Reading Notes: Tejas Legends, Part A

I originally read about the Tejas Legends during the Reading Options assignment back in Week 2. When I saw that we were doing Native American stories this week, I knew instantly that I was going to be reading these. Almost all of these stories were origin stories, so the first ideas that come to mind for a retelling is to do some kind of continuation. This would be the third week in a row of continuation stories for me, so hopefully I can come up with something more creative.

A Tribe That Left Its Shoes

This story was interesting because it had a kind of open ending. The story told how the moccasin flower came to be and why the part of the moccasin for the toes is pointing south. It gave the chief great relief because the toe was pointing to where his tribes old island used to be and now his grandchildren would be able to find it when the old tribe was no longer there to help them. I could do some kind of continuation story where the grandchildren follow the flowers to find their old island, but as mentioned before I'm kind of trying to avoid the continuation story this week. Maybe I could have a story about a cheeky flower that likes to point north or something cute like that.

The Cloud That Was Lost

This story was just too cute! I was loving it the entire time and felt so bad for the cloud that got lost. This story was about how the wild phlox got their pretty colors, but the cloud was pretty much the main character and he was my favorite. In a retelling of this story I would change the ending and have the cloud still be there in the end and maybe come back every night so that the other flowers could take some of his color. What ever I decide to do, the cloud will still be there in the morning!

The Swift Blue One

I thought this story was cool because of intro mentioning Mesteño, a blue horse sculpture that is here at OU. I've seen the sculpture before and there isn't a description to go along with it so it's kind of scary. I enjoyed learning about the horse that the piece was based on and I think It would make an interesting retelling. Maybe the sculpture could come alive and only certain students can tame it or something like that.

(Mesteño (Mustang) by Luis Jiménez. Photo from FJJMA Blog)

Bibliography. When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936). Links to readings