Reading Notes: Native American Hero Tales, Part A
The story in the first part of this unit that I have chosen to focus my reading notes on is "Dug-From-Ground."
This story begins by introducing the reader to a Grandmother and her granddaughter, who is a virgin, who live together.
The granddaughter liked to dig up roots in her spare time and the grandmother told her not to dig any roots up with two stalks. The girl wondered why her grandma would say this and one morning decides to do it.
After digging up a root the young woman heard the sound of a baby crying "mother" after her. She ran around searching for the source of the sound but only after sitting down did a baby tumble through the smoke-hole and roll on the floor. The young woman didn't even look at the child, her grandmother took care of the baby alone.
The baby grew up and eventually was able to shoot bow and arrow and hunt all kinds of game. Because the young never looked at him, he gave all of his kills to his grandmother.
He soon grew into a man. The young woman often left at dawn and didn't return until dark, bringing back acorns. The young woman always said, "If he will bring acorns from the place I bring them, and if he will kill a white deer, I will call him my son."
The man decided to follow her one day. He saw her go up a tree which grew with her to the sky, she came home that night with acorns again. The next day, he went up that same tree and it grew for him too. He then heard girls approaching the tree with laughter, they began to pick up acorns. He started throwing acorns down to the girls.
They speculated that it was him, calling him Dug-from-the-ground. They said he was so handsome that you can hardly look at him. Two of the four claimed they could bear to look, the other two disagreed.
He climbed down the tree and the two girls who said they could look at him turned their faces to the ground, the other two who thought they couldn't meet his gaze were able to.
He then proceeded to kill a deer, meeting the second condition that his mother laid out to be recognized by his other as his son. He went home with the acorns and the deer and she called him her son.
He then decided to leave for a journey, which his grandmother prepared him for. He went to the home of the immortals at the edge of the world, and when he got close to the shore, they saw him and launched a canoe of red obsidian at him. The young man placed his hand on the bow and the boat gave a creak due to his strength. He then went into the village, and entered a blue-stone house and heard someone say "It is my son-in-law for whom I had expected to be a long time looking."
After the sun had set, ten of his brothers appeared. When it was time for dinner, they put a basket of money's meat in front of him, which mortals cannot swallow. He ate two baskets of it and they thought he must be smart.
After dinner, they went to sleep in the sweathouse, where they realized the sweathouse wood was gone, and they wouldn't be able to get more. They told Dug-from-the-ground the process of getting it and he got it in no time and they all sweated themselves in the sweathouse.
The next day they played shinny, where Wildcat wanted to play against him who was very good, but Dug-from-the-ground beat him. He then went u against Fox, then Earthquake, and Thunder. He bested them all.
The following day they went to shoot the white birds which Indians can never hit. Unsurprisingly, he was able to hit the bird.
He then went home to his grandma. To him, it had seemed that he was only away for many nights, but it turned out that he was gone for many years. He repaired the house and went away toward the east, where he married and is living now.
Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).
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