Week 9 Essay: Setting and Landscape

This week I read from the Blackfoot stories, specifically mostly from the Kut-O-Yis hero legend, and noticed that the setting and the landscape were very important to the story. To set the scene in most of the stories, the location was identified by the rivers that are near that place; for example, in the beginning of the Kut-O-Yis story, the author begins with "It was long, long, ago down where Two Medicine and Badger Rivers come together, that an old man lived with his wife and three daughters." To a Native American hearing this story, probably orally from an elder, this description would probably conjure up an image of a specific place, even if they had not specifically seen those specific rivers.

Two Rivers Meeting 

Image Source: Wikipedia

One thing that I have learned in this class from reading many different myths and stories from different cultures, is that they way the setting and landscape is described often depends on that culture. Rivers are very important in the Native American culture, as are their natural surroundings and nature in general, and, therefore, stories often use rivers to describe the setting and landscape in their legends and stories. Rivers and nature are often featured in their spiritual belief and stories, showing just how important those features are. In an English story or fairytale, where rivers and nature are not as culturally or spiritually important, a river would most likely not be a main feature used to tell the reader where the story is taking place.

The variance is the description of setting and landscape by culture can make it difficult for a reader of another culture to get a bearing when starting a story. When I began to read the Kut-O-Yis story I couldn't really conjure up an image of the story because I have never seen a place where two rivers come together in my life. Not only that, but in the stories that I read growing up there often weren't descriptions of rivers to give me an idea of what the author of Kut-O-Yis is talking about. It is important for us to understand that our culture shapes us and our thoughts, even something as simple as understanding a setting of a story from another culture.