Never trust Alligators

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 2020
Primary Language: English

Piece

Uhhm. So my grandpa used to tell me this story. I think the girl’s name was Sally. So she lived in the Bayou. Do you know what the Bayou is? The swamps and stuff. And has all these really scary critters. But like people live there like Cajun people live there.  But I’m not Cajun, I’m creole. But yeah Sally was Cajun. I assume she is Cajun. 

But so she— uh… She was like “Mom can I have a dog?” and her mother was like “We don’t have the money to feed you nonetheless a dog.” and anyway later Sally is finds a cat and she is like “Mom can I keep the cat.” and her mother is like “No we can’t afford it. Cause then I’d have to feed the cat.” and Sally finds a squirrel and asks her mother if she can keep it… and the mother is like “No cause we don’t have any fuckin’ money Sally” *laughs*. Sally wanders around to find pets to keep her company in the Bayou.

    She is sitting down by the swamp water and she is really lonely. Then she sees a set of eyes rise up in the water. And she’s like “Oh my god. What a cute little lizard. I’ll just sneak it in my house and it’ll just eat flies and stuff or like insects. I’ll just hide it in my room.” And so she gets the lizard thing and she realizes that it is a baby alligator. And she’s like “Okay, baby alligators just eat frogs and stuff so I’ll just raise it vegetarian.” 

    Anyway, her mom comes in the room one day and she’s like “Hey Sally, I have a surprise for you.” She got her a puppy. And Sally is like OH MYGOD! I have a puppy and a lizard. This is great.” *laughs*. Things are great until one day, her mom goes into her room and there’s no Sally and there’s no puppy. She goes into Sally’s bathroom and sees an alligator in the bathtub… Very full… and… and that’s why you don’t trust alligators. *laughs*

Background

    My girlfriend is from the south of America where there are a lot of swamps. She heard this story from her grandfather who she describes as a blind crazy old man. She told me that all the stories that he ever told her were about why you should never trust alligators. This is really funny to her and she was relating a story humorously that illustrated the humour of her grandfather’s alligator paranoia.

Context

My girlfriend and I were hanging out and joking around and she was telling me about her family at home. I thought this was a good time to collect some folklore. She is trying to convince me that her grandfather is crazy in this conversation through telling me one of his dozens of “anti alligator propaganda pieces”.

Thoughts

    Alligators are probably one of the most dangerous predators in the region that her grandfather was from. Although this story probably never happened it is insightful and revealing of the older people’s warnings to the younger generations in the area. Alligators are dangerous and they should never be adopted as pets. 

Hans Brinker and the Dam

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 2020
Primary Language: English

Piece

One of the stories I heard, growing up as a kid, uhm… whether that be in elementary school or through my parents was the Dutch story about Hans Brinker, uhm… who is not usually named that, it is just his official title in the book. Uhm. And he’s a dutch boy that puts his finger in a damn and saves his entire village from drowning. I’m not sure what it is about this story that has been popularized so much, and I don’t know why it is taught so much in american schools. Uhm. But it is something that is stuck in my mind as the story that’s been passed on from generation to generation. Cause after looking it up I found out it originated in an 1875 book. But yeah, that’s my favorite piece of ferkl- folklore. 

Background

M is a close friend from Minnesota who studies film. He is a really serious guy with strong roots in Minnesota. He told me that he heard this story from his school and his parents and it stuck with him for whatever reason.

Context

He sent me a voice clip over Whatsapp in which he said all of this. I told him to send me a piece of folklore earlier that day. 

Thoughts

The story is an example of a martyr figure, a young boy, that saves his village through self sacrifice. It is probably indicative of values of the community. M mentioned that it was taught a lot throughout american schools and this could be an attempt to instill specific moral values in children, namely those relating to self sacrifice for the good of your community. 

Old Woman Scratching the Tipi Walls

Nationality: Native American
Age: 14
Occupation: student
Residence: Franklin, Tennessee
Performance Date: 04-26-2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Blackfoot

Main Piece:

Informant: We wouldn’t go to sleep and it was getting really, really late. And the younger kids were still awake. My older cousins and my older sisters would tell us that if we didn’t go to bed there is an old woman with really long nails that would scrape her nails along the outside of the tipi. She said that every time you talked or were loud, even laughed or anything, she would come closer and closer. And you knew she was about to take you when you start hearing her nails on the tipi, on the tipi canvas. It would start on the opposite side of the tipi and get closer and closer until it went passed you to the door. Then she would grab you and take you to the coulees. 

Background:

The informant is a fourteen-year-old Native American girl from the Choctaw, Blackfoot, and Lakota Nations. She was born and raised in Tennessee and frequently travels out west to visit family and friends. She is in eighth grade.

Context:

During the Covid-19 Pandemic I flew back home to Tennessee to stay with my family. The informant is my younger sister. Admittedly, I may or may not have told her this story long ago. We were cleaning the kitchen and I asked if she remembered any old stories she heard while growing up.

Thoughts:

There is a story about the lost children who get separated from their camp. Lost in the woods, they stumble across the home of an old woman. She takes them in and is later revealed conspiring to eat them. The villainous hag is a common trope in stories worldwide. In folklore, a crone is an old woman who may be disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in nature. She often has magical or supernatural abilities which can make her either helpful or obstructing. It is also a reversal of the nurturing and protective role a women traditionally plays in a child’s life, though historically, the most power person in a child’s life is the mother, so perhaps it is just a pendulum dynamic. The part shared above is a bit of a tag on, a tail end used to make sure children kept in line. It also shows the use of spirits as a disciplinary measure, serving as a warning when you edge too close to certain bounds.

Native Version of “Hansel and Gretel”

Nationality: Native American
Age: 10
Occupation: student
Residence: Franklin, Tennessee
Performance Date: 04-29-2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Blackfoot

Main Piece:

Informant: Ok, so there is like a legend and you know how Natives, they travel? Like, when one place kinda dries out or doesn’t have any buffalo or food, they move to the next place.  Well, that kinda like happened. There was these children and their mom asked them to get berries before they left. They kinda got distracted when they were picking berries. And when they came back they had already left. So they went and said, “ok, maybe this is the way they went.” They went and found a small cottage and, so this is kinda like a Native story of Hansel and Gretel. So they knocked and the lady welcomed them in and got them food and stuff. And then that night when they went to bed and the lady thought they were asleep she started singing a song about eating them. And then they secretly got out of their beds and slowly looked and when the lady, when they were sure the lady got into bed they saw their little sister in a cage. So they had to quickly get her out of it. And they escaped, but the witch was coming after them, because they heard her. But the end of this story can change either way, like they got home safely, or the witch ate them. But the good way is that they got out to a place where the witch couldn’t go and the witch was blocked off by this force field, or something like that. And then they went safely looking for their family and their tribe. And the bad way, is that she got them and ate them.

Background:

The informant is a ten-year-old Native American girl from the Choctaw, Blackfoot, and Lakota Nations. She was born and raised in Tennessee and frequently travels out west to visit family and friends. She is in fourth grade.

Context:

During the Covid-19 Pandemic I flew back home to Tennessee to stay with my family. The informant is my younger sister. My sisters and I were sharing stories one night when I asked if she recalled any old stories she heard.

Thoughts:

I have heard many variations of this story growing up. I’m curious to know how much it has evolved over the years, especially after European contact. It was interesting to hear my sister’s take on it. It shares many similarities with the Hansel and Gretel story; children lost in the woods who stumble across the home of an old woman. She takes them in and is later revealed conspiring to eat them. The villainous hag is a common trope in stories worldwide. In folklore, a crone is an old woman who may be disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in nature. She often has magical or supernatural abilities which can make her either helpful or obstructing. It is also a reversal of the nurturing and protective role a women traditionally plays in a child’s life, though historically, the most power person in a child’s life is the mother, so perhaps it is just a pendulum dynamic.

Jingle Dress Origin

Nationality: Native American
Age: 10
Occupation: student
Residence: Franklin, Tennessee
Performance Date: 4-29-2020
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Informant: So the story behind the Jingle Dress dance is about a girl who was really sick and her dad really wanted her to get better. And he had a vision or a dream, one of those two, and if you put a 100 shells on a dress, cause that’s how they used to make them, and if she dances for 21 days, or something like that, then she would be healed. And he did exactly what, uh, it told him to and she was healed. Not they call the jingle dress dress dance a healing dance. But, that’s just like one of the different stories of why it was like that. There are multiple stories and things like that. But that’s the one I heard.

Interviewer: What other variations are there?

Informant: Well, that’s the only one I know, but other people say there are more.

Background:

The informant is a ten-year-old Native American girl from the Choctaw, Blackfoot, and Lakota Nations. She was born and raised in Tennessee and frequently travels out west to visit family and friends. She is in fourth grade. She is also an Old-Fashioned jingle dress dancer which originates from the Ojibwe people. It is referred to as a healing dance and can be seen at Native American powwows across the United States and Canada.

Context:

During the Covid-19 Pandemic I flew back home to Tennessee to stay with my family. The informant is my younger sister. I asked if she could describe for me the origin story behind the jingle dress dance. 

Thoughts:

One of the greatest gifts given to mankind was movement. Along with the ability to think, we are able to actively engage with our environment. As Albert Einstein said, “Nothing happens until something moves.” Dance has long been a part of human culture, and in many cases, a key component in ritual and prayer. The jingle dress dance emphasizes the healing properties that dance can have on the mind and body. There are many variations of this story, such goes folklore. The jingle dress dance comes from the Ojibwe people and can be seen at powwows across the United States and Canada.