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  • 2024 Festival, Indigenous Voices of the Americas, Storytelling

    Baby Rattlesnake: A Chickasaw Folklore Comic

    July 30, 2024 | Zihan Zhang | Comments
    Illustrated comic in muted colors with black outlines and text. Panel 1: A woman with long gray hair, red dress, black and white apron, and brown moccasins raises her index finger, facing two seated people who also raised their index fingers. At their feet, a snake in a zig-zag shape. The title text is in between them: Baby Rattlesnake. Chickasaw Folklore By Amy Bluemel. Illustrated by Mantageri. Below the panel, text: Everyone, fingers up, and sway along with our baby rattlesnake! Panel 2: The snake passed by many kinds of trees. Text: Once upon a time, there was a baby rattlesnake. Panel 3: The snake curls up in the grass. Text: He is small. He is gray. He is not very scary. Between panels, text: However... The next four panels each show a snake with their relation in text: his daddy, his mommy, his brother, his sister... Panel 8: Four vicious looking snakes on a blue background. Text: everyone in his family has a rattle. Panel 9: The baby snake sheds two tears. Text: The baby snake feels very sad, so he goes to his family, hoping to get a rattle of his own. Panel 10: he faces a bigger snake, who tells him, in the Chickasaw language, Iskanno'si. Text: He goes to his mom. She says, No, you are too little. Panel 11: he faces another bigger snake, who tells him Iskanno'si. Text: He goes to his dad. He says, No, you are too little. Panel 12: He faces two bigger snakes, who tell him Iskanno'si. Text: He goes to his uncles. They say, No, you are too little. Panel 13: He faces another big snake, who tells him, Iskanno'si. Text: He goes to his auntie. She says, No, you are too little. Panel 14: The baby snake, still teary, faces a much larger coiled snake on a red rug with a tapestry of a treed landscape behind her. The larger snake says, Well. The baby snake says, Please... Grandma... Text: Finally, he goes to his grandmother. After thinking for a moment, she says... Panel 15: The baby snake looks joyous, with music notes over him and sparking lines from his new rattle at the end of his tail. Text in quotes: Give him the rattle! In the next three panels, the rattle sways left and right, and the baby snake proclaims, I have a rattle. I have a rattle! I have a rattle!! Panel 19: The baby snake with a rattle slithers through the grass among apple trees. Text: The baby snake brings his rattle to the forest. Panels 20, 21, 22: a white rabbit runs through the grass, then looks shocked. Text: There, he sees Chofki' crossing the lush green meadow. Panel 23: The snake bares his teeth and shakes his rattle at the rabbit as it flee. Text: The little snake shakes his tail and springs out from the bushes. Chokfi' jumps in surprise and hurriedly scurries away. Panel 24: The snake curls around, looking at his own tail, a heart in a speech bubble from his mouth. Panel 25: He proclaims, Today is the best day of my life! Panel 26: He slither among the trees. Text: The baby snake continues to wander through the forest. Panels 27, 28, 29: a gray raccoon walks through the grass, a question mark rising above his head. Text: There, he sees Shawi' picking a tiny wildflower. Panel 30: The snake hisses at the raccoon, who stands in shock. Text: The baby snake shakes his tail and springs out from the grass. Shawi' jumps in surprise and hurriedly scurries away. Panel 31: The snake hisses at a light brown deer with short antlers as it runs away. Text: The baby snake also uses his rattle to startle Issi' drinking by the stream. Panel 32: The snake hisses at a large brown bear as it runs away. Text: He ever startled passing Nita'! Panel 33: A woman with long dark braids, a white dress and apron with red fringer, and fringed moccasins walks among the trees. Text: From afar, a Chickasaw woman walks through the woods. Panel 34: Closeup on the woman's face. Text: She is tall, strong, and beautiful. Panel 35: white birds with black heads flying in the blue sky. Panel 36: a hand reaches for a red apple among green foliage. Panel 37: The snake sees the woman from behind a bush. Text: If I can startle her... Panel 38: The snake lunges at the woman's feet. Text: ... I'll be the bravest rattlesnake of all! Panel 39: Her braids flying, the woman stomps on the snake as he cries out. Text: As the baby rattlesnake slithered closer, the beautiful woman stomped hard on his rattle. Panel 40: The snake slithers away, its rattle in pieces behind him. Text: She broke his rattle! Text: Poor little snake, with tears streaming down, fled back to his mom. She comforted him and said... Panel 41: as the baby snake cries, his mom curls toward him, saying, I told you, my dear. Iskanno'si. Panel 42: A large snake looks back toward two baby snakes, one just hatched from an egg. Text: And that's why all baby rattlesnakes don't have rattles. Panel 43: A woman in a red dress and two children walk through the forest, white birds flying overhead. Text: And Chickasaw children always listen to their elders.

    Read more about Chickasaw storyteller Amy Bruton Bluemel, who performed daily at the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, on the Festival Blog.

    Zihan Zhang is an illustration intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and a graduate student at Savannah College of Art and Design. Under the artist name Mantageri, she hopes to use images to bridge language barriers and better disseminate folklore and culture.

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