Storytelling for Week 10: Doe and Bear

Doe and Bear were two women who had something very big in common. They were both married to the same man, Chickenhawk. Bear was the first wife. She met Chickenhawk when she was younger. She had known that eventually he would be taking a second wife. She loved him though and thought that she would be able to handle it. When the time came and Chickenhawk brought home Doe, she had realized that this is not what she wanted. She tried everything to convince Chickenhawk that they were better off without Doe, but Chickenhawk was not convinced. So Bear decided that she would give this relationship a try.

Many years had passed since Chickenhawk married Doe. Chickenhawk had three children with Bear and two children with Doe. Bear was still bitterly jealous over Chickenhawks relationship with Doe. She tried everything she could to be okay with the relationship but she was never able to get over it. Chickenhawk did not hide the fact that he loved Doe more than Bear. He spent all of his time with Doe, leaving Bear to fend for all of the children herself.

The children loved Bear. She was the mother to all of them. Doe was not a nice person. Chickenhawk and Doe were horrible to the children and Bear was left to defend them. Bear loved the children. They all considered themselves to be hers. She was their mom. She had to be since Doe wanted nothing to do with them.

Once day, Bear and Doe were getting ready for dinner. Doe kept telling Bear about how much fun it was on her date with Chickenhawk, knowing fully well that Bear had not been invited on a date in years. Chickenhawk came home and told Bear to finish dinner herself, he wanted to spend time with Doe. Bear decided that this was all she could take. She was finished with them. Anger filled up inside of her and she decided that she had to get away. She needed to get the children and go. She knew that they would never let her leave with the children and this was a risk that she was not going to make.

When Bear prepared the dinner, she made Doe and Chickenhawk's extra special. She knew that they would not survive the meal. They all ate in silence. It was not long before Doe and Chickenhawk began feeling ill. It wasn't long after that before they died. Bear grabbed the children and they escaped from the house, never looking back. They were finally free.

Bride by Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's note: This story is based off of  Bear-woman and Deer-woman. The original story is about a grizzly and doe that were both married to chickenhawk. They went to the creek and that is when grizzly kills doe and takes her head back to the house. She puts her head in the fire and doe's children notice that grizzly has killed their mother. They decide to take revenge and lure grizzly's children to a hollow log under the guise of playing a smoke-out game. The doe's children go first and then when it is the grizzly's children's turn, the doe's children kill them. They take them back and cook them to feed them to the grizzly. The grizzly realizes that she is eating her own children and goes after the fawns. The grizzly is killed when the grandfather tosses her into the creek. I changed the story in making both the characters into real people and having grizzly actually be really caring compared to doe. I wanted there to be a good reason why grizzly wanted doe gone and so I changed it from just jealousy to grizzly wanting to kill doe and chickenhawk so that she and the children could live happily.
Bibliography: This story is part of the Native American Marriage Tales unit.
Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).