Reading and Language Commons^™

Black Elk Speaks As Epic And Ritual Attempt To Reverse History, Paul Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Modern Siouan storytellers make a distinction in speaking of the difference between bedtime and sacred stories. Moreover, Lakota masters of the sacred arts are inveterate constructors of figural or allegorical systems. They interpret, apply, and reapply the iconological resources of their culture through ritual, myth, storytelling, symbolic action, and clothing. This Sioux symbolic tradition is one context in which John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1932) must be understood. Conceptualizing it as an epic may assist both Western and non-Western readers to clarify the uses to which a culture's symbol system may be put in mediating conflicting values, especially those …

A Few Great Stories Of The Santee People, Edna Peniska, Paul Robertson, Robert Frerichs, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Told by Many Nineteenth Century Santee and by Edna Peniska and Paul Robertson of the Modern Santee.

Gathered and Edited by Robert Frerichs and Paul A. Olson.

The fact that every known culture and civilization has acquired some sort of set of sacred stories is important. The eleven sacred stories in this work have multiple purposes. They possess a value as sheer entertainment; they also tell truths and lessons which explain the meaning of existence. Thus the Santee listener could fmd his place in the world and achieve an inner harmony through hearing stories. The characters in these stories are …

The Book Of The Pawnee: Pawnee Stories For Study And Enjoyment, Marge Critcher, Carolyn Boyum, Patti Huff, Paul Olson, Rosemary Bergstrom

Department of English: Faculty Publications

I. Meeting the Pawnee ............................... 1

II. Pawnee Beliefs .................................. . 3

The Pawnee Creation Story ...................... 3

The Boy Who Was Sacrificed ..................... 8

III. Pawnee Hero Stories ............................. 14

Lone Chief ................................. 14

Little Warrior's Counsel. ................ . . . .... 27

IV. Pawnee Folk Tales ............................... 30

The Snake Brother ........................... 30

Mosquitoes ................................. 37

V. Boy Stories .................................... 39

The Boy Who Talked with Lightning .............. 39

The Boy and the Wonderful Robe ............... .42

The Boys, the Thunderbird, and the Water Monster .. 50

VI. Coyote Stories .................................. 54

Coyote and the Blind Buffalo ................... …

The Hollow Of Echoes, Kathleen Danker, Felix White Sr.

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The Hollow of Echoes is the result of collaboration between Mr. Felix White, Sr. and myself. Mr. White, who resides in Winnebago, Nebraska, is knowledgeable in many areas of traditional Winnebago culture including language, history, legends and law. During the spring of 1973, he recounted to me a number of Winnebago legends of which I made recordings. I have incorporated these legends into a fictional account of a present-day Winnebago grandfather using the stories to instruct his grandchildren in traditional ways of viewing situations they encounter in their daily lives. Almost all of the views of the grandfather in the …