Publisher's Synopsis
From the FOREWORD:
ALL AMERICAN children listen with delight to our fine old English fairy tales. Few of us, even of maturer years, do not own a kindly feeling for "Cinderella" or heroic "Jack of the Bean Stalk. "
But these tales were brought to us from Europe, and they have never wholly lost the marks of their foreign origin. Who has not longed for a fairy lore of our own - one native to our broad America.
Such a lore we have. Among our Indian tribes still lingers a rich body of myth and folk tale, breathing all the freshness of our rugged forests and mountains.
These tales have dignity. Like every barbarian, the Indian peopled the world with wonder-folk - gods and monsters, ghosts and spirits. His myths, therefore, give us a glimpse into his thought. They are his oral literature, the wisdom of the elder-men, handed down by mouth.
Many myths are sacred and were believed as firmly as white children believe the beautiful story of Joseph. Others were told to amuse, or, like fables, were made to teach morals to the young.
The long winter evenings were the season for storytelling. About the lodge fire then gathered men and women, youths and maidens. Reverently they listened as some aged story-teller rehearsed the doings of the gods. The myths in this little volume have been chosen for their quaintness and beauty. They are taken from the lore of several tribes. Let us hope they will give to little reading folk a kindly feeling for a noble but vanishing race.
One of the objects in collecting these stories is to help children learn to read. All little folk enjoy simple, imaginative tales, and what they enjoy they will read.
The stories contain much information about Indian life and customs that is of value to an American child. Many pages of our history become plainer to one who knows something of Indian life.
A brief explanatory note accompanies every story. It is intended that each note shall explain some custom or belief of Indian life or some fact of woodcraft mentioned in the story.
Children are natural mimics and keenly enjoy dramatic interpretation. The reading of the myths may be supplemented by a simple dramatization. Make a tepee, after directions on page 132, large enough for a child to enter; set up in a convenient corner; hang an iron pot before, on a simple tripod of three sticks.
In the preparation of these stories the author claims no credit but that of rewriting them for little folk's tastes. The stories are true examples of Indian folklore, and are very old. The following sources and authorities are acknowledged: Frank H. Cushing's "Zuni Folk Tales," for "Little Ugly Boy," "The Turkey Maiden"; Charles G. Leland's "Algonquin Legends of New England," for "Wuchowson the Wind Blower," "Glooskap and the Winter Giant," "The Magic Wigwam," "Why the Baby says 'Goo'," "The Good Giants"; Silas Rand's "Micmac Legends," for "Little Scar Face"; "Omaha and Ponka Texts," translated by James Dorsey (Vol. VI, "Contributions to North American Ethnology," for "Why Turkeys have Red Eyes," "The Sun Man and the Moon," "How the Little Rabbit snared the Sun," "The Little Fawn"; Schoolcraft's Hiawatha Myths, for " The Fisher who let out Summer"; W. W. Canfield's "Legends of the Iroquois," for "Old Winter Man and the Spring Maiden"; J. W. Powell, in "First Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology," for "The Rainbow Snake"; Mrs. E. A. Smith, in "Second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology," for "The Flying Head"; James Mooney's "Myths of the Cherokee," in "Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology," for " The Little Ice Man," "The Wren.""
