Week 10 Story: How The Cactus Got Its Color

Long ago, the flowers on the cactus were white but they so desperately wanted to have color. The rainbow had given other plants and flowers color, but it never came near the cactus plants.

“Hey, Rainbow! Next time would you please set one of your ends near us so that we can get some color?” A cactus plant called up to the rainbow one day after a rainstorm which was the only time that the rainbow appeared.

“No! Your thorns are too sharp! I will never set one of my ends near you and you will never get color!” The rainbow yelled back at the cactus plant.

This made the cactus plants very sad and caused their flowers to close up and droop. They understood because they didn’t want to hurt anyone, but they also wanted to be included. They spent their days watching as all the other plants got color from the rainbow and prayed to the spirits that one day they could get color too. The spirits must have been listening because one day around sunset, a lost cloud drifted over the cactus plants.

The cloud had been chasing its tail all day like a puppy causing it to get separated from the other clouds. It needed to find the mountain soon because after the sun set it would be time for the cloud to go to sleep. Clouds sleep at the peaks of mountains because they grow tired and heavy while waiting for the rains to come. The little white cloud began to cry and he rained down on the cactus plants. This caused the cactus plants to grow very excited because rain meant that the rainbow would come back and maybe give their flowers color. Instead, the lost cloud became tired and started to sink down into the cactus plants.

The cactus plant who had called up to the rainbow now called out to the cloud, “Hey, little cloud! Watch out! We don’t want our spikes to hurt you!”

The cloud looked over at the cactus plant who had spoken to him, but it was too late because he was already touching some of the taller cactus plants spikes. The cloud began to giggle and cried out, “These spikes tickle!”

This made the cactus plants laugh with happiness. The cactus flowers, never wanting to be left out, opened back up to see what was going on. As soon as the flowers touching the cloud opened up, they began to drink in the red, orange, and yellow colored mist left on the cloud from the sunset. The cloud noticed this and began to scoot between the cactus plants, so that all the flowers could get some color. The entire time the cloud giggled as the spikes continued to tickle him.

When the sun rose in the morning, all the cactus flowers had color. The mountain was now visible again, so the cloud said his goodbyes and floated off to be with his cloud friends.

The End.  

(Photo from Pinterest)

Author’s Note: This is based off two stories from the Tejas Legends Unit, When The Rainbow Was Torn and The Cloud That Was Lost. In the story When The Rainbow Was Torn, the rainbow has given all the other flowers color except for the white cactus flower because of it’s sharp thorns. One day the rainbow accidently starts placing one of its ends on field of cactus plants. Only the red, orange, and yellow colors get stuck on the spines while green, blue, indigo, and violet slip away. The white cactus flowers open and pulls some of the vapor from the three colors before the rainbow can get unstuck. Therefore, the cactus flowers are those three colors. In the story The Cloud That Was Lost, a cloud gets distracted playing and can’t find his way back to the mountain to sleep with the other clouds, so he decides to sleep in a field. The field is covered in white flowers who also want color. The cloud is still pink and purple from the sunset, so the flowers pull the vapor from him until he is all gone. This is why wild phlox are the colors they are. In my reading notes I talked about how I felt bad for the cloud basically getting punished for getting lost and how the rainbow couldn’t get away from the cactus fast enough when it got stuck. I wanted to change these two aspects and I felt it was best to combine the two stories.

Bibliography. The Cloud That Was Lost retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936). Links to reading

Bibliography. When The Rainbow Was Torn retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936). Links to reading

Reading Notes: Tejas Legends, Part B

I really enjoyed these legends. They were all pretty much origin stories but those are some of my favorite stories because by the end they answer all the questions they asked in the beginning. These stories are great for children and are a pretty easy reads.

Why Hummingbirds Drink Only Dew

The image of a hummingbird and a heron owning a lake was just too cute! I kept thinking about them wearing flannel shirts and having a cabin by the lake and renting canoes to the other birds! I don't know how I would turn this into a story but I'd figure something out. Maybe I'll write about how they came to own the lake.

When The Rainbow Was Torn

I felt so bad for the cactus in this story. Why didn't the rainbow want to give some color to the cactus? I mean I could understand not wanting to get caught on the thorns but then when the rainbow was stuck it made it seem like the flowers opening to get color was a bad thing! The flowers just wanted to be pretty too! In a retelling of this story I would probably just expand on the story already told and give the cactus and rainbow some personality. 

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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

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