Week 10 Story: "I'm hunting Wabus"

Wabus the Rabbit (story inspiration)

Long ago, in the lush forests of the Mississippi Valley, there was a cunning, yet extremely boisterous rabbit whom all the animals despised due to his arrogant nature. This rabbit's name was Wabus and he claimed to be the greatest healer in the entire forest, but that wasn't the claim that boiled all the other creature's blood. Wabus claimed to be the fastest runner in not only the forest, but the entire world. This was a much bigger deal for the animals than us humans as it was vital to the survival of a species, whether it be hunting down a meal for the night or running to save one's own life.
Among these rather upset animals was the mighty mountain lion known as Elmer.
Elmer swore to all the creatures that would listen that he would catch the "pesky Wabus," with his raw speed as he felt he was the fastest creature in the land himself, but seemed to have a bit of a biological advantage over the small hare that he despised.

Elmer set out for Wabus' wigwam that he had set up on one of the forest's largest hills so that he could see any potential predators and run off in time. With this in mind Elmer came up with the brilliant idea to sneak up on the wigwam late at night with his night vision, while Wabus slept and was vulnerable. Elmer lurked up to the wigwam with feet as light as the still night air until he was right up next to the wigwam's back door.

Elmer looked into the dark room and couldn't believe his luck, as there was Wabus sound asleep in his bed with his back turned to the big cat. Elmer gleefully pounced on the figure laying in bed and dug his claws right into its back with a triumphant roar. Elmer, proud of ridding himself of Wabus, was shocked out of his victory to the sound of an all familiar chuckle from below him. Wabus was poking out a hole he dug and pointing at what Elmer now realized was a decoy laying under Wabus' blankets and couldn't believe that he was so easily tricked.

Wabus popped back into the hole right as Elmer lunged for him, and to Elmer's surprise the hole was much deeper than the initial entrance conveyed and he fell snoot first into a surprisingly deep hole. Elmer raged and tried to claw up the dirt walls, but was only dragging more dirt down into the hole. In a final attempt to persuade Wabus to let him out Elmer tried to claim that he was merely trying to help Wabus with his medicinal work and claimed that he too was a medicine man that aspired to learn from the "Prolific Wabus."Wabus laughed to himself as he went away from the hole while Elmer threw a fit and brought back a large rock.

"Sorry 'Doc'," Wabus called down as he laughed to himself.

Wabus then slid the rock over the hole and left Elmer to think about coming after him again, while he hopped in bed with a carrot and a grin.


Bibliography:
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/mslakes-two-rabbit-stories.html from the UN-Textbook)

Author's Notes:
Initially the big cat hunting Wabus was a panther, which didn't make since at least to me, as someone who is from a town right on the Mississippi River in Illinois, so I changed it to a mountain lion. Also changed the plot by making it a bit more whimsical such as making Wabus act like Bugs Bunny (hence Elmer the mountain lion) as he was killed instantly by the panther in the original story as he was overconfident.

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley and Great Plains, Part B

Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/mslakes-creation-chitimacha.html)

Depiction of the boisterous rabbit 

This story begins with a rabbit, known as Wabus, who was know for being a boaster, and wanted to open a medicine lodge so that everyone would think he was some kind of medicine man. So one day he and his wife were going around and found a perfect little hill in which they could potentially make a home and began constructing a wigwam up on the hilltop. He then created a path each way down from the hill so that he could see anyone who approached his newly built home. Upon finishing the wigwam, Wabus told his wife he was going to go out and dance, but instead circled the property and checking each individual path to see if anyone could have been watching him. Wabus found nothing during this search so he came back up to his wigwam and began his dance. Just as Wabus came back up to his home, Panther was lurking up the hill just after his check and hid nearby to watch Wabus and his wife's dance so that he may pounce when they least expect it. Wabus sang to his wife as he was going through and opening up his medicine bag and as if he knew that the Panther was nearby, he mentioned in his song that he was a good runner and that the Panther would inevitably be unable to catch him if given the chance. Wabus, feeling confident due to his new setup on the hill, told his wife he was going to go out and hunt, but when he went down the hill Panther pounced on him. Wabus turned and started going back up the hill, but Panther caught him in a flash and jeered that he thought that no one could catch him, but he was able to and asked "Now who is the fastest runner?" Before Wabus was able to crack back at Panther, he was eaten up whole despite being such a confident, little rabbit.

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes, Part A

Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/mslakes-creation-chitimacha.html)

Depiction of The Earth-Maker

The first tale in this unit covers the creation story where it begins with a being referred to as the "The Earth-Maker," who came to and noticed that all around him was nothing but a void. This caused much pain leading The Earth-maker to cry and then instantly took action by taking a small amount of matter from where he was sitting and threw it down from his place, but nothing seemed to grow on it and it just simply turning. The Earth-Maker tried to add grass by doing the same thing and taking it from where he sat and throwing it down onto his creation, but still it was not effective. Next, The Earth-Maker created a man, who was known as Tortoise, to be this place's first inhabitant that would coexist with the men he also created for this new planet. When The Earth-Maker sent Tortoise down to his creation he gave him only one task which was to "bring order into the world," as their were malicious spirits trying to destroy The Earth-Maker's delicate creation. He sent Tortoise down with only a knife, but Tortoise began to instead cause war, so after a short time The Earth-Maker sent the next creature down, which was the Hare who began having a philosophical struggle with "his grandmother," who was the mother of The Earth-Maker (his father) and pleaded that he wanted the humans to live forever like himself. Hare's grandmother explains that how can Hare make the humans live forever if The Earth-Maker could not while creating them, and Hare began to realize that without death that the humans would inevitably run out of resources and space on The Earth-Maker's creation. After seeing the death of the people on the creation, Hare accepted the way in which The Earth-Maker and went to the edge of this creation where the fires raged all around the edge.