The myths and legends of the world are unique to the people that tell them. Even though some of the tales are very old, teenagers love Native American stories because they are unique and deeply affecting. For some reason, teenagers like to scare the living daylights out of each other so it’s common to find a group of them gathering at parties or camping trips trying to scare and gross each other out by telling the most disturbing Native American myths.
Nearly all Native American legends heavily feature animals as the main characters. This is because Native American tribes believed that animals were symbols of certain characteristics. For instance, bears represented strength, snakes represented cunning, and dogs represent loyalty. When a myth or legend was told, the lesson of the story often coincided with the animals used in it. If someone needed to learn about the dangers of trusting the wrong person, the snake would be used as one of the “evil” characters.
There’s a Cheyenne legend named Sharpened Legs which tells of a Native American man with a sharpened leg and he’s able to use that leg to stick himself high up into trees. Somehow, he can only do this 4 times. One day, a white man comes to him and asks the Native American to sharpen his leg, too. The Native American relents but warns the man that he can only stick himself to a tree 4 times per day. Full of himself, the white man dismisses the advice and does it 5 times one day. He gets stuck for many days and starves to death.
The myth of the Burr-Woman is totally bizarre . There’s a handsome boy who has no interest in marrying. A young girl proposes to him, and when he refuses, she goes to her grandmother. When the tribe breaks camp, the grandmother makes the man carry her to the next camp but when they arrive, she does not let him go. Many people try to get her off, and finally the boy’s father declares that whoever gets the grandmother off can marry the boy. After many tries, two women manage to tear the grandmother off. In the end, they are able to marry him.
In The Grizzly and His Ward, a young boy gets lost in a forest. A grizzly finds him and takes him in. The bear, which could speak, protects and shelters him for half a year. Eventually a man stumbles upon the cave and discovers that the bear lives there. He goes back to his tribe to fetch people to kill the bear. The bear knows what the man is going to do and when the group of hunters approaches, he hides the boy away to face the men without fighting. When the men shoot the bear through the head, the boy screams. One of the men finds the boy covering his face with his arms. When he tries to get the boy to speak, he wouldn’t, because he has loved the bear dearly. At the end of the story, the man who finds the boy says, “This is the boy I lost.” It’s the boy’s father.
How the Faun Got Its Spots
Native American Myths and Legends
Native American myths and legends range from the deeply profound to the truly bizarre. Some are meant to teach lessons but others seem like only stories. Many of them make great stories to tell around a campfire to try and scare your friends.
Written by Michael S. Atwood