Storytelling for Week 9: Rose Fairy

Once upon a time, there was a Native American girl named Rose. She was only two months shy of turning eighteen, and then she would have to get married.

Her mother and father loved her dearly and only wanted the best for her. They had spoken with the parents of Running Bull about an impending wedding. Running Bull was nineteen and a hunter. All he cared about was tracking animals, killing animals, and eating animals. Rose got tired of hearing about it.

Their tribe lived in a field that brushed up against the woods. Tepees and fire pits dotted the area, and the tribe members worked merrily at gardening, crafting, and preparing food.

But when Rose wasn't supposed to be helping her mother weave baskets, Rose sneaked off into the forest to look for the tiny fairies. She had heard stories about the miniscule species growing up. They left little footprints in the soft sand by the brook in the forest. They wove ropes from grasses and coaxed lightning bugs to land on them to make garlands of twinkling lights.

Rose was entranced by the evidence that the fairies left, but she had never seen any.

"Rose, darling, if you spent more time with Running Bull and less time wandering around in the woods, you might like Running Bull more," Rose's mother said.

Rose just rolled her eyes. No matter how much time she spent with Running Bull, she would never like him.

"Mother, do you believe in the fairies?" Rose asked to change the subject.

"I heard the stories about them when I was a girl, but it's hard for me to believe in something I cannot see, Rose," her mother said.

"If I could show you the fairies and how much they mean to me, would you not make me marry Running Bull?" Rose asked.

Rose hoped that her mother would find the deal so farfetched that she would agree to it, and she got her wish.

From then on, she spent even more time in the woods searching for the fairies. She didn't have much time to prove her mother wrong.

On the day of Rose and Running Bull's wedding, Rose stole off into the forest during her last hour before the wedding. The guests were already dressed and waiting for the ceremony to start.

Rose ran through the woods in her flowing white wedding dress. She wore a crown of flowers in her hair. She had to find the fairies.

"Come out! Come out!" she called.

Suddenly, she stopped. As if the fairies had finally understood the urgency of her request, one appeared to her.

(Image information: "Fairies Looking Through a Gothic Arch" by John Anster Fitzgerald 1864.)

He was only about eighteen inches tall. He had raggedy brown hair that hung in his eyes, ivory skin, and deep green eyes. His translucent wings stretched far above his head.

 Rose fell in love with him instantly.

The fairy reached out his hand to Rose, and when she took it, she began to shrink. When she, too, was only eighteen inches tall, the two ran off into the woods together.

And Rose was never seen from again. But every year on her mothers birthday, she wove a rope of grasses and hung miniscule woven baskets.


Author's Note: This story is inspired by "The Fairy Bride" from American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae 1921.  In the original, Neen-i-zu is supposed to marry a hunter, but she doesn't want to and spends most of her time daydreaming about the fairies. In the end, she does become a fairy. But the rest of the story seemed very slow and passive to me. So in my story, I gave the main girl a more active goal in trying to prove the existence of the fairies in order to get out of an arranged marriage. I chose to retell this story because I really liked the imagery of the fairies.