I have successfully finished the book of native American trickster tales. I'm going to comment again on how weird myth logic is. There's nothing wrong with drawing influence from the myths that make up the history of storytelling, but I've never understood why people were entertained by reading the myths themselves in their original formats. Myths are just the prototypes of the modern story. Would you want to make your breakfast in the prototype toaster or a modern day one? Myths just fail at so many things that modern stories are expected to do. There's a time tested (albeit extremely western) pattern that stories are supposed to follow. A protagonist gets caught up in a difficult or dangerous situation and usually wins the day through some personal growth. These stories are also expected to stick to their own logic.
These myths bring in way too many deus ex machinas. Characters pull out materials we didn't know they had, use powers we weren't told about, and show a great disparity between their size and the things they can interact with. For example, when a flying creature spills some liquid it becomes the ocean. Did I miss something? How big was this bird? Why/how did this liquid expand to become that much fluid?
That's why I've never understood the value of myths as anything other than prototype stories. They're not as entertaining as modern stories because the formula hadn't been perfected yet and their value as 'explanations' for things like 'why is there a moon?' or 'why do bears love salmon so much?' is nonexistent. Just making something up to explain something is worse than a waste of time because often people will be perfectly satisfied with non-explanations.
Branching from that thought, one thing I would be incredibly curious about is the state of the scientific process in various Native American tribes. I know most of their cultural heritage would be pre-enlightenment but I have to think they had specific members or processes that were very good at figuring out the natural world. Did they ever conduct experiments with the goal of figuring out better ways to hunt, farm, craft, or treat illnesses? Obviously this happens at some pace in every early civilization but were there any native American that actually made it their goal to figure out how and why various things functioned? Did they hold any semi-scientific theories or ideas in high regard or was it literally all myths? Where d we think Native American civilization would be scientifically if it had never, to this day, come into contact with other human civilizations?
On an unrelated note, this course has me thinking about an important film from my childhood: The Indian in the Cupboard. As I haven't seen it in several years, my memories of its high quality may be mostly nostalgia but I remember the concept clearly. A young boy discovers a magic cupboard. When he places something resembling life, like a little toy Indian, inside, locks it, and opens it again, the item comes to life. The little boy then learns many lessons from the little Indian about being a responsible man. Now I know I;m really stretching this because it is a movie intended for young people, but I think the set says something interesting about the relationship between American Indians and Americans. The Indian's tiny stature could represent the fact that Indians became a minority. The innocence of the child character is used in the film to show how unfamiliar he is with other cultures. The Indian remains stoic and skilled despite his diminutive size and it just goes to show us that we can always become more mature by learning from other historical cultures, no matter how small their representation in today's society. I have no idea if that's legitimate but it's just what came to mind. As soon as I'm done here I'll probably add it to my Netflix list to re-investigate it. I have no doubt that even if it has a positive message that includes most of the standard Indian stereotypes.
I've been wondering about one other thing lately too, and it could certainly tie into American Indian culture. I've always had an interest in man's best friend, so what did Native Americans think of dogs? Did any of the tribes ever incorporate domesticated canines? I'm willing to bet they were direct competitors with the American Gray wolf. Since the gray wolf is the ancestor of all modern domestic dogs, I wonder if the Indians ever considered a partnership as something worth pursuing? Or were they always rivals? Did wolves steal meat if it was left unattended? Did they significantly fear getting caught out in the wilderness with wolves around? It appears that some tribes viewed coyotes as troublesome tricksters and I know for a fact that most wolves hate coyotes with a passion... so they have that in common. (poor coyotes get such a bad rap just for being opportunistic)
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