Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Narratives
Field notes
Manuscripts
Folklore
Date:
1929
Scope and Contents:
Truman Michelson conducted research among the Kickapoo in 1929 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. During this time, he worked with Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo and former student at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. This collection contains an assortment of Kickapoo lingustic notes, ethnographic notes, and stories that Michelson obtained from Murdock. Topics include sin and social crimes, clan organization, childbirth, puberty, ceremonies and rituals, and daughter and father-in-law taboos. Among the stories is an English translation of the rabbit cycle legend (see MS 1203 for Kickapoo text), Murdock's experiences as a boy, and stories illustrating bashfulness before mothers-in-law.
The following is a list of other stories, which are in Kickapoo without English translations: Exchanging tooth with a garter snake; How corn came to be on this earth; Wisakea and the mallard duck; Wisakea and the skunk; Legend of witches; Why people began to kill each other; Why it is that some people can understand children before they talk and why they understand dogs; Woman and dog; The maiden and the man who frightened her; A thunderer is captured and made prisoner; Wisakea bungling host stories; Boy told by the giant to feed the lion straw and the horse meat; Skunk and opossum; Garter snake tooth; The one who was left behind.
