Native American Stories Author:Joseph Bruchac, John Kahionhes Fadden (Illustrator) Native American Stories is a collection of myths drawn from the native cultures of North America -- from the Inuit in the north to the Zuni, Hopi and Cherokee in the south. A common thread throughout these stories is the native view of the world as family -- Earth as our Mother, Sun as our Father and the animals as our brother and ... more »sisters. The stories foster an ethic of stewardship by clearly showing that we are entrusted with a very special misson -- to maintain the natural balance, to take care of our Mother, to be Keepers of the Earth. Each story is beautifully illustrated by Mohawk artist John Kaionhes Fadden.
The stories in this collection, which come from Keepers of the Earth -- a book that unites western scientific methods and Native AMerican traditional stories -- can be called "lesson stories." All come from native oral traditions. They have been chosen because the lessons they teach are relatively easy for nonnative people to understand. Some of these stories have more than one lesson to teach. As Joseph Campbell explains in The Power of Myth, the same stories mean different things to us at different times in our lives, and as we grow, those stories grow with us. The story of Gluscabi and the game animals is one such story. While using this story in workshops, my coauthor Michael Caduto and I have asked people ho many lessons are taught by this one tale. No group ever comes up with fewer than a dozen. — Joseph Bruchac, from the introduction
Creation. The coming of Gluscabi (Abenaki, northeast woodlands) --
The Earth on Turtle's back (Onondaga, northeast woodlands) --
Four worlds : the Dine story of creation (Dine/Navajo, southwest). Fire. Loo-Wit, the fire-keeper (Nisqually, Pacific northwest) --
How Grandmother Spider stole the sun (Muskogee/Creek, Oklahoma). Earth. Tunka-shila, grandfather rock (Lakota/Sioux, Great Plains) --
Old Man Coyote and the rock (Pawnee, Great Plains). Wind and weather. Gluscabi and the wind eagle (Abenaki, northeast woodlands). Water. The hero twins and the swallower of clouds (Zuni, southwest) --
Koluscap and the water monster (Micmac and Maliseet, Maritime provinces) --
How thunder and earthquake made ocean (Yurok, California) --
Sedna, the woman under the sea (Inuit, Arctic regions) --
How Raven made the tides (Tsimshian, Pacific northwest). Sky. How Coyote was the moon (Kalispel, Idaho) --
How Fisher went to the skyland : the origin of the Big Dipper (Anishinabe, Great Lakes region). Seasons. Spring defeats winter (Seneca, northeast woodlands). Plants and animals. Coming of corn (Cherokee, North Carolina) --
Manabozho and the maple trees (Anishinabe, Great Lakes region) --
Kokopilau, the hump-backed flute player (Hopi, southwest) --
How Turtle flew south for the winter (Dakota/Sioux, Midwest) --
Gluscabi and the game animals (Abenaki, northeast woodlands) --
Awi Usdi, the little deer (Cherokee, North Carolina). Life, death, spirit. Origin of death (Siksika/Blackfeet, Montana and Alberta). Unity of earth. White Buffalo Calf Woman and the sacred pipe (Lakota/Sioux, Great Plains)« less