Week 11 Reading Notes: Tejas

The reading for this week had some really cool individual stories. For example, my favorite was the story about how the woodpecker came to have a short, jagged tail. It is said that a flood was coming in the night, but only the frog could tell it was coming. He somehow learned the native language and ran to tell the Indians that the flood was coming. He croaked in their language and warned "a flood is coming, run away!" The Indians laughed, and so too did the woodpecker. All of the other birds in the land flew away to taller trees, but the woodpecker didn't. 

As predicted, the flood came with furious storms. The water rose quickly and the natives ran for their lives as the water flooded their homes. The woodpecker couldn't see to fly away because it was night, so he was forced to stay put. The water rose so high that his tail was in the water, and a fish decided it looked tasty. With a flash, the woodpecker had lost part of his tail, and that is why it looks so rough and ugly now. 

My next favorite story was the story of when the storm god rides. He has a mighty bird which he rides around the Gulf Coast in Texas. The bird is called Hurakan. The people can tell when the storm god is coming because Hurakan makes the sky dark with clouds, and winds come to and fro with reckless abandon.

The storm god did not always wreak havoc on the natives’ homeland. There was a time when the natives were peaceful and did not harm the birds of the skies. One day, ruthless, killing tribes from the North drove out the peaceful natives. The killing tribes shot the birds and robbed their nests, and in response the birds cried out for the storm god to help them. He did, and he brought a wave of fury with him. The oceans flooded the land, and the wind knocked the Indians to the ground. The storm god laughed in their demise, and the birds were thankful for relief.

When the oceans receded, little islands appeared along the coast. The storm god had created these as a peaceful home for the birds who had been afflicted by the ruthless natives.

A hurricane - pixaby

When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and other Indian Legends by Florence Stratton (1936)