FOLK-LORE AND LEGENDS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS - 32 Native American legends - Native American Myths and Legends #288041

J. B. Lippincott believed the best way to understand Native American culture is to read their folklore. Indeed, Sir George Grey, appointed Governor General of New Zealand in 1845 understood this only too well. He compiled a volume of 23 of the most important Maori myths and legends which helped him govern the country. So popular was this volume that he was asked to publish it. And so Lippincott set about compiling a volume of Native American folklore. But this was no easy task, for the fledgling United States of America is 37 times larger than New Zealand and at that time was sparsely inhabited. Undaunted, he set about accomplishing this enormous task; which he did in 1891.

To put this in context - in 1891, the first buffalo was purchased for the Golden Gate Park; Congress created the U.S. Courts of Appeal; the first woman was admitted to Yale University; American Express issued the first Travellers’ Checks; Thomas Edison patented the motion picture camera, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published “The Song of Hiawatha”. It was also the year that Folk Lore and Legends of the North American Indian was first published by J.B. Lippincott.

Folk Lore and Legends of the North American Indian is an exquisite compilation of 32 North American Indian myths and legends as they existed in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Herein you will find stories and tales like Moowis, The Girl Who Married The Pine-Tree, A Legend Of Manabozho, Pauppukkeewis, The Discovery Of The Upper World, The Boy Who Snared The Sun and many, many more.
These are the stories that the Native Americans passed by mouth from generation to generation, teaching young Native Americans how to navigate through the uncertain journey of life that lay ahead.  J.B. Lippincott gathered the stories from letters transported to him over the recently completed Transcontinental Pacific Railroad.

It is important that these stories should not become “just another page” in the ever-increasing forest of the internet; they should not be accessible only with the use of electronic devices. So, we invite all Americans, especially Native Americans, to download a copy of this sliver of their history for their children and their children’s children to read and treasure for years to come.
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TAGS: folklore, fairy, tales, myths, legends, children’s, stories, bedtime, fables, Moowis, girl who married the pine-tree, legend of Manabozho, Pauppukkeewis, discovery of the upper world, boy who snared the sun, maid in the box, spirits, lovers, wonderful rod, funeral fire, o-na-wut-a-qut-o, fish, stomach, sun and the moon, snail and the beaver, strange guests, toe, girl who became a bird, undying head, old, chippeway, mukumik, swing by the lake, fire plume, journey, island of souls, machinitou, evil spirit , woman of stone, maiden who loved a fish, lone lightning, aggo-dah-gauda, piqua, evil maker, wolf, man-fish