Favorite North American Indian Legends

Gathers thirteen stories about the four seasons, why animals fear the porcupine, a hunter who lives with his prey, and the treachery of two corn maidens

Treasury of imaginative tales: Algonquin story of how Glooskap conquered the Great Bull-Frog; "The Meeting of the Wild Animals," a Tsimshian myth; "The Bear Man," a Cherokee legend; and more.

Navajo-Apache Gil Silverbird reads 10 delightful Native American tales. Includes paperback edition of Favorite North American Indian Legends.

The role of storyteller was always a very special one among Native Americans, combining the functions of philosopher, historian, and entertainer. Winter was the time for the stories around the fire, when the hunt was over and people longed to be “lifted to the fairyland of pure imagination,” as an early twentieth-century Native American has said. This book contains the magic created around the Indian fireside, for readers of all ages. It includes myths of creation, culture myths, nature myths, and beast fables, as well as the legends, personal narratives and historical traditions of thirty North American Indian tribes.

More than 160 tales from eighty tribal groups present a rich and lively panorama of the Native American mythic heritage. From across the continent comes tales of creation and love; heroes and war; animals, tricksters, and the end of the world. “This fine, valuable new gathering of ... tales is truly alive, mysterious, and wonderful—overflowing, that is, with wonder, mystery and life" (National Book Award Winner Peter Matthiessen). In addition to mining the best folkloric sources of the nineteenth century, the editors have also included a broad selection of contemporary Native American voices.

Under an open sky, nestling close to the earth, the old Dakota story-tellers have told these legends time and again. While it is easy to recognise such legends without difficulty, the renderings may vary in little incidents. Here, Zitkala-Sa has tried to transplant the native spirit of these tales -- root and all -- into the English language, since America in the last few centuries has acquired a second tongue. In this volume you will find these fourteen stories and legends from the Dakotas: Iktomi And The Ducks Iktomi's Blanket Iktomi And The Muskrat Iktomi And The Coyote Iktomi And The Fawn The Badger And The Bear The Tree-Bound Shooting Of The Red Eagle Iktomi And The Turtle Dance In A Buffalo Skull The Toad And The Boy Iya, The Camp-Eater Manstin, The Rabbit The Warlike Seven THESE ARE relics of the USA’s once virgin soil. These and many others are the tales the American Indians loved so much to hear beside the night fire. For these people the personified elements and other spirits played in a vast world right around the center fire of the wigwam. It was around such fires that these 14 stories would have been told The old legends of North America now belong quite as much to the fair-skinned little patriot as to the land’s black-haired aborigine. And when they are grown tall may they, in their wisdom, not lack interest in a further study of American Indian folklore. A study which so strongly suggests the USA’s near kinship with the rest of humanity and points a steady finger toward the great brotherhood of mankind, and by which one is so forcibly impressed with the possible earnestness of life as seen through the teepee door! If it be true that much lies "in the eye of the beholder," then in the American aborigine, as in any other race, sincerity of belief, though it were based upon mere optical illusion, demands a little respect. After all, at heart, they are much like other peoples. We invite you to settle down in a comfy chair and journey back to a time when these stories were told around campfires, to the delight of young and old alike. ============= KEYWORDS-TAGS: old indian legends, Dakotas, north Dakota, south Dakota, fairy tales, folklore, myths, legends, children’s stories, children’s stories, bygone era, fairydom, fairy land, classic stories, children’s bedtime stories, fables, cultural, setting, iktomi, ducks, blanket, muskrat, coyote, fawn, badger, bear, tree bound, shooting red eagle, turtle, dance, buffalo skull, toad, the boy, iya, camp eater, manstin, rabbit, warlike, seven, Midwestern United States, Midwest, Black Hills, Deadwood, Fort Buford, Standing Rock, Wounded Knee, Upper Missouri River, Bismark, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Grand Forks, Lake Traverse, I29, I94, I90

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.