Katonao, an aging warrior, pursues his glory‐seeking sons into battle, rescues a wounded child, and inspires their quest to save the other brother. Captured for a feast, he endures cruelty, hunts partridges to escape, and slays two pursuers. Returning home, he almost kills a son mistaking him for a threat, but a plea spares him. Reunited, Katonao lives peacefully with his sons.
Source:
Folk-Lore of the Cree Indians
by Fred Swindlehurst
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.18, No.69, pp. 139-143
April-June, 1905
► Themes of the story
Family Dynamics: The bond between Katonao and his two sons drives both the rescue efforts and the final reconciliation.
Trials and Tribulations: Katonao endures wounds, capture, cruel treatment, harsh wilderness, and lethal pursuers.
Revenge and Justice: He slays two warriors during his escape to avenge the cruelty they inflicted.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Cree people
Katonao was a great warrior who was always seeking for glory. He had two sons who were very much like him in this respect. They went off to meet some other warriors, and Katonao followed to help them fight. When he had gone some distance he saw a lot of warriors on the ground dead, and he knew that his sons had passed that way. At last he came across one of his sons who was lying wounded on the ground, pierced by a number of arrows. The old man pulled the arrows from his son’s body and went in search of the other son. He had not proceeded far when his wounded son overtook him and both followed the tracks of the other son. At last they came across him fighting desperately with hostile warriors, and they ran to help him.
► Continue reading…
Old Katonao tripped on his snowshoes and was captured. The two sons tried hard to save their father and endeavored to pull him from the hostile warriors, but he asked them to let him be taken.
The hostile warriors resolved not to kill Katonao at once, but reserve him for a feast. They treated him with great cruelty on the journey, sometimes dragging him naked through the snow and tying him to the sled exposed all night to the cold. They gave him old skins to eat. As soon as the warriors arrived home they tied old Katonao up, and resolved to sacrifice him on the morrow. They placed him in a tent with an old man as guard. Orders were given to cook Katonao for the feast, but some of the women cried out that there were lots of partridges in the woods. The old man then asked the warriors if Katonao and the women could go hunting the partridges, and they consented. Katonao then took up his bow and arrows and killed many partridges. In hunting these birds he wandered farther and farther away from his captors, and at last he made a dash for liberty. He was still naked and suffered much in making his escape. He had not gone far when he saw the warriors in full chase, so he hid in the snow and killed two of them as they ran past him. He then took off their clothes, fixed himself up, and started in search of his sons.
When the warriors came upon their dead comrades, they returned to the camp and blamed the old man for asking Katonao to go out hunting. Then they called him and killed him for the feast. When Katonao arrived at the tent of one of his sons, he found him making snowshoes. He walked on farther and found the other son making a canoe. Katonao shot an arrow into him and chased him into the tent. The other son came up, and seeing what Katonao was doing was about to put him to death, but the wounded boy cried out for him to spare his father, so Katonao was spared and lived with his sons for a long time.
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