Jane Louise Curry, Children's Books Author
  Illustrated by James Watts THESE TWENTY-SIX TALES from fourteen Indian tribes that lived in Texas or on the Southern Plains over the past two hundred and fifty years or so can be strange, like "The Beginning of the World," silly, like "Why Bear Waddles When He Walks," scary, like "Slaying the Monsters," funny, like "The Great Meatball," spooky, like "The Ghost Woman," or exciting tales of danger and courage, like "The Deserted Children" or "Young Boy Chief and His Sister." To learn something about the original storytellers, and to sample an Osage tale from the book, read on...  The early peoples of the Texas coast all have vanished, most of them hundreds of years ago, leaving behind only their names. No stories. The inland Bidai and other tribes in eastern Texas are gone, too, leaving no tales behind because the invading European colonists and Texan settlers did not listen. Of the early Texas tribes, only the Tonkawan and Caddoan-speaking farmers of central and eastern Texas survived to tell their tales to scholars and collectors of folklore. Much changed at the coming of horses with the Spanish. With horses, Indian hunters could follow the buffalo herds, and so the farming tribes gained new neighbors. Comanche, Kiowan, Lipan-Apache and Kiowa-Apaches hunters from the west and north moved into the southern plains to become nomads following the buffalo. From the east came the Siouan Osage and Quapaw, crowded out of their own lands. A map of Texas that tried to show the movements of all these and the many other tribes of Texas and the southern plains between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries would end up being a spaghetti-tangle of lines and arrows. The tribes of Texas and the southern plains that lived to tell their tales have left us a feast of stories from at least five different language “families”—related tribes that spoke similar languages—and five different cultures. Some of the stories were told to teach caution to children, others to stir fear or wonder or laughter in every heart around the campfires. Step into the story circle and listen…  THE BOY WHO KILLED THE HILLThe people traveled for many miles before they found a good place for a camp. They looked for a wide, level place with good grass, near a creek, and with a hill nearby to give a view of the country round about. From atop a good hill they could keep a watch for enemies, and for buffalo and deer and wild horses, too. When they came at last to a place that offered all of that, they stopped, built lodges, hunted and fished, planted corn, and soon had a fine village. For a while. After a while the hunters began to notice that there were fewer deer and buffalo and horses. For the first time, the people had days without meat. They grew more frightened when one hunter, and another and another, never came home from the hunt. Dogs vanished too, and even a child or two, and one or two of the warriors who kept watch on the top of the hill. Then one day a hunter came running breathless back to the village. "The hill! " he shouted out. "The hill! I saw it! The hill opened up its mouth and ate the buffalo I shot!" The people set watchers at a safe distance from the hill to watch, and the watchers saw, and came back to say that the tale was true. "The hill will eat up everything! " the people cried. "When all of our game is eaten, and all of our hunters, our lodges will be next, and all of us down to the smallest!" One boy in the village was not afraid. One morning he said to his mother, "I am going to kill that hill." "No! You must leave it alone! " his mother cried. "It does not eat only buffalo and deer. It eats people!" "I shall kill it even so, " the boy said, and he took his knife from its sheath and began to sharpen it. When its edge was keen enough to slice a stone, he went off to face the hill. He stood at its foot and shouted out, "Hoh, Big Belly! Wake up and eat me if you dare! If you can eat warriors and buffalo, why should you fear eating me?" The hill stirred itself. "Who said that?" it rumbled. "A boy! How dares a boy to speak so to me? If you wish to be eaten, Boy, you shall have your wish." And it opened its mouth and swallowed him whole. Once the boy was inside, he made his way down the hill's throat. When he reached its heart, he pulled out his knife, reached up, and sliced a deep slit. "Unnh-nnh!" groaned the hill. "Such a small bite of a boy to make me so ill! Ai, ai, ai!" it cried, and little by little it died. The boy made his way back to the hill's open mouth, and stepped out. "I have really killed it! " he crowed. Then he heard a great sound of hooves and footsteps, and looked inside the hill's mouth again. There he saw a great buffalo trotting toward him, and behind it came every creature the hill had eaten- buffalo, deer, turkeys, dogs, children, and hunters. The wild animals raced away into the woods, and the children and men and dogs ran shouting and barking back to their lodges. When the first excitement was over, the chief of the village called a council of all the people to decide how they should reward the boy for his great deed. First it was decided to order that a great banquet be prepared, and the chiefs of all the villages nearby be invited to join the celebration. "That is not enough for such bravery! " the people said, and they agreed at last that what he should have was the chief's beautiful daughter for his wife. Neither the boy nor the chief's daughter said "No."   If you would like to learn more about the Indian tribes of Texas, there are many web sites full of tribal history, information, and lore to visit when you have time to explore. If you are interested in a particular tribe, many do have web sites. The larger sites, www.texasindians.com and the “Handbook of Texas” site have alphabetical entries for many of the nations, bands, and tribes. The "Handbook of Texas" can be found at www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online.  THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD Tejas (Hasinai) COYOTE MAKES THE SUN Kiowa-Apache WHY BEAR WADDLES WHEN HE WALKS Comanche THE QUARREL BETWEEN WIND AND THUNDER Lipan-Apache THUNDERBIRD-WOMAN, SKIWIS, & LITTLE-BIG-BELLY-BOY Waco THE MONSTERS AND THE FLOOD Wichita COYOTE AND THE SEVEN BROTHERS Caddo SLAYING THE MONSTERSKadohadacho HOLD UP THE SKY! Lipan-Apache COYOTE AND MOUSE Tonkawa COYOTE AND THE SMALLEST SNAKE Tawakoni COYOTE FLIES WITH THE GEESE Lipan-Apache COYOTE FREES THE BUFFALO Kitsai THE GREAT MEATBALL Comanche THE FIGHT BETWEEN ANIMALS & INSECTS Lipan-Apache HOW RABBIT STOLE MOUNTAIN-LION’S TEETH Caddo FOX AND POSSUM Kitkehahki, South Band Pawnee SENDEH SINGS TO THE PRAIRIE DOGS Kiowa THE DESERTED CHILDREN Comanche MOUNTAIN LION AND THE FOUR SISTERS Osage HOW POOR BOY WON HIS WIFE Kiowa-Apache THE GHOST WOMAN Kiowa-Apache THE BOY WHO KILLED THE HILL Osage WHITE FOX Kiowa THE TONKAWA AND THE BEAR Tonkawa YOUNG-BOY-CHIEF AND HIS SISTER Wichita  "A 'Best Children's Books of the Year' selection" --BANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION "A stellar collection of Native American tales." --KIRKUS REVIEWS "This collection will appeal especially to storytellers searching for new material and to teachers and students of Native American folklore." --SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *The cover art, copyright 2003 by James Watts, and the Osage tale, copyright 2003 by Jane Louise Curry, are used by permission of Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division. Other text copyright 2003 by Jane Louise Curry |
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