the young man (Tale 27)

Family: Arikara · Role: young man · First appears: Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk

On the second night, Elk (Tale 27) gave the young man a flute and teeth from the skull to attract women, telling him, “Go to the village of your people.” He played the flute, and after the young girls came to him several times, he married the boy's wife (Tale 27). In the evening, the men resented the women coming to him and killed him.

After lying dead for several days, he returned one night to the tipi of the boy's mother (Tale 27) and told her he had returned. One day, he and his relatives left the village and entered the river, where they turned into animals that lived in the water.

Relationship record

Life events

• Elk gave the young man a flute and teeth from the skull to attract women.(Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk)
  • With: Elk (Tale 27)
  • “I give you a flute. Go to the village of your people. Blow this flute, and you will see the young girls coming to you.” The young man received the flute and also pulled the teeth from the skull.”
• The young man married after attracting young girls with the flute.(Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk)
  • With: the boy's wife (Tale 27)
  • “He tried his flute, and the young girls came to him. This he tried several times, until he was married.”
• The men killed the young man because they resented the women coming to him.(Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk)
  • “The war-cry was raised and the men closed in on the boy, killing him.”
• After lying dead for several days, the young man returned to his mother's tipi alive.(Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk)
  • With: the boy's mother (Tale 27)
  • “The boy lay there for several days, but one night he came to the tipi of his mother. He woke her up and told her that he had returned.”
• The young man and his relatives left the village and entered the river, where they turned into water animals.(Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk)
  • With: the boy's mother (Tale 27)
  • “They went into the water, and as they got into the water they began to disappear. They all turned into some kind of animal that lived in the water.”

Tale 27 · The Boy and the Elk

• parent: the boy's mother (Tale 27) (The narrator identifies him as her son.) “But when she made a fire she saw her son sitting there.”
• married with the boy's wife (Tale 27) (The passage states he was married but does not identify his wife.) “This he tried several times, until he was married.”

Also listed in Arikara — Minor Figures

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Extracted from the original text of Traditions of the Arikara. Made with Rho MD.