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    Indian Legends Retold
    Indian Legends Retold
    Indian Legends Retold
    Ebook141 pages1 hour

    Indian Legends Retold

    By George Varian and Elaine Goodale Eastman

    4/5

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    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    Indian Legends Retold

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    Reviews for Indian Legends Retold

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    • 4/5
      It has a nice introduction with information about the various tribes. The stories are short. Kindness brings benefits. Tricksters get whats coming to them. Some are funny.

    Book preview

    Indian Legends Retold - George Varian

    Project Gutenberg's Indian Legends Retold, by Elaine Goodale Eastman

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: Indian Legends Retold

    Author: Elaine Goodale Eastman

    Illustrator: George Varian

    Release Date: April 19, 2011 [EBook #35909]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN LEGENDS RETOLD ***

    Produced by K Nordquist, Sam W. and the Online Distributed

    Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was

    produced from images generously made available by The

    Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

    INDIAN

    LEGENDS RETOLD

    BY

    ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN

    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

    GEORGE VARIAN

    BOSTON

    LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

    1919

    Copyright, 1919,

    By Little, Brown, and Company.

    ——

    All rights reserved

    Published, September, 1919

    Norwood Press

    Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

    Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

    THE CAPTIVE

    The murdered dove instantly became a whole flock of hawks.

    Frontispiece. See page 18.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENT

    The author wishes to thank the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D.C., for kind permission to make use of certain of the stories contained in their collections.

    INTRODUCTION

    THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIAN LEGENDS

    THE first Indian legends, repeated by the fireside to children, deal with the animals humanized, their gifts and their weaknesses, in such a way as to be a lesson to the young. Our view of the creation allows a soul to all living creatures, and rocks and trees are reverenced as sharers in the divine. Beyond their simplicity and realism there is always the unexplained, the background of mystery and spirituality.

    These animal fables serve as an introduction to more complicated stories with human actors, which almost always have their hidden moral and are accepted by our people as guides to life. They are full of humor and poetry, of pride, tenderness, boastfulness, and real heroism. Human lives are mingled with the supernatural, with elements and mysterious powers, bringing swift punishment for wrong-doing. This is the basis of our Indian philosophy, the groundwork early laid in the mind of the child, for him to develop later in life by his own observation.

    One who reads these stories carefully and thoughtfully will understand something of Indian psychology. Mystery to the Indian is not mystery after all, but a reflection of the Great Mystery which opens out as simply as a flower. To us nothing is strange or impossible. It seems natural that an animal or even a rock should speak; God is in it and speaks through it.

    It must be remembered that these are only fragments of what were once consecutive and continued stories, too long and involved to be set down here in full. With just such stories the foundation of my early education was laid in the cold winter evenings, and the impression made was permanent. The characters were real people to me, and the tales of the old men and old women fostered a love of nature, reverence, a kindly spirit, and finally patriotism and the inspiration to heroic effort. Like the other boys, I was expected to learn them by heart and rehearse them in the family circle. It is gratifying to have these old stories saved for the children of another race and generation.

    Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa).

    CONTENTS

    ILLUSTRATIONS

    INDIAN LEGENDS RETOLD

    A LITTLE TALK ABOUT INDIANS

    MANY of us think of the American Indians as all one people. We talk of the Indian language. There are more than fifty distinct Indian languages.

    There are many other important differences between the various tribes. The nature of the country, the kinds of game and other foods, the climate, winds, trees, all have their effect in molding the daily lives of the people. Their habits and customs are reflected in their legends and popular tales as in a looking-glass.

    The mountains, plains, and seashore are the great natural features of our country, and corresponding to these we have coast tribes, prairie tribes, and forest-dwellers or mountaineers among the natives. If you try, you will soon be able to tell from reading a story what part of the country it came from. It is an interesting study to read and compare the legends of different tribes.

    The Cherokees lived originally in the South Atlantic States and some few still have their homes in the mountains of North Carolina, but the greater part of the tribe was forcibly removed many years ago to the old Indian Territory. There they developed a civilized government, established schools and colleges, and are now well educated and intermixed with white people. The stories repeated here were gathered from the eastern or parent branch. Their shrewdness and quick wit is very noticeable. Sequoyah, whose impressive statue stands in bronze in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, was the famous Cherokee who invented an alphabet.

    The Choctaws formerly lived in Mississippi and Louisiana but are now one of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma (once Indian Territory).

    The Tsimshians are Indians of the North Pacific coast and in the old days lived mainly by fishing. They also hunted deer, bears, and other animals. Their houses and boats were made chiefly of cedar wood, and they also wove the bark of the cedar into baskets, ropes, mats, and even clothing. The salmon and the cedar were to them what the buffalo was to the Indians of the Great Plains, so you will not be surprised by the many references to them both in these stories. There is a strong likeness between their customs and those of the Alaskan tribes.

    The home of the brave and manly Iroquois was in the valley of the St. Lawrence, the basins of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and most of what is now the State of New York. They were an exceptionally gifted people, wise in state-craft and active in warfare. They believed in the manlike form and magic power of the creatures and elements.

    The Pimas are a gentle, peaceable, brown-skinned people, living in Arizona, making fine pottery, weaving beautiful mats and baskets, and raising corn. Like the other desert tribes, their songs and stories have much to do with the rain clouds, upon which their crops depend. They formerly stood in great fear of the

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