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The Sky TreeCoyote Finishes His Work

• Myths and Archetypes

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Essential Question(s)

• What are myths and archetypes?
• Why are they important to Native American
  literature?

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The Sky Tree and Coyote Finishes His Work

• The Sky Tree is a creation myth of the Huron, a
  Native American people of the eastern woodlands.
• Coyote Finishes His Work has been handed down
  through the tradition of the Nez Perce, a Native
  American people of the Plateau culture who lived
  in what is now Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

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Myth

• A myth is an anonymous traditional story that is
  basically religious in nature and that usually
  serves to explain a belief, ritual, or mysterious
  natural phenomenon.
• Myths are usually connected with religious
  rituals and explain the world the people live in
  and their traditions.

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Archetype

• An archetype is a very old imaginative pattern
  that appears in literature across cultures and is
  repeated through the ages.
• An archetype can be a character, a plot, an
  image, a theme, or a setting.
• Examples
• Plots- the death of the hero, boy wins girl, the
  journey
• Characters- the trickster, the savior, the
  rescued maiden
• Images- a place where people never die, a golden
  cup, hoarded treasure

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Understanding Cultural Characteristics

• It is important to recognize difference in
  literary traditions when reading works by members
  of different cultures.
• Since American Indian literature was handed down
  orally by storytellers, these pieces lose some of
  their power in written form.

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Assignment

• Read The Sky Tree on page 24.
• Then, read Coyote Finishes His Work on page 25.
• Page 26-Reading Check and Thinking Critically

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The Sky Tree

• What was the world like in the beginning?
• How does the myth explain the origin of the earth
  as we know it today?
• What aspects of the settings in this myth are
  archetypes? What other stories have used the
  same archetypes?

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Coyote Finishes His Work

• What aspects of life on earth are explained in
  this myth?
• Metamorphoses, or shape changes, are common in
  myths of all cultures. What metamorphoses take
  place in this myth?

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What other archetypes did you find?

• The tree in the Huron myth is an archetypethat
  of the life-giving tree.
• Coyote in the Nez Perce myth is an archetypethat
  of the trickster hero.