Native American Myths, Legends, Dreams, and Omens

In the young adult novel The Marrow Thieves (2017), Métis author Cherie Dimaline takes us through the dystopian lives of Native American youth in a world where dreams are non-existent for all of humanity save for Native people, who hold dreams in their bone marrow and are hunted down for it. This project will investigate some of the spiritual traditions of Native American culture, from animals seen by some tribes as harbingers of bad times to come or heralds of fortune, to myths and legends like the Wendigo, to the importance of dreams, which are key to Native American spiritualism and are the subject of Dimaline's novel.