Native American Storytelling A Reader of Myths and Legends

by Kroeber, Karl

• ISBN13: 9781405115421
• ISBN10: 1405115424
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-01-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The myths and legends in this collection have been selected both for their excellence as stories and because they illustrate the distinctive nature of Native American storytelling. They are drawn from oral traditions of the major culture areas of aboriginal North America, and include trickster tales, origin myths and stories of domestic sexual conflict. In a substantial introduction and headnotes to each story, editor Karl Kroeber highlights the otherness of Native American narratives, in which suspense is insignificant, metaphors hardly used, protagonists are often unnamed and ambiguity of motives is stressed. He reveals the highly practical functions of myths and legends in Native American societies, demonstrating how they helped listeners to explore the efficacy of social practices and cultural institutions, and how they reinforced American Indiansrs" profound spiritual engagement with their natural environment. This collection makes accessible to any reader the uniqueness and diversity of Native American storytelling.

Author Biography

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