WOODLAND TRIBES
 Mi'kmaq Cinderella part of a comparison of European and Native traditional values unit . Plenty historical, cultural, material linked-to. <
Ojibwe: How Chicago got its Name Skunktown The words mentioned by the webmaster are zhigag, skunk, and zhigaawanzh, onion (which was named after skunks). Pronounce it -- it's obvious. <
Mohawk Creation Story From Legends of Our People published by Mohawk Akwesasne Travelling College, appearing on Akwesasne Mohawk Drumbeat web newspaper.
Mohawk Creation Story From Kahnawake Reserve Freedom School curriculum, developed in 1980. Prefaced by discussion of myth symbolism. A more complex (and well-illustrated) version of the myth.
Two Mohawk legends by Akwesasne School 7th graders not clear if they're retelling traditional stories or if the young authors are starting new traditions.
How Beaver got His Flat Tail, by Allie Benedict <
How Cedar Waxwing Got its Mask, by Amber General
Lwgend of Running Deer Non-Indian girl writes an Indian legend for CyberKids page. Notice the differences -- hero "has to do an unusual thing" to prepare himself to be chief.
Menominee Storypage -- on the Tribal College server of the Menominee Nation, Wisconsin. Students and staff created the storypage by transcribing and illustrating traditional stories that were recorded by anthropologists in the 20th century. At present the server contains little Menoninee history, and this is the only cultural material, so there is no contextual help for interpretations.
How the Young Hunter Caught the Sun -- Colleen Grignon prepared this page.
The Racoon and the Blind Men-- prepared by Dana Grignon. Thre are many intertribal variants of this story, in some the blind men or man convinces the trickster animal to exchange its eyes for their apparently easy life. This story is unusual in that the blind men are foolish; usually they ar the wise ones.
Rabbit and Saw-Whet the Owl -- who traditionally eats rabbits. Looks like Roberta had a nice page here but something happened to her graphics. Source she cites "old manual by Mokhamon" is probably a joke (ji-mokoman = Long Knives, slang for white men).
The 3 below aren't really stories - just little short bytes of info from old people about the meanings of some night sky phenomena. Colleen Waukechon has illustrated each with a large, handsome telescopic photo of the phenomenon discussed.
The Moon
Aurora Borealis -- In Anishnaabemowin, this is jibayag niimi'idiwag, Ghosts Are Dancing, jibay is ghost of a dead person
Meteors -- finding little star-marked stones.
Meteors and Native Americans -- as an astronomy guy researched and presents it.
Mother Earth Women's Mohawk Story by Lorraine Canoe-Kanarahtakie, Wolf Clan Mohawk, from an ethnic women's world perspectives page
-- How Fly Saved the River -- Eastern Woodland legend told by Ril Gashiak and submitted by G. Dutton's 8th grade class (Bessborough Dr. Public School, Toronto) to an Australian server that has asked young people to submit myths, legends, and tales of their people until this coming December. Your class might like to re-tell (or make up) a tale for the Australians, who have posted several myths of the original people from Australia, and are looking for traditional wisdom stories from everywhere. Actually, they seem to have abandoned this project, but the original stories from 1995 are still there.
The Buffalo and the Field Mouse -- A story transcribed by the Webmaster from Wigwam Evenings: Sioux Folktales, 1916, by Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), Minnesota Dakota/Santee (Woodland Dakota) who was raised traditionally until age 15, then sent to school and became a physician, and Elaine Eastman, his wife,
The Frogs And The Crane -- Another tale from those collected in the 19th century by Dr. Eastman and his wife. This is a Native version of an Aesop's fable.
How Glooskap Found the Summer -- Webmaster credits this to a collection by Virginia Haviland, North American Indian Legends, 1979. But it was actually retold from an old Maine Penobscot, identified as Neptune, in 1882, by the Penobscot agent's wife, published in Algonquin Legends by Charles Leland. See Book Review of Leland. Gluscap is a culture hero of Miq'mac, Penobscot, Pequod, and other Abenaki eastern Algonquian peoples.
Spring Conquers Winter, -- Ojibwe legend (Schoolcraft) adapted by Frances Olcott, 1914. A version of the same tale as it migrated with the people far to the west among the Minnesota Anishinaabeg.
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