Unit

For this weeks readings I choose out of the Native American Un-Textbook a Unit titled Pacific NW. If you have read my introduction post or my favorite places post you will see why exactly I have choose to read this unit in particular! The Pacific NW is one of my favorite places and it is somewhere that I would like to live at some point in my life! Listed below are some of my favorite sections I read within the PAcific NW Unit!

Pacific NW Totem Pole

Reading Part A:

How Old Man Above Created the World: Perfection. I absolutely love creation stories so it was very awesome to be able to read this particular creation story from the Pacific NW. This story starts out with an old man who was not able to reach the earth. To do so he poked a hole in the sky and sent down ice and snow. Then through the new hole in the sky the old man climbed down from cloud to cloud to reach the ground. When he got to earth he used his fingers to bore holes in the earth and plant the first trees. Then through the hole in the sky the sun warmed the ice and snow and gave growth to the trees. He gather leaves from the tress and blew on them creating birds. He took a stick and broke it into pieces. At the small end of the stick he made fish. The middle of the stick he made all other animals except the grizzly bear. With the large end of the stick he made a grizzly bear.

How Dog Stole Fire: This story starts when a man steal the two women of a shaman. The shaman dances and sings and it begins to rain, but it does not stop raining. Finally the man decides he must kill the shaman to stop the rain from killing him by drowning him. So the man goes out and beheads the shaman. The rain had put out all the fire in the land and so the people sent owl to Mt. Shasta to look for fire. Owl finally found fire in the west. It was dog who had fire. He had hidden a punk in his ear and so he gave the people fire again.

Reading Part B:


The Origin of Tribes: This was a really interesting and fantastic story that gave an explanation for how different tribes were created. So it starts with a very pristine and beautiful lake were a giant beaver lived. Animal people wanted to fish in the lake, but they could not because the giant beaver named Wishpoosh would kill the people. A coyote decided to challenge the great beaver. He began fishing and was quickly attacked. The coyote speared the great beaver and Wishpoosh fell to the bottom of the lake drag gin the coyote with him. The coyote fought back though and soon the had created many lakes from the fighting. Finally coyote being so cunning allowed Wishpoosh to swallow him and coyote then cut open his intestines and dragged the giant beaver to shore. He cut Wishpoosh up and from various body parts created different tribes!

Coyote and the Dragon: Once in a cave lived a monster who would eat people by night and return to its cave by morning. Coyote wanted to help the people who were being eaten. The monster could not be in the sun and could only come out of the cave at night. Coyote was clever and knew the monster could only come out during night, so he hid the sun behind a river. When the monster saw it was night he came out. The coyote released the sun and it blinded the monster then coyote killed him.