Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes, Part B

 Main Characters:

• Rabbit
• Tashka and Walo
• The Sun and Moon

Secondary Characters:

• Other animals, due to non-continuous stories

Important things to remember:

• Two More Rabbit Stories
• Rabbit and Panther
• Rabbit was very boastful, and wanted to be a medicine man
• He set up shop on top of a hill, made a path to the hill and gave a shot to his wife
• He began to boast about how fast he was and sang if a panther came he could run away fast
• A panther heard his boasting, and hid by the path, and sprung on the rabbit when he came by and before the boastful rabbit could speak he was eaten by the panther
• Rabbit and Bear
• Rabbit had his friend Bear over to his brier patch and fed him cane to eat
• Bear had Rabbit to his tree dwelling to eat next, and fed Rabbit black bugs
• Rabbit made a comment about the quality of the food, so Bear said he would kill Rabbit
• Once Rabbit escaped, he told Bear that whenever the dogs hunted him, he would lead them to the home of the Bear so they would shoot Bear
• Why Deer Never Eat Men
• Rabbit asked many animals, such as Bear, Fish Hawk, and Wolf what they wanted to eat, and they did so
• Deer said he wanted to eat Indians, but Rabbit said they were too powerful
• Deer tried to kill an Indian while hunting, but instead the Indian killed and ate him
• The council of birds and animals heard of this and said no longer could Deers hunt man
• Tashka and Walo
• Tashka and Walo were 4 years old when they followed the trail of the sun
• For years they followed the sun, before finally finding its home over the edge of the earth
• The sun was there with many women (the stars) and his wife (the moon)
• The sun promised to take them home and make them very rich if they did not speak of this for 4 days
• They returned home on the back of a buzzard but told their mother very soon after, so the promise was not kept
• Sky Stories
• Sun and Moon
• Ke-So (the sun) and his sister Tipa-ke-so (the moon) lived together in the east
• The Sun goes out daily to hunt, but the moon is out for 20 days looking for her brother, then is gone for 4 days
• The Moon Person
• A child put his dirty hand on the Moon Person, so it retreated to the sky and comes out only at night
• The black spot can still be seen on the moon to this day

Sun and Moon, via FreePik

Story Notes from: Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes unit myth-folklore-unit-mississippi-valley.html