Plains+Indians+Mythology

Plains Native American Myth: How Mosquitoes Came To Be...

1) Introduction- All 2) Summary- Carly 3) Story Analysis- Maddy 4) Culture Analysis- Alexa 5)Culture Comparison- Drew 6) Conclusion- All

Into- There were many old cultures that were spiritual and practiced the art of myth-making. One of the most spirited cultures were the Indians of the great North American plains. They had many myths and legends to describe natural and supernatural-occurrences. They were very spiritual in their myths incorporating their Gods and their ancestors in their stories. Here we are going to go into detail about how mosquitoes came to be in a Sioux Indian myth.

SUMMARY In our myth the purpose was to explain how mosquitoes came to sucking blood. It starts out where a giant monster is eating and drinking the blood of all the village people, he especially loved to eat human hearts. The village has a meeting and asks how they could possibly solve this problem. A man yells out that he thinks he can kill the monster and save the village. He later traveled to where the giant had last been seen and laid down in the middle of the path and pretended to play dead. Sure enough the giant came back and found his body. The giant was delighted that the body was still warm and fresh. The giant carried the man home and placed him next to the fireplace preparing to cook him. He realized he had no more fire wood left and quickly left to retrieve some. When the giant left the man got up and grabbed the giants skinning knife. Soon the giants son walked in, the man put the knife to the boys throat and told the boy to tell him where his fathers heart was or he'd kill him. The boy yelled that it was in his left heel. The man waited until the giant came home to strike. Right when the giant walked in he plunged the knife into his heel and killed him. Yet even though the giant was dead he still was able to tell the man that he would suck all humans blood forever. The man chopped the giant into pieces and burned his body. He grabbed the ashes and threw them into the air thinking they would fly away with the wind. Instead the ashes turned into mosquitoes and starting biting the man making him scratch the bite.

Cultural Reflection- The Sioux Native Americans believe in many things, they believe in one song to bring rain, believe that there are many chants to cure a disease. The Sioux also believe that something or someone had to have created the world, created the land they harvest on, created the water they drink from and the animals the feed on. So it wouldn't be odd that something or someone had to have created spiders or mosquitoes, but what, what horrible thing would create such a pain? Was it a falling star, blood spats from a bear kill, or could it be a killer giant? Whatever the answer may be this myth of how Mosquitoes came to be, reflects greatly that the Sioux Indians believe that something had to have created to materials of the everyday life. Something or someone bigger then man kind is capable of such power. This is why this myth How Mosquitoes Came To Be is a cultural reflection of the Sioux Indians. www.twofeathers.co.uk/. ../pg2/img126.jpg

Culture Comparison- In almost every type of mythology they have similar topics that they base their stories on such as creation myths, myths on how their gods and goddesses came to be, and also stories that explain natural occurring events, in the Plains Indians case, the story of how Mosquitoes came to be. In this specific story we have the mortal Hero archetype as well as the Immortal (can be killed however never dies) Destroyer. The young man that stands up to save his village can be called the hero because he is willing to put an end to the giant who is constantly eating his people. The giant is the destroyer just because he kills humans to eat them even though the Earth Mother (the native’s main god) supplied him with the plants and animals all around them. It is the basic good vs. evil plot that you see except it has a small twist. The evil isn’t truly relinquished just made into smaller yet just as evil and annoying as before. There are similar plot lines in Greek/Roman mythology. The Odyssey is a perfect example. When Odysseus, the hero, blinds Poseidon’s son, Polyphemos, he basically takes out the “giant” threat however he has Poseidon to deal with now who comes in the form of a more minor and just as dangerous threat which is the Sea. As in the myth "How Mosquitoes Came To Be", there is a destroyer Archetype that is Polyphemos and Poseidon in the "Odyssey". As well as having similar myths and stories their religions are also similar. The Greeks/Romans believed in multiple gods and goddesses just like the Plains Indians. I really find it interesting how these two cultures were separated by continents and still hade the same basic ideas. Sources: Homer's "The Odyssey" and http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/How_Mosquitoes_Came_To_Be-Tlingit.html -FalcnJzz- [|Mosquitoes.jpg]www.heartofthehaida.com Picture Source

Story Analysis: In our myth it tells us how todays mosquitoes came to be. The Sioux Indians thought it was important to tell this story because they believed that everything that was created had a purpose, even if it did cause pain and suffering. The mosquito to an average person maybe an annoying pest that gives them itchy bites, but to the Sioux Indians the mosquito is a symbol of the evil giant that killed their people. Some of the natural events in the story include when the man threw the pieces of the giant into the fire, then taking the ashes and throwing them into the air for the wind to carry them away. But as he did this his ashes turned into mosquitoes, which is the nature of humanity in this story. Now every time a mosquito bits someone, according to the Sioux Indians, it is really the giant taking revenge against the man. http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/fire/fire_01.jpg

Conclusion: There you have it. The Sioux of the Great North American Plains were a very spirited culture and had many myths to prove many of the natural happenings in their (human) history such as the story of the mosquitoes.

Work Cited: Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1963 http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/How_Mosquitoes_Came_To_Be-Tlingit.htm Erodoes Richard, Ortiz Alfonso. American Indian Myths and Legends. New York: Pantheon Fairytale & Folklore Library, 1984.