Historicizing the Horse (III). The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog (Blackfoot)
Historicizing the Horse (III). The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog (Blackfoot)

Summary/Abstract: The present study is the third in a series dedicated to analyzing the process of historicizing the horse in Native American cultures and it focuses on its representation in a Blackfoot story, The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog, retold from several sources around 1910 and included in the anthology of Native American myths and legends published by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. Although it is not a creation story, since it does not narrate how the first horse was created but explains how it was acquired by the tribe, The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog follows a common pattern, very similar to the one present in the stories I analyzed in my previous studies on this topic: the historical legitimacy of the horse is constructed through a process of de- and re-historicization, which can only be achieved via mythicization.

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