Ceremony: Journal #2 The Native American culture has many myths. These myths are mostly about nature such as animals, insects, or weather patterns. Leslie Silko incorporates these Native American myths many times though out her book “Ceremony”. The myth “Mooin, the Bear Child” is closely related to Silko’s idea of the character Shush. Bears in both of these stories serve as a symbol of strength and medicine. The myth “Mooin, the Bear Child” is about a boy whose Step Father has jealousy toward him about his mothers attention being always on her son. The Step Father tries to kill the boy by leaving him in the woods locked in a cave with a rock covering the entrance. The Great Chief was the only one to know what had actually happened to the child and told his servant the porcupine to help the boy. The porcupine couldn’t free the boy it self so it called upon the other animals to help. All the animals except the bear failed to free the boy from the cave. After the porcupine thanked the bear and the rest of the animals for helping it said that now it has to find someone to take care of the child because it was no suited enough to due to unfit diet. All the animals brought a small meal and one by one they attempted to give the child their food. The child rejected every meal except for when the bears. The bear was named the foster mother of the child. The bear brought up the child as her own and he took on many traits and qualities that of a bear such as walking on four limbs, gathering berries, and hiding/running from hunters. One day while the bear family was in a tree they encountered hunters and the mother decided that they would not all make it out alive if they did not do as she said. The mother bear jumped out of the tree first and was shot, the two brother cubs had the mother as a distraction and jumped out and got away, and the child asked the hunters not to shoot and to pitty his young sister cub. They did and they vowed not to every kill a mother bear or her children ever again. From then on the child was given the name Mooin. This myth is similarly related to that of the charecter Shush’s story in the book “Ceremony”. Shush was also raised by bears and then later lives and helps a medicine man. The name Shush means bear. Shush like Mooin took on the traits of his bear family, “he was already walking like his sisters he was already crawling on the ground.” (Silko 120) when his family tired to find him. The bear primarily symbolizes strength and confidence in Native American cultures as well as others . It is also