Cynthia Slye

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The Underdog Prevails in Indian Tales Legends

• Cynthia Slye
• SLIS 5440 Storytelling
• Dr. Elizabeth Figa-Instructor
• August 3, 2002

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Purpose and Description of Project
This is a collection of North American Indian
tales and stories to be used with the third grade
Native American Indian unit. The unit will not
only meet the state objectives but will promote
the right choice program adopted by our school.
The purpose of this project is to use Native
American Indian tales to show how unselfish acts
of the undesirable can change the lives of
many. The power of choice plays a definite role
in each of these stories. This project will
enhance the existing unit by stimulating critical
thinking skills. The books in this collection
are a combination of fiction and non-fiction
stories. I like the combination of the two to
show that real people ,like themselves, can be
used to empower a nation of people and it does
not always exist in the world of make-believe.
Students will analyze character behaviors, study
the various plots to determine similarities and
differences and look for symbolism within and
amongst the stories. I used my schools library
WEBPac system to locate most of my resources. I
typed in keywords and then a list of titles were
given. I discovered that my library is well
stocked with Native American Indian literature.
I used the internet search engine, Ask Jeeves,
and the Irving Public Library. Amazon.com and
National Museum of the American Indian website
were used for the pictures of characters and for
the book covers jacket.
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Ten Story CollectionClick to see Bibliographic
Citation and Synopsis
A Picture Book of Sacajawea Knots on a Counting Rope
Pocahontas, Princess of the River Tribes The Legend of the Bluebonnet
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
Star Boy Squanto and the First Thanksgiving
Sequoyahs Gift The Rough-Face Girl
Click to see Story Analysis
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Adley, A. David. A Picture Book of Sacajawea. New
York Holiday House, 2000.

• A Shoshone native American Indian girl is taken
  from her tribe and held captive by the hostile
  Hidatsa tribe. Just as she learns the ways of
  her new surroundings she is sold to a white
  trapper, Charbonneau. Sacajawea and her newborn
  baby travel with explorers, Lewis and Clark, on a
  journey to discover a route to the Pacific Ocean.
  Sacajawea plays a vital role as interpreter for
  Lewis and Clark. She eventually unites with her
  brother.
• The United States gives much credit to
  Sacajaweas service and the success of the
  expedition of Lewis and Clark.

Click to return to story collection
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Archambault, John and Bill Martin Jr. Knots on a
Counting Rope. New York Henry Holt and Company,
1987

• A young boy loves his grandfather and the story
  he tells of his birth and name. His name is
  Boy-Strength-of-Blue-Horses. The boy is blind
  from birth and his grandfather guides him with
  much words and wisdom. The boy discovers inner
  strength and value.

Click to return to story collection
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Bolognese, Don and Elaine Raphael. Pocahontas,
Princess of the River Tribes. New York
Scholastic Inc.,1993.

• Pocahontas is a princess daughter of the great
  chief, Powhatan. Pocahontas is a bright brave
  girl who desires to see the faces of the white
  men and the tall ships spoken by her people. She
  is fascinated by their voices and appearances.
  She does not allow the Chief to harm the captured
  leader. John Smith and she become friends and
  she helps the white men survive the long winter.

Click to return to story collection
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DePaola, Tomie. The Legend of the Bluebonnet. New
York G.P. Putnams Sons, 1983.

• A drought has brought death and famine to the
  Comanche tribe. A young girl holds her most
  loved possession, a warrior doll, and dreams of
  her family who died from the famine. She waits
  for the return of the Shayman to here the words
  of the Great Spirits. The Great Spirits have
  spoken and the small girl knows what she must do.

Click to return to story collection
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DePaola, Tomie. The Legend of the Indian
Paintbrush. New York G.P. Putnams Sons.1988.

• A small boy, Little Gopher, carves beautiful wood
  toy warriors and paints stones with berries. He
  is unique from other boys. A Dream Vision is
  given and speaks of the boys powerful gift and
  shows him how his People will remember his
  paintings forever. He returns to his People and
  paints pictures of the tribes hunts and great
  deeds. Yet on the white buckskin given to him by
  the Dream Vision, he paints a special gift that
  will stay with his People forever.

Click to return to story collection
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Goble, Paul. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. New
York Bradbury Press, 1978.

• A girl loves horses. She understands horses
  unlike any others of her tribe. She sleeps with
  the horses and a terrible clash of thunder
  awakens her and she leaps upon a horse and rides.
  She rides with the winds of the storm. She is
  lost from her tribe. She meets a beautiful,
  spotted stallion and she decides to live with the
  horses. Her family eventually finds her but does
  not prevent her from running with the wild horses.

Click to return to story collection
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Goble, Paul. Star Boy. New York Bradbury Press,
1983.

• A young lady loves the morning star and finds him
  one morning on her long walk. He takes her to
  live in the sky world with his mother, the moon,
  and father, the Sun. The girl has a baby and
  calls him, Star Boy. She loves her new home and
  child until one day she disobeys the Suns
  command and is able to see into her old world
  below. She now longs to be with her original
  family. She and her son return to earth and Star
  Boys mother dies from loneliness for morning
  star. Star Boy is now scarred and ugly and is not
  accepted in his world. To gain the love of a
  beautiful chiefs daughter he searches for Sky
  World. He longs to be made new.

Click to return to story collection
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Kessel, K. Joyce. Squanto and the First
Thanksgiving. Minnesota Carolrhoda Book, 1983.

• Squanto, A Patuxet Indian, is a friendly Indian
  boy who hunts wild animals. He is captured by
  Englishmen and sold as a slave. Squanto learns
  the white man ways and works very hard. His
  master sees his sadness for his family and sets
  Squanto free. He returns to his own only to be
  captured again and sold as a slave in Spain to
  Catholic monks. The monks teach Squanto The
  Christian Faith and help him back to America. He
  finds no village or family and lives with the
  neighboring tribe. He discovers Pilgrims living
  close by and begins to teach them survival skills.

Click to return to story collection
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Klausner, Janet. Sequoyahs Gift. New York
Harper Collins, 1993.

• Sequoyah, a Cherokee leader, believes the
  Cherokee language bonds his tribe and he works to
  create a writing system, A Cherokee Alphabet, sot
  that the messages of his people will be preserved
  for all times. He encounters many hardships,
  unbelief amongst his family and people, yet
  Sequoyah succeeds. He holds on to hope and
  patience and creates the powerful gift of
  literacy.

Click to return to story collection
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Martin, Rafe. The Rough-Face Girl. New York
G.P.Putnams Sons, 1992.

• In a village stands a great wigwam. Inside the
  wigwam supposedly lives a handsome, Invisible
  Being with his sister. His sister is the only
  one who has ever seen this rich and powerful
  being. Women of the village want to marry him
  but the only one who shall marry him is the one
  that can see him. Three sisters live in the
  village with their poor father and younger
  scarred face, burnt, sister. The two beautifully
  dressed sisters are convinced one of them will
  marry The Invisible Being. But they cannot
  describe him no matter how hard they try. It is
  the younger sister that sees him everywhere she
  goes. It is she that receives the treasure that
  her sisters so long to have.

Click to return to story collection
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Character Analysis
The stories I chose are about individuals or
groups of people that appear weak and/or ugly but
are truly strong and beautiful. The stories
share common character traits. Each character or
group in these stories are unselfish and kind to
others. Most people in their communities do not
believe in them but they overcome doubt, haunting
and abuse to accomplish mighty deeds. I call
this idea the Principle of the Package. The
package that is beautifully wrapped and most
desirable does not always contain the most
valuable treasure. The package that is tattered,
torn and wrapped hurriedly often contains the
riches treasures. Squanto and Sacajawea
experience similar circumstances such as slavery,
abuse of white man and lost of family, but never
once did they want revenge or refuse to assist.
Each leads and helps the white men, the same
people who sold them and mistreated them.
Sacajawea travels with her newborn son, appears
weak, but she is definitely not weak. She is
strong and perseveres all the while showing
courage. Squanto just like Sacajawea endures
separation, sorrow and loneliness. In the end
they both witness great satisfaction. One for
leading a successful and valuable expedition and
the other for teaching survival skills to a
starving dying community.
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Sequoyah also perseveres. He was not sold to
slavery but he loses his familys trust and
confidence. His loss is caused by his drive and
obsession in creating a writing system for his
Cherokee Nation. People could not understand his
odd behavior and isolation. They felt he was
lazy. Little Gopher in The Legend of the Indian
Paintbrush also is ridiculed and believed to be
odd for his love of painting and drawing. He is
not like the other warrior boys in his tribe.
Both of these characters have creative talents
and when free to create beautiful results occur.
Sequoyah designs the Cherokee Alphabet and Little
Gopher paints his tribes stories and brings the
Indian paintbrush, the sunset, to his People.
She-Who-Is-Alone in The Legend of the
Bluebonnet and the family of the girl who loved
wild horses made heart wrenching sacrifices for
the sake of their families and tribes.
She-Who-Is-Alone gives her doll, her most valued
possession, to the Great Spirits and ends the
tribes famine. The girl who loved wild horses
family sacrifices their daughter, their most
valued possession, to satisfy her desire to run
with the horses. Each knew their loss is great
but the love for their own family and people far
exceeds their own desires.
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Blindness is not easy to accept but with the
love and support of his grandfather,
Boy-Strength-of-the-Blue Horses in Knots on a
Counting Rope overcomes his weakness and sees
with his heart. He walks in darkness but the
light in his heart is brighter than any others in
his tribe. It takes the belief of his
grandfather to open his eyes. The Rough-Face
girl and Star Boy are like Boy-Strength-of-the-Bl
ue Horses. They are not blind but they are
physically scarred. Each have scars and ugly
markings that cause them to walk in darkness.
Living in the darkness of doubt and taunting of
ridicule. Yet, the belief and love of a
beautiful, caring being, much like grandfather,
provides the light needed to find their inner and
outward beauty. Pocahontas is the last character
to consider and she ,in appearance, is different
then all these characters. She is a beautiful
princess and is well liked by her tribe. She
does not follow the principle of the package
but the white men in this story do. They are
weak and vulnerable strangers in the new land.
Pocahontas sees the white men and longs to learn
about them. She is instrumental in saving the
captive white man from being killed by her tribe
and father, the Chief. The white men survive the
long winter because of Pocahontas care and
support. They befriend Pocahontas and give her
gifts and knowledge of their homeland, England.
Even though Pocahontas is beautiful outward she
proves to have a beautiful character as well.
Beautiful packages can house beautiful
treasures.
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Symbolism
In The Legend of the Bluebonnet the girls doll
symbolizes her lost family. The doll gives her
the love and comfort she so desires from her
family. In sacrificing her doll, she gains the
love of her entire people and she is honored.
She now belongs. In The Girl Who Loved Wild
Horses the horse symbolizes family and freedom.
The girl wants to run and live with the horses
making her spirit wild and free. She sees them
as her family. The girls true parents let her go
because she symbolizes their desire to run wild
and free amongst their distant relatives. In
Knots on a Counting Rope the knots on the rope
symbolize sight. Every time the grandfather
shares the boys story, of his birth and name,
the boys eyes are opened further to see his
strength and power to overcome darkness. The
grandfather knows that his love will always
surround his grandson and the counting rope will
forever remind the boy that he can see through
the darkness.
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Star Boy and The Rough-Face Girls scars and
ugliness symbolize shunning of others. People
could not see past the scars and accept them for
the beautiful spirits they are. I believe many
people have scars and feel shunned and not
accepted. Hopefully when reading these stories
they can find acceptance in their inner beauty
and strength just as Star Boy and Rough-Face Girl
does. Sequoyahs Cherokee alphabet symbolizes
the preservation of the language, customs and
history of his tribe. He wanted more than
anything for the Cherokee nation to hold strong
to their language and to share it with their
children and children's children. Sequoyahs
persecutions and tribulations paid off when he
saw the Cherokee people reading and writing in
their native language.
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Plot Analysis
In all the stories I collected the plot follows
similar sequential events. The main characters
(protagonists) are immediately faced with
obstacles(antagonistic forces.) Some of the
characters became slaves while others had
physical attributes that brought scars and
isolation. These obstacles and physical
appearance bring hardship and heartache. This is
typical in story narratives. As time moves on
the characters discover inner strength and love.
This is found by either guiding and helping
others or by others believing and providing
support. In the non-fiction stories and one of
the fiction stories the main characters are
influenced by actual humans. In the other five
fiction stories the characters are influenced by
Great Spirits. The characters discover their
special and unique strengths and they use their
founded strength for the greater good.
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Before all of the stories climax the characters
face a tough decision and challenging obstacle.
Once they tackle the decision and hurdle the
obstacle they find comfort and great
satisfaction. Victory is accomplished. Not
always shown extrinsically but definitely
intrinsically. The undesirable are now the
desirable and all benefit because of the choices
they made. The Underdog Prevails!!
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Summary
I believe this project will greatly enhance my
Native American Indian unit. The students will
have a greater appreciation of Native American
tales and will understand character traits in a
deeper way. The TEK and TAKS objectives state
that the student is expected to analyze
characters and recognize a storys plot
especially in culturally diverse texts. I
believe the students will meet and far exceed
these objectives. This collective unit of
study will stimulate critical thinking and
promote important values. I am looking forward
to teaching this unit in the fall. I plan to
document the students progress and reactions. I
hope that students will see the value and
importance of all people and to respect everyone
regardless of their race, sex, culture and
appearance.
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In addition, I want them to understand that our
actions can result in mighty and wonderful deeds,
but it can also result in terrible and
destructive deeds. I want them to know that if
they feel they are the Underdog they should not
despair. Just like the characters in the stories
they too can be a powerful instrument and
Prevail!
Additional Resources National Museum of the American Indian- http//www.nmai.si.edu. http//cherokeehistory.com Biographies of Notable American Indians- www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmbioaz.html Software Program Kidspiration Students will use this program to create graphic organizers displaying character traits and plot analysis. Extension I would like to find tales from other cultures that show this same theme and include them for enrichment work.