STUDIES OF THE ALGONQUIAN TRIBES OF IOWA 

 AND OKLAHOMA 



By TRUMAN MICHELSON, 

 Etlvioloijist . Bureau of American Ethnology 



The Kickapoo and Arapaho tril)es of Oklahoma, the Fox of Iowa, 

 and the Sauk. Shawnee, and Cheyenne of Oklahoma formed the suh- 

 jects of my field studies during the summer of 1929. Some weeks 

 were first spent with the Kickapoo. When their history is home in 

 mind, with the dramatic fiight to Mexico, the difficulties ensuing allot- 

 ment with the attendant frauds, and so on. it is not to he wondered at 

 that they are still remarkably tenacious of their ethnology, and very 

 unwilling informants. In spite of these difficulties a really represen- 

 tative collection of Kickapoo mythology was obtained, mostly in the 

 current syllabic script. Combined with the material previously col- 

 lected by the late William Jones, edited and translated by myself, it 

 is possible to make some very definite statements from a comparative 

 point of view^ The tentative statement I made 14 years ago (Pub. 

 Amer. F.thnol. Soc. IX. p. 140) that Kickapoo mythology and folk-lore 

 are on the whole closest to Fox, holds valid. It is barely possible that 

 with a really representative collection of Sauk mythology and folk-lore 

 this opinion might have to be somewhat modified ; for the Sauk ma- 

 terial, published and unpubdished. is too meager to be seriously consid- 

 ered at present. It may be mentioned, however, that Kickapoo shares 

 with Sauk the tale of the culture-hero and the " little frighteners " 

 which occurs in more northern tribes, c. g.. the Ojibwa and Cree. This 

 is either totally absent among the Foxes or is known to but a few mem- 

 bers of that tri])e. At any rate, despite my many visits among them, I 

 have not encountered it. A tale that is found among more northern 

 tribes ]M-actically from coast to coast, that of the girls who married the 

 stars, also occurs among the Kickapoo, but apparently not among the 

 Fox. The contest of the Thunderers and water-monsters (" plumed " 

 serpents) , in this case Underneath-Lynx, of course occurs ( for the dis- 

 tribution of this theme, see my discussion in Bull. 95, Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol., pp. 54-56) ; the tale of the Thunderer who is taken captive 

 closely resembles a similar episode among both the Sauk and Fox 

 (it can not be too strongly emphasized that these two tribes, though 

 legally consolidated, are distinct in language and general ethnology). 

 It may also be noted that the " transformer " theme, so common in 



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