Essay: Bravery in American Indian Fairytales

A common theme that I noticed while reading this unit was bravery. These stories were told by Iagoo which tells me that he remembered them for the bravery and that was an important feature for him. I also think that it is a good quality to have. Not everyone is willing to be brave because there is always a risk factor to being brave. There is always something that you have to be willing to lose in order to try to gain something. In these stories, there were many brave characters.

One of the characters whom I feel showed bravery was Shin-ge-bis. He is a character from the story Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind. In the story, everyone flees when they realize the North Wind is coming. The North Wind is one of the things that everyone fears. Everyone left except Shin-ge-bis. He refused to let the North Wind win. Eventually he overtakes the North wind and becomes a hero. He risks his life in order to help the group as a whole. The North Wind is stunned that anyone is willing to stand up to him. Shin-ge-bis was the only one who was willing to stay and fight. That didn't make everyone else bad people for going because they were scared so no one would have blamed Shin-ge-bis for fleeing. Not everyone is able to conquer their fear and stay but he refused to give up and stayed to fight. It worked out for him in the end.

Another character that had to have been my favorite was O-jeeg from the story How the Summer Came. It was a time when the North Wind controlled everything and it was winter all the time. O-jeeg's son was tired of the winter. It was not a pleasant time, with everything always being so cold. O-jeeg decided to try and make it summer by breaking into the sky. He took some animals with him and went to the top of a mountain to break through the sky. He was able to break through and he freed a couple of the seasons. The animals were able to return but O-jeeg got trapped. He was never able to return so he truly did risk his life for the good of the rest of the people. He did not manage to keep his life but he traded it for something that he felt was worth it. That is truly what bravery is about.

Snow-covered Trees. Source: Wikimedia Commons