Alice Marriott (1910–1992)

Plains Indian Mythology is a book of stories some passed down orally. The stories are grouped in 4 sections; The creation of the world, tales that teach ways of behavior, stories on Europeans visiting North America, and yarns from the current day.

I thoroughly love reading about mythology from different colonies and histories of how the world was created. It is interesting how so many different countries and races can have similar but yet different stories. This also happens with the many opposed plains Indians.

The newer tales were not as intriguing as the creation of mythologies. They did not seem like a story it just like someone babbling.

I continue to read lore of different colonies and the magic and folklore because it has made me realize how alike all humans are. Plus mythology is fun.… (meer)

An excellent biography by an ethnographer, based on conversations with the subject, ending in 1943 with the death of Maria's husband. Maria was born in the 1880's, a time when there were many changes in Native American life due to encroaching white (Anglo) society. As a child she was attracted to learning pottery making from her aunt. Apparently children were given freedom to follow their inclinations--her older sister loved farming & horses and so spent her days helping their father.
Rather than telling us how the culture was run, we see by example the conversational pauses and suggestions rather than direct criticism of a person. Even so, Maria chooses to marry Julian despite her parents cautions & the cultural norm of parents choosing the children's spouses. The norm is upheld by the parents acceptance & participation in exchanges with Julian's family. While Julian had good qualities, he was not as tied to the land, preferring working away rather than farming. He had a good mind, could puzzle out details & drawings without writing them down, and enjoyed figuring out new techniques which helped Maria make different pottery that tourists would buy. Maria enjoyed trading and selling, but was very shy around white strangers--no cause or explanation was given for that.
While Marriott describes Maria as gracious woman of strong character, we see how often Maria had to hold her feelings inside in order to meet the challenges in her life: when her daughter died, when her husband had to be away during that death, when her husband was drinking, when her sister became deaf.
It reads like a novel--very engrossing--but Maria's speech seems overly simple to me, especially when her replies to various people are given. There is little focus on her children, other than her daughter's brief life and death which so affected her & Julian. We learn about her later children only incidentally. It isn't clear how child care is arranged in the society. We do see how home ownership is transferred between family members, that there is often sharing of households, and there are a number of conversations where advice was given, which show us the cultural values.
The book includes a chronology of Maria's pottery making, details of the illustrated pottery, and a bibliography [quite dated, given the age of the book].… (meer)