Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in
Speaker 2: time as our core Stuff to Blow Your Mind episodes
Speaker 2: have been about the Prairie. I wanted to turn to
Speaker 2: some mythic beings associated with these lands, and in searching
Speaker 2: around for the right topic, I found not a monster,
Speaker 2: but a monster slayer in the form of Katoyus or
Speaker 2: blood clot Boy. Katoyus is a mythic hero of the
Speaker 2: Blackfoot or Nisitipi people, whose historic lands include vast expanses
Speaker 2: of the North American Prairie. Katoyus gets his name, which
Speaker 2: means blood clot from his miraculous birth. So global myth
Speaker 2: folklore and religion is full of this particular motif, including
Speaker 2: such figures as Peach Boy in Japanese tradition, who is
Speaker 2: of course born to an elderly couple from a magical peach.
Speaker 2: In the traditions of Catoyus, and various related heroes of
Speaker 2: indigenous North American traditions, this hero is born out of
Speaker 2: a blood clot which falls from the wound of a bison.
Speaker 2: When an elderly couple boils the blood clot hoping to
Speaker 2: make a soup, this miraculous infant emerges and swiftly matures
Speaker 2: into a monster and giant slaying hero, as Eldon Yellowhorn
Speaker 2: discusses in Calling Down the Spirits in the Sky, Blackfoot
Speaker 2: Astronomy and Sense of the Sacred, published twenty twenty in
Speaker 2: Intersections of Religion and Astronomy, This hero is associated with
Speaker 2: blood red Mars in the Night Sky and in Blackfoot Astronomy,
Speaker 2: this being his ultimate place in the heavens after he
Speaker 2: finally dies in heroic battle, but before that can happen.
Speaker 2: Before he perishes, he indeed protects the word against aggressors,
Speaker 2: food deniers, cruel sons and laws, and of course monsters
Speaker 2: of plenty. In nineteen eighties Plistocene Animals in Folk Memory,
Speaker 2: folkloris George E. Langford discussed Blood Clot Boy as he
Speaker 2: factored into the traditions of the Cree and Ojibwei peoples,
Speaker 2: and indeed he pops up in several different indigenous mythologies,
Speaker 2: and as Langford explorers, has connections to other tales in
Speaker 2: which a hero is born from the body of a
Speaker 2: mother slain by an ogre, and the hero then avenges
Speaker 2: his mother by of course, of slaying that ogre. The
Speaker 2: ogre in question, he points out, sometimes might take on
Speaker 2: avert bear like qualities or be thought of as some
Speaker 2: sort of a monstrous bear, but other times is described
Speaker 2: in more clearly fantastic terms. So it just depends on
Speaker 2: the telling and the particular tradition. These mental images that
Speaker 2: you might have right now of Catoeus and his miraculous
Speaker 2: birth from a bison's blood clot a certainly enthralling, But
Speaker 2: we can't let the pure mental spectacle of the thing
Speaker 2: distract us from its significance. He is a castaway turned hero,
Speaker 2: born directly from the blood of the bison, the sacred
Speaker 2: source of food, shelter, and spiritual life for the Blackfoot
Speaker 2: people and other indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. Bison
Speaker 2: wants rome North America and numbers estimated to be between
Speaker 2: thirty and sixty million before the coming of Europeans and
Speaker 2: the subsequent mass slaughter of the creatures. In the eighteen seventies,
Speaker 2: a government sanctioned act that was intended to undermine and
Speaker 2: control the Plain's Native American tribes. I have to admit
Speaker 2: I had not heard of blood clot Boy before researching
Speaker 2: Prairie and Prairie based folkloric traditions. So I feel like
Speaker 2: my life is richer for knowing about him, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to have to look around to see if I
Speaker 2: can find some other good sources about the various tales, adventures,
Speaker 2: and exploits of this hero and related heroes. So perhaps
Speaker 2: so come back and explore another one in an upcoming
Speaker 2: episode of The Monster Fact. And indeed, you can tune
Speaker 2: in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact
Speaker 2: or Animalogus do Pendium each week. As always, you can
Speaker 2: email us for suggestions comments you name it at contact
Speaker 2: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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