Reading Notes: Reading A: Native American Marriage Tales

For this week’s reading I picked the Native American Marriage Tales from the Tales of North American Indians by Stith Thompson. For my final portfolio project, I have focused my stories over romance tales that have animals, so the marriage tales drew me in with hopes of animals and love stories. One of the tales I really enjoyed was the tale of The Fox-Woman. In the tale, a hunter has “secret admirer”, the fox-woman, who cleans and cooks while he is away hunting but at first, he does not know who it is. When the hunter finally catches the fox-woman in action she tells him that she is his wife, they live happily until the husband complains that the wife smells. When the woman hears this, she gets upset, turns back into a fox and leaves. There are two things I think this tales needs. The first is an explanation of how the fox-woman fell in love with the hunter, and what lead to her wanting to become his wife. The second is changing the ending to the hunter and fox-woman living happily together. Another tale that caught my attention was the tale of The Woman Stolen by Killer Whales. In the tale, a man accidently catches a killer whale so him and his wife cook it up to eat. This angers the other killer whales who then steal the wife. The husband is able to get his wife back from the help of a shark. The tale gives a different perception of sharks being seen as a villain to the actual hero of the tale. However, in the tale, the shark is not rewarded for helping the husband and wife. As a thank you the husband and wife could over a beautiful daughter to become the shark’s wife. Another aspect of the Native American tales is that some of the women are forced into marrying, men (mainly animals) that are mean and that they do not want to be married too. Usually the family has to plan a rescue mission to help save them like in the tales of The Eagle and Whale Husbands and Splinter-Foot-Girl. These tales could be changed to where the animals become respectable suitors, and both actually want to marry each other. But it could also have a Romeo and Juliet twist of the family not wanting the marriage to happen.

A fox in a meadow. Source Max Pixel