50th anniversary edition of a perennial best seller. Tales from the oral tradition of the Indians in the Pacific Northwest.

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.

The Pacific Northwest was one of the most populated and prosperous regions for Native Americans before the coming of the white man. By the mid-1800s, measles and smallpox decimated the Indian population, and the remaining tribes were forced to give up their ancestral lands. Vine Deloria Jr. tells the story of these tribes’ fight for survival, one that continues today.

A facsimile reprint of a 1945 report on the Northwest Indians, answering questions about who they are, what they eat, their housing, work, clothing, home life, government, religion, and status.

Myths, personal narratives and historical traditions reveal beliefs and customs of twelve Indian tribes who once lived in the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming

A collection of over one hundred tribal tales drawn from government documents, old periodicals and histories, reports of anthropologists and folklorists, and personal interviews with Indians of Washington and Oregon.