Native American Storytelling: A Reader of Myths and Legends / Edition 1

by Karl Kroeber

Overview

The myths and legends in this book have been selected both for their excellence as stories and because they illustrate the distinctive nature of Native American storytelling.

• 
  
• A collection of Native American myths and legends.
  
• Selected for their excellence as stories, and because they illustrate the distinctive nature of Native American storytelling.
  
• Drawn from the oral traditions of all major areas of aboriginal North America.
  
• Reveals the highly practical functions of myths and legends in Native American societies.
  
• Illustrates American Indians’ profound engagement with their natural environment.
  
• Edited by an outstanding interpreter of Native American oral stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2901405115420
Publication date:	01/16/1991
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Karl Kroeber is Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. His previous publications include Ishi in Three Centuries (ed. 2003), Artistry in American Indian Myths (1998), and Ecological Literary Criticism (1994). He is Editor Emeritus of Studies in American Indian Literature.

Table of Contents

	List of Figures	viii
	To The Reader	1
	Tewa	14
1	"Where they were living lived Laughing Warrior Girl..."	16
	Kalispell	18
2	"A young man (Rabbit) lived with his grandmother. One day he pitied her..."	19
	Kathlamet	21
3	"There was a chief of a town. His relatives lived in five towns...."	22
	Tillamook	25
4	"Wild Woman was living alone. Her husband, High Class Crane,..."	27
	Sioux	39
5	"A man lived with his two wives and a brother. One day the brother..."	41
	Origins	45
	Cherokee (A)	47
6	"In the beginning there was no fire, and the world was cold, until..."	47
	Gros Ventre	49
7	"The people before the present people were wild. They did not know..."	49
	Cherokee (B)	52
8	"When I was a boy this is what the old men told me they had heard..."	53
	Seneca (A)	60
9	"A long time ago human beings lived high up in what is now called..."	61
	Seneca (B)	64
10	"There was a lodge in the forest where very few people ever came,..."	65
	Eskimo	67
11	"Two men were trappers. One of them kept catching a lot of groundhogs;..."	69
	Cherokee (C)	72
12	"Once when all the people of the settlement were out..."	73
	Trickster	75
	Three Chinook-Wishram Coyote Tales	77
13	"Coyote heard about two women who had fish..."	78
14	"A certain old man was sitting in the trail with his penis..."	80
15	"Again Coyote travelled up the river. In the water he saw..."	83
	Clackamas (A)	86
16	"Coyote and his five children lived there, four males,..."	87
	Clackamas (B)	91
17	"They lived there, Seal, her daughter, and Seal's younger brother...."	93
	Hopi	95
18	"In Oraibi the people were living. At the west end of the south row..."	97
	Wintu	102
19	"Long ago, there came into being some people who had four children,..."	103
	Yana	105
20	"'Now dig for roots. The nuts are already ripe--let's climb...'"	107
	Navajo	109
21	"On the morrow, when he went forth on his hunt, his father..."	110
	Blackfoot	118
22	"'There are two bright stars,' Brings-Down-the-Sun said, 'that sometimes...'"	120
	Onondaga	127
23	"Tall, fierce and hostile, they were a powerful tribe, the Stone Giants!..."	128
	Further Reading	131
	Index	134