The first thing that caught my eye about the Native American legends was in the beginning the author started out by explaining the significance of geography for these stories. Meaning, that the myths and folktales could have different meanings depending on the different areas and tribal groups. For example the tribe in the tale When Grizzlies Walked Upright, they never killed grizzlies and were deemed as a symbolic animal in their tribe. While in the tale How The People Got Arrowheads, the tribe telling this story is describing the Obsidian Old Man killing the bear. Thus, showing that bears weren't considered as a symbolic figure in the tribes culture. According to the author, Erodes, the message the Native Americans were trying to send through these stories was to depict the world that humans are living in and to show their concern and thoughts about the present time.
After reading the introduction, it seemed like the Native Americans would tell these stories in order to preserve their identity and not assimilate to the up and coming white European settler society. On page 4, a modern day Sioux tribe representative uses the term "white-manized" about his native language. By saying that, he is describing that his whole culture is slowly starting to assimilate but what is helping to preserve the identity are these American Indian folktales. These myths help preserve the language, cultural belief and daily practices. In todays world, it is really hard to preserve your cultural identity and without these stories, people would be fully assimilated into society with no idea about their history and cultural background.
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