Reading Notes: Native American Hero Tales Part A

The Jealous Uncle

There were so many things about this story that just didn't make sense to me. Why does the uncle want to kill his nephew but not his nieces? Why does the nephew keep going back to the uncle if he knows his uncle is trying to kill him? Why do his parents let him go back? Is the uncle's treatment of the parents really worse than killing the two brothers? Why is there a knife in the brother's toys? They were children right? Also why is there a sour cranberry in the toys? That seems like something that should have been eaten or thrown away a long time ago. I also have no idea what eagle down is. I tried to look this up but couldn't find anything about it. I feel like the story is interesting but there are just a lot of motivations that don't make sense.

An Alaskan Eagle (Flickr)

Plot Summary:

• The "Unnatural Uncle" kills his first two nephews when they are infants.
• The Uncle's wife tells the parents that when the next child is born they should tell the uncle it is a girl so it can live
• The parents have a third son and disguise him as a girl
• The Uncle grows suspicious of his niece's boyish looks and discovers she is a boy.
• The Uncle summons for his nephew.
• The nephew goes through his brother's playthings and keeps a knife, a sour cranberry and eagle down
• The Uncle invites the nephew to help him pick up some fire wood
• The Uncle traps his nephew inside a tree
• The nephew rubs sour cranberry on the tree and it opens
• The nephew leaves fire wood for the uncle.
• The uncle invites the nephew to go after some ducks and eggs with him
• The uncle pushes his nephew toward a trap and walks off
• With eagle down between his fingers, the nephew doesn't fall and collects many ducks and eggs and leaves them for his uncle.
• The uncle invites his nephew to gather clams 
• The uncle tells his nephew to pick up a large clam that swallows him
• The nephew cuts the inside of the clam with his knife until it opens up enough for him to escape
• The nephew grabs more clams and brings them to his uncle.
• The uncle builds a "plaything" for his nephew.
• The uncle buts the nephew in a box that is thrown into the water.
• The box comes ashore by the eagle people in eagle land.
• The boy is married to the eldest daughter of the chief eagle.
• The chief allows the boy to take his eagle skin and retrieve his parents
• The boy as an eagle leaves a whale for his parent and other villagers but his uncle hoards it.
• The boy scoops up the uncle after four attempts and tells him he will kill him unless he can swim back to shore.
• The eagle drops the uncle in the water and he dies.
• The boy finds his parents and takes them back to eagle land.

This story is part of the Native American Hero Tales unit. Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).