Agait’osdunne, a man of low status, impregnates the chief’s daughter. To identify the father, the chief uses his thunderbirds, which reveal Agait’osdunne’s guilt. Banished together, Agait’osdunne utilizes his supernatural abilities to provide for them, while their former tribe faces starvation. Despite adversities, including an attack that nearly kills him, Agait’osdunne’s resilience and powers ensure their survival.
Source:
The Beaver Indians
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 4
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Transformation: Agait’osdunne, initially perceived as a miserable man who had never killed anything, demonstrates supernatural abilities and resourcefulness, transforming his and his wife’s dire circumstances into a sustainable life.
Conflict with Authority: The chief, representing authority, casts out his daughter and Agait’osdunne, leading to their struggle against this imposed hardship.
Revenge and Justice: After being ostracized, Agait’osdunne ensures that those who cast them out receive only animal blood to sustain themselves, serving as a form of retribution for their earlier actions.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
They did not know what kind of a man Agait’osdunne was. He was a miserable man and miserable beyond that; and they had no respect for him since he had never killed anything. There was another man who was highly respected, the chief. He had a daughter of whom he took great care to guard her from evil. All at once it appeared from her shape that she was pregnant. Her father was determined to find out by whom she was in that condition. He was a man who had very great supernatural power, and had some young thunderbirds that he was keeping in a cage. He thought he would find out what he wanted to know through the help of these birds. He brought the men all together and asked each of them who did it.
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They all denied knowing who had done it. Then he made them go in where the birds were. If the man who was guilty went in the birds would ruffle up their feathers. He was going to find out about it in this way. They went in one by one but the feathers of the birds did not move.
“Are these all the men?” he asked. “There is one man who is not here,” they told him. Then Agait’osdunne came in and the feathers of the birds stood out immediately. “Her child is from that man,” he concluded. He sent his child away in very pitiful condition. “Let them die,” he said. He cast them off, leaving them no clothes to wear. They were in pitiful condition and there was nothing they could do. Agait’osdunne was determined they should live. With his supernatural power he caused a moose to come there and killed it. From its skin he made two good garments. He was that kind of a being. If he said something should happen that thing happened.
By means of that power they lived all winter without suffering hardships. Those from whom they had moved were starving to death. Because they had cast him off to die, he would give them nothing but the blood, and he gave them much of that. “Let them live on the blood of the animals that are killed,” he said. When he went after animals he told his wife that the one which came first should be spared. There was one mean man who shot it and killed all the animals that they lived on. When she saw her husband was not around she thought something might have befallen him. She took a mooseskin garment and went to him. When she came up to him he was still alive. She put a skin over his head and made him well again. Agait’osdunne was from an animal. Nothing was difficult for him.
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