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Myth, folk tale and ritual in Anna Lee Walters's "The Warriors."
Studies in Short Fiction, Wntr, 1997 by Marc Steinberg
(1) My summary of the Pahukatawa tale is, for the most part, a summarization of George Bird Grinnell's story from Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales (142-60).
(2) Grinnell was not aware of the date when he related the warrior story. In fact, he may not have known that Pahukatawa was an historical figure.
(3) For my review of the star myth I have culled information primarily from Gene Welffish's The Lost Universe. He also provides valuable accounts of the subsequent star ritual.
(4) According to Weltfish, the last child sacrificed was a 15-year-old girl named Haxti. She was killed on 22 February 1838 (117).
See John Treat Irving, Jr.'s Indian Sketches: Taken During an Expedition to the Pawnee Tribes for an account of the ceremony. Irving's associate, Major Dougherty, learned of the abduction of a young Cheyenne woman and attempted to save the captive. Dougherty persuaded the Pawnee chief to release the girl, but upon her release she was shot with an arrow, mutilated and beheaded (184-88).
(5) According to Weltfish, "the connection between war and fertility is a leitmotif that runs through much of Pawnee sacred ceremonialism" (99).
Works Cited
Carroll, Rhonda. "The Values and Visions of a Collective Past: An Interview with Anna Lee Walters." American Indian Quarterly 16 (1992): 63-73.
Duke, Philip, ed. "The Morning Star Ceremony of the Skidi Pawnees as Described by Alfred C. Haddon." Plains Anthropologist 34 (1989): 193-203.
Echo-Hawk, Roger C. "Pawnee Mortuary Traditions." American Indian Culture and Research journal 16 (1992): 77-99.
Grinnell, George Bird. Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1961.
Hyde, George E. Pawnee Indians. De Denver: U of Denver P, 1951.
Irving, John Treat, Jr. Indian Sketches: Taken During An Expedition to the Pawnee Tribes. 1833. Ed. John Francis McDermott. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1955.
Walters, Anna Lee. Talking Indian: Reflections on Survival and Writing. Ithaca, New York: Firebrand, 1992.
--. "The Warriors." The Sun Is Not Merciful. Ithaca, New York: Firebrand, 1985. 11-26.
Weltfish, Gene. The Lost Universe. New York: Basic Books, 1965.
COPYRIGHT 1997 Studies in Short Fiction
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