Extra Reading Diary: Apache Tales

For the extra reading unit, I chose to do half of the Apache Tales unit.  Here are my thoughts.

First thoughts on reading Culture Heroes and the Owl was, "Wow, that language is weird, and kind of hard to read." Which is probably what most people think when they read the story for the first time. The hoop and poles game is something I'd never heard of.

Drawing of the Apache hoop and poles game

I also learned that owls aren't very fond of magic according to the Apache people!

After reading a few more stories, I realized I have no idea how to pronounce their words. I tried multiple different ways to say them, and the letters just don't add up to something that makes any sense. I'd have to talk to an Apache who speaks the language to properly understand it I'm pretty sure! I'm definitely glad I chose Cherokee as my language, the syllables always follow the same general rules, and vowels are always pronounced the same, which I don't know if I can say for Apache!

Storytelling Week 9: An Unlikely Relationship

Back in the day, Flint lived up in the mountains. He had such sharp edges, and was responsible for killing many animals. Not only Flint, but all those like him. Because of this, all the animals hated him (and all the other Flints too). None hated him more than the Rabbit. He was the chief of his people, and had seen many of them fall victim to Flint's bladed sides.

Rabbit was a lot bigger than the other rabbits, that's why he was chief!

So one day, Rabbit decided to go to Flint's house to get revenge on him. He knocked on the door and was surprised to find Flint was old and decrepit.

"Yes?" asked Flint in a raspy, broken voice.

"Are you the one they call Flint?" Rabbit questioned.

"Why, yes I am young fella," Flint replied. "What can I do for you?"

At this point Rabbit was having second thoughts about his revenge plan. How could he, in his good health, cause harm to someone as old as Flint? Wasn't he taught to respect the elders?

"Are you okay?" asked Flint, snapping Rabbit out of his daze. "Why not come inside and have some dinner, I'll make you a salad and you can tell me what you want."

This caught Rabbit even more off guard. He was offering him dinner, and not even meat -- a salad!

Flint seated Rabbit at his table, prepared the salad, and put it in front of Rabbit. It had everything Rabbit loved: carrots, lettuce, spinach, everything! Now Rabbit was beginning to feel guilty about wanting to kill Flint at all. He seemed like a nice guy.

"I have something to confess, Flint," Rabbit started. "I didn't come here just to stop by. I was planning on killing you because of all you have done to my friends and family."

Flint sighed. "I knew that's why you were here as soon as I opened the door."

"Then why did you let me in if you knew I was going to hurt you?" Rabbit asked incredulously.

"Everyone must meet their fate," he explained. "I always knew what I was doing was wrong, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter. It's the only thing I'm good for. And for that I truly apologize. Now before we actually become friends, I suggest you finish what you came to do."

Rabbit reached for the weapons he had brought, but couldn't do it. He realized Flint wasn't truly bad after all. Rabbit told Flint that he would die at some point, but not until it was from old age.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to your kind," Flint said. "You have my word that I will never hurt anyone like you again. But you must not let them know that you didn't kill me. You can tell them you got your revenge on me, but on one condition: come visit me once a week for dinner and just to keep me company."

The Rabbit enthusiastically agreed, and went back and told his kind that they would never have to worry about Flint hurting them again. And that's how Flint and Rabbit became friends.

Author's note: I liked the story Flint Visits the Rabbit, from the Cherokee Myths unit, so I decided to create a new version where instead of the two being bitter enemies, they ended up as unlikely companions. I think my story has a happier ending than the other one, even if it's more unrealistic. But a talking flint and rabbit are unrealistic in the first place, so it all works out!

Bibliography:
Myths of the Cherokee (1900) by James Mooney

Reading Diary B: Cherokee Stories

So in continuing the second half of the Cherokee Stories unit, I just want to focus on a couple stories that I liked.

I found The Race Between the Crane and Hummingbird particularly amusing. In it, a crane and hummingbird are both in love with the same woman. She says whoever flies around the world back to her can marry her. She did this because she preferred the hummingbird and figured he could fly the fastest so he would surely win. The hummingbird is fast, but the crane can fly all night. The hummingbird takes the lead at the beginning a few other times, but ultimately the crane wins the race since he doesn't have to rest for a night.

Now you're probably thinking, "What's so special about this story? The crane marries the woman, the end."

Right?

Wrong. The woman decides she would just rather be single. THAT'S the end. I love stories like this that have an ending that's just so atypical from what you expect!

Although, I don't know, that's a good looking crane.

I also liked Red Man and Uktena. The Uktena is a giant snake that had previously been a man. But anyways, two brothers go hunting. One went to go find deer to hunt, and came upon a man being choked by Uktena. The hunter shot and killed the beast. It rolled down the hill, dead. The man who he had saved was the Red Man of Lightning. He promised to give the hunter a medicine so that he can always find something to hunt. He made a fire using wood from a tree that had been struck by lightning, and gave the medicine to the hunter.

He told him that the hunter's brother would be sick when the uktena scale was near, but gave him a cure for the sickness as well. The next day, the brothers went hunting and had no trouble finding game at all. 

I liked this one because of the oppositeness of the other story. In the first one I discussed, there is a twist ending. In this one the story ends how you expect. Both make for good stories!

Reading Diary A: Cherokee Stories

ᎣᏏᏲ! That's hello in Cherokee, pronounced osiyo (oh-see-yo). It wasn't even a question what unit I was going to pick for this week, as soon as I saw Cherokee Stories I knew what I had to do! 

I don't think I'm gonna go too in-depth on the stories this time, but I did want to see how the language compared to the language I've learned. I spent 3 semesters learning Cherokee as my foreign language, which in reality won't really help me in the future, but I'm terrible at Spanish, and I heard French is hard. So I chose Cherokee and it was one of the best decisions I made because the professor was my favorite professor at OU so far, besides possibly Al Eschbach. 

The first use of actual Cherokee names starts at the first story, How the World Was Made. Now, I learned lots of words and phrases. But never have I seen Cherokee phonetically written like this name -- Gälûñ'lätï. I don't even know how to pronounce that. Semi-related, my Cherokee name was ᏌᎶᎵ, which is pronounced saloli (sah-low-lee), and means squirrel! We got to pick our own names, so after I got stuck trying to pick a name, I asked a girl at a party I was at and the first thing she said was squirrel. So that became my name for 3 semesters! 

These phonetic differences could be because of the inconsistencies in how Cherokee is pronounced. Like most languages, there are dialects that change based on where you live. So it could just be the way the dialect of these people was spoken. Although after a quick search, the pronunciations used in the Cherokee Dikaneisdi (dee-ka-nay-ees-dee) or word list. So that would explain the pronunciation.

The Cherokee Syllabary

I did like how most of the stories were animal based, like Why the Possum's Tail is Bare. We didn't learn a lot of history in my classes, but we did learn how most of the main animals are said in the language. I do know they were a big part of Cherokee culture. That is clearly reflected in their legends. 

I'm gonna save my analysis on individual stories for tomorrow's post, I wanted to switch up my reading diary this time! 

ᏙᎾᏓᎪᎲᎢ! (Till I see you again)
The pronunciation for the above is, by syllable or character (each character is one syllable), doe-nah-dah-go-huh-ee. Cherokees say till we meet again, or till I see you again rather than goodbye because goodbye implies you won't see each other again, while they believe they'll see each other again regardless of if it's this life or the next.