Books in the Sources of American Indian Oral Literature series

"We are dealing here with a living literature," wrote Morris Edward Opler in his preface to Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. First published in 1942 by the American Folk-Lore Society, this is another classic study by the author of Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians.

"The Oneida Creation Story" is the oldest tradition of the Onyota'aka (People of the Standing Stone), one of the greatest pieces of oral literature of Native North America. This bilingual edition also features earlier translated versions, and discussion of its cultural and historical contexts.

Originally published in 1906, The Pawnee Mythology preserves 148 tales of the Pawnee Indians, who farmed and hunted and lived in earth-covered lodges along the Platte River in Nebraska. These stories were generally told during intermissions of sacred ceremonies. Many were accompanied by music.

Beginning in 1907, the anthropologist Robert H. Lowie visited the Crow Indians at their reservation in Montana. He listened to tales that for many generations had been told around campfires in winter. These tales were originally published in 1918. Myths and Traditions of the Crow Indians is now reprinted with a new introduction by Peter Nabokov.

Anthropologists George A. Dorsey and Alfred L. Kroeber joined forces to record and preserve the rich cultural traditions of the Arapaho Indians, long split into two bands. Traditions of the Arapaho, first published in 1903, is the result of their collaboration.

The Caddoan tribes, found along the Red River and its tributaries, practiced agriculture long before they hunted buffalo. The tales collected for this book, first published in 1905, reflect the women's horticultural practices, village life distinguished by conical grass lodges, family and social relationships, connection to nature, and ceremonies.

Though much has been written about the Arikaras, their own accounts of themselves and the world as they see it have been available only in limited scholarly editions. This collection is the first to make Arikara myths, tales, and stories widely accessible. The book presents voices of the Arikara past closely translated into idiomatic English.

Introduces such figures as Old Man, Scar-Face, Blood-Clot, and the Seven Brothers. This work includes tales with ritualistic origins emphasizing the prototypical Beaver-Medicine and the roles played by Elk-Woman and Otter-Woman, and a presentation of Star Myths, which reveal the astronomical knowledge of the Blackfoot Indians.