Story planning Week 9:The Sioux Legends

I want to try to combine two stories into one. I really like the Mysterious Butte Story in that it told the future and I really like the story of the fat man being chased by the spiders because he was able to hid from them in the trees and trick them. I want my story to incorporate both those aspects.

I wanted to maybe have the antagonist as an evil tribe leader and the Mysterious butte foretells his demise but to try and stop it he tries to kill the man (or woman) that is supposed to make that happen. When they are being chased, they could run up to the trees and the evil tribe leader would be fooled their reflection. Upon further research, I found that Native American stories try not to have "evil" people in them. The stories are meant to be lessons to children and so the main messages in most stories are that people can do evil things but can be redeemed for it. Granted there are evil spirits in them but they usually do bad and good. The reason for that is to teach kids  that there are things that you will never know if they will do you harm of help, or both.

I would like to slightly change my story in that the Tribe leader has become cruel due to being in power for so long and then the mysterious butte prophesies his death and he tries to stop it but someone shows compassion (probably amid him trying to kill the person that is supposed to kill him) to him and he starts to remember his old ways and goes back to them and the Mysterious Butte changes and all is good. I’ll try to display the meaning of the story as, you are in charge of your actions and only you can choose what your future is. 

From the Original Story

This story will stem from The Mysterious Butte from the Sioux legends.  

Reading notes: Sioux Legends, Part B

"pemmican" is a mixture of fat and meat, such as buffalo meat or venison I like the first story and believe I can use the part about the reflection and put it into another story.

Unktomi- spider




The last story is good.It would be fun to change up the story in who fights, maybe giving the story a moral meaning.

Fire and Water fighting

This reading note come from the Sioux unit. 

Week 9 Reading notes: The Sioux Legends, Part A

wei-zi (coarse buffalo skin, smoked).

I like the story of the mysterious butte. That it acts like a prophet it can really be changed into any story. maybe combine two stories into one.  

Original Drawing in the Book

The turtle story is an interesting one as well, maybe if I could change up the ending I could give a few more meanings to the story. 

Notes from the Sioux Legends. 

Week 8 Growth Mindset

The Dalai lama

I try to bring in the growth mindset when I can but most the time its stuck on the back burner. Especially when I am distracted by my hectic schedule. One key point I have mastered in this class as well as in my other classes is that I never think that I am "not good" at something but rather sucking is the first step at getting good at something and I just need to spend a little more time on it. In most the things I do, I do use internal motivation when I am excited about something but when I feel like it is not necessary I need outside sources of motivation.

Week 8 Reflections

My favorite story I have written so far is The Voyages of Sinclair, I already had the idea of doing it and just needed to know what stories of Sinbad that I wanted to include in my remake. I am still experimenting on how to do my reading notes but what works for me best is to write down any possible ideas and things I want to research and most of the time I can remember what I wrote and do not need to look at them again. (BUT I forget everything I don't write done so they are helpful in that respect.)

I am really excited about my storybook. I am afraid on how I am going to get my thoughts and expectations of it to my audience though. having constant comment on it does help though.

My favorite types of stories are the gender reversal stories or the ones where the females end up being the heroines.

Imperfections are perfect

Week 7 Storytelling: The Tales of Congo: Why the Alligator does not eat the Salamander.

One day, a ferocious looking alligator came across a cute little salamander drinking water from her large bay area, since she was hungry, but not wanting to spoil her dinner, she decided the salamander would make a great choice. She also wanted to teach this salamander a lesson, because every animal knows that they might get eaten if they drink by her bay. When she went in for the salamander,

the salamander yelled, " Oh sister, don't eat me!"

This shocked the Alligator and so the salamander ran away back into the woods, and she went back into the water hungry.

The next day she saw the salamander and tried to go in for a snack but the salamander called her, his sister again! This time he only ran quickly to where he was just out of reach, and then walked calmly into the woods like he was trying to taught her.

All the Alligator thought was that the salamander was crazy and thought that it also was an alligator. while he did have the same coloring as her, their skin was very different and she knew no one could mistake the salamander for an alligator like her. 

The salamander 

Troubled by this, she thought about talking to some of the fellow animals, but fear of being called stupid pushed her against it. She had already been embarrassed about other occurrences in the past. Several days went by like this until her friend that was a frog had seen the ordeal happen from the log that was perch right outside her bay.When the alligator saw that the frog was there to wittiness the event, she was overjoyed! She went straight to his log after the salamander left and asked why the salamander kept saying they were related, it was driving her insane! She told him that it was highly unlikely, especially, since she lived in the water and the Salamander lived on the land. She also had doubts because she was so much bigger than him, so how could they be related?! The frog saw her frustration and thought for a few moments, chuckled and then said, "The salamander lays eggs just like you, and the hens, and the turtles, and my kind. As both of us are related in a sense, so are you and the salamander.”

The alligator now understood why the salamander said that they were related and thought that it would be weird to eat the salamander as it is weird if she ate the frog or the hen. 

Author's Note: This story came from the Congo unit, "Why the Crocodile Does Not Eat the Hen" by R. E. Dennett. The original characters where a Crocodile, a lizard and a hen. The turtle told the Crocodile that she could not eat the hen because they all lay eggs which means they are brothers.

Reading notes: Stories from Congo, Part B

(was brought up in numerous stories) fetish - an inanimate object worshiped for its supposed magical powers or because it is considered to be inhabited by a spirit. (google)
I like the story, Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen. I think this would be good to switch out the animals but still have the underlying meaning.

the last story, The three brothers is also a good on to where I could make it that the father did actually enter the town and the brothers did kill their father. 

Cutest rabbit ever!

Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort were collected in the late 19th century by R. E. Dennett