Story Planning: Unnatural Uncle

The story "The Jealous Uncle" from the book Tales of the North American Indian was the most interesting to me. It talked about an uncle who would murder his infant nephews and how one of the nephew used unlikely objects to avoid his own murder. It is important to know that the nephew's aunt dressed the boy like a girl for his entire childhood to protect him from his jealous uncle. In the story, the nephew used sour cranberries, eagle-down and a piece of a knife in creative and useful ways. In my story, however, I would like to create three of my own odd objects that the boy will use in his escape. I want to incorporate a broken caribou antler, a corn husk and a fur coat into my story because they will prove difficult to use when the boy is trying to escape. The caribou antler will be used to misdirect the uncle towards another part of the forest. The nephew can burn the corn husk to summon his ancestors to protect him from his uncle. Lastly, the fur coat when worn, has the power to turn the nephew into the animal who's fur it belongs to. In the original story, the nephew escapes to a land where the people can turn into eagles by simply putting on their skin. This is an interesting idea because I have never read anything like that in this class. I also want to include the close-knit culture of the Native American tribes and how they value family and their traditions.


Native American mother and child.

"The Jealous Uncle" from Tales of the North American Indian by Stith Thompson.