Reading Notes: Blackfoot Stories (Part B)

The second half of the Blackfoot Stories share the same general style as the first half. Both sets of stories attempt to convey a message or explain history and nature. The second set of stories explains the reason why certain forest animals obtained their unique physical characteristics. It is likely that the reason only the peculiar animals had stories was because they were different among most other things in nature which would beg the question of "why?'. So, the stories were used to explain unusual phenomena that the natives came into contact with during the course of their life in nature.

The Smart Woman Chief

• this story talks about the beginning of the creation of humans
• the story states that women were created before men and were created poorly so that was why they were weaker than men
• it is interesting that this native story of creation recalls women being created before man and on top of that they were more clever
• this is a stark contrast to the biblical version of creation
• the chief of the women turns Old Man into a pine tree for his bad behavior
• interesting that the woman chief has witch-like powers

Kut-O-Yis Stories

• Kut-O-Yis is compared to the Jack the Giant Killer of European stories. He kills evil monsters and people in order to help others
• I feel like he better resembles a Hercules or maybe even a Robin Hood style character. He always meets with the poor people to find out what their troubles are then tries to fix them
• He usually takes from or kills those who are greedy and have more and then gives the loot to those in need of it
• Kut-O-Yis was born of the blood clot of a buffalo as it was being stewed in a hot pot
• the number four seems to have some special significance in the Blackfoot tribe, I should look it up to find out more information
• Kut-O-Yis, after helping his parents get rid of an evil son-in-law, goes from town to town liberating the most poor from the greed of the town chiefs
• In each town he helps the starving elderly folk by killing the chief that hordes all of the good meat
• first town he kills bears
• second town he kills snakes
• third he kills a demigod-like entity known as the Wind Sucker
• when he killed an animal, he always left one female to be able to continue breeding for the species
• fourth he kills a man-eater who was chief of a village
• he allows himself to be devoured four times and comes back to life each time before eventually killing the man
• Kut-O-Yis as a character seeks out justice for those who have been done wrong but at the same time he is, to some extent, merciful to those he punishes

Kut-O-Yis faces the man-eater of the fourth village.

Bibliography

The Blackfoot Unit

Image Information: The Cannibal found on wikipedia.