Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
Video Summary
Summary
Core Theme
The lecture explores the profound connection between the archetype of the "foster kid" (or orphan) and the hero's journey in mythology and storytelling, arguing that this experience, characterized by early independence and resilience, is a powerful catalyst for heroic transformation.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
um so
so uh
uh
this week we're going to be talking
about um
about foster kids
um which probably
or maybe might seem like a sort of a weird
weird
topic to have um you know as one of the main
main
topics for a mythology class
but it it turns out that
that
they're just
ubiquitous and that's a really fancy
word that you have to be a college
professor to know how to say that in a sentence
sentence
um but ubiquitous means they're just everywhere
everywhere and
and
it's been um
interesting to me to explore
why that is
why it is that so many of these hero
stories and so many of these
myths that we tell and movies that we tell
tell
center around
a foster kid
now foster kid is what we call them in
our day and age
200 years ago they were called orphans
and when you read the religious texts
and things like that they often talk
about orphans and so orphans is the word
that you experience when you're reading
about these characters in the
literature but
but we in our society we call them
foster kids
and it's complex it's it's a um
there are you know lots of different
ways of um
um
having some kind of childhood outside the
the standard
standard two-parent
two-parent
mother father
you know white picket fence model
um sometimes you're you don't have a
mother figure around you have a dad but
no mom sometimes you have a mom but no dad
dad
sometimes you have step parents
um there's of course you know just a lot
of different
dynamics that come into play
when it comes to non-traditional childhoods
childhoods
and i assume that in our class a number
of our students will have some sort of
non-traditional childhood i i
would guess that we may have students um
in the class who are who are foster
it's an incredibly important topic to me
and it has been for a long time and i
don't just come at this from an academic
point of view it's not like i read a
book on this one time and um
um
you know came up with this is such an important
important
part of
what i think of as the hero's journey
um my best friend is a
is a foster youth and my wife is a
former foster youth
and i'm involved with the lives of
former foster youth at sierra college
in the programs that um
um that
you know attempt to make their
transition a little bit easier um
um
i have many friends and and and um
students who are former foster youth and
i talk with them a lot about their experiences
experiences
and so when i talk about
former foster youth it's not it's way
beyond an academic
subject for me it's deeply deeply personal
personal
um and also academically very
interesting i mean it's this weird sort
of sort of confluence
i would say
i would i would say at the outset that
if you're someone like me
who came from a stable home
home
that was basically a good experience
healthy experience
um a positive experience you had a
childhood that was
that was you know relatively or very good
you don't understand what it's like to
be a foster kid
and you would need to spend some time
really deeply opening up your empathy
and your thoughts and your knowledge
to even begin to understand um
um
what that experience is like um
um
and i'll give you i'll give you an
example and there's just countless
examples i mean
and i assume again i assume some of you
have examples like this from your own
life so i don't know who i'm talking to
and i assume that some of you are from
certain types of backgrounds and others
or from other types of backgrounds
and i assume some of you have pretty
difficult backgrounds but
but
when my wife was 12
12
she was kind of in and out of foster
care um
pretty dysfunctional family
and her mom wasn't around and her dad
oftentimes couldn't handle the
responsibility so cps would come in and
take take them and place them and then their
their
her dad would get his back together
and they would go home for a while and
it was just you know wash rinse repeat
but when she was 12
she got placed in a foster care home
around christmas
and on christmas morning and this foster
family had other children on christmas
morning everybody went down around the
christmas tree and opened up presents
on christmas morning
and my wife sat in a corner because
nobody had gotten her any christmas
presents and so she just watched all of
the kids open all their presents and
and
that's how she spent her 12 year old
you
you would have to really
work to understand how difficult an
experience like that would be to be 12
years old
i mean
really really difficult
and that's one of the easier ones right
i mean some of the stories that that
that come out for what
um for what foster kids have to deal
with are just breathtaking
breathtaking
and really really difficult
and i think it's for reasons like that
that our mythology focuses so much on
them our mythology
um pays so much attention to them
because they don't choose that life
nobody would choose to spend their 12th
birthday around the christmas tree
watching everybody except me get things
watching everybody except me get
appreciated and loved and valued
valued
nobody would choose that you get thrust
into it you get dumped into it
against your will and
and
that puts you in a situation where you
have to figure life out on your own mom
and dad aren't coming
and the home you're in you know god
bless you if you're a foster kid who got
placed in a good home or if you are a
member of a family that's fostered a kid
and has done a good job with it god
bless you
a lot of the people who run who take in
foster kids just do it for the money
um it's a it's a it's a mess
and so if
you don't have mom and dad to help you
or tell you how to be or tell you what's
right or wrong tell you what's good or bad
bad
wipe your knee when you skid you when
you when you scrape your knee or or hug
and your foster family isn't really all
that plugged in either
it's just you
and you got to do it on your own
and it's like
tapping into that
really survival level approach
approach
to life
i think is why our our myths just really
zero in on on
on
on the on this experience they're
they're
plopped down into the middle of the
hero's journey
the second part of the topics for this
week are the uh
the refusal of the call the call to adventure
adventure
the call to the heroes journey the call
to something outside what your society
expects of you and you say oh well you
should go paint in
you know lithuania for a year because
that's what you really want you're like
no no i'm not really you refuse you
refuse the call to adventure
and on big ways and in little ways
foster kids don't get the option of refusing
refusing
they just
find themselves in the middle of it
my best friend sam
grew up in the foster care system and he remembers
remembers um
um
you know you guys know sam i kind of
wish he was here to talk a little bit
about this
but he remembers learning how to cook spaghettios
spaghettios
um in a in a little pan where he would
have to reach up to where he couldn't
see to put the pan on the stove he knew
how to turn it on he could feel the heat
up there and then he would put it up
to cook the food that he could eat
that's how small he was on his own
cooking his own food
and you know sam's a hero my wife is a hero
hero
the the difficulty of the situations
brings out just extraordinary depths of character
character
in in the people who have to live it and
at the same time you would never
wish it on anybody
right you would no no parent was like i
know what's good for my kid i'm going to
throw them into the foster care system
that'll tough them up
nobody would do that but the kids who
have to do it
are able to understand something um you
know deep inside themselves
i'm gonna um
about just giving you some
information about um
this topic orphans and foster kids just
because i want you guys to think about
it nobody ever talked to me about this
when i was growing up i don't even know
what a foster kid was when i was growing up
but i think it's important and not just
for understanding
the role that they play in myths but but
but the the presidents that they have in
in society
um former foster youth are twice as
likely to have ptsd even than military veterans
veterans um
very very common
they're four times more likely to
attempt suicide than their peers
five times more likely to have anxiety
seven times more likely to have depression
depression
and you don't have to really think that hard
hard
to understand why
especially if you come from a from a
a situation
were there and they both loved you
well who would you be without them
would you have a little more anxiety a
little more depression well yeah duh
former foster youth males are four times
more likely to commit a crime than their peers
peers
my wife when she was in elementary
school got busted for committing a crime
it was stealing
crackers from her school um
um
trouble had to do
punishment for a long time
the reason why she was stealing the
crackers is because she was hungry
because she didn't have
breakfast so i mean
not moralizing here about well they're
more likely to commit crime because
they're really bad kids
they're more likely to commit crime
almost 80 of of of kids who are sex
traffic are foster youth in fact the sex
trafficking industry
looks for foster youth
intentionally because they know that
nobody's really got their back you know
if you if you get a foster kid their
parents aren't going to come after you
lawyers aren't going to come after you
nobody's going to come after you
so the sex trafficking industry focuses
on former foster youth or foster youth
half the girls in foster care are
pregnant by age 19
trying to find some stability through a
relationship with a male is often you
know not probably worth their trust uh
uh
within 18 months of emancipation that's
what it called when you're when you when
you finally age out of foster care
system they say you're emancipated from
it you're like the slaves getting freedom
freedom but
but
half the people you know within a short
amount of time after they're emancipated
are homeless
because they're 18 19 years old they got
no parents no
you can't make enough money to pay for
um
about 70 percent of the kids in juvenile
30 of the homeless in the country and 25
percent of the prison population
taxpayers spend an enormous amount of
money on the foster care system and i
can tell you that very very little of
that actually makes it to the kids themselves
themselves
a lot of it gets paid out into the
bureaucracy and a lot of it gets paid
out into um
um
people who are nominally supposed to be
sam was in a home one time with i think
six or seven other foster kids and um
um
and so they rack up money you know it's
cha-ching for them you know they get
something like a thousand dollars a
month so six foster kids six thousand
bucks a month and what they would do is
they would just buy a big thing of
spaghetti and a couple uh you know jars
of sauce and they would cook it and they
would pour the sauce on top of it and
the six and
foster kids around the table who just
like you know
eat off of that and when it was gone
it's gone
there's no there's no seconds
so you have to eat really really fast
in fact
when i first started dating my wife i
just could not believe how fast she ate
whenever we ate anything she was just
gone instantly
and over time that's
changed and she doesn't
do that anymore but even when i was
first first dating her you know um
um
i couldn't believe how quickly she ate
and um you know sam told me it's because
when you're a foster kid you that could
be the last thing that you
um there are right now a record number
of kids entering the foster care system
and this has a lot to do with meth um
um
methods of
some of you i'm sure know
but if you don't drive up to orville or
chico and you'll see
meth is just a total and utter disaster um
um
and i don't i don't normally
i don't normally do this but i'm gonna
make a rule for all of my classes don't ever
ever
ever ever touch that ever
ever
it will wreck you and it won't just
wreck you it'll wreck everyone around you
you
don't touch it
um and it does and so these kids end up
in the foster care system
twenty percent of kids in foster care
my wife's brother also was in foster
care he stayed with us for the last year
he's been in and out of prison most of
his life he reads at the third grade level
level
uh nine percent can do math
at the eighth grade level 33 percent
have changed elementary schools five
times or more elementary schools
70 percent of kids in foster care do not
graduate high school
and 94 don't complete a two-year or a
it is
extremely difficult to
be changing schools all the time and how
are you going to learn if you don't even
know where you're going to be
and there's something else that happens too
too
which is that other kids make fun of
those kids
you know the kid who shows up in the
poor clothes or
doesn't have all the school equipment or
whatever and doesn't do well
other kids mock them and make fun of
them and say oh that person is stupid or
they're outcasts or whatever and kids do
this almost instinctively
and imagine what that feels like
if you're showing up to an elementary
school and people are not accepting you
and they think you're weird and stupid
and behind and you've got put in all
these special programs and
and
it's because you don't have a home to go to
to
don't have a parent
to help you
don't have anything that the other kids have
so it's not a surprise that
foster youth have unique challenges
navigating through the system
how could you not
i mean if i was i'm a professor now you
know if i was a foster kid i had i'm
almost there there's no way i would be
where i am today
you have to be a hero
to get through high school as a foster
youth if you made it through high school
and you're a foster youth
you're a hero auto automatically
and then college come on now
come on now that's legendary
to come out of a system like that and to
find it within you to
to
so
you know a huge respect
if there's any students in the class or
former foster youth and you're in
college now
even if you're getting c's who cares
right that doesn't matter you're passing
and that's a hell of a lot more than
some of these other kids that are
getting straight a's i'll tell you that
because they have food handed to them
for every night they have to think about food
food
it's funny too because we live in a um
we live in a in a culture that tries to
tell itself that it's christian
and i don't necessarily really know what
they're talking about
um most of the time because when you
look in the sources of the christian
religion which is the bible
you have all kinds of teachings about
how to take care of foster kids i mean
it's not you don't have to look very far
in the new testament the book of james
says religion that
god our father accepts is pure and
faultless is this to look after orphans
and widows
that's a verse from the bible religion
that god the father accepts as pure
and faultless
is to take care of the foster kids
well i haven't heard too many
politicians getting up on their stumps
talking about you gotta elect me in
office and once i get in office i'm
gonna take care of those foster kids
because i'm christian
no they talk about other things anything else
else
and yet right there in the book
all throughout the islamic tradition too
orphans have the right to support
orphans have the right to dignity taking
care of an orphan is an act of worship
that's in the koran the holy book of islam
islam
all over the place
in the bible
a number of texts in the book of psalms
god is a father to the fatherless a
defender of widows
the lord watches over the foreigner and
sustains the fatherless and the widow
and on and on i mean there's really no
need to read through each of these they
all say the same thing
they all say that
foster kids matter
to to to in the bible
that god when god tells his people what
god wants his people to do it's take
care of foster kids
but no we want low taxes and don't touch
my gun rights i'm a christian
that's not in the bible
abortion's not in the bible these things
aren't in the bible i don't know what
they're talking about
i wish some of the politicians who
called themselves christian would get up
and say
we need to do a better job taking care
of our foster kids
that's in the bible
the other stuff i don't know where it
comes from
and it's not because i haven't looked
and it's not because i don't read hebrew
or greek
and it's not because i haven't read the
whole damn thing dozens of times cover
to cover
the things that our christian
what's in the book is taking care of
foster kids taking care of the poor
taking care of the elderly the sick immigrants
immigrants prisoners
prisoners
and you can't get away from that in the book
book
so there's more biblical texts book of
exodus deuteronomy these are the books
of the law in the old testament there it is
is
in the prophets
passages like jeremiah the book of job
proverbs i mean again we don't need to
run all through all these things
so our religious
teachings we like to tell ourselves
we're a christian culture and i suppose
something like 70 of the country is
still is christian
i think it's something like that it's
the majority
of our country the united states of
america uh identifies with the christian
tradition and in the christian tradition
in the biblical tradition foster kids
are really really important
to god
and so i've never
been able to understand why they are
important to the politicians
who like to talk about how christian
and they just want to talk about other
things that just don't seem like that
but it's not just um
this is where things get really kind of thing
thing
if you look at a list and i and i did i
did make a list actually
of um of
foster youth in
let's see if i can find it here um
historical figures who are who are
foster kids of one form or another um
yes yes ma'am thanks dylan um
um
i can find my share screen thing again
yeah so this is a list i started working
on and i got tired because it's just too
big it's just too big of a list
but religious figures who were
you know maybe they're not
foster kids but they they don't have a
mother they don't have a father there's
some there's something
uh non-traditional let's say about how
they grow up moses
moses was a foster kid he was raised in
pharaoh's household um
buddha his mom died when he was young confucius
confucius
dad died when he was young mom died when
he was a teenager
jesus didn't have a biological father at
all that's a whole other thing i could
talk to you about that forever but i mean
mean
you know jesus and his
father archetype is a whole different
kind of story
muhammad uh dad died when he was before
he was born and um mom when he was
four or five
other people that you probably haven't
heard of but are really important in
their own traditions and this is just a
partial list
so i mean you know just like the
religious figures that founded
judaism christianity islam confucianism
and buddhism like the main religions of
the world are started by foster kids right
right
and this is these historical you know characters
um
poets and literary figures i mean we can
go on and on here i know i told you the
story about cs lewis and tolkien in the
in the discussion this week
um just one of my favorite fascinating stories
stories
uh c.s lewis is his family story is
heartbreaking those tolkien's actually
these guys who just kind of
you know were heroic really i mean
living in a boarding school or or being
raised by i mean
they had tough situations c.s lewis and
tolkien did and they just were so smart
and so talented and worked so hard they
both ended up teaching at oxford and
then they become friends and one of them
goes off to write the chronicles of
narnia and the other one goes off to
write the lord of the rings stories that
have resonated through through with people
people
ever since
the impact that these two men made on
the world
is just ridiculous
ridiculous
and it's just such an amazing story um
um
political figures i mean you know just
go on and on and on these are all hugely
important political figures
um philosophers aristotle spinoza
boethius descartes russo montesquiou de
lambert voltaire camunicha and that's
just oh this is a partial list i get
tired of writing you know you just get
started it's like all of them
artists mustachio lippy michelangelo da vinci
vinci
you know
it just doesn't really end musicians
steve jobs
malcolm x [Music]
[Music]
all of these characters
like foster kids or they are foster kids
all of them have some the removal of one
or both strong parental archetypes that
they have to then deal with
and what they achieve out of that is
transformative not just for themselves
as individuals
but for society as a whole they found
entire religions
they birth new modes of thought through
philosophy they birth new
modes of art art they
they
because they have to dig all the way
down into who themselves
and can't rely on any outside voices
what they pull up is unique and
to uh
to the rest of us
it's a heroic journey and the list i
gave you are the heroes who who went
and it's tough it's hard it's real real hard
so i want to go back and and and and so
you know the the people i just showed
you were his historical figures who are
you know
fostering religion
but as far as just the storytelling
aspect of it goes
all you have to do is look at disney's
films and
go well what role do orphans and foster
kids play in disney films well
how much time you got these are the
stories that kids just completely
you know unself-consciously
automatically connect to
so in the 1930s and 40s snow white bambi
pinocchio dumbo cinderella peter pan lady
lady
uh
more recently tangled frozen finding dory
dory
finding nemo earlier
i mean
it's like all of them they
they
and it's not it's kind of a formula i
suppose but it's deeper than a formula
they just go deep into our on our
archetypes they they sort of go even
underneath our mother and father
archetypes who are we without mom and dad
dad
and mom and dad aren't always you know a
stepmom and stepfather you know those
um
but i'll pause here in a second and see
if there's questions or comments about
any of these slides i've talked about
some of the statistics of the of of the
i talked about um
them in the religious teachings and in
the biblical texts
and then just in historical figures
and in disney movies and i'll just
pause and see if there's any
um any questions or comments about any
i actually shared a story in the discussion
discussion
that was a fictional
telling of a
i'd call it a foster child i don't know
what the term describes him as um
um
it's a it's the fable franchise he your
character is a
boy who would later become the hero of
oakville but basically
your village is burnt down by bandits
your father slayed your mother kidnapped
your sister left blinded and abandoned
in the forest and you're rescued by a
well absolutely that's exactly right
that's exactly what the paradigm is
isn't it it's a good it's a good game it
actually follows a very good story for a
the goal is you're trying to find your
mother primary mother and sister yeah
yeah
yeah that's
you know i didn't do video games as part
of the lecture presentation but that
just is 100
why these or this is another example of
why these stories are so
so i thought that would work well definitely
definitely
um dylan any comments or um
impressions from any of that
um i was also not thinking about video
games but thinking about how
it's a real common theme in
really any story you tell you know it
gives a lot of people something to rally
behind because
most people have at least some
i don't want to say like semblance of a
family union but some some craving for a
family unit and so that's why like found
family stories are so popular and it
gives you a hero to look after you know
yeah and mundane stories where if they
come from this this poor background or
they don't have a familial unit they
find one
right so i i find that very interesting
that it's such a prevalent
wow prevalent theme throughout history
and mythology and whatnot
yeah and that's a really really
interesting point i mean i talked with
my wife about this too sometimes it
seems like the foster care
care
path is easier in some ways than it is
by having just a totally dysfunctional
mother and father
sometimes having really aggressively
awful parents in your face growing up
has its own kind of challenges that are
just ridiculously difficult to surmount
and if i understood you correctly that
would be sort of a kind of a found family
family
um a thing that where people even if
they have some kind of family they're
searching for a real
the reason yeah absolutely yeah um
because even though you have this this
blood family and these blood relations
that doesn't mean that they were good to
you that doesn't mean that they ever
connected to you or raised you well
right and so i feel like um on a like
fundamental like if we're talking about
like hierarchy of needs or whatever yeah
going back to like maslow and everything
it's like you are searching for that
connection you need that kind of fundamental
fundamental uh
uh
human nature kind of thing right and so
i think it's very interesting that that's
that's
we've we've been doing that the entire
time you know we need that group yeah
yeah um
um
good danielle any uh any thoughts or uh
anything at all no questions or anything
there's just i like that you include all
those statistics
because i feel like it's something not a
lot of people think about if they don't
have friends in the system or like if
they never were yeah
yeah
i i i agree we don't talk about them
nearly enough
which again is to me confusing because i
i you know i'm told that we're a
christian country and and
sometimes i look around and i just don't
see it espec even especially from the
people who are most vociferous about how
christian they are um
um [Music]
[Music] why
why
why wouldn't
i mean i just don't i really don't
understand like if you're a christian
and you really believe in your religion
why why you aren't running for office
saying vote for me i'll take care of the
foster kids
i'll do a much better job that should be
a platform shouldn't it i feel like it
should i don't know maybe i'm naive or
idealistic or whatever but it's in the
damn bible all over the place it's not
like i'm just making it up so
so anyways
anyways
uh carly what are you uh
yeah did i miss anybody danielle did you
have any
any thoughts
uh no no thoughts just yeah
okay
good um i'm going to um
um
i'm going to tell you a story um
so let me just before i tell you before
i tell you the story let me just go back and
and
pull pull back a little bit and
put this
this topic in the larger context of what
we're talking about in this class um
um
the hero's journey is a scheme that's
been identified by joseph campbell as
you know being
being
found in various cultures throughout
time and all around the world and
there's really there's commonalities
between the different
hero stories all over the world
um and so in his book the masks of
god or the hero with a thousand faces i
should say
he kind of traces the stages of the
hero's journey and nobody i know
believes that
campbell identified all of the exact
stages of the hero's journey
um in fact nobody i know thinks he did
in fact he's kind of a weirdo um
um but
but
he's a smart weirdo and he makes some
good points um
but even though i don't think anybody
kind of believes that he actually
that there's all the exact stages that
he identified
they everybody kind of thinks he's
pretty much right though there is there
is a kind of structure
to the hero's journey
and yes no story fits it perfectly and
there's differences and all this other
stuff but the but the similarities are non-trivial
non-trivial
and they involve
oftentimes and again not always not like
every story you're ever gonna come
across involves all of these aspects
aspects
but a lot of times it involves a moment
of departure
and where the hero is
either through his own willpower or
through some message he gets from
outside or something happens or whatever
but the hero then has to leave the sort
of his
safe comfortable bubble or of what he
knows what we've called the known world um
um and
and
you know that's hard to do and so sometimes
sometimes
sometimes like the story will go like
they get a message from a magic you know
talking bird saying hey come over here
and the hero will go no and then the
second time no and then the third time
oh yes so there's this like refusal that
sort of captures
you know our tendency to prefer what's
safe and known to
to
what's dangerous and unknown
and a lot of people stay in their their
even
when the bubbles aren't great
you know that's the it's the sort of
question like why do women stay with
and that's actually
you know a really in
um deep question in terms of the real
lived experiences of many people
and i don't know the answer to it but
i'll tell you one
one thing that
is an answer that makes some sense to me
is even women in abusive relationships
think better the devil you know than the
devil you don't
there's something really really really
resonant about that phrase that old slogan
slogan
better the devil you know
than the devil you don't know
yes i'm in an abusive relationship but
at least i know this situation i can i
can maneuver through it i can survive
if i leave i don't know what's going to happen
happen
so even in situations that are negative
but but situations that are positive too
it can be hard to leave but the hero
does leave in the stories
and the the stage that we're focusing on
this week is um um
um
this moment of leaving and we we choose
foster kids because they just obviously
don't have a choice right they just they
they don't depart they get
they get departed
they get stuck in a potato gun and shot
out into the unknown and they don't know
and if you don't know what a potato gun
is i'm redneck so it's my culture um
um
i'll come over to my house i'll show you
how to use a potato cut
but foster kids get stuck in a potato
gun and shot out into the unknown they
don't have any choice in the matter
a lot of people they don't they don't
want to hear the call right but there's
this moment that we're focusing on the
moment of the call and the realities of
the call to adventure and um
in later
lectures we'll talk about some of the
things that happen when you're on the
adventure the gift that the hero discovers
discovers
or the guide figure that the hero
encounters or the monsters that the hero encounters
encounters
all of these things that that they
encounter along the way before the story
is finally resolved in the end
so that's where we are in our um um
presentation of a kind of schematized
version of of campbell's hero's journey
the story i want to tell i'm going to
put my camera off um
the story i'm going to tell is um
um
is a long one
i mean it's longer it's it's
i don't know how long it'll go on for
but then that's pretty much all um
all i have i have to tell you the story
and then that'll be pretty much it
this story comes from the blackfoot
native american tribe which is a tribe
up in montana area
area
and um it's a it's a magnificent story i
don't have it completely memorized i
remember i know parts of it and parts of
it so i'll have to refer to notes here
and there um
in the in the telling of it um
um
at some point
in the not too dear too distant future i
will have this story entirely internalized
internalized
so i can tell it at the drop of a hat
but um
but it's a magnificent story
and it goes that um
back in the day people only had dogs to
carry their packs
um and back then there were two orphaned
kids a boy and a girl and they were
having a hard time
the boy was deaf and couldn't understand
what anybody was saying so everybody
thought he was stupid [Music]
[Music]
and even the boy's relatives didn't want
to have anything to do with him he was
just this pointless stupid you know kid um
um
the name that he had been given was long arrow
arrow um
um but
but
you know since he was uh
an orphan and death
uh people just kind of always ran him
off they treated him like a mangy dog
and he would kind of stay on the
outskirts of the camp
picking up all of the you know trash and
leftover food that got got left and
nobody really
would take him in
his sister was beautiful
and she loved him
but she was the only one
and then the sister was adopted by a
family from another camp and they were
um attracted to her good looks so she
was an orphan too but she was physically
and they wanted her for a daughter but
they definitely didn't want the awkward
stupid little boy
and so they took away this
girl who was the only girl who cared
about him and the orphan boy was left to
fend for himself
and he lived on scraps that were thrown
to the dogs and things he found in trash piles
piles
he dressed in the you know remnants of
old clothes and skins and
frayed garments that were you know
discarded by the poor people
and um at night he went to sleep in a
like a
you know just like almost like a little
shelter dug into the side of a hill you know
know
on the outskirts of the
um and eventually the game was all
hunted out near where the camp was and
the people decided to move and they took
down the lodges and
they um they packed everything up and
they they told him stay here we don't
want we don't want you coming with us
you know just another mouth to feed just
another hungry belly
and so they told him not to follow and
so they they moved along and
for two or three days he fed on the
scraps that the people had left behind
but he knew that he was going to starve
and he would have to follow those people
whether they liked him or not and
and um
um
he was following their tracks
and crying and just kind of miserable
and all by himself
and as he was sort of stumbling and
panting and running along all of a
sudden something
popped out of his left ear with like a
small crack
and a a worm-like thing came out of that
ear and all at once he could he could
hear bird songs for the first time
and he took this worm-like thing in his
left hand and he hurried on and then
there was a snap in his right ear and a
worm-like thing came out of that and on
his right side now he could hear the
rushing waters of the stream and he
could hear and
and
his hearing was razor sharp and he could
make out the wrestling of a tiny mouse
in the dry leaves a long way away and
the orphan boy he laughed and he was
happy for the first time in his life
and he got courage and with renewed
courage he followed the trail of his people
people
and so the people of the village had
settled into a new place and the men
were already out hunting and
and the boy came upon this old chief
named good running and um he was killing
a fat buffalo cow he had just killed and
when the chief saw the boy
he said oh here comes that good for
nothing orphan boy
but he said the chief thought to himself
it was wrong for us to abandon him
so the boy said the good running said to
the boy rest here grandson you're you're
sweaty and dirty and here have some
some meat and the boy wolfed it down he
was not used to
hearing or talking yet but his eyes were
alert and good running also noticed a
change in his manner
he said that he said to himself this boy
isn't stupid or crazy so he gave the
orphan boy a piece of the hump meat from
the buffalo and then a piece of liver
and then a piece of kidney
and at last he gave him the very best
kind of meat which is a slice of tongue
buffalo tongue
and the more the old man looked at the
boy the more he liked him on the spur of
the moment he said grandson i'm going to
adopt you there is a place for you in my
teepee and i'm going to make you into a
good hunter and a good warrior and the
boy just wept
wept
out of gratitude and joy
somebody had finally
taken him in
care was willing to care for him and
love him
and good running said they called you
but
your name is long arrow and i'm going to
make sure that people call you by your
right name from now on long arrow
so the chief's wife wasn't happy
why do you put this burden on me she
said bringing into our lives this good
for nothing's
you know stupid kid
maybe you're a little stupid yourself
and good running said woman you keep
talking like that and i'll beat you
this boy isn't slow or crazy he's a good
boy and i've taken him from my grandson
so look he's barefooted now hurry up and
make him a pair of shoes if you don't
i'll take a stick and beat you with it
and uh good running's wife she grumbled
but she did as she was told
her husband was a kind man but when he got
got angry
angry
he his anger was great
so a new life began for long arrow he
had um
he learned to speak and to understand
and he learned begin learning to catch
up on all the other things that a boy
should know and he was a really fast
learner super smart and very soon he was
surpassed all the other boys in his age
and his knowledge and his skills
and finally at last even good running's
wife accepted him
so he grew up into a fine young hunter
he was tall and good-looking and
looked really nice in the buckskin
outfit the chief's wife made for him
helped his grandfather and everything
and became a supporter for good running
but he was lonely most of the people in
the camp still didn't forget that once
he had been an outcast
so he said grandfather one day he said
grandfather i want to do something for
to make you proud and to show people
that you were wise to adopt me
what can i do
good running said
someday you'll be a chief and you'll do
great things
well that's not what he really wanted to
hear what's something i could do now grandfather
grandfather
the chief thought for a long time
maybe i shouldn't tell you this he said
i love you and i don't want to lose you
uh but on winter nights men talk of a
powerful spirit people living at the
bottom of a lake far away
and down at the bottom of that lake the
spirit people keep these mystery animals
who do their work for them
these animals they keep down there are
larger than an elk
but they carry the burdens of the spirit
people like dogs do
so they're called pono camita elk dogs
and these animals down there are
supposed to be swift and strong and
gentle and beautiful beyond imagination
and every fourth generation one of our
young warriors has gone to find these
spirit folk and bring back an elk dog
for us
but none of our brave men has yet
i'm not afraid
i'll go and find
the elk dog
grandson first learn to be a man learn
the right prayers and ceremonies be
brave be generous and open-handed
pity the old and the fatherless and let
the holy men of the tribe find a
medicine for you which will protect you
on your dangerous journey
we will begin by purifying you in the
sweat bath
so long arrow got ready for his journey
he was purified with the steam of the
sweat lodge
he was taught how to use the pipe how to
pray to the great mystery
the tribe's holy men gave him a medicine
bag and made him a shield with
magical designs on it to keep away danger
and then one morning without telling
anyone good running loaded his sled with
all the things lone arrow would need
gave him his medicine and shield and a
bow and
as the sun came up he went with his
grandson to the edge of the camp to
purify him with cedar smoke
and long arrow
left unheard and unseen by anyone else
after a while some people noticed that
he was gone but nobody except his
grandfather knew where or for what purpose
so long era wandered southward
on the
fourth day of his journey came to a
small pond where he saw
a man standing in front of it why have
you come here
i have come to find the mysterious elk dog
dog
i cannot help you said the man who is
the spirit of the pond
but if you travel further south four
times four days you might chance upon a
bigger lake and there you will meet one
of my uncles he might be able to talk to you
you
long arrow thanked the man
where and then he went down to the
bottom of the pond where he lived
long arrow wandered on for hours and
hours and time through deep canyons and
high mountains
wearing out his moccasins and enduring
cold and heat hunger and thirst and
finally long arrow approached a big lake
surrounded by
steep pine-covered hills and came
face-to-face with a tall man who was
fierce and scowling twice the size of
most humans and he had a long spear with
a heavy spear point on it young one why
have you come here
elk dog
the stranger who was the spirit of the lake
lake
stuck his face right into long arrows
and shook his mighty spear little one
aren't you afraid of me he snarled
her grandfather will take the trouble to
listen to you
more likely he won't
walk south for four times four days and
maybe you'll find him but probably you won't
won't
so the tall spirit went down to the
bottom of the lake where he lived
long arrow walked on for another time
four times four days sleeping and
resting little and by the time he got to
the final lake
he was almost dead
had not eaten or slept and
cold and snow
uh he passed out and when he when he
awoke the sun was high up
and he saw a beautiful child standing
before him this boy in
a white buckskin robe
and the boy said we've been expecting
you for a long time my grandfather
excuse me
so he said follow me
so long arrow took his medicine shield
and his grandfather's bow and went with
this wonderful child and they came to
the edge of the lake and the spirit boy
pointed to the water and said my
grandfather's lodge is down there come
on and he turned himself into a bird
kingfisher and he dove right down to the
bottom of the lake and longhair was
standing there on the shore and he was
like how can i fall into the bottom of
the lake i'm going to drown
but then he said to himself i knew that
this would not be easy when i set out to
find the elk dog i was willing to risk death
death
and so he just jumped into the water and
he was surprised because it found it
didn't make him wet and it parted before
him and he could breathe and he could
see and
he could
you know go down walk
down to the bottom of the lake it was no problem
problem
and he went down and he came to this
small flat valley at the bottom of the
lake and there was a big teepee down there
there
and um and uh
the boy was down there and he said
welcome to my grandfather's lodge
and so long ago followed the spirit boy
inside the teepee and in the back at the
seat of honor there was a man an old man
in a black robe and he had flowing white
hair and he had
power coming out of him that
long arrow knew that he was in the
presence of a truly great one
and the holy man welcomed long arrow and
gave him some food
and um the
the wife came in and she brought dishes
of buffalo and
buffalo liver and tongues and deer meat and
and
duck and
meat pounded with berries and choked
cherries and kidney fat and all kinds of
wonderful food and long arrow just was
starving and so he ate it all down with relish
relish and
and
he looked around to admire the beautiful
furnishings of the of the teepee and this
this
shirts and robes with porcupine quills
and all of these colors of the rainbow
and these beautiful painted containers
and all these beautiful wonderful things
and after he'd finally eaten
his fill
the old spirit chief filled a pipe and
passed it to long arrow and they smoked
and they prayed silently
silently
after a while the old man said
some came before you from time to time
but they were always afraid of the deep
water so they went away with empty hands
but you grandson you were brave enough
to plunge in and therefore you are
chosen to receive a wonderful gift to
carry back to your people
now go outside with my grandson
so the beautiful boy took long arrow to
a meadow and he saw those strange
animals they were like nothing the young
man had ever seen they were galloping
and frolicking they were naying and
knickering they were truly
wonderful to look at with
beautiful glossy coats like a like a
maiden's hair with these beautiful long
manes and tails streaming in the wind
and they would rear up and they would
nuzzle each other and they looked at him
with these
huge beautiful gentle eyes
these just fiery magnificent powerful
animals with the unbelievable soft eyes
at last thought long arrow here they are
before my own eyes
the pono camita the elk dogs
watch me said the mystery boy so that
you can learn to do what i am doing
and without effort the young boy swung
himself up onto the back of an elk dog
and um it was larger uh than any elk
that long arrow had ever seen this huge
animal had carried them all over the
meadow swiftly as the wind and the
spirit boy returned and he jumped off
his mount and he said you try it and the
long arrow was a little timid but he
climbed up onto the
back of the beautiful elk dog
and uh the animal just didn't even seem
to realize he was on there it was like
nothing and he just took off flying like
an arrow and the young man felt himself
soaring through the
air like a bird does and they
experienced happiness greater than any than
than
anything and even in the joy that he he
felt when good running had adopted him
this thrill of riding like that of the
wind and the power and the
almost like flying
and when they had finished writing the
elk dogs the spirit boy said okay young
hunter now
i know what you've come for but you have
to listen to me
you may have noticed that my grandfather
wears a black medicine robe
like long like a woman's dress and he's
always trying to hide his feet
you have to try to catch a glimpse of
them and if you see his feet
he can't refuse you anything then he
will tell you
to ask him for a gift and you must ask
for three things
his rainbow colored
belt with quills this black medicine
rope and a herd of these animals which
you like
long arrow thanked him and
vowed to
do what he said
for four days the young man stayed in
the spirit chief's lodge he ate well and
went riding on the elk dogs but try as
he would he never could get a look at
the old man's feet the old man always
kept him really covered
and then on the morning of the fourth
day the old one was walking out of his teepee
teepee
when his medicine robe caught on the
flap of the entrance and as the rope
opened long arrow saw a glimpse of one
of his leg and foot and he was awed to
see that it was not a human limb at all
but it was the leg and hoof of an elk dog
dog
and he cried out in surprise and the old
man looked over his shoulder and saw
that his leg and his hoof were exposed
and the chief seemed a little
embarrassed but he shrugged and said
well i tried to hide this but you must
have been faded to see it
look both of my feet are the feet of the
elk dog
now you may ask me for a gift don't be
timid tell me what you want
and long arrow spoke and he said i want
three things
your belt of rainbow colors
your black medicine robe and your herd
of elk dogs
well so you're not really timid at all
said the old man you asked for a lot and
i'll give it to you too except that you
can't have all my elk dogs i'll give you
half of them
now i must tell you that my black
medicine robe and my mini colored belt
have elk dog magic in them
always wear the robe when you try to
catch elk dogs and then they can't get
away from you
on quiet nights if you listen closely to
the belt you will hear the elk dog dance
song in elk dog prayers
and you must learn them
and i will give you one more magic gift
this long rope woven from the hair of a
white buffalo
with it you will never fail to catch
whichever elk dog you want
the spirit chief presented him with
these magnificent gifts
and said now you must leave
at first the elk dogs will not follow
you keep the medicine robe and the magic
belt on at all times
and walk for four days toward the north
never look back always look to the north
on the fourth day the elk dogs will come
up beside you on the left
still don't look back
but after they have overtaken you catch
one with the rope of white buffalo hair
and ride him home
don't lose the black robe or you will
lose the elk dogs and never catch them again
again
so elk dog listened to the instructions
and he
he was smart so he remembered him and
the old spirit chief and his wife made
up a big pack of food and they took him
gave him a fond farewell and
the boy once again turned himself into a
bird the kingfisher and he led long
arrow up to the surface of the lake
where the boy's dog was and greeted him and
and
long arrow fed the dog and put on his
pack and started off walking to the
north and he walked for four days and
off the fourth day the elk dogs came up
on his left side and he didn't look back
and then they eventually went up ahead
of him and he caught one and
and
they gallop swiftly on
when long arrow arrived at last in his
village the people were afraid and they hid
hid
they did not recognize him sitting on
top of that beautiful elk dog i thought he was a monster like half man half
he was a monster like half man half animal
animal long arrow kept calling grandfather good
long arrow kept calling grandfather good running it's your grandson i've come
running it's your grandson i've come back bringing elk dogs
back bringing elk dogs and good running recognized his his
and good running recognized his his voice and he came out and he wept for
voice and he came out and he wept for joy
joy he had given up long arrow for lost and
he had given up long arrow for lost and then all the others came out from their
then all the others came out from their hiding places to admire the
hiding places to admire the wonderful new animals
wonderful new animals long arrow said my grandfather and
long arrow said my grandfather and grandmother who adopted me
grandmother who adopted me i can never repay you for your kindness
i can never repay you for your kindness accept these wonderful elk dogs as my
accept these wonderful elk dogs as my gift
gift now we no longer to be
now we no longer to be no longer need to be
humble foot loggers because these animals will carry us swiftly everywhere
animals will carry us swiftly everywhere we go
we go now buffalo hunting will be easy our
now buffalo hunting will be easy our teepees will be larger our possessions
teepees will be larger our possessions will be greater
will be greater an elk dog can
an elk dog can can carry a sled 10 times bigger than a
can carry a sled 10 times bigger than a regular dog
regular dog take them my grandparents i shall keep
take them my grandparents i shall keep for myself only this black male and this
for myself only this black male and this black female which i will grow into a
black female which i will grow into a fine herd
fine herd you have indeed done something great
you have indeed done something great grandson said good running and he spoke
grandson said good running and he spoke true
true the people became the bold riders of the
the people became the bold riders of the plains and could hardly imagine how they
plains and could hardly imagine how they existed without these wonderful animals
these wonderful animals i i suppose i hope you know these are horses
hope you know these are horses this is a story of how the horses came
this is a story of how the horses came to the
to the plains indians
plains indians after a long time good running who was
after a long time good running who was rich and honored by all said to long
rich and honored by all said to long arrow grandson lead us to the great
arrow grandson lead us to the great mystery lake so we can camp by its
mystery lake so we can camp by its shores let's visit the spirit chief and
shores let's visit the spirit chief and the wondrous boy maybe they'll give us
the wondrous boy maybe they'll give us some more of their power and magic gifts
some more of their power and magic gifts so long arrow led the people southward
so long arrow led the people southward and again
and again he found the great mystery lake
he found the great mystery lake but the waters would no longer part for
but the waters would no longer part for him
him and uh none of the birds or kingfishers
and uh none of the birds or kingfishers turned into a boy
turned into a boy and uh gazing down to the crystal clear
and uh gazing down to the crystal clear water
water they couldn't see any people or elk dogs
they couldn't see any people or elk dogs or a teepee there was nothing in the
or a teepee there was nothing in the lake now but a few fish
and i just love that story that's that's just gotta be one of the
just gotta be one of the one of my favorite stories um
it's a long story but it's a really good one
one um the journey of this kid his departure
um the journey of this kid his departure the
the trials and tribulations that he finds
trials and tribulations that he finds and his return bringing
and his return bringing [Music]
[Music] an incredible
an incredible new
new gift for his people horses
gift for his people horses that they had not known before and then
that they had not known before and then everybody could get on horses and ride
everybody could get on horses and ride them out into the plains
them out into the plains and hunt buffalo
um that's the hero's journey there's so
that's the hero's journey there's so almost all of the
almost all of the aspects of the hero's journey are in
aspects of the hero's journey are in that story
and yeah that's it
so questions about the story or or comments
questions about the story or or comments about it it's the only story i'm gonna
about it it's the only story i'm gonna tell
um i guess that i will add that um i found it interesting that uh this story
found it interesting that uh this story and so many others have this this idea
and so many others have this this idea where it's like i will give you a gift
where it's like i will give you a gift or a favor or something of the sort but
or a favor or something of the sort but you're not allowed to have it for a
you're not allowed to have it for a certain period of time like you have to
certain period of time like you have to prove that you're worthy you know yeah
prove that you're worthy you know yeah specifically this one reminded me of
specifically this one reminded me of like orpheus you know the leaving hades
like orpheus you know the leaving hades with his girlfriend like but you're not
with his girlfriend like but you're not allowed to look at her or else uh you
allowed to look at her or else uh you can't have her yeah and
you know i'm wondering why exactly that's a theme in so many
why exactly that's a theme in so many stories over the years like you have to
stories over the years like you have to earn it
earn it or
i'm not i'm not sure well i mean you're as much of an expert
well i mean you're as much of an expert on it as i am that's fair
on it as i am that's fair yeah so these are these are our stories
yeah so these are these are our stories um
um and
and there's probably multiple
there's probably multiple good answers i guess
good answers i guess but i i think you're right i mean i to
but i i think you're right i mean i to me it's like
me it's like gifts aren't
gifts aren't like
like you're not just given a gift that
you're not just given a gift that magically solves all your problems
magically solves all your problems because that would be just
because that would be just you know
you know like if you're fighting monsters and
like if you're fighting monsters and they give you a a a sword that
they give you a a a sword that automatically kills every monster and
automatically kills every monster and you just
you just slay everything that's not much of a
slay everything that's not much of a there's not much of drama there
there's not much of drama there you know so it's it does seem like these
you know so it's it does seem like these gifts are conditional that you have to
gifts are conditional that you have to you have to earn them they don't they're
you have to earn them they don't they're not
not they will help you
they will help you but they don't solve your problems for
but they don't solve your problems for you
you i think i think that's how i would kind
i think i think that's how i would kind of
of think about it but i think you make a
think about it but i think you make a really interesting observation
really interesting observation now i also appreciate what you just said
now i also appreciate what you just said as well um i didn't really think about
as well um i didn't really think about it in that way you know where it's not
it in that way you know where it's not meant to solve everything for you you
meant to solve everything for you you still have to work for it and i think
still have to work for it and i think that that's
that that's an interesting thing to look at
an interesting thing to look at well the orpheus connection is really
well the orpheus connection is really interesting too and i did think about
interesting too and i did think about that also this whole thing and these
that also this whole thing and these aren't the only stories but there's
aren't the only stories but there's there's other ones out there where
there's other ones out there where you can't look back because if you look
you can't look back because if you look back
back you ruin everything
you ruin everything and in this one
and in this one long arrow doesn't look back but in the
long arrow doesn't look back but in the orpheus
orpheus story from greek mythology he does and
story from greek mythology he does and he ruins everything there's a similar
he ruins everything there's a similar story in the um japanese
story in the um japanese story of izanami and izanagi but it's
story of izanami and izanagi but it's kind of found all over the world and
kind of found all over the world and it's an interesting question
it's an interesting question what's that all about you know
i think if we if we're looking back too much we're living in the past right and
much we're living in the past right and maybe there's a danger in that that we
maybe there's a danger in that that we have to completely abandon
have to completely abandon ourselves to the future
ourselves to the future in order to really manifest the gift
in order to really manifest the gift um
um i don't know like i said i'm just a
i don't know like i said i'm just a commentator like everybody else and like
commentator like everybody else and like sam said on day one we're all sort of
sam said on day one we're all sort of equal experts in all this
equal experts in all this right yeah i i appreciate that immensely
right yeah i i appreciate that immensely and i also kind of agree that it it
and i also kind of agree that it it seems that it's uh a moral kind of
seems that it's uh a moral kind of lesson and not to be too focused on the
lesson and not to be too focused on the past or
past or literally what's behind you you know
literally what's behind you you know right you got to keep moving forward
right you got to keep moving forward hopefully you
hopefully you succeed kind of thing
succeed kind of thing you get back hopefully you're like long
you get back hopefully you're like long arrow and get back to your village with
arrow and get back to your village with your horsies and everybody can start
your horsies and everybody can start writing now yeah and everyone's
writing now yeah and everyone's appreciative of you
appreciative of you i had one more thing to add that i felt
i had one more thing to add that i felt was kind of comical that just by some
was kind of comical that just by some weird coincidence recently i saw um like
weird coincidence recently i saw um like a map of the united states with the
a map of the united states with the different uh
different uh native words for horse over the years
native words for horse over the years and most of them were something similar
and most of them were something similar to elk dog where it's just like this is
to elk dog where it's just like this is a really big dog that we don't quite
a really big dog that we don't quite understand
understand and i think that's excellent you know so
and i think that's excellent you know so i just by coincidence you know i knew it
i just by coincidence you know i knew it was horses all along as soon as you said
was horses all along as soon as you said dog i'm like oh this is excellent yeah
dog i'm like oh this is excellent yeah i know it's funny how they thought it
i know it's funny how they thought it because they didn't have horses till the
because they didn't have horses till the spaniards showed up and they were like
spaniards showed up and they were like well it's big like an elk but it also
well it's big like an elk but it also does what you wanted to like a dog so
does what you wanted to like a dog so um it's kind of like an elk dog
um it's kind of like an elk dog i actually knew that for a while i
i actually knew that for a while i thought like
thought like oh horses
oh horses yeah
yeah yeah
yeah good
good um
um other questions or comments about the
other questions or comments about the story
all right so for your response paper um
um for this um i'd like you to think about
for this um i'd like you to think about the stories in the
place of foster kids and their experiences and and the hero's journey
experiences and and the hero's journey and
and what that means to you and
what that means to you and what stands out to you and
how you process all that so i'm going to go ahead and stop recording now
go ahead and stop recording now [Music]
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
