NATIVE AMERICAN ORIGIN MYTHS American Literature, English 11CP
DIRECTIONS: Below are titles for “explanatory tales” about why our world is the way it is.
Your assignment is to choose one of these and to create a “tale” that explains the title. Use the Native American tales you just read as your model for your tale. It needs to satisfactorily explain, but feel free to be creative too. The length of your tale will match those in the book—around 500-750 words. Use MLA format. Worth 40 points.
FIRST: Decide on a natural event or object that you will explain. Some ideas are listed below.
SECOND: Imagine a creative/fantastic story that would explain the event/object’s existence.
Model the style of your story on the Native American Origin Tales that we read. Make sure to include those aspects that are key to origin tales.
THIRD: Draft your story.
FOURTH: Exchange your story with someone else in class and have them give you feedback regarding the story’s interest level, plot, and mechanics (grammar, spelling, etc.).
FIFTH: Read your story to yourself again, and edit it for grammar, spelling, format.
Some ideas to write about (you don’t have to use one of these)
“How the 4 Seasons were Created” “The Strong Man who Holds up the Earth”
“Who is the ‘Man in the Moon?”
“Where Corn came From”
“Crow Brings the Daylight”
“The First Tears”
“Why the Shark is a Meat-Eater”
“Why the Opossum has a Bare Tail”
“The Origin of Light”
“How the Bear Lost its Long Tail”
“The Origin of Fire”
“Why Mount Shasta Erupted”
“The Origin of Medicine”
“Why the North Star stands still in the
Sky”
“Why Spiders weave Webs”
“The Origin of Strawberries”
“The Bird Whose Wings made the Wind”
“Why Peaceful Whales became Killer
Whales”
“What Happens to Naughty
Grandchildren”
“How the Turtle Got Its Shell”
“The Separation of Night & Day”
“How the Oceans were Formed”
“How Man Took the World from Coyote”
“The Moon & Sun Battle for Day & Night”
“Why the Horse Let Man Ride on his Back”
“Why Dogs & Cats Hate each other”
“What Makes Plants Grow?”
“How the Snake lost its Legs”
“The Origin of Rainbows”