The legend of the “Shooting of the Red Eagle” is a trickster story that tells of the Iktomi (the Siouxan expression for trickster) who becomes the victim of his own chicanery but not before deceiving a trusting chief and his village. The story is a teaching of the Great Sioux nation that was textualized and published by the famed Dakota author Zitkala-Ša (Little Red Bird) at the turn of the twentieth century. It continues to be told as a way of educating Dakota children through iconic figures and metaphor.
Photograph of Zitkala-Ša of the Yankton Dakota Sioux, 1921. Zitkala-Ša is a major figure in Native American literary history and is known for her essays, poems, and several edited collections of Native American stories. Her book Old Indian Legends (1901) brought Native American storytelling traditions to a national audience. (Bettmann/Corbis)
Referred to as “the avenger” in the writing of Zitkala-Ša, a warrior enters a camp posing as a great righter of wrongs. He is given honors and is treated well, but when it is time for him to prove himself by taking down a great red eagle who is wreaking havoc on the camp, he fails every time, missing his target with a bow and arrow. When his false identity is exposed, his treachery costs him his freedom as he is tied to a burial scaffold while the true hero appears, having been freed by a young woman warrior. The true avenger easily strikes his target and demonstrates his prowess as a hunter and marksman.
First published in 1901, the work is a part of a larger collection of fourteen stories that were passed down to the author by way of oral tradition. That is, they are stories that had been told for generations. The stories were memorized and translated from the Dakota language into English, merging both western and Native American styles of storytelling. The author demonstrates her ability to retain the iconographic importance of the characters—the trickster, eagle, and avenger.
The image of the Red Eagle is not so much a menace as a symbol of power and strength. It poses the question: Who among common humans is truly worthy of challenging the mystical nature of the Red Eagle? The thrust of the story is upon the deceptive trickster who pretends to be the great marksman for whom the people have been waiting. This trickster image is primary in positioning the Red Eagle as mighty and supremely more intelligent than the false avenger who poses as a worthy opponent.
Traditional values that embrace carefulness, hospitality, honesty, and wisdom are embodied in this story. The reader or listener of “The Shooting of the Red Eagle” will notice that the nature of Siouxan storytelling is not necessarily in a neat, linear order that provides all the intricacies of Western storytelling. The hero is not focused upon until the very end of the tale when we learn that the trickster beguiled not only the tribe, but the real avenger whom he had bound. A woman warrior finds the avenger and is able to set him free so that he can fulfill his destiny. Ultimately, the avenger takes his place as the archer who is gifted enough to mark the red eagle, but not without the help of another.
Sheila Ann Rocha
See also Iktomi; Tricksters, Native American
Further Reading
“Lakota and Dakota Sioux Legends.” Native Languages of the Americas website. http://www.native-languages.org/sioux-legends.htm. Accessed October 5, 2015.
McLaughlin, Marie. 1990. Myths and Legends of the Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Zitkala-Ša. 2004. Iktomi and the Ducks and Other Sioux Stories. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books.
Zitkala-Ša. 2004. Impressions of an Indian Childhood. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger.
Zitkala-Ša. 2013. Old Indian Legends. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books.