Reading Notes: The Gifts of the Sky God Chitimacha, Part A

This story is part of the Mississippi Valley / Great Lakes unit. Story source: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1914).


Source


For this weeks reading, I read stories from the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes. I found the story of the Sky God interesting because it featured a similar theme to stories I have read in the past. There was a central theme of a supernatural being that granted humans some sort of power. What was interesting with this story was how each wish related to nature. Not only were the humans allowed to return to earth as an animal, the animal they chose determined if they returned safely and what knowledge they brought back with them. Another aspect of the story I found interesting was how many of the humans in the story died on the journey to the Sky-world or on the way back. This makes the story more realistic because not everyone will succeed. What I found lacking was only the spider had an impact on his people that was more fully explained. The pigeon and eagle seemed to simply teach a lesson without consequences. If I were to retell this story, I would provide the pigeon and eagle a similar set of consequences and how all of these consequences impacted the tribe.

Photo of an eagle catching a fish from Wikipedia