Native Storytelling

[quahada]

Native Storytelling

[B]Native traditions and history were passed down through the generations using the art of storytelling. Storytelling was not only useful for Natives in this way but became a part of the tradition and history they passed down to their children. Unlike Euro-Canadian people, Aboriginal people did not put their oral traditions into writing but have increasingly begun to do so in the present day. This may keep these traditions from dying out as many already have, but this may also destroy the showmanship and meaning of Aboriginal storytelling. This is one of the most important critical debates pertaining to Native literature; is the written word destroying the effect of Native oral tradition or is it saving it? I will show that translating and converting Native oral stories to text may keep them alive longer than those who tell them, but the written word will never capture the full effect of Native oral storytelling.
In the past, Native people did not document their history or traditions on paper. When the Europeans came, their traditions were disregarded because of this fact. This, and the fact that oral traditions were easily lost with the death of a particular culture or language.

If there can be so many differences in the translation of a story, there would obviously be a lot of different interpretations of the story as well. First of all, since it comes from the Southern First Nations it was obviously translated into English so that most non-Aboriginal people could read it. Since the younger generations of Natives had less interest in their oral traditions the only way to save the traditions was to write them down; and this began the trend of Native written literature. In other words, when stories are collected they are at the mercy of their collector and are often changed to suit the needs of a new culture.
The abstract words so readily used by non-Indians frequently do not exist in Amerindian languages, which employ description or metaphor instead?
Stories described was partly acted; the motions of the game, the stealthy approach of the hunter, the taking aim, the shot, the cry of the animal, or the noise of its dashing away, and the pursuit, were all given as the stories went on. The written versions of these stories obviously cannot capture this art and so are inadequate in comparison. However, Native traditions written in text cannot meet up to the standards set by past storytellers and will never be as exciting and enjoyable?
Since stories are translated, it may also be at the mercy of being taken out of context or having an outside worldview tamper with it as was already discussed. When these stories are fully transcribed and ready to be read by outsiders, their meaning could be completely different from what was originally intended by the Native culture.
Scholars who enter aboriginal cultures in order to learn more about them and record some of their language, Not only change the meaning but they also take away one of the most important parts of the oral tradition: the performance.

“Q”

[quahada]

Medicine

At one time, animals and people lived together peaceably and talked with each other. But when mankind began to multiply rapidly, the animals were crowded into forests and deserts.
Man began to destroy animals wholesale for their skins and furs, not just for needed food. Animals became angry at such treatment by their former friends, resolving they must punish mankind.
The bear tribe met in council, presided over by Old White Bear, their Chief. After several bears had spoken against mankind for their bloodthirsty ways, war was unanimously agreed upon. But what kinds of weapons should the bears use?
Chief Old White Bear suggested that man's weapon, the bow and arrow, should be turned against him. All of the council agreed. While the bears worked and made bows and arrows, they wondered what to do about bowstrings. One of the bears sacrificed himself to provide the strings, while the others searched for good arrow- wood.
When the first bow was completed and tried, the bear's claws could not release the strings to shoot the arrow. One bear offered to cut his claws, but Chief Old White Bear would not allow him to do that, because without claws he could not climb trees for food and safety. He might starve.
The deer tribe called together its council led by Chief Little Deer. They decided that any Indian hunters, who killed deer without asking pardon in a suitable manner, should be afflicted with painful rheumatism in their joints.
After this decision, Chief Little Deer sent a messenger to their nearest neighbours, the Cherokee Indians.
"From now on, your hunters must first offer a prayer to the deer before killing him," said the messenger. "You must ask his pardon, stating you are forced only by the hunger needs of your tribe to kill the deer. Otherwise, a terrible disease will come to the hunter."
When a deer is slain by an Indian hunter, Chief Little Deer will run to the spot and ask the slain deer's spirit, "Did you hear the hunter's prayer for pardon?"
If the reply is yes, then all is well and Chief Little Deer returns to his cave. But if the answer is no, then the Chief tracks the hunter to his lodge and strikes him with the terrible disease of rheumatism, making him a helpless cripple unable to hunt again.
All the fishes and reptiles then held a council and decided they would haunt those Cherokee Indians, who tormented them, by telling them hideous dreams of serpents twining around them and eating them alive. These snake and fish dreams occurred often among the Cherokees. To get relief, the Cherokees pleaded with their Medicine Man to banish their frightening dreams if they no longer tormented the snakes and fish.
Now when the friendly plants heard what the animals had decided against mankind, they planned a countermove of their own. Each tree, shrub, herb, grass, and moss agreed to furnish a cure for one of the diseases named by the animals and insects.
Thereafter, when the Cherokee Indians visited their Medicine Man about their ailments and if the medicine man was in doubt, he communed with the spirits of the plants. They always suggested a proper remedy for mankind's diseases.
This was the beginning of plant medicine from nature among the Cherokee Indian nation a long, long time ago.

"Q"