Algonquian ( or ther group?) term for White Buffalo Calf Woman?

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, R. Rankin wrote:
> I'm afraid I don't know the answer to this particular question, but the
> story of trickster catching game birds (ducks, gees turkeys in different
> versions) by having them dance with their eyes closed is VERY
> widespread.  I have several versions of it from Kaw, Omaha and Dakotan
> speakers and I heard a Sac and Fox version last semester.

I haven't really run into an parallel for WBC Woman, though there could
easily be one I don't know of.  This sounds like a question for Jimm
Goodtracks or Jan Ullrich.  Actually, my only encounters with WBC Woman
have been people asking me if I've run into a parallel outside of Dakotan.
First they explain who she is, and then I say no.

Trickster is another matter.

There is a interesting study of the Trickster cycle and some others in
Winnebago (Hochank) by Paul Radin.  English texts are provided, with
extensive footnotes and some folkloric analysis.  I've always wondered
what happened to the Winnebago originals mentioned.  Many of the Trickster
stories in this volume and many of the others, too, are represented in the
Dorsey Omaha-Ponca text collection of 1890.

The Iktomi stories I've seen have a heavy overlap with the Winnebago and
Omaha-Ponca Trickster stories, but less than you find between those two.
I'm not sure if that impression would hold up under an extensive
cataloging effort, however.

At least some of the standard Mississippi Valley Trickster stories occur
also in Mandan (and so I assume also Crow and Hidatsa), in Cheyenne, and
in Wichita.  They seem to be different from the Coyote stories you run
into elsewhere, though there is some overlap.   There are actually a few
Omaha Coyote stories, perhaps imported.

The Dakota trickster Iktomi 'Spider' shares the sense of the name which
with Cheyenne.  I think that's a Northern pattern.  The Dhegiha,
Ioway-Otoe, and Winnebago Trickster is called (Omaha-Ponca version)
Is^tiniNkhe ~ IshtidhiNkhe.  The name might be rendered Ishtinike in
English spelling, but he is usually called Monkey in English by Omahas and
- I think - Poncas.  He appears physically as a human character with an
enormous phallos, detachable, that he keeps wrapped in a raccoon skin.
The name has no clear meaning other than Trickster, though the first part
Is^t- resembles is^ta' 'eye(s)' and might connect with the raccoon idea.

Another pattern for naming Trickster that occurs in the upper Missouri
area is using a name that is also applied to whitemen, resulting in
Trickster being called Whiteman in English.  This occurs in Cheyenne, too,
where a single term is used for spider(s), whiteman, and Trickster.

Another widespread cycle - with a lot of local variation - is the Twins
story, which is considerably abbreviated and missing its beginning and
later episodes in the Omaha-Ponca texts, though this is just chance, since
longer versions are available from LaFlesche and for Ioway-Otoe.  Also
Pawnee.  This cycle is important in the Southwest and Lowie's study of the
Hidatsa (and Crow) version calls it a "national epic" in that context.
In the Omaha-Ponca version the twins are sons of the Sun and after careful
training in monster slaying by their father track down and kill the
Two-Face monster who killed their mother, using a sun arrow.  Most of this
detail is missing from the truncated story in Dorsey 1890, but obviously
parallels the Navajo and Hidatsa versions.

While some stories shared by different groups seem to be cases of a whole
cycle and collection of ideas being shared, others seem to involve random
individual stories that appealed to someone.  Examples are:

The Omaha-Ponca story of Big Turtle's (Snapping Turtle's) War Party, which
I noticed in thumbing through a Fox collection.

The Omaha-Ponca story about a nation led by grizzly bear that abandons
its children, who then form a new tribe.  This has such a different view
of the kinship system and Ishtinike that Dorsey comments on the anomalies.
I discovered it in a Blackfoot collection where it appears perfectly in
context in a society based on age-grouping.  (And I understand the
tutelary Trickster who invents arrows and warfare is a northern element,
too.)

> Is there an Algonquian listserv out there anywhere?

Shannon West has one, but I think it is inactive.  My experience is that
to start one of these things you need to go out and draft people fairly
vigorously.  It's probably not necessary to be quite as officiously chatty
after that as I am, but occasional kick(re)starting is necessary.  Also,
some sort of gentle control over the discussion has to be exerted to avoid
some of the pitfalls, like, uh, well, wandering off too far (not yet, I
hope) into folklore or politics, or allowing monomaniacs (other than
oneself) to seize the soapbox and defend the Turko-Siouan connection or
Maddocism viciously against all comers.