The story I chose this week was "The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son" from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit. How this story went was a lady was taken care of by her village. The hunters of the village often gave her food and other supplies, so she could take care of herself. One day, they brought the lady a bear cub that had just had its parent killed for food. The bear cub was still alive, so she took care of the bear cub and raised him as her own. The people of the village brought her plenty of food to support both her and the bear cub. This bear cub got accustomed to human speech, so he began to understand the words spoken to him by the lady. The cub got to play with the kids of the village. When the bear got too big for the kids, he began to play with the adults. He also got to go out on hunting trips with the hunters. Unfortunately, people from other villages saw the bear as a threat and tried to attack him. Eventually, this got to be too dangerous for the bear, so the lady had to send the bear away for his own safety.
The aspect I liked about this story is that a lady was able to take in a bear cub. I think it would be super cool to have a bear just around that you can keep in your house without being worried about being harmed. Additionally, she did not go and catch this bear for her own selfish reasons, she was taking care of an orphaned bear cub that needed someone to help him through this hard time of his life. This story of taking in an animal that would not be better off on its own is nice to read, and I liked how the bear was able to become integrated into their village life.
Bibliography
The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son, Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921)
Image Information: Polar Bear Cub by tableatny, Flickr
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