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- The story, Bear Woman and Deer Woman, is about the two wives of Chickenhawk. One day, while they're down by the river, they begin checking each other for lice. Grizzly lies to Doe and tells her that she has lice and must bite it out. She ends up killing Doe. Doe's head later warns her two children that Grizzly will kill them. Instead, the two fawns trick and kill the two bear children before feeding some of their remains to Grizzly. After being taunted by some kids that she's eating her own children, she begins to chase them. They get away over a stream. When Grizzly tries to get over the stream, she ends up floating away.
- Grizzly and Doe have obviously been getting along fine for a while up to this point. They have both been married to Chickenhawk long enough to have two children. Why did Grizzly suddenly decide to kill Doe? What was the point of that?
- Perhaps there is some sort of background mental illness that Grizzly suffers from that is just now beginning to manifest. It could come from postpartum depression. In a sort of psychotic break, she accidentally kills Doe. Or, it might not be an accident. Maybe she has been hallucinating and believes that Doe and her two children have been plotting Grizzly's and her two children's deaths. She might then decide to kill them before they hurt her and her kids.
- After killing Doe, the fawns are afraid and kill the bear cubs. Believing this proves her fears, Grizzly could then kill the fawns. After Chickenhawk returns from whatever he's off doing during the day, she kills him and then kills herself. Their story could be told by the village as a sort of warning.
Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson. Web source.
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