Reading Notes: The Porcupine and the Two Sisters Menomini, Part B

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 the second part of this weeks reading, I read The Porcupine and the Two Sisters Menomini. I found this story particularly interesting because a common theme of a mystical creature was present and the focus of the story. What was interesting though was the use of the two sisters as main characters. One provoked the porcupine, who also happened to be a manido, while the other cautioned against it. The use of two characters could be a personification of one's internal debate of whether or not to do something wrong or not. In the end, both sisters were punished for one of the sister's decision to disrupt the porcupine. What would of been interesting was if the sisters returned to the porcupine after looking back and begged for forgiveness. Another interesting plot change would be if only one sister suffered a terrible fate while the other survived to tell the tale. Overall, these stories have had a strong connection to nature and its importance for different Native American tribes.

Photo of a Porcupine from Wikipedia