"The scholarly standard of the contributions is uniformly high. Professor Meldrum has put forth a stimulating book on a central theme in Western literary studies."Western American Literature
The narratives include myths of ancient times, legends of supernatural power bestowed on selected individuals, historical accounts, and anecdotes of mysterious incidents.
The publication of Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians by the American Folk-Lore Society in 1938 illustrated the richness of the material on the tribes of the Southwest. Still a treasure-house of information, it appears with a new introduction and for the first time in paperback.
Anthropologists George A. Dorsey (1868-1931) and Alfred L. Kroeber (1876-1960) joined forces to record and preserve the rich cultural traditions of the Arapaho Indians. This result of their collaboration was first published in 1903 and bears witness to the religious feeling, imagination, and humor of the Arapaho. Marvelous and mundane entities populate these vibrant tales, where spirit permeates everything, and everything has meaning.
Myths And Traditions Of The Crow Indians is now reprinted with a new introduction by Peter Nabokov. These concretely detailed accounts served the crow Indians as entertainments, morals lessons, cultural records, and guides to the workings of the universe.
First encountered by explorer Hernando de Soto in the 16th century, the Caddoan tribes, found along the Red River in present-day Arkansas and Louisiana, practiced agriculture long before they hunted buffalo. These tales vibrate with both earthly and unearthly forces.
Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians, originally published in 1908 by the American Museum of Natural History, introduces such figures as Old Man, Scar-Face, Blood-Clot, and the Seven Brothers. Included are tales with ritualistic origins emphasizing the prototypical Beaver-Medicine and the roles played by Elk-Woman and Otter-Woman, and a presentation of Star Myths, which reveal the astronomical knowledge of the Blackfoot Indians. Narratives about Raven, Grasshopper, and Whirlwind-Boy account for conditions in humanity and nature. Many of the stories in the concluding group-like "The Lost Children" and "The Ghost-Woman"-were tales told to Blackfoot children.Clark Wissler notes that these narratives were collected very early in the twentieth century from the Piegans in Montana and from the North Piegans, Bloods, and Northern Blackfoot in Canada. Most were translated by D. C. Duvall and revised for Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians by Wissler.Wissler (1870-1947) was curator at the American Museum of Natural History and chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. Among his major works are North American Indians of the Plains and Man and Culture.Introducing this Bison Book edition is Alice B. Kehoe, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Marquette University and the author of North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account.
The Dogrib Indians are one of the Dene groups - Athapaskan-speaking peoples of the western Canadian Subarctic. Based on the author's field studies from 1959 to 1976, this volume presents an ethnographic description of the Dogrib prophet movement.