Reading Diary A: Native American Marriage Tales

Native American Marriage Tales:

The Piqued Buffalo-Wife:
This story certainly is unique.  A man gets a cow pregnant and the boy and woman are human at first?  Then, the man strikes his wife with fire and they revert back to their original form?  I think it's very unique but also sort of disgusting.  Unique in the fact there is so much form-changing between animal and human form and then back, but it is quite disgusting that a man would mate with a cow.  Nasty.  I would be interested to know if the reason this story is told is because it is the origin of the Bull and the Horn societies (although it's not even possible) or why it would be preserved and told among generations.

Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman:
This story is sort of messed up, too.  It does not seem to be a marriage tale, either.  It simply is a tale of friends betraying one another and animals eating other animals.  I would have thought that the point of this story was to show why certain animals are no longer friends (sort of like the cat and dog story I read earlier - I think it was from the Chinese Fairy Tale unit).

Splinter-Foot-Girl:
This is a very strange story.  I was hoping the bull was simply a name given to a man but apparently not.  It  is also weird that the child came out of someone's leg - I wish there was more explanation for this and wasn't brushed off so lightly - that would have been interesting to read about.  The bird is clever to send a different bird to convince the guys to let them have their daughter.  I wonder if the bird was trying to protect the people from the buffalo's rage.  I think that this is an interesting take on why buffalo are now considered to be "under men's control."  Again, I'm surprised this is a marriage tale since it seems that the main focus is more on the men fighting the buffalo and why they're no longer friends.  I'm glad the fathers were willing to accept hardship and danger in order to keep their daughter safe from crazy guys.

The Fox-Woman:
This is a very strange story.  This man had unknowingly married a fox who would do nice things for him such as cook, clean, and do laundry.  It would be creepy to see fox skin hanging and creepy that suddenly a woman would appear.  I'm surprised the man wasn't more alarmed.  I think it's sort of neat though that someone (the fox) would be so helpful without looking for credit or any sort of reward for the nice things she did especially since they weren't married (in reality) or anything.  If she was under that illusion, though, it was still nice.

The Woman stolen by Killer Whales:
I wonder why this story chose to portray killer whales and sharks in these different lights.  I'm also surprised the Native Americans knew about killer whales and sharks since these are salt-water animals found in the deep - certainly not in shallow water and not inland where many Native American tribes would be.

The Bear-Woman:
This is a super weird story.  It would be very comfortable to see a human/bear set of lovers.  I also wonder if the older sister had this bear-transforming ability before she met her bear-husband or if she gained it afterwards.  This is a cool explanation for the stars in the shape that they are - I wonder if other cultures have their own explanations or if this one is simply accepted and not many others think of a need to explain it.

A brown bear running across the grass.

Source:  Wikipedia