Folklore: Why the Bear has a short tail

Subject: Folklore: Why the Bear has a short tail
From: open mike
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 02:40 PM

The other day I was listening to a Native radio show and they told the story about how the bear got a long tail....it was about the Big Dipper constellation. I remembered hearing another story about how
the bear got a stumpy tail...the radio programmer encouraged me to call in to their next show to share that story. I found 5 version of it on line. Here they are...
Bear Tale 1 from   http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/bnm/bnm22.htm
Bear tale 2 from http://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/mindsongmath/ethnomath/legend/legend5.htm
Bear Tale 3 from http://mayaandriana.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/why-bear-has-a-short-tail/
Bear tale 4 from http://www.pathoftheelders.com/audio?task=videodirectlink&id=208
BEAR TALE 5 FROM http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/HowBearLostHisTail-Iroquois.html
enjoy!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Why the Bear has a short tail
From: open mike
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 12:01 PM

The story about why the bear had a long tail was connected with the constellation -- the big dipper is Ursa major...here is the story...
http://souledout.org/nightsky/ursamandm/ursamajorandminor.html
The radio show said something like the bear was spun around by his tail and that stretched it out to be long.