Old Indian Legends

Old Indian Legends is a collection of Sioux stories retold by the Yankton Dakota writer Zitkala-Sa and published in 1901. Concerned about the effect of assimilation on the tribe's children, she wanted to preserve the traditional stories of her people. According to the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center, there are 14 legends which comprise this book.

The first five legends have an unlucky trickster character, a spider fairy named Iktomi.

The Iktomi stories

1. Iktomi and the Ducks. Iktomi befriends a group of dancing ducks and tricks them into breaking their necks by playing music and having them dance in a way which they would twist their necks and break them, killing them. He then takes the ducks back to his teepee and cooks them till he hears a tree cracking in the wind and goes to investigate. He breaks the limb that cracks but gets stuck by it and a group of wolves come along and eats his feast.
2. Iktomi’s Blanket. Ikotmi is hungry and needs foods because the wolf took the ducks. He goes and prays to Inyan. In the story Ikotmi refers to Inyan as the great-grand- father. Ikotmi follows through and prays to Inyan to bless him with meat and in so doing, Ikotmi offers Inyan his blanket. Upon returning from praying to Inyan, Ikotmi comes across a wounded deer and believes his prayers were answered. Ikotmi proceeds on building a fire and cooks the meat he obtained from the deer, but while he does this he becomes cold. Realizing he has nothing to put on to make himself warming, he decides to go back to retrieve his blanket that he gave to Inyan. Upon return to his teepee he sees that his meat has been eaten and that his fire was out and the only thing Ikotmi thinks is that he should have eaten the meat that he found first before going to retrieve his blanket.
3. Iktomi and the Muskrat. Iktomi is preparing some fish which he has when he hears a voice calling him friend. He looks around and sees a muskrat by his feet. The muskrat asked Iktomi if he would share his fish with him and instead of being nice and share, Iktomi tells the muskrat that they should race for the fish. The muskrat tells Iktomi that he cannot race but Iktomi says that he would strap a heavy rock around his waist to slow him down and give the muskrat a fair chance. The muskrat agrees and they head off in opposite directions with plans on racing back to the fish. If the muskrat wins, they share, if he loses they don’t. The muskrat swims across the lake and gets the fish, then he tells Iktomi he should’ve just shared.
4. Iktomi and the Coyote. In this story Iktomi comes across a coyote laying on the ground while he is walking across a prairie. He believes the coyote is dead even though he is still warm. Iktomi decides to take the coyote back to his teepee to cook and eat. The coyote is actually alive and when Iktomi arrives at his place, he builds a fire and throws the coyote into the fire. The coyote escapes the fire and tells Iktomi that he better make sure his prey is dead before preparing the meal.
5. Iktomi and the Fawn. Iktomi first comes across a beautiful peacock in a tree and wishes to be as beautiful as the peacock. He begs the peacock to give him wonderful feathers and so the peacock magically transformers Iktomi into a peacock. The only condition is that he tries not to fly. Being stubborn, Iktomi tries to fly but fails and gets transformed back in to a human being. Iktomi comes across an arrow which he gets transformed into but fails to follow just one rule and returns to normal. Finally, he comes across a fawn and wants to be like the fawn. He ask the fawn to give him spots similar to him. In order to get the spots, Iktomi has to be buried in dried grass and sticks in a hole and a cedar ember is then put in as well. The fawn agrees to help Iktomi, but after making the hole and Iktomi laying down in it, the fawn walks away with its mother and they look back to see blue smoke only to comment and say that he probably jump out before burning. Meaning, just like his wanting to be something else, Ikotmi did not follow through with just one rule of being that new thing. In this case he wouldn’t stay in the fire to get the brown spots that he desired.

External links

• Old Indian Legends at Project Gutenberg