Reading Notes: Tejas Legends, Part A
The stories titled "When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends" (link above) were written by the Tejas Indians in the early 20th century. There were ten stories total written for part A, so I chose to focus on three of them. The first one I picked was titled "When the Storm God Rides". It's about the god of the storms. He did not live among the Indians, he lived in the warm seas of the Gulf of Mexico. The Indians liked that he did not live among them, because his thunder bird named Hurakan scared them. One day, a bunch of the Indians were out by the gulf killing birds. The god of storms did not like this, so he sent his bird out with a storm. The storm eventually went away and to this day the islands remain.
The next story I chose was titled "A Tribe That Left It's Shoes". This story is about a large island out in the Gulf of Mexico. On the island lived a group of Indians that were very wise and happy. They all lived on the island in peace and learned how to survive together. Everything was fine until one day when one of the mountains in the center of the island burst open with red flames and a terrible loud noise. Stones flew out from the mountain and rained down on the island, ruining everything the Indians had made. Many people died, and the Chief of the tribe led his people away. Days later, the Indians tried to return but the entire island had disappeared. Months went by, and the people kept on surviving and living. They rebuilt what they needed and time continued to pass. On the path that the last moccasin had been left, grew an orchid colored like the shoe. It is said that if you go in the woods and find a moccasin colored orchid, you will know why.
The last story I chose was titled "The Swift Blue One". This story was about a time when Indians had never seen a horse before until the Spanish explorers brought horses with them in their ships. There was also once a great blue horse that roamed in the western plains of the country. The Indians decided to never try to catch him, but instead let him roam free. One day, an Indian saw a Spaniard riding a horse and they were afraid of him. The Spaniard got injured and noticed that the Indian that found him did not know how to talk to the horse, he began to teach him the horses language. More and more Indians learned the language, and soon enough the Spaniard died, so the Indians decided to let his horse roam free, as well as other horses who came to live with the special blue horse.
Overall, I found these stories kind of boring and anti-climatic, but they had plots that I had never read before. I would have added more details and plot twists, but I respect that these stories came from the Indians and their culture.
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