Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of the Upper Peninsula

By Richard M. Dorson

Book Overview

Folklore as it comes from the mouths of living storytellers has a matchless authority and conviction. Richard Dorson, living for five months among the Indians, Finns, Canadiens, Cornishmen, lumberjacks, sailors, miners, and sagamen of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, has listened to their tales, which this book reproduces with all their native thunder and salt. With this lively evidence he proves that America still has its myth-makers and purveyors of myth, who represent, both ethnically and historically, an enormous range of traditional oral folklore. We meet the Chippewa and Potawatomi Indians, who tell their own heroic versions of the wars with the white men, and whose chief delight is to relate the adventures of the folk hero, Winabijou. For them, as for the French-Canadians and Finns, magical beliefs have been part of their daily education and entertainment. Each group has its own version of European folk tales: the old fairy stories find new form as dragons are conquered with razors and soap, and giants talk in the idiom of the backwoods and pioneer towns. Some of these myths center around imaginary and semi-imaginary folk heroes; others spring from local politics, and even more from local occupations. The woods tales of lumberjacks, the tragic mysteries of the mines, the weird adventures on the Lakes, each kind of tale has its representative teller. Sometimes the raconteur's most exciting fables concern his own wonderful exploits'e"with women, drink, and wicked employers. Rooted deep in storytelling tradition, these tales hark back to the frontier and immigrant past of an America shaped by many peoples with extraordinary experiences. Mr. Dorson provides, in his introduction, a simple account of the idea behind the book and his methods of procuring the tales, in concise and closely written notes at the end of the book he furnishes annotations to the tales which should satisfy and stimulate every folklorist, professional or otherwise. Mr. Dorson did much of the fieldwork for this book under a Library of Congress Fellowship; he has also held a Harvard Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Faculty Study Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674076656
• ISBN13: 9780674076655
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Another world --- The Upper Peninsula of Michigan

In 1946 folklorist Richard Dorson crossed the Straits of Mackinac entering "an uncharted world of folk societies." He spent five months in the field interviewing Lake Superior fisherman, lumberjacks, miners, Ojibway Indians, and immigrants who worked in the copper and iron mines of the Upper Peninsula. Dorson got the title from old-timers who said they had the power to stop blood from flowing from a wound or nosebleed, sometimes doing this over the phone. The Bearwalkers were evildoers similar to the Navajo Skinwalkers. Some of the most fascinating passages deal with the Finlanders who emigrated from Lapland. They believed in noitas, or religious magicians, who cured the sick, charmed or cursed evildoers, and protected his people against invaders. In the old country, noitas were often burned for witchcraft. Dorson interviewed a man who claimed a noita hung by his neck for a week or two, and when he was cut down, twisted his neck about a bit and said, "This is good training for the neck muscles." The Cornishmen, who worked in the copper mines, were almost as interesting as the Finns. These "Country Jacks" as they were called had many strange beliefs that have become local customs. A rooster crowing at midnight is the sign of death of a relative; a green Christmas makes a fat graveyard; if you wash your blankets in May, you drive your friends away; never return borrowed salt. Dorson compares the old time lumberjacks of the Upper Peninsula to medieval knights in respect to standards of valor, honor, justice, and chivary. "The teamsters cherished their horses and the axeman their broadaxes as ever the armored knight his war steed and broadsword." Both spent a lot of time fighting for sheer fun. And, of course, they liked to drink. After six or seven months in the woods, they would blow four or five hundred dollars on rot gut whiskey. The iron miners were another fascinating group. To kill a rat in the mine was worse than murder. Rats knew ahead when the ground was breaking; they could hear it. Also, the relationship between the miners and the owners provided grist for a curious folklorist. Cousin Jacks were followed by Finlanders, Swedes, Italians, Bohunks, Poles, and Irish. They were suspicious and envious of each other and couldn't understand each other, a situation the owners rather liked. Dorsons chapter headings will give you a further idea of the ground he covered: Indians Stuffed and Live; Bearwalkers; Tricksters and Thunders; Canadians; Cousin Jacks; Finns; Bloodstoppers; Townsfolk; Lumberjacks; Miners; Lakesman; and Sagamen.