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Native American Legends: Wild Boy

Name: Wild Boy
Alternate spellings: Wild-Boy
Tribal affiliation: Caddo
Type: Hero, twin, lightning spirit
Also Known As: Coninisí, Coneneses, Coninisi, God Boys
Related figures in other tribes: Thrown-Away (Hidatsa), Spring-Boy (Crow), Long-Teeth (Arikara)

 Wild Boy is a young hero from the legends of the Caddo tribe and other Midwestern and Plains people. Wild Boy and his brother Village Boy were twins (considered a powerful and dangerous occurrence in many cultures of this region). Therefore both children have strong magical powers. In some versions of the story, a Caddaja or other monster kills the twins' pregnant mother while their father is out hunting and throws one of the unborn children into the wilderness. In other versions, Wild Boy is magically created from his mother's afterbirth. Because of their magic, both children survive, but Village Boy is found by his father and raised in civilization, while Wild Boy is not found and grows up in the wilderness. Eventually the two brothers are reunited, avenge their mother and restore her to life, and go on to have monster-slaying adventures. In Caddo mythology, the twins are associated with thunder and lightning.

Wild Boy Stories

*The Twin Brothers * The Brothers Who Became Lightning And Thunder:
    Caddo legends about the mythical twin heros.

Recommended Books of Related Native American Stories
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Traditions of the Caddo:
    A good anthology of Caddo Indian folklore and oral history.
Hold Up The Sky:
    Anthology of legends from the Caddo and other Texas tribes.
Southeastern Native American Legends:
    Book comparing the traditional stories of the Caddo and other Southeast tribes.

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Additional Resources

 Caddo heroes
 Caddo Indian tribe
 Caddo animals
 Texas tribes
 Plains Native
 Caddoan



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