#indigenous tales

[cradu]

I forgot to post this here but during October I also tried to complete the challenge Graficalaca by @salvador.pomar on Instagram (I say I tried to complete it but really I just did two drawings and called it a day :b ) anyways, here are the two drawings I made: Day 1: Alma Kepis, Day 6: Aña Guasu

[uwmspeccoll]

Written in the Stars

Star Tales: North American Indian Stories is retold and illustrated by Gretchen Will Mayo (b. 1936) and published in 1987 by Walker & Co. in New York. After getting a journalism degree and a teaching certificate, Mayo attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design from 1982 to 1984 and earned her MFA from Vermont College. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and in 1987, she received several awards and honors, including the Original Children’s Book Art Award and Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Choice for Star Tales. Mayo has lived and worked in the Milwaukee area for many years.

For this book, Mayo, known for her children’s books, retells Native American stories related to the stars. Her work beautifully bridges cultural heritage and imagination, making her a cherished voice in children’s literature. Her illustrations enhance the enchantment of these celestial narratives, allowing one to imagine constellations coming alive with myth and magic.

-View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection

-Melissa (Stockbridge-Munsee), Special Collections Graduate Intern

[allgirlsareprincesses]

I'm so proud of this episode recorded with Mike of Thunderquack podcast! If you enjoyed Prey (I mean, who didn't?) or just like mythic/feminist stories in general, please check it out! We cover all kinds of topics, including how this tale reflects star stories of Indigenous Americans:

I'd love to share a lot more of my thoughts about this movie some day! Such an unexpectedly gorgeous film!

[black-is-beautiful18]

I don’t know why we have to keep saying this but if you are a white author it is not a good idea to take someone else’s trauma and write a book about it. My main example of this will always be Handmaid’s Tale. Yes all women experience misogyny and often throughout history do not have autonomy over their bodies and have to fight for it. However, when you use the lived experiences of Black and Brown women, which historically have been treated much worse and still have to fight harder than white women, and then apply them to ALL women then yes you are going to get side eyed and maybe even told off depending on the person. This goes for any genre of book really but especially fantasy. I know we like to come up with interesting stories but when you as a white person think you have a right to include things like residential schools and the erasure of culture in your book about dragon colonizers…Let’s go back to the drawing board babes. Like it’s good you did research but let’s think. Not only are you actively taking part in taking away the voices of Black and Brown ppl by doing this but you are also profiting off of it. If you want to talk about oppressive systems so badly write the book from the POV of those that benefit from said systems. The reason why books with fantasy racism wind up getting bashed is cuz of this very thing. Taking things that you have not experienced and stamping them on elves, dragons, orcs, etc will rightfully get criticized by those who actually do have those experiences.

[applebees4prez]

having a fairy tale special interest/hyperfixation is so hard and confusing. like what do i even do. go back and study the entire history of fairy tales? where do i even begin? what do i read? do i just have to go back and watch disney movies? rewatch neverafter again? which btw if you like fairy tales please go watch dimension 20’s neverafter it’s my favorite piece of media ever.

[un-pearable]

angus is still a fascinating character to me. clearly a j jonah jameson ripoff but with a bit of CringeFail that jonah didn’t really pick up until later. and then when he starts getting the side stories it just gets crazy. like getting run out of new zealand for investigative journalism re: nuclear weapons crazy

[shedontlovehuhself]

Seeing white women all over my twitter timeline yesterday crying about supposed dark scenarios to come while Black, Indigenous, & other marginalized people have been living said scenarios for a lifetime is truly something!

[seeinginthedark]

I am now convinced that I once had an existence outside of this simulation. There, I was multi-dimensional and travelled the multi-verse. I had a very active social life there . I was invited to many worlds and dimensions. I was female there too. Maybe even a goddess. Perhaps even built worlds and destroyed worlds.

That’s why my soul keeps telling me that I need to liberate myself from here. That’s why I get befuddled at my apparent lack of “magical” abilities in this world .

I don’t know if I chose to live here or if I was chosen to come here for the purpose of this impossible mission I now find myself on , again . I think there are some souls that choose to reincarnate here .

They must be gluttons for punishment to want to come here . With no memory of how or even why they are here . This place isn’t a “spiritual school for learning and soul development”. This place is beyond fucked. A playground for egos. A circus of clowns. A farm. A zoo. A fucked up social experiment. Hunting ground for paedophiles. Rampant injustice . Rigged. It fails to educate or nourish my soul. My soul is Divinity and does not require this meaningless human education. The Earth herself though , is remarkable and beautiful. But she is getting disrespected and polluted , trashed, exploited. She’s pretty angry, actually. There are many other beings that reside here , not human, who are getting angry at how Earth is being treated. I won’t get into it in full detail of it in this post . But I think you get the idea . 🌋🌊😉

I’ve managed to remember who I am or who I was . My ego has been broken down numerous times . The only way this could happen to me, was by experiencing being damaged by trauma . The trauma is so great ,that it fractures my sense of self . The pain is so horrible that it forces its way through the ego - smashing it apart. That allows me to really integrate myself with my soul and hear what my soul wants to do - just for a long enough time before my ego builds back up again. FYI if you keep getting traumatised here , you are able to do this as well. It’s the only positive consequence of suffering and pain that I can see. That, and assisting others who are also traumatised.

For some reason I’ve taken pity on the other souls here and feel drawn to trying to bring them along with me on this “mission impossible let’s all escape the simulation “.

They don’t seem to hunger for it like I do . Maybe because they have never existed outside it before and this is all they know and they’ve become institutionalised by it. Like prisoners who get used to being incarcerated and they can’t handle it when they finally are released and get some freedom. Maybe I can actually escape it at anytime I want , but I don’t feel right leaving the others here. Maybe some of my multi- dimensional friends are stuck here and I’m waiting to reunite with them before I leave .

Also , what complicates things is that I have children here. Which puts me in a bit of a pickle . I’ve shifted to 5D before . Tried to tell people how to get there in my videos a couple of years ago. But they didn’t get circulated due to , fuck I don’t know , corrupted algorithms or people just weren’t interested. I implemented my 11 commandments, for the new 5D generation, but they gained no interest . I channeled deities and timeline agents in my videos, with prophetic messages included . No one cared. So what the fuck am I still doing here, dealing with ridiculous third dimensional demands. I am going to break the machine that created this simulation that every one is trapped in. I don’t give a fuck about the repercussions at this point .

And I want some justice for the Earth too. And the ancestors . And all the abducted children. Elderly too. The mentally “unwell”. Indigenous people who were colonised, justice for all these groups of people. That’s what my soul desires . And I’m getting better at getting what I want . I’m getting better at manifesting.

[britneyshakespeare]

I had a dream I was following my work crush's Goodreads account. I didn't FIND it in the dream—I was already following it. A fascinating concept because I probably follow less than 10 accounts on Goodreads so I remember following every one of them, and he had his full ass name on there for some reason. And he was showing up on my feed because he has been very active going through lists of interesting lists I would frankly not expect the average young white man from New Hampshire to be reading, and marking things "want to read"

[songs2aiart]

Serj Tankian - Honking Antelope

“Photograph everything that ever passed in time, Indigenous traces, tribal chiefs, Vanishing hereditary lines”

“When you see that honking antelope, The secret dance of snakes, the tales of it all.”

“We are the cause of a world that’s gone wrong. Nature will survive us. Even dogs after all.” https://youtu.be/3wgZkc7lP7Y

[ladychandraofthemoone]

Since this universe utilises all characters from every iteration of the RWS/T&F, including AEG, what about the story of the Logging Locos and Misty Island? As we all know, the Logging Locos are widely hated. So what's their story and what changed about them?

oohhh alrighty!! Ive actually got them lying about here:

Starting off with bash and dash are both girls their real names are baileya and dahlia. Baileya is quite timid also the calm one and the peacemaker of the gang she’s also the one who’s gets homesick easily and the most anxious will start crying. She’s a herbalist florist gardener every plant/flower related thing knowing ever single scientific plant name and remedy after listening to the indigenous people’s of the misty valley (that’s where shining time is located here in my au) she has a soft spot for more spooky plants like larkspur and belladonnas and can “speak” with plants.

where as Dahlia has freckles and is the more outgoing energetic and open twin especially when interacting with animals she’s the one who gotta bring home animals as pets. you bet that everyone freaked out when she brought to the sheds a opossum when they visited.

So far she has a pet frog called mister hoppadiah “hopper” croakingtion that lives in her cab and a raccoon 🦝 named bubbles along with a group of wolves that she claims raised her and opossums. (James had such a fright when her pet frog 🐸 fell on his face) just like her sister she can “speak” with wildlife critters.

Ferdinand is the classic gentle giant and prefers the simple approach to life. Despite baileya’s shyness all three of them have a fair share of mischief and are known for pulling each others and others wheels.

Maybe that’s why the girls got a long distance relationship with the china clay twins…(Boco and also everyone else nearly busted his radiator when he hear about them but at the same time, they appear to reel one another in so..)

They use to be part of the early days of the island being part of the W&S from early indigenous American immigrants in the 1880s before becoming their own company for the isle of Glendale/glyndale or Brendan (which is now nicknamed misty island though it’s made up of many tiny islands) as a majority settled there (alongside some Shay ocs) something something oil and an new species of trees found there led to corporate greed and tycoons which nearly stripped the land bare before and logged it that they abandoned them and taking their friends away.

50 years later, it’s Toby and diesel who find them, the misty islanders (mainly of indigenous south and North American descent they mainly celebrated Hanukkah and epiphany, though they had others who have been stranded and were accepted into the community/village or hav left but took their friends away rubbing more salt in the wounds) and they’re all shook by how much as changed especially with diesel calling him a strange box on wheels though have since accepted the changes.

[allgirlsareprincesses]

Star Lovers in Folk Tales: A Primer

Adapted from my Winter 2022 Twitter thread

One common variation of animal spouse tales is the star husband or star bride. In this case, the lover is a celestial creature from the otherworld of the sky. Sometimes they fall to earth, and other times they beckon a mortal to join them.

Star husband tales are common to North American indigenous cultures, often featuring pairs of maidens who long for more than mortal lovers and so are whisked into the sky to marry star husbands.

In these tales, the mortal brides are compelled to dig, either to find roots or other food on earth, or to escape the sky world. In either case, the digging is a transgressive act, one that triggers the bride’s passage from one world to another.

Another star husband tale comes from Korea, merged with another animal husband tale in which he is banished from the sky by his father, the King of the Stars, cursed to live as a frog in a pond until he can marry the most beautiful woman on Earth.

In this tale we find motifs of the frog consuming all the water and fish in the pond, and the bride cutting away (rather violently) the frog’s animal skin to reveal a handsome man. The happy couple then returns to the sky, and two new stars appear in the heavens.

Star brides have much more in common with swan maidens. Many myths compare the sky to a body of water, and in some tales, celestial beings are actually aquatic creatures as well. These brides are often captured by a mortal hunter or held captive by a mother goddess.

Like the mortal wives of star husbands, star brides often come in groups, like the Pleiades in a South African tale who send their husband on a hunt from which he never returns. Similarly, a group of 10 Hungarian star brides take mortal husbands only to lose them in a war.

In all of these stories, the fall to earth is a kind of death, whereas the ascension is a rebirth or even the achievement of immortality. Water, hunting, and agriculture are prominent in these stories, indicating the importance of celestial patterns to human subsistence.

Obedience or defiance to parental figures is another major theme in star lover tales. While it is defiance that opens the path to the otherworld, the lovers are often punished for it until they show obedience to the parent.

Lastly, while not every star couple gets a Happily Ever After, they usually leave some eternal mark on the earth or sky. The tears of separated star lovers sometimes form fresh springs or even monsoons, bringing new life to the earth.

Sources:

In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender by Barbara Fass Leavy

[theomenmedia]

American Primeval To Premiere On Netflix On January 9th, 2025!

Dive into the raw, untamed West with American Primeval. Premiering Jan 9, 2025, on Netflix. Are you ready for a story as brutal as it is beautiful?

Read the full article right here: https://www.theomenmedia.com/post/american-primeval-a-gritty-odyssey-into-the-wild-west-premieres-january-2025

[creatureofclouds]

Day 17: Lunar Rabbit

[winter-leftovers]

If you’re still doing Douxie/Reader requests, there’s one I’ve been hoping to see. How would Douxie react to an S/O with a different culture? I’m indigenous so I would love it hear about some HCs about something similar. 🥰

Hi!! Of course!! You’re my first request so I hope you like it 💜 also sorry for the delay!

Douxie with a indigenous s/o!

Pairing: Douxie x gn!reader

Warnings?:none

Anyway, I want to start this by saying english is not my first language. I hope everything is well written. Thank you for reading!!

Douxie is a nice person to his core so he always tries to be respectful and kind to the people around him, his s/o wouldn’t be an exception.

He was born during King Arthur’s era and is inmortal so I hc that he traveled A LOT.

He emerges himself in the cultures as much as he can. He does it to blend in but also because he is curious.

When he met you he was enchanted but something he really likes about you is your strong bond to your culture.

Your rituals and traditions were completely new to him. He researched all he could but nothing compares to listening to you talk about it.

After Merlin’s death Douxie lost his conexion to his origins. No one really lives life like he did when he was a child (outside of Archie) so seeing you having a strong connection with your origins made him happy.

He would listen to everything you would tell him. Every history and every reason why things are the way they are.

And he would a 100% be part of anything you ask him and would love every second of it.

I feel im being super redundant BUt he respects you and your culture and will make everyone do the same.

If someone is disrespectful or makes an unwanted comment he would warn them but if the person doesn’t stop or brushes it off as unimportant for some reason that Douxie can’t explain!!! that person would have a completely unrelated string of embarrassing situations that Douxie the universe thinks would make you laugh.

You two would be talking to a third person at the cafe and they joke about your culture and their coffee would fall on their lap and the zipper would be down and they would fall down on the trash can that no one knows why is in the middle of the cafe!!

He is absolutely no doubt will marry you if that is what you want!!

He would do it the way you want. He doesn’t really has a religion (and probably is not a real person on paper) so he’ll definitely marry you in the way you feel is appropriate.

As Taylor Swift said: I’ll marry you with paper rings.

[youareunbearable]

Welp, I've now seen too much evidence of that Thingol Was A Bitch About The Nauglamir post causing Problems and ppl like deep diving into my opinion that I might just delete it before it breaks containment even more