week 11 reading notes: native american marriage tales - part a

 "Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman" link to story

• Plot of story: 
• Grizzly Bear and Doe are the two wives of Chickenhawk and they each have two children. Grizzly ends up killing Doe and burning her head in a fire. Doe's fawn children suspect that Grizzly killed their mother, but she brushes them off. The fawns go out to play with Grizzly's bear children and hatch their revenge. They end up smoking out the bears--killing them in the process--and presenting them to Grizzly as dead skunks. Grizzly unknowingly cooks her children and eats them. She goes after the fawns, but they are able to escape. However, after chasing them again, she ends up floating away in a stream. 
• Did Grizzly die or did she just fall in the stream?
• Retell the story using human characters as a possibility 
• The man has an ex-wife and second wife who are jealous of each other?

"The Fox-Woman" link to story

• Plot of story:
• There was a hunter who lived alone in his house, but whenever he would return home, he found that his clothes and shoes would be clean and there would be a warm dinner ready for him. He did not know who it was, so he devised a plan to catch whomever it was. He pretends he is leaving the house, but hides away to see if he can see what/who it is. A fox enters the man's house and reveals herself to be a woman, too, and she tells the man she is his wife. After awhile of living together, the man discovers an odor that belongs to the fox-woman. She says if it bothers him, she will leave. The fox-woman ends up leaving and has never wanted to interact with a man since then.
• Retell the story and add dialogue
• Maybe find a different "flaw" instead of odor the man finds in the woman 
• Give them names?

A picture of a fox in the wilderness. Source: Pixabay

"The Rolling Head" link to story

• Plot of story:
• A man of two children thinks his wife is lying to him, so he spies on her. He goes to the lake where she goes and watches as a snake wraps around his wife. In a rage, the man kills the snake and his wife. He cooks his wife to give to the kids, who unknowingly eat their mother. But the head of their mother rolls in and haunts the kids until someone helps them and they are protected. The kids end up living in a guarded, large lodge with plenty of food. They invite starving people to eat with them. The people leave one day, leaving the kids with their father. The kids, remembering what their father did, become revengeful and order some lions to kill their father.
• Retelling: 
• The snake could be a human man; he and the man's wife have an affair, so that's why the man kills them both. 

Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson.