Native American Curses/Myth

[ArcticChicken]

In a game we're starting soon, my character has a curse that she got messing with something supernatural. My character doesn't know about the curse (just yet) because the supernatural stuff is only just coming back into the world. My GM and I want to work up a list of potential things, but I'm having trouble finding a good source.


The game takes place in about 1873, my character is an American hunter who's traveled over most of North and South America, so something native would make the most sense. I'm thinking mostly went someplace I shouldn't have or shot (at) something that got really pissed off. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Mytical]

Coyote (the trickster) would be your best bet. Loves playing pranks and such on unsuspecting people. Crow would probably be another good one. Can't find sources to link, but those two are probably the most common that might curse/hex somebody.

[Divra]

You didn't specify a tribe, and Native American religious practices can be as different as Taoism and Rastafari, so I grabbed some ideas from other traditions and I hope they'll be useful to finding something you can use.

Some ideas:

The Irish hero Chucullain was under two geasa. He could never eat dog meat, and he could never refuse to eat food given to him by a widow, or he would die. He died because he was offered dog stew by the widow of one of his enemies, who had learned about the geasa. A broken geas would probably fit the bill.

In Sami tradition, the nåjd (shaman) gives everyone a geas at birth. This can be anything from not touching gold or never allowing anyone to strike your left arm, to not being allowed to eat oranges, or to never let your left foot touch the ground first when you get out of bed. Violating this geas means that you violate the bond between yourself and the spirits of nature, and restoring that balance involves some major sacrificing. Maybe your character's tribe has similar traditions.

The indigenous people of Australia have a tradition involving a spirit animal. Every person's soul is linked to an animal, and to kill or eat your spirit animal is a HUGE taboo, to the point that people are known to have starved themselves to death rather than break it. If your character comes from a people with a similar tradition, an accidental killing (or premeditated one, for example if you killed a cougar in self-defense) of your spirit animal would turn that spirit against you.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Awl-finger is a nasty witch from Cherokee myth here in Western North Carolina. She could disguise herself as a kindly grandmother and would sneak into a village, call to a child and ask to brush its hair, lull it to sleep, then use the titular finger (always kept hidden from view), to snatch out the child's liver and eat it, then steal away in the commotion. When in her normal form, her skin looked like rock and gave off a terrible smell that attracted flies -- which is why if you should see flies buzzing around a rock pile you should turn the other way and leave very quickly.

Seems like the cursing type.

Then again, there's also the fact that the entire city I live in is supposed to bear a Cherokee curse, but that's another matter.

[bhskittykatt]

Just did a quick Google search on my break. This article about Navajo skin-walkers looks very interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

Although it is most frequently seen as a coyote, wolf, owl, fox, or crow, the yee naaldlooshii is said to have the power to assume the form of any animal they choose, depending on what kind of abilities they need. Witches use the form for expedient travel, especially to the Navajo equivalent of the 'Black Mass', a perverted song (and the central rite of the Witchery Way) used to curse instead of to heal. They also may transform to escape from pursuers.

Skinwalkers use charms to instill fear and control in their victims. Such charms include human bone beads launched by blowguns, which embed themselves beneath the surface of the skin without leaving a mark, and human bone dust which can cause paralysis and heart failure. Skinwalkers have been known to find traces of their victim's hair, wrap it around a pot shard, and place it into a tarantula hole. Even live rattlesnakes are known to be used as charms by the skinwalker.

[draggar]

Coyote (the trickster) would be your best bet. Loves playing pranks and such on unsuspecting people. Crow would probably be another good one. Can't find sources to link, but those two are probably the most common that might curse/hex somebody.

I agree, the Coyote for general Native American mythology

[Andara Bledin]

Any old world spirit is as likely to hex someone as any other.

Some would do it as a learning experience, others as a punishment, and yet others just because that was the mood they were in that day.

I think the best way is to figure out what you want the effects to be, then work backwards to figure out how to make that happen.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

The old Greek Gods just loved cursing a naughty hero in ways that left the hero alive, but miserable. Check out a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology or Bullfinch's Mythology for lots of stories. An easy way for an American to cross those gods would be breaking the laws of hospitality, because they go so against how we normally handle people coming to our doors unexpected and unknown.


Edit: Dur! missed the native American slant (tired, sorry). Look up curses for treading on hallowed ground. Lots of stories of pissing off ancestral spirits fron different tribes.

[Mytical]

Oh yes, hallowed ground trespass is a BIG no no.

[AnaKhouri]

In some stories, a person who has eaten human flesh will become a wendigo. Not sure if this is really what you're looking for though, as it's kind of gross.

[Barracuda]

You could try looking up tales of the Hawaiian Mo'o. Mo'o was a giant lizard with shape-shifting powers the ancient Hawaiians looked to as a guardian water spirit. Mo'o could be fearsome if angered. Once angered, the only way to escape the wrath of the Mo'o was to create an impossible task for the Mo'o to complete (one Hawaiian hero of legend secretly drilled holes in a gourd, then asked the Mo'o to fill it with water.) Mo'o is associated with the gecko, and is said to be angered by those who crush gecko eggs. That's one possible hook. I know it's not native to South America, but there is no reason one couldn't have traveled there from Polynesia and made its home in the jungle.

[ArcticChicken]

Thanks guys, this has all been very helpful. My GM and I have decide to work up a list of possible curses, then he'll pick one without telling me which, 'cause my character doesn't know she's cursed yet.

I'd still welcome any more ideas anyone has.