Week 10 Story: The Origin of Kut-O-Yis

The first memory I have is quite odd. All I remember is opening my eyes and seeing an old couple, a man and a woman who both looked like they hadn't eaten anything in months. Their faces were filled with confusion, adoration, and sadness. Their eyes had a very innocent look in them, and I could immediately sense the goodness in them. I felt the woman pick me up as the couple began talking about how to hide me so that "he" wouldn't find me and kill me. I had no idea who "he" was. All I knew was that they planned on lying to him and telling him that I was a girl, instead of a boy, so that he would be more inclined to let me grow into my adult years. The last thing I heard that day before closing my eyes was them giving me a name: Kut-O-Yis, the Blood Boy.

After my fourth day with them, I spoke to the old woman and told her, "Hold me in turn to each one of these lodge poles, and when I come to the last one I shall fall out of my lashings and be grown up." The woman did as I said, and when I was held to the final pole, I was already a grown man. Now I could finally do something about the couple's situation. I looked out the window of their lodge and saw another lodge with an abundant supply of food hanging outside. 

I then asked the couple, "Why do you not eat? There is so much food across the yard. If you want, I can go ask those people for you." 

"Shhhhhh!" Said the woman. "Our son-in-law lives over there with our three daughters. He does not give us any food to eat and he forbids our daughters from doing so as well. The only reason we are alive is that our daughters sometimes find a way to sneak around and throw us some food once in a while."

At this, I became very angry. What kind of a family doesn't provide for each other and simply REFUSES to let the others eat? Anyway, I thought of a plan to teach the son-in-law a lesson. I told the old man to show me where they usually hunt for food, so that the next day, we could get there before the son-in-law, kill some buffalo, and hang it outside our home for once. 

The next day, I awoke the old man right before dawn and we set out to find the buffalo. Within a few minutes, we found one and I killed it. Shortly after, we could hear another person coming. It was the son-in-law. I quickly hid behind a bush so the son-in-law wouldn't know what was about to hit him. I heard the son-in-law look at the old man and scold him for going to hunt without him. I also saw him pull the dead buffalo out from under the old man and push him aside. Right when the son-in-law turned his back to go back home, I shot an arrow at him. It went straight through his back and came out through his chest. He died instantly.

"Now," I said to the old man. "You can take what is rightfully yours."

We quickly told the wife and the daughters about our victory and how they were finally free from the son-in-law's evil hands. The amount of gratitude that the family showed me truly made me realize how I changed their lives for the better. The whole time I was devising a plan against the son-in-law, I was doing it because I was angry at him for treating his family how he was. I never even imagined how big of an impact I was making until it was over. That was the moment I decided to save lives for a living. Nowadays, I travel to other cities and purposely look for trouble, so that I can free any souls that are captured by evil beings. 

Source: A Native American camp.

Bibliography: Kut-O-Yis, the Blood Boy.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by the Blackfoot Native American stories, namely the Kut-O-Yis stories. In it, an old couple lived with their three daughters. Along came a brave hunter who would help the family hunt and give them food. Eventually, the couple decided to marry their daughters to the man. After a while, however, the son-in-law got more stingy and stopped providing for the couple. The two oldest daughters also wouldn't give them anything; only the youngest daughter sometimes sneaked food into the old couple's house. One day, the old man was able to sneak a clot of blood from a wounded buffalo into his quiver without the son-in-law noticing. He quickly went home and told his wife to set up a kettle so they could cook it. Suddenly, they hear a baby crying from inside the kettle. They know the son-in-law will soon hear a baby crying and kill it if is a boy, and that the son-in-law will want to benefit from having another wife, so they pretend the baby is a girl. They call the baby Kut-O-Yis, or a clot of blood. The child speaks to the old woman on the fourth day of being born and tells her to place him against the poles (I copied that dialogue from the story directly). He suddenly grows into an adult and devises a plan to get revenge against the son-in-law. Kut-O-Yis and the old man go hunt before the son-in-law one day, and when he son-in-law comes to take the buffalo and tries to kill the old man, Kut-O-Yis kills him and also punishes the daughters for not being more sympathetic towards the old couple. The rest of the story involves Kut-O-Yis traveling to different cities and saving other people or animals from evil things. I decided to keep the story very similar to the original, but changed it to Kut-O-Yis's point of view instead of it being in the third person. I also made all three daughters more sympathetic towards the couple, instead of just the youngest.