The Anguish of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West
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Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2003 The Anguish of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West Barre Toelken Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the Indigenous Studies Commons Recommended Citation Toelken, B. (2003). The anguish of snails: Native American folklore in the West. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Anguish of Snails Volume 2 in the series Folklife of the West Series Editors: Barre Toelken, Department of English, Utah State University William A. Wilson, Department of English, Brigham Young University Wristband by Tututni basketmaker Ellen DeGross. Photo by Ron Daines The Anguish of Snails Native American Folklore in the West Barre Toelken Utah State University Press Logan, Utah Copyright © 2003 Utah State University Press All Rights Reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7800 Cover photos by Ron Daines Cover design by Jean Irwin Text design and composition by Ian Hatch Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Toelken, Barre. The anguish of snails : Native American folklore in the West / Barre Toelken. p. cm. — (Folklife of the West ; v. 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87421-556-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87421-555-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Indians of North America—West (U.S.)—Folklore. 2. Folklore—Performance—West (U.S.) 3. Folklore—West (U.S.)—Classification. 4. Oral tradition—West (U.S.) I. Title. II. Series. E78.W5T64 2003 398'.089'97078—dc21 2003006172 Contents List of Illustrations vii Dedication and Acknowledgments ix She Comes Along Carrying Spears xi Prologue: The Snail’s Clues 1 1. Cultural Patterns in Native American Folklore: An Introduction 9 2. Visual Patterns of Performance: Arts 25 3. Kinetic Patterns of Performance: Dance 80 4. Oral Patterns of Performance: Story and Song 110 5. Patterns and Themes in Native Humor 146 6. Cultural Patterns of Discovery 165 Epilogue: “Gleaning” and the Active Audience 191 Index 198 Illustrations 1. Trader Legend Pole 27 2. Bicentennial Pole 28 3. A male hogan 30 4. A female hogan 31 5. Corbeled roof on female hogan 32 6. Wall and roof of female hogan interior 32 7. Sioux pipe bag 34 8. Aldean and Wanda Ketchum 36 9. Flutes by Ute flutemaker Aldean Ketchum 37 10. Gad bináá (juniper-seed) necklace 40 11, 12. Navajo gad bináá necklaces 41 13, 14. Two rugs by Helen Yellowman 43 15. Navajo wedding basket by Kee Bitsinni 44 16. Helen Yellowman 45 17. Helen Yellowman weaving at Utah State Fair 46 18. Navajo moccasins by Hugh Yellowman 47 19. Yazzie and Herbert Yellowman and child in cradleboard 48 20. Ute Mountain cradleboard by Shirley Denetsosie 49 21. Northern Ute Virginia Duncan with cradleboard 50 22. Beadwork wristband by Ellen DeGross 58 23. Watchband by Polly Davis 59 24. Pen beaded by Willie Wright 59 25. Beaded baseball cap by a Sioux artist 60 26. Beaded tennis ball, Rocky Boy Reservation 60 27. Beaded Sioux hat 61 28. Beaded sneakers by a Sioux artist 61 29. Mary Holiday Black 63 30. Navajo baskets by Lorraine and Mary Holiday Black 64 31. Lorraine Black 65 32. Turtle basket by Peter Holiday 66 33. Navajo wedding-basket with Yellowman name 66 34. Navajo basket by Bonnie Bitsinni 67 35. Navajo basket by Elsie Holiday 67 36. Navajo basket by Christine Edison 68 37. Navajo wedding basket design on an antimacassar 68 38. Basket with a hole in the bottom by Kee Bitsinni 69 39, 40. Sacred pipe by Bill Weatherford 70 41. Bears carved by Waskey Walters 72 42. Shaman walrus mask by Waskey Walters 73 43, 44. Views of human beings by Waskey Walters 74 45. Shaman carved by Waskey Walters 75 46. Assorted creatures carved by Waskey Walters 75 47. Carving of a man and his kayak by Waskey Walters 76 48. Eskimo dance carved by Waskey Walters 76 49. Father René Astruc dancing with Eskimos 83 50. Dance in Bethel, Alaska, honoring tour of Yupik masks 84 51. Dance celebrating Yupik masks on tour 85 52. Crow Fair 89 53. Grand Entry at the Flathead powwow 91 54. Dancer at a powwow at Ft. Belknap, Montana 94 55. Young woman waiting for powwow dancing 95 56. Kahealani Johnson in her jingle dress 96 57, 58. A beaded fancy dance bag by a Salish artist 99 59. The author and his daughter Vanessa Brown 105 60. Maryann and Mike Johnson 148 61. Perry Johnson at the ruins in Chinle Wash 155 62. Dancers at the Bethel Dance Festival 162 Dedication and Acknowledgments This book is dedicated to the many Native American people whose tra- ditions and expressions have illuminated my life and professional work. Some have died, and I need to acknowledge my debt to them in absentia: Tsinaaba˛a˛s Yazzie (Little Wagon), my adopted Navajo father, who said he could drive his wagon to the moon as long as I would help push it out of sand dunes and up the hills; Hugh Yellowman, storyteller, Yé’ii Bicheii dancer, deer chaser, moccasin maker, and lifesaving friend, whose stories spoke eloquently through the blessing (and curse) of tape recordings; Homer Damon, my half-Seneca maternal grandfather, whose Puritan New England family refused to tell him who he was; John Brown, my Navajo foster son, who killed himself in the line of duty; and too many Navajo friends whose faces I last saw while pushing the sand into their graves. Their frozen images will inhabit my mind forever. The book is also dedicated to others still alive: Helen Yellowman, daughter of Little Wagon and my adopted sister, the mother of twelve, who nursed me back from the brink of death; Vanessa Brown, my Navajo daughter, mother of five, dancer of powwows, and known to her adopted Lakota Sun Dance family as Many Eagles Woman (Wanbli Ota Wi), who conquered the Catholic sisters long before it was fashionable; Peter DeCory, my Lakota son-in-law, who has rejoined the cultural and ritual circle of his people in the Sun Dance and the powwow; Native friends like Vic Charlo, Nora Dauenhauer, Ed Edmo, James Florendo, Verbena Green, N. Scott Momaday, Emory Sekaquaptewa, David Warren, George Wasson, James Welch, Willie Wright, all of whom heroically refused to vanish and who have performed their anguish and joy in art, story, song, food, dance, and—incredibly—humor. I am also indebted to some non-Native trail guides, colleagues, advi- sors, and mentors who have proven beyond a doubt that it is possible to reach for understanding and share it with others: Joseph Epes Brown, Peter Corey, Richard Dauenhauer, Dennis DeGross, Larry Evers, Dell ix x The Anguish of Snails Hymes, Virginia Hymes, Karl Kroeber, Phyllis Morrow, Jarold Ramsey, and Roger Welsch. Other friends and colleagues who have helped me understand this book include Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Barry Lopez, Rose Milovich, Peter Nabokov, Elliott Oring, Leonard Rosenband, Jeannie Thomas, Rosanna Walker, Barbara Walker-Lloyd, Randy Williams, and William A. Wilson. Five people need to be thanked in particular: Ron Daines, who gave his photographic help and his cultural know-how, in spades; Jean Tokuda Irwin, who organized the pictures in color and put together the most appealing cover; Star Coulbrooke, who made the gifts of friends look like so many colored shots; Judy McCulloh, who volunteered her time and expertise as indexer, when it became apparent that I could not; and John Alley, of USU Press, who accepted an early form of this ten years ago and still pursued it until it came to ground. And to Miiko, who nursed me back from the edge of death—what can I give more than this account of my life? As the Lakota say in the Sacred Pipe Ceremony, “Mitakuye oyasin,” these are my relations. She Comes Along Carrying Spears Speared by this vicious wind, how long did she hold the sheep before her veins cracked, and her eyes turned to crystal stones? When it went dark for her, was it too soon, or not soon enough? And did she feel the beauty and the harmony of it when her thoughts turned to icy splinters? The singer will surely chant, “May there be beauty and harmony ahead of us to the east, behind us to the west, on both sides of us as we travel, above us and below us as we go; may we go onward harmoniously, may it be finished in beauty.” We will all put pollen on our heads, here and there on ourselves— on our legs, which used to walk with her; on our arms, which used to hold her; on our tongue, which used to talk with her— and we’ll all throw the pollen in front of us to make the road new. xii The Anguish of Snails But the way is no longer beautiful, and the going not harmonious; our road will stream forever with flags of black hair on the surface of the snow, and we will be watched to the very end by eyes of ice, and our songs will be cut by the freezing wind. There will be ice and snow ahead of us to the east, ice and snow behind us to the west, ice and snow on both sides of us as we travel, ice and snow above us and below us and in us, as we go along.