Jane Louise Curry, Children's Books Author
  James Watts The twenty-seven Southeastern Indian stories of The Wonderful Sky Boat include everything from slyly funny trickster tales and “How and Why” stories to tales of adventure and bravery, and of magic and the supernatural. They are drawn not only from familiar tribes such as the Seminole, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Cree, but from such less well-known peoples as the Hitchiti, Biloxi, Yuchi, and Tunica. For readers curious to know more, there are at the end, notes "About the South-eastern Tribes," "About the Storytellers," and “About the Stories." "Children are instinctively curious, especially when they unleash that tricky, one-word question 'why?' which bewilders sometimes even the most inventive parents…. The Wonderful Sky Boat… tackles the mysteries that puzzled early human beings, the ones fueling children's thoughts every day." --OHIOANA QUARTERLY  ABOUT THE SOUTHEASTERN TRIBES  The Southeast-South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, western North Carolina and Virginia, southern Arkansas, the eastern fringe of Texas, and much of Tennessee-had in many ways the richest Native American culture in North America. Only the Southeastern tribes relied more on farming than on hunting and gathering. Farming gave many of them the prosperity to build large towns and meetinghouses. The region had a great variety and wealth of languages, ceremonies, dances, and arts--and tales. More of the Southeastern peoples belonged to the Muskhogean language "family"-related tribes that spoke similar languages-than any other. Among their neighbors along the shores and borders of the Southeast, and among the latecomers to the region, were groups who spoke Siouan, Caddoan, and Iroquoian languages. Still others, like the Atakapa, Natchez, and Yuchi, had languages of their own. After the coming of the Europeans, the tales of many of these peoples vanished along with their tellers. For those who survived that invasion, the old way of life was lost. In time, most were uprooted and some took refuge with stronger neighbors, but they carried their stories with them, and their storytellers told the tales again and again down the long years. Perhaps, in the mountains of South Carolina, a Cherokee grandmother is telling one now...  HOW ALLIGATOR’S NOSE WAS BROKEN The animals loved a good ball game, so one time when they all were gathered together, they decided to dare the birds to play against them. Alligator was elected chief of the animal side. At once he sent deer off at a dash to challenge the birds. The birds sent up a cheer, for they loved a good ball game, too. They elected Eagle to lead their side, and sent Heron flapping back to the animals' camp to accept the challenge. It was agreed that they would meet in three days to play the game. For the rest of the day Alligator and the animals, and Eagle and the birds, made plans. First each side chose their players, the fastest and strongest and cleverest. Then the chiefs met to choose a playing ground. When the field was chosen, they measured the distance from the center of the ground to the place for the animals' goal and, on the other side, for the birds' goal. Two tall poles were planted to mark each goal. Next, the animal medicine man and bird medicine man cast conjure spells on the balls. Each side hoped its medicine man's magic was the stronger. On the day of the ball game, the two teams—forty animals and forty birds—set off for the ball ground. As they came near, each side sang its war song, and shouted its war shout. Then the animals, painted with red as if for war, and dressed up with feathers in their fur, ran onto the field at full trot. The birds flew in at full flap, painted with red and dressed up with tufts of fur on their heads. Each side ran in circles around its own goal poles, the animals barking and roaring, the birds cackling and screaming. Around the field, their wives and children and old mothers and fathers cheered and made bets that their own side would win. Then the game chiefs called for quiet. The ball was tossed in the air, and the game began. Back and forth and forth and back it went, all afternoon, but no one made a goal. Then, just as the ball flew overhead toward the birds' poles, Alligator leaped up with a push from his great tail, opened up his great jaws, and snatched it out of the air. Holding it in his teeth, he ran for the far end of the ball ground. The animals squeaked and barked and roared, "Go! Go! Go!" Alligator's wife ran alongside the ball ground and shouted, "Look, look at Little Striped Alligator's daddy! Oh, see him go, see him go!" The animals jumped up and down in triumph. But just then Eagle, who was circling high above the field, folded his wings and dropped. He fell like a sharp, feathered rock, and struck Alligator so hard on his nose that he broke it. “Ai-yi!” bellowed Alligator, and he opened his mouth wide. In a flash, Turkey poked his head in among Alligator's long, sharp teeth, pulled out the ball, and ran. He reached the birds' goal, threw the ball between the poles, and won the game for the birds. And ever since that day, Alligator has had a sunken place on his snout where Eagle broke it.  THE CREATION OF THE WORLD - Yuchi THE CRYING PLACE - Caddo FIRST WOMAN - Catawba THE GREAT FLOOD - Chitimacha STONECOAT - Yamassee-Cherokee THE COMING OF CORN - Choctaw THE RABBIT WHO STOLE FIRE - Seminole RABBIT'S HORSE - Creek RABBIT AND WILDCAT - Natchez HOW RABBIT STOLE OTTER'S COAT - Cherokee HOW ALLIGATOR'S NOSE WAS BROKEN - Seminole HERON AND HUMMINGBIRD - Hitchiti BIGFOOT BIRD - Eastern Cherokee OPOSSUM AND HER CHILDREN - Koasati FOX AND CRAWFISH - Natchez HOW THE BITERS AND STINGERS GOT THEIR POISON - Choctaw WHY THE BUZZARD IS BALD - Biloxi THE GIRL WHO MARRIED A STAR - Caddo HOW MEN FIRST PLAYED THE GAME OF BALL - Apalachee THE ICE MAN - Cherokee LODGE BOY, WILD BOY, AND MONSTER WOMAN - Creek KEEPER OF THE ANIMALS - Cherokee THE THREE OWLS - Tunica THE WONDERFUL SKY BOAT - Alabama THE OLD PEOPLE WHO TURNED INTO BEARS - Chitimacha PANTHER AND LITTLE SISTER - Creek THE COUNTRY UNDER THE WATER - Tunica THE WONDERFUL SKY BOAT cover art, copyright 2001 by James Watts, and the Seminole story, copyright 2001 by Jane Louise Curry, are used by permission of Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. Graphics and other text copyright 2003 by Jane Louise Curry. |
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