The Painted Turtle

There was a chief, and he had a fine-looking girl. There was a painted turtle, and he fell in love with the chief's daughter. But he could not come to see her or get to speak to her, because neither the girl nor her parents paid any attention to him. He kept thinking, "How can I win that girl?" And day after day he came, but still they did not notice him. Finally he thought, "If I would paint up, they would notice it and ask me why I painted." He painted up and went to the chief's lodge and the girl fell in love with him as soon as she saw him. So he told her to follow him and started off and went to a big river. When she first saw the turtle, she thought it was a human being, but when they got to the water and she saw that it was a turtle instead of a man, she said, "I cannot go any farther with you." He said, "Come and follow me. You will turn into a turtle the same as I am." When she went in, she turned into a turtle, but a different kind, a soft shell. Sometimes they name women after this turtle. (As told by an unidentified Peoria informant to Truman Michelson, 1916; after Knoepfle 1993)