Week 9 Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of the Great Plains Continued

I finished up the second part of Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Judson (1913), and I really enjoyed this second half. I really liked the Legend of the Head of Gold. It was a different kind of story and it was unlike many others that I've read or heard of. It was a bit like Adam and Eve because there was a certain item that the boy in the story was not supposed to mess with, but he did it anyway. However, this story was different because it was good that he was messing with the gold and got a gold head because then he because well-respected because of it.

Before he got the golden head, he was a very lazy person, so I don't really understand where the shift was, expect for being motivated enough to not be too lazy to break a very important rule? I don't really understand the moral of this story besides that laziness is a big problem.

I liked reading all of the native american stories in this unit because the stories really have a purpose, but since they are usually relayed orally, they don't have the same hard-to-understand language as most religious texts. I think it's important to try and learn new things from different cultures so you can get a feel for the morals that guide diverse audiences.

 

Chief Bone Necklace, 1899