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Stoney Discoveries : Stoney Stories : Iktomni and the Closed-Eye Dance

Our summary of "Iktomni and the Closed-Eye Dance" told by;
Kayla, Cheyene, Rolf

Iktomni was walking along the Kananaskis forest gathering some moss for a sacred dance called the Closed-Eye Dance when he saw some spruce grouse. He was very hungry so he decided to trick the grouse into dancing in a circle with their eyes closed. He tells them not open up their eyes while they are dancing or something terrible will happen. He starts to grab every 4th grouse and wrings its neck. One of the small grouse hens opens her eyes and sees what Iktomni is up to and warns the other birds. They try to fly away but they can not and today they still can not fly well.

What did we hear in this story that we have heard in other stories?

  • There was dancing and music and they are important in the stories. They dance at ceremonies and dance like the animals to show their respect for the animals.
  • The word sacred is appearing again it is a special word and it is used when they explain how something came to be.

Why was this story told? We think...

  • so you understand how things came to be.
  • it is an explanation of the animals

Copyright for student work remains with the authors.
All else copyright © 2002 Pam Irving, Lorraine Flavelle and Galileo Educational Network Association