Reading Notes: Native American Hero Tales Part B

The Red Woman

By LeskaArt found on Deviant Art

There was a pregnant woman and her husband. Her husband went hunting one day when a wicked woman killed her. The wicked woman cut open her body and found two twins. She threw one into a spring and the other behind the tipi curtain. She then positioned the wife’s body to look as though it was alive. When the husband returned he discovered the wife to be dead, and he knew it was the Red Woman. The boy behind the curtain would ask the father for food, although the father did not realize it was his son. He gave the boy food and a bow with arrows. He later followed the boy to discover him playing with another boy of the same age. The other boy is the boy from the spring. The father tries to get him to come live in their tipi. The first boy grabbed the boy from the spring to capture him and take him home. The boys then went and woke up their dead mother so that they could be a family again. The boys then snuck into the Red Woman’s hut and killed her by using her own magic kettle to boil her. They then killed the giant alligator that was killing other people by cutting out its heart. Next, the boys killed the three trees that would crush anyone who went under them. The boys then killed the evil snakes that would kill people in their sleep. Next, the boys killed the man who would push people over a cliff by dropping to the ground when the man ran at them. The boys then killed the man who burned anything he wanted. Lastly, the boys killed a large otter that would eat children. This was the last bad thing they killed before living happily with their family.

Bibliography:

Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929). Link