"On the Cattaraugus reservation, it was part of a child's initial training to learn why the bear lost its tail, why the chipmunk has a striped back, and why meteors flash in the sky," writes Arthur C. Parker at the beginning of Seneca Myths and Folk Tales. His blood ties to the Senecas and early familiarity with their culture led to a distinguished career as an archaeologist and to the publication in 1923 of this pioneeering work. Parker recreates the milieu in which the Seneca legends and folktales were told and discusses their basic themes and components before going on to relate more than seventy of them that he heard as a boy. Here is the magical Senecan world populated by unseen good and evil spirits, ghosts, and beings capable of transformation. Included are creation myths; folktales involving contests between mortal youths and assorted powers; tales of love and marriage; and stories about cannibals, talking animals, pygmies, giants, monsters, vampires, and witches.

In 1883 a Smithsonian Institution ethnologist traveled to western New York State to record the traditional tales of the Iroquois tribe known as the Seneca. These myths -- picturesque, archaic, even grotesque -- appear here in their original form, exactly as spoken. Many focus on seasons or weather; others creation myths and animals.

This book tells the story of the late colonial and early reservation history of the Seneca Indians, and of the prophet Handsome Lake, his visions, and the moral and religious revitalization of an American Indian society that he and his followers achieved in the years around 1800.

This is the story of controversial Seneca chief and orator Red Jacket (ca. 1750-1830), whose passionate, articulate defense of the old ways won the admiration of many but also earned enmity from other tribal leaders. Red Jacket received a medal from George Washington as a token of friendship. This biography follows Red Jacket from boyhood through the Revolutionary War.

A collection of Native American stories arranged geographically.