Myth Analysis “Why the Opussum’s Tail is Bare” is a myth told by the Cherokee Indians, and contains several fairy tale and folk tale elements. First, the story begins talking about how animals acted highly similarly to people, as the animals talk and live in houses. This is an example of a fairy tale element because animals cannot talk and are being personified in such a way. Another example of a fairy tale element is the designated roles in the animal society; the myth states, “Thus, Frog was leader in the council, and Rabbit because of his speed, was employed to carry messages and announcements to others.” Animals acting in this way are very fictional and are therefore examples of personification. Another example of personification is found …show more content…
First, the myth explains how the Rabbit lost its tail during a fight with a bear, giving the rabbit a short bushy tail. This is a great example of a pure myth element because it explains part of nature that the Cherokees would have seen daily. The myth also explains a little bit about how other animals got their features, such as the deer losing its sharp teeth and the buzzard losing its head hair. The cause of neither of these features is explained other than to say that Rabbit, who is a mischief maker, was the one who caused it. However, the main natural phenomenon explained in the myth is the opossum’s tail. The entire story is focused around how the opossum’s tail became scaly and bald. The story explains how rabbit wanted revenge on opossum since opossum loved is beautiful hair covered tail; therefore, rabbit hired someone to shave it completely. When opossum goes to reveal the tail that he thinks is beautiful, it is revealed as ugly and bald. This causes the animals to laugh at him, and embarrassing opossum. Opossum, embarrassed by the situation, rolls over, frozen. These incidents with opossum explain two natural elements, one being why the opossum’s tail is bald and scaly and two why opossums today roll over and play dead. Overall, the myth explains how animals that the Cherokee saw everyday an obtained certain features through a fictional story, making the story a pure …show more content…
The Cherokee Indians first began in the Tennessee and Carolina regions of the United States. However, they did not live there forever, as many were soon forced out by the “white people”. The Cherokees first came in contact with Europeans when Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto explored the region. Later, in 1673, Colonial traders begin coming in contact with the Cherokee tribe. Several years later, in the early 1700, the Cherokees waged war against the southern colonists; however, in the end the Cherokees suffered several losses as a result of smallpox. The population of the Cherokee Indians was estimated at 35,000 in 1685, but in 1760 the population was estimated at seven thousand. Also, the Cherokee had an established democratic government in which each clan governed itself separately. Overall, there were seven Cherokee clans that created the Cherokee nation. Although they had a well-established society and government, they were soon forced from their homes. In 1838, President Jackson and an army forced Cherokee Indians to migrate west. This forced migration later became famously known as “The Trail of Tears”, as 4,000 natives died of hunger or disease. Today it is viewed as one of the darkest moments in American history, and the “trail” remains as a memorial to the Indians who perished. The Cherokee Indians currently reside in Oklahoma, where
In the essay, “The Trail of Tears” by author Dee Brown explains that the Cherokees isn’t Native Americans that evaporate effectively from their tribal land, but the enormous measure of sympathy supported on their side that was abnormal. The Cherokees process towards culture also the treachery of both states and incorporated governments of the declaration and promises that contrived to the Cherokee nation. Dee Brown wraps up that the Cherokees had lost Kentucky and Tennessee, but a man who once consider their buddy named Andrew Jackson had begged the Cherokees to move to Mississippi but the bad part is the Indians and white settlers never get along together even if the government wanted to take care of them from harassment it shall be incapable to do that. The Cherokee families moved to the West, but the tribes were together and denied to give up more land but Jackson was running for President if the Georgians elects him as President he agreed that he should give his own support to open up the Cherokee lands for establishment.
...(Perdue 20). It gave them two years to prepare for removal. Many of the Cherokees, led by John Ross, protested this treaty. However, in the winter of 1838-1839, all of the Cherokees headed west toward Oklahoma. This removal of the Cherokees is now known, as the Trail of Tears was a very gruesome event. During the trip from the southern United States to current day Oklahoma, many of the Cherokees died. Shortly after their arrival in Oklahoma, they began to rebuild. They began tilling fields, sending their children to school, and attending Council meetings (Perdue 170).
The Removal Act of 1830 paved the way for the hesitant and generally—journey of ten of thousands of Native Americans to move more westward. The very first removal treaty was signed after the Removal Act of 1830. This treaty made Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river. The U.S. government would give money in exchange for land in the east of the river for land in the west. The Choctaw chief quoted to Arkansas Gazette that in 1831 Choctaw Removal was a Trail of Tears and downfalls. The treaty signed in 1835 was known as the Treaty of Echota, which resulted in the removal of the Cherokees on “The Trail of Tears.” The Seminoles decided not to leave also as the other tribes left peacefully. The Seminoles resisted leaving their homeland. In winter of 1838-39, fourteen thousand were marched one thousand two hundred miles through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. Roughly estimated four thousand died from lack of food, exposure and disease. The government soldiers would appear without notice at a Cherokee front door and order the people inside the home, men women and children, to immediately evacuate and take only what each could carry. They were forced marched to thoughtlessly assembled barriers like cattle and le...
The Cherokee lived in the present day United States of America hundreds of years before its occupation by the Europeans. History proclaims that members of this community migrated from the Great Lakes and settled in the Southern Appalachians. When the Europeans started settling down in America, the Cherokee decided to co-exist peacefully with her foreign neighbors. The Cherokee lands consisted of Alabama, parts of Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Georgia.
Why can we be so simply misled or deceived? Myths, folktales, legends and similar stories of freaky imagination often contain such a large amount of nonsense and clearly recognizable misinformation that one should identify the ‘masterpieces’, immediately and easily, as pure rubbish.
Below the surface of folklore and fairy tales hides the forgotten instinctual soul of the wild woman archetype, and while the morality of these tales may be questionable, I believe they are the trigger in bringing the forgotten instincts to the surface. The stories can bring empowerment as we interpret them to understand why we have lost our instincts and guide us in our transformation back to this forgotten self. This paper will discuss the connection between the wild woman and the tales, along with the meanings behind some of the stories.
In 1838, the United States government made the Cherokee people leave their homelands. The forced march of the Cherokee to Okalahoma became known as the Trail ...
A young boy named Nicki has his grandmother make him white mittens to wear out in the cold. When Nicki drops one of those mittens in the snow, a bunch of forest animals squeeze in one-by-one stretching the mitten to its limit and go to sleep. Until the bear sneezes. Brett’s telling of a Ukrainian Folktale is made captivating by her beautifully detailed and brilliant illustrations and borders. These colorful illustrations are a stark contrast to those in Alvin Tresselt‘s version of the folktale in which they alternate between full and one color pictures. His version also differs from Brett’s in that the last creature to go into the mitten is a cricket not a mouse causing the mitten to completely burst. Also, in Brett’s version the animals look
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
The Cherokee Indians are a tribe from the southeastern area of what is now the United States. The Cherokees were identified as one of the most socially and culturally advanced Native American tribes. Sometime in the sixteenth century the European explorers came in contact with the Cherokee Indians, and the Indians learned things from the Europeans to better their cultural elements. Their society and culture developed more. The Native Americans managed to shape a government and society matching most civilized cultures of the day.
... the unwilling tribes west of the Mississippi. In Jackson’s letter to General John Coffee on April 7, 1832, he explained that the Cherokees were still in Georgia, and that they ought to leave for their own benefit because destruction will come upon them if they stay. By 1835, most eastern tribes had unwillingly complied and moved west. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created in 1836 to help out the resettled tribes. Most Cherokees rejected the settlement of 1835, which provided land in the Indian territory. It was not until 1838, after Jackson had left office, that the U.S. Army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia. The hardships on the “trail of tears” were so great that over 4,000 Cherokees died on their heartbreaking westward journey. In conclusion, the above statement is valid and true. The decision the Jackson administration made to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River was a reformulation of the national policy. Jackson, along with past Presidents George Washington, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson, tried to rid the south of Indians This process of removing the native people was continuous as the years went on.
Up in the beginning of the 1830s about 125,000 Native Americans stayed on millions of land in Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. By the end of the 1830s very few Indians remained occupied on the land. They were all forced out of their land by the federal government for white settlers so they could take over that land and use it for growing cotton. The government forced them to travel to “Indian territory”, a special designated place across the Mississippi river. This long and difficult journey is known as the trail of tears. White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier, often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien
Imagine that a spider has to capture many creatures to gain stories from a god or a cat has to dress in fancy clothes to help his master attain wealth and social status. These are the stories of the classic Ashanti folktale “How Stories Came to Earth” and the classic fairy tale “Master Cat” or “Puss in Boots”. Both of these stories are trickster tales which are stories that have an animal or person use their wits and cleverness to gain what they desire. These stories also use anthropomorphism, which is the attribution of human characteristics to an animal, god, or inanimate objects. These stories can be told as folktales. These are stories that are spoken and not written down that get passed from generation to generation. They can also be told as fairy tales that are written make-believe stories. Even
Children’s literature is provided enjoyment and entertainment, advanced and to tooth values by fables which are short, simple stories that teach a lesson. More specifically, the animal fable is a fable in which animals are personified to play the characters of the story to give human a moral message that children can learn from them. The Lion, the Ass, and the Fox Hunting is one of the fable which send to us a message that looking and learning from other’s and yours mistakes, so we can make and solve problem better than before, and if we don’t have any mistakes, we won’t have any lesson to learn.
I am writing this paper because I am interested in the history and importance of fairy tales. Stories are very important to us because they let us share things with others over time and also with people around the world. If we didn’t have stories, we wouldn’t be as creative as we are now. They also have helped us to talk to more people around the world and see what kinds of stories they like to read. Stories have impacted me in many more ways than one. They have given me more creativity as well as opened my mind to new places, people and things. When you read, you get sucked into another world. It allows you to escape reality for a while.