Legendary Native American Figures: Thrown Away (Spring-Boy)
Name: Thrown Away Tribal affiliation:Crow, Assiniboine, Hidatsa, Arapaho, Sauk, Menominee Also known as: Thrown-Away, Spring-Boy, Spring Boy, Thrown-In-Spring, Found-In-Grass, Found-in-the-Grass, Bad Boy Native names: Bii'oxúyoo/Bii'oxiyoo (Arapaho, pronounced bee-akh-uh-yaw), Mahaash/Mahash/Ma-hash (Hidatsa), Wahinak'weakit (Menominee), Fåtcasigo (Creek). Type:Hero, magical twin Related figures in other tribes:Wild Boy (Caddo)
Thrown Away is a young hero from the legends of the Crow tribe and other Midwestern and Plains people.
Thrown Away and his brother Lodge Boy
were twins (considered a powerful and dangerous occurrence in many cultures of this region) and were also ripped
from their mother's womb, another portentous event. Consequently, Thrown Away and his brother had
strong magical powers. In most versions of the story, a Two Face
or other vicious monster (or sometimes a violent relative) kills Thrown-Away's pregnant mother while his father is out hunting.
The villain throws one of the unborn children behind a curtain in the lodge, and the other one out the door into the yard
or into a spring of water. Because of their magic, both children survive, but Lodge Boy (who was thrown inside the lodge)
is found by his father and raised in civilization, while Thrown Away (who was thrown outside the lodge) is not found and
grows up in the wilderness. Eventually Thrown Away reunites with his brother, avenges his mother's death, and goes on to
have monster-slaying adventures.
In some versions of the epic Lodge Boy is a moral person while Thrown Away is wicked; in others,
Thrown Away is wilder and more uncivilized, but both are generally benevolent heroes.
Native American cultures
Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away:
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