Holiday Countdown

Day 2: Winter Stories

Author: Lily Loe is a junior majoring in History, a member of Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority, and a Museum Advisory Council member.

There are so many wonderful winter stories that celebrate the season but not many illustrate the struggle of finding food during a snowy season. A traditional Lenape winter story called “The Snow Boy” reveals the interesting way they pass along hunting and tracking advice.

It begins with the birth of a fatherless boy who, when angry, would suck on other children’s fingers until they became stiff and black, frozen from cold. As the boy got older, he told people to call him Snow and Ice.

Then he informed the people that he was sent from above to teach them how to track and hunt. After successfully teaching the people how to hunt and track in winter, the snow boy told them to send him down the river because winter was almost over. He informed the people that anytime they see snow that it is him visiting them.

The people sent him down the river on a chunk of ice with a bunch of corn. As generations passed, the people continued to send offerings down the river for the snow boy hoping he would come teach them hunting tricks. The snow boy would send an ice block back up the river that would land ashore where the people gave him bags of corn as food.

The snow boy legend shows the struggle that sometimes endured when hunting in wintertime but not without showing the spirit of giving during the season.

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Storytelling and oral tradition remain important for many Indigenous cultures today. Oral tradition passes on lessons, knowledge and history for a community. Here are a few online resources to learn more:

• The role of oral traditions within marginalized societies and their validity within archives. Myra Khan, Arizona State University.
  
• Storytelling in Native American Cultures. Tristan Picotte, Partnerships with Native Americans.
• Oral History, Indigenous Oral Histories, and Decolonization. Columbia University’s Oral History Master of Arts Program.

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References:

“The Snow Boy.” From The White Deer and Other Stories Told by the Lenape. Edited by John Bierhorst, William Morrow and Co. Inc. New York, 1995. https://web.archive.org/web/20130620045505/http://home.online.no/~arnfin/native/lore/leg095.htm