Skip to main content

Reading Notes: Chinook Wind


Hi There! 


This week I chose to read the Pacific North West Unit. I took notes over "Why There Are No Snakes On Takhoma," "Chinook Wind," and "How Silver Fox Created the World"  because I thought they would be the stories that I could adapt well. Of those I have included here my notes over "Chinook Wind" that I took while reading. 

  • Chinook Brothers (5):
    • Warm Wind
    • Lived on Great River
  • Walla Walla Brothers (5):
    • Cold Winds
    • Walla Walla = “the meeting of the waters”        
  • Grandparents live at Umatilla “the place of the wind-drifted sands”
  • The brothers fighting caused hardship for the people.
    • “blew down trees and raised great clouds of dust”
  • Walla Walla Brothers suggested they wrestle and whoever loses gets their head chopped off
  • Coyote was the judge of the contest
  • Coyote told the Chinook Grandparents to put oil on the ground
  • Coyote told the Walla Walla grandparents to put ice on the ground
  • The ground was slippery
  • Walla Walla Grandparents got the ice down after the oil
  • Chinook Brothers lost – lost their heads
  • Oldest Chinook has a son “Young Chinook”
  • Son was raised to avenge their deaths
  • Young Chinook went to see his grandparents
  • Chinook Grandparents were cold and hungry
  • Walla Walla Brothers
    • Caused North east (cold) wind to always blow
    • Stole Chinook Grandparent’s Fish
  • Young Chinook takes grandfather fishing
    • kept the Walla Walla brothers from steeling the fish
  • Walla Walla Brothers Challenged Young Chinook to wrestle (same deal)
  • This time Coyote gave the same advice, but told the Chinook Grandparents to throw the oil last
  • The walla walla brothers lost, four fell down one yielded
  • The four were killed, the one was spared
  • Coyote told the last Walla Walla that he could only blow lightly and never freeze people  again
  • Coyote told Young Chinook that he would blow the hardest at night, and blow first on the mountain ridges to “warn the people”

“Thus, now winter is only a little cold” 

From this story, I could write a story about two families that are partners in a company. The grandparents are old and have retired. The grandsons are preparing to take charge in the company but there is a dispute over who should be the highest in charge. They agree to decide the rank by a competition of some sort that is judged by some person... maybe the family lawyer? 

Another way to approach the story would be from the Coyote's position. I would like to explore his motivations for telling the grandparents how to rig the competition without choosing a side the first time, but then told them how to rig it and chose a side the second time. Maybe at first he thought the competition was ridiculous and it wouldn't matter who won, but after he saw how bad the cold winds were he changed his mind and wanted the warm winds to win. 

Either would make a good story and are possibilities for the story this week. The photo I included at the top is of a coyote in Yosemite National Park, California. This is what I imagine the judging coyote would have looked like. I think I will use it in my story if I choose this story to base my own story on.


Bibliography

Photo Credit: By Christopher Bruno via Wikimedia Commons
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Notes: Persian Tales Part A

Hello!  This week I chose to read the Persian Tales unit and was not disappointed. Some of these fairy tales like “The Boy Who Became a Bulbul” and “The Wolf-Aunt” reminded me of the Brother’s Grim Fairytales in their more original forms. The others seemed a little more child friendly like we might expect of fairytales today. Thinking of my story for this week, any of them could make a fun base for writing, but I think that the ones that would be the best to work with would be “The Boy Who Became a Bulbul,” “Nim Tanak,” or “Muhammad Tirandaz, The Archer.” For “The Boy Who Became a Bulbul” I would make the circumstances of the boy’s death make more sense to a modern reader, not just based on a bet with his father that he willingly submits to. I would also want to somehow bring the boy back, maybe instead of the Bulbul growing out of the stalk, he does. Or maybe his father doesn’t kill him but hides him instead. Either way I would like for the boy to live. For “Nim T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading Notes: Lang European Fairy Tales II: Blue Beard

I am doing some week 15 assignments here during dead week to fill in some missing points. Because I read the first Lang unit last week and enjoyed it so much, I decided to read the second Lang unit this week. Of the stories that I read here are my notes over "Blue Beard" which I found quite exciting! Blue Beard was very rich, but considered ugly and terrifying for having a blue beard I would like to research to see if this is a reference to something else, because it is so strange  He also had had many wives previously and no one knew what happened to them  One of his neighbors had two daughters and he wanted to marry one of them  Neither of them wanted to marry him and kept playing him off on the other  To persuade them, Blue Beard invited the family and many others to one of his estates and they partied for a week After that, the younger sister decided he wasn't so bad and they were married  Blue Beard has to go away on business so he gives all...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables, Another Lion

Hi! For my first reading this week I read Aesop's Fables. I have always thought these were fun stories and enjoyed some of the lessons they teach. One in particular that I read was about listening to one's parents which I think is really important, because that is how we learn to be adult and keep ourselves safe. However, this story was told from the perspective of two lions, a father and son. The father tells the son when he is young not to go picking a fight with humans because he will lose. Later when the little lion is older, he disregards what his father taught him, and goes looking for a man to grapple with. When he finds the man, he is tricked into putting his paw in a trap and to get free he loses his claws. While this is a great lesson, I thought it was kind of backwards. If anything I think that humans would be wise to avoid picking a fight with lions. So if I were to rewrite it I would put the characters in the opposite position. I would have a father tell his ch...
Post a Comment
Read more