It Keeps Showing Up!

I have no idea by now how many times Ive seen the topic of deceit or trickery as a form of Native American tradition. When we started the Popol Vuh it was probably one of the most obvious factors and it just kept going until the end of the story. The same can be said for Lucy Thompson's book. She herself mentions that not all the stories she says are necessarily "real". These "fairytales" as she calls them, when do we know when the narrator is making up a story or when he/she is telling the truth. This same idea followed us the entire quarter and showed itself up again in Mabel's story and finally in the stories that Nanapush tells us. What really grabs my attention, is that maybe its just that these "lies" are not meant to trick us or deceive us in any way. Sometimes stories are just wat the are, stories and they constructed in a certain way for a purpose. After all, some of the most important lessons learned come from fairy tales that have the purpose of teaching us something positive. Also, we need to remember that European-style literature is very different from American Indigenous literature. There are different values and beliefs that we cant understand unless we belong to that certain group. Interesting stuff...