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5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Collection of Stories from the First Nations, Dec 25 2003
Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz really did a wonderful job putting together this compilation. Taking various stories from North America, the duo covers traditional tales of everyone from the Aleut to the Toltecs and pretty much everything in between. Every region and culture group is represented, and tales from well known Nations such as the Cherokee, Lakota, Dine (Navajo), Apache and Iroquois appear beside those of less well known (but no less vibrant and culturally active) Nations such as the Miwok, Caddo, Metis and Shasta. Hopefully this will help expand people's views of Native American culture. After all, stereotypical views of "Indians" rarely include the Nations of California or the Pacific Northwest, or even the Southern Woodlands (the original homeland of the Cherokee and their neighbors). Obviously not every Nation could be represented, but this is still an excellent survey of the continent. It does a wonderful job showing how common cultural themes have woven their way across this entire continent, helping to reinforce the culture and customs of the First Nations. And at the same time, it also shows how each culture was different, having its own beliefs, customs and practices unique to themselves.Each chapter was divided into a different theme, so the book covers the Creation of People, the Creation of the World, Stories about Celestial Bodies, Monsters, War Heroes, Love, Tricksters, Animal People, Ghosts and the End of the World. Hence the book goes full circle in exploring major themes in North American belief. Each chapter includes the stories of numerous Nations from different regions, linguistic families or "cultural groupings", allowing the reader to see them in a much broader light. All of the stories are short, and they range in mood from hilarious (Intome's description of his nightmare in "Inktome Has a Bad Dream") to being deeply moving (the sun's sacrifice in "The Scabby One Lights Up the Sky"). At the end of each story, the source is given and they come from quite a number of sources. Many are recorded in this book for the first time as far as I am aware, so it is certainly worth looking at even if you are very familar with Native American traditions. To those familar with Native American culture, some things in this book should be familar, particularly the antics of Coyote, Inktome the spider, Raven and other tricksters, but also the tales of Glooskap, giants, floods, disembodied cannibal heads, the place of emergence, Hiawatha and so forth. One thing I should point out before going further is that some of these tales deal with adult themes (in the Inuit tale "Moon Rapes His Sister Sun" the moon commits the sins of rape and incest and forever chases his sister across the sky) and can be downright raunchy (as is the case with several of the Coyote and Inktome stories). There is nothing wrong with these stories, as they either are meant to teach a moral lesson (as is the case with the former) or because they are meant to amuse (in the case of the trickster stories). But it can come as something of a shock to those who are expecting "mere children's stories". Still, if you or someone you know has an interest in Native American culture, this book is certainly worth getting.
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