Under an open sky, nestling close to the earth, the old Dakota story-tellers have told these legends time and again. While it is easy to recognise such legends without difficulty, the renderings may vary in little incidents. Here, Zitkala-Sa has tried to transplant the native spirit of these tales -- root and all -- into the English language, since America in the last few centuries has acquired a second tongue. In this volume you will find these fourteen stories and legends from the Dakotas: Iktomi And The Ducks Iktomi's Blanket Iktomi And The Muskrat Iktomi And The Coyote Iktomi And The Fawn The Badger And The Bear The Tree-Bound Shooting Of The Red Eagle Iktomi And The Turtle Dance In A Buffalo Skull The Toad And The Boy Iya, The Camp-Eater Manstin, The Rabbit The Warlike Seven THESE ARE relics of the USA’s once virgin soil. These and many others are the tales the American Indians loved so much to hear beside the night fire. For these people the personified elements and other spirits played in a vast world right around the center fire of the wigwam. It was around such fires that these 14 stories would have been told The old legends of North America now belong quite as much to the fair-skinned little patriot as to the land’s black-haired aborigine. And when they are grown tall may they, in their wisdom, not lack interest in a further study of American Indian folklore. A study which so strongly suggests the USA’s near kinship with the rest of humanity and points a steady finger toward the great brotherhood of mankind, and by which one is so forcibly impressed with the possible earnestness of life as seen through the teepee door! If it be true that much lies "in the eye of the beholder," then in the American aborigine, as in any other race, sincerity of belief, though it were based upon mere optical illusion, demands a little respect. After all, at heart, they are much like other peoples. We invite you to settle down in a comfy chair and journey back to a time when these stories were told around campfires, to the delight of young and old alike. ============= KEYWORDS-TAGS: old indian legends, Dakotas, north Dakota, south Dakota, fairy tales, folklore, myths, legends, children’s stories, children’s stories, bygone era, fairydom, fairy land, classic stories, children’s bedtime stories, fables, cultural, setting, iktomi, ducks, blanket, muskrat, coyote, fawn, badger, bear, tree bound, shooting red eagle, turtle, dance, buffalo skull, toad, the boy, iya, camp eater, manstin, rabbit, warlike, seven, Midwestern United States, Midwest, Black Hills, Deadwood, Fort Buford, Standing Rock, Wounded Knee, Upper Missouri River, Bismark, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Grand Forks, Lake Traverse, I29, I94, I90

IKTOMI is a spider fairy. He wears brown deerskin leggins with long soft fringes on either side, and tiny beaded moccasins on his feet. His long black hair is parted in the middle and wrapped with red, red bands. Each round braid hangs over a small brown ear and falls forward over his shoulders.He even paints his funny face with red and yellow, and draws big black rings around his eyes. He wears a deerskin jacket, with bright colored beads sewed tightly on it. Iktomi dresses like a real Dakota brave. In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him—if ever dress is part of man or fairy.

American Indian Stories is a collection of stories by Zitkála-Šá. The author was a Sioux historian and recounts here several colorful legends and tales from American Indian oral tradition.

More than thirty stories, including creation myths, hero tales, trickster stories, as well as tales of little people, giants, and monsters, and of magic, enchantment, sorcery, and the spirit world.

THESE 24 Iroquois legends and stories have been told in the homes of the Iroquois for many centuries; long before the white man arrived on the North American continent. The perusal and study of these stories will, it is believed, give as much pleasure to the reader, as they have given the compiler. Of special interest is the “Legend of Hiawatha” made famous fifty years earlier by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Some of the stories and lengends in this volume are: The Birth of the Arbutus A Legend Of The River Legends Of The Corn The First Winter The Great Mosquito The Story Of Oniata The Legends of Hiawatha, and many, many more. The American Indians, like so many cultures, built neither monuments nor wrote books. However, they did make picture writings, known in later years as “wampum.” Mostly, these were mere symbols, recording mainly feats of arms. However, the Iroquois used wampum as a record of a person’s credentials or a certificate of authority. It was also used for official purposes and religious ceremonies, and it was used as a way to bind peace between tribes. Among the Iroquois, every chief and every clan mother has a certain string of wampum that serves as their certificate of office. When they pass on or are removed from their station, the string will then pass on to the new leader. Runners carrying messages during colonial times would present the wampum showing that they had the authority to carry the message. Wampum is still used to this day by the Iroquois in the ceremony of raising up a new chief and in the Iroquois Thanksgiving ceremonies. If the American forefathers had taken more interest in the peoples they found on the Western Continent, spending less of their energies in devising plans for cheating the Indians out of their furs and lands—a policy their descendants have closely followed and admirably succeeded in—our libraries might contain volumes of fairy tales that would delight the youth of many generations. =========== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Legends of the Iroquois, Aliquipiso, American Indian, american indian ancestry, American Indian books, American Indian childrens books, american indian east coast, american indian Iroquois, american Indian legends, american indian songs, american indian stories, american indian tales, american indian traditions, american indian tribes, american indian values, american indian warriors, american indian words, animals, Arbutus, arrows, Ash Tree, assemble, Authority, beads, bear, beautiful, beaver, bedtime stories, birds, Birth, brave, Buzzard's Covering, canoe, chief, children, childrens books, childrens stories, Confederation, corn, Cornplanter, council, council fire, dead, death, death song, eagle, earth spirits, evil, fables, fairy tales, First Winter, Flying Head, folklore, Folk-Lore, forest, fox, Gift, Great, Great Mosquito, happiness, Happy, Healing Waters, heart, Hiawatha, horse, Hunter, Hunting Grounds, Indians, Iroquois, Kanistagia, lakes, Legend of the River, legends, Legends of the Corn, lodge, lover, maiden, Manito, medicine, men, Message Bearers, Mirror in the Water, Mohawk, mountains, myths, Native American, Nekumonta, Oneida, Oniata, Onondagas, Origin, Orontadeka, panther, papoose, peace, Peacemaker, pipe, raccoon, river, sachem, sacred, Sacred Stone, Sacrifice, Seneca, Shanewis, Spirit, stories, streams, summer, sun, Tiogaughwa, trail, trees, Turtle Clan, Unwelcome Visitor, village, Violet, wampum, warriors, waters, white men, Why Animals do not Talk, wigwam, wild, wisdom, Wise Sachem, wolf, woods, young people

A thought-provoking collection of searing prose from a Sioux woman that covers race, identity, assimilation, and perceptions of Native American culture Zitkala-Sa wrestled with the conflicting influences of American Indian and white culture throughout her life. Raised on a Sioux reservation, she was educated at boarding schools that enforced assimilation and was witness to major events in white-Indian relations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tapping her troubled personal history, Zitkala-Sa created stories that illuminate the tragedy and complexity of the American Indian experience. In evocative prose laced with political savvy, she forces new thinking about the perceptions, assumptions, and customs of both Sioux and white cultures and raises issues of assimilation, identity, and race relations that remain compelling today.

"I remember the day I lost my spirit." So begins the story of Gertrude Simmons, also known as Zitkala-Ša, which means Red Bird. Born in 1876 on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota, Zitkala-Ša willingly left her home at age eight to go to a boarding school in Indiana. But she soon found herself caught between two worlds—white and Native American. At school she missed her mother and her traditional life, but Zitkala-Ša found joy in music classes. "My wounded spirit soared like a bird as I practiced the piano and violin," she wrote. Her talent grew, and when she graduated, she became a music teacher, composer, and performer. Zitkala-Ša found she could also "sing" to help her people by writing stories and giving speeches. As an adult, she worked as an activist for Native American rights, seeking to build a bridge between cultures. The coauthors tell Zitkala-Ša’s life by weaving together pieces from her own stories. The artist's acrylic illustrations and collages of photos and primary source documents round out the vivid portrait of Zitkala-Ša, a frightened child whose spirit "would rise again, stronger and wiser for the wounds it had suffered."