Week 10: Storytelling- Iktomi's Folly

I am Inyan. I am the Great-Grandfather. I have watched over these plains from my hillside for too many years to count. I have watched night turn today. I have watched the winter snow melt in the first light of spring. I have seen life, and I have seen death. I am the rock. I was yesterday and I will be tomorrow. I listen to the prayers of the children of the plain. Look now, one wandering child comes to me now...

"Help me, Great-Grandfather! I am hungry and afraid. Please give me some meat, so that I do not starve! Your child needs you!"

Oh it is my son Iktomi. Look at how he cries out to me. In all my years upon this plain, there is not a time that I can remember when a man called to me in such desperation. How could even my stone heart not break for this man? What then shall I do? I will call upon the Great Spirit. For through me, Iktomi's prayer might be heard.

Even now, the sun sets, casting a warm glow upon us. The Great Spirit has heard me.

"Ah I feel the sun upon my face! My prayer has been answered! Thanks be to you Great-Grandfather, for you have taken my prayer to the Great Spirit, and he has listened! How can I repay one such as you though? You, who don't need anything or anyone? All I have is my worn-out blanket. It is not worthy of one as noble as you. It is all I have to give though, so may you wear it upon your shoulders, and take it as an offering of my appreciation!"

I am well pleased with Iktomi's gift. It does little to keep me warm, for I have endured more winters than any man ever will, but he honors me with his attempt. There! He has found the fresh deer that his heart and stomach had longed for! Even as night falls, may it satisfy him as he hoped.

" This night wind is cold. I wish now that I'd never given my blanket away! Great-Grandfather has no need for it. Maybe I will take it back? He won't miss it!"

Iktomi, you fool! You cannot retake what has already been given. You will return to find your meal gone, and your hunger will ache in your belly forever. You will never be full again! And the blanket you so selfishly took from my shoulders will never hide you from the cold. It will pierce you to your very bones. Above all, I will not listen to your cries or be moved by your tears, for you have angered your Great-Grandfather, the Generous Giver. Woe unto you, Iktomi!

Black Hills of the Inyan Kara Mountain, Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note--

This is a story called Iktomi's Blanket. It is about  a Lakotan god, Inyan, which is a big rock on the prairie that warriors would go to pray to. Iktomi is a warrior who is in desperate need of food, and Inyan helps him. However, when Iktomi reclaims his offering, Inyan punishes him. The original is told from Iktomi's perspective, but I told it from Inyan's. I also made Iktomi's punishment a little more severe. In the original, Iktomi only loses his meal, but in my story, I wanted to punishment to be more permanent, and hopefully teach the lesson better.

Bibliography--

Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa (1901).