Native American Legends and Lore

[rashore]

I thought there wasn't enough information around here on UM about Native American legends and lore. So I figured it would be nice to start a topic with a few links to kick off a conversation.

Please, don't let this thread get into a thing about how this subject matter does not exist, or anyone needs to give proof it's real. That's not what this is about. It's just sharing stories and information, no belief or not required.

This site is from Western Washington University. https://www.wwu.edu/...se/legends.html It focuses primarily on sky legends and star lore. It has a nice list of links to longer stories as well as a large collection of short snippets about the sky like this one:

Six Wives Pleiades Hyades

Western Mono Tribe

Central California

Six wives (Pleiades cluster) were hiking in the woods and discovered some wild onions. They ate the onions which gave them skunk breath. Their Husbands (Hyades cluster) threw them out of their huts. When the wives went up into the sky to live, the lonely husbands eventually followed but never catch up to them.

This link has a lot of information too. It starts out with a large list of lore by tribe, but if you scroll down past that there are also other ways of looking for legends like trickster myths and animal lore. http://www.native-la...org/legends.htm

This link is a nice list of 150 tales from all over, listed by story title and giving tribe source- http://www.ilhawaii....y/loreindx.html

And lastly, a listverse of 10 eerie Native American monsters. Some of these you might already be familiar with, but others you might not have known that there was such a tale. http://listverse.com...rican-monsters/

So, hope folks enjoy this heap of lore and legends.. perhaps have a few legends to share that aren't here already

[Ell]

I wonder whether Katshituashku (stiff legged bear) might have been a giant sloth.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Ell

[SHaYap]

One of my favorite :

Crow Brings the Daylight

An Inuit Myth

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

Story featured in Land of the Midnight Sun, a concert band piece composed by Vince Gassi!

`

• AMerican Folklore net link
  

[Ken S.]

Several books by Basil H. Johnston may be of interest.

Also:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/man_and_giant_eskimo_legend

https://www.nfb.ca/film/man_the_snake_and_the_fox

https://www.nfb.ca/film/medoonak_the_stormmaker

[Buzz_Light_Year]

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Legends-AB.html

[Podo]

I realize this is a wikipedia link, but I live on Vancouver Island (home of the Kwakwakw'wakw people) and spend a lot of time each summer up north with them, and I can confirm that the information is more or less accurate. I think they have some of the coolest mythology. I especially like Dzunukwa.

Check it out here.

[Hawken]

http://www.firstpeop...Legends-AB.html

The one about the Hopi legend where they go underground with the ant people is interesting.

[SuperiorIntellect]

The one about the Hopi legend where they go underground with the ant people is interesting.

That is one of my favorites. I heard a wonderful Native American storyteller telll this tale many years ago, nothing quite like listening to a talented storyteller spin the tale vs reading it..

[Hawken]

It seems I remember a native legend on how Niagara Falls was formed. The Thunder Beings were chasing a Serpent down the river

and shooting bolts of lightening at it and when they killed it, the Serpent got hung up in the river and that's how the horseshoe part of

the falls was formed. I might be wrong but it seems I heard that story a long time ago.

[docyabut2]

The tribe of my ancestors.

Pawnee

The first people on the earth were giants, very big and strong. They did not believe in the creator Ti-ra-wa. They thought nothing could overcome them. They grew increasingly worse. At last Ti-ra-wa grew angry and raised the water to the level of the land so that the ground became soft. The giants sank into the mud and drowned. Their bones can still be found today. Ti-ra-wa then created a man and woman, like people of today, and gave them corn. The Pawnees are descended from them

Edited April 24, 2016 by docyabut2

[docyabut2]

I think my ancestors knew of the Dino bones that were dug up and thought they were the first people on earth , but at the end of the last ice age and all the flooding, a new people began.

[PrisonerX]

The one about the Hopi legend where they go underground with the ant people is interesting.

Mind providing a direct link? I looked at that webpage but failed to locate the story you're talking about. Would like to read it. Thanks in advance.

Edited April 26, 2016 by PrisonerX

[SuperiorIntellect]

Mind providing a direct link? I looked at that webpage but failed to locate the story you're talking about. Would like to read it. Thanks in advance.

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TheEndoftheFirstWorld-Hopi.html

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TokpatheSecondWorld-Hopi.html

[PrisonerX]

http://www.firstpeop...World-Hopi.html

http://www.firstpeop...World-Hopi.html

Much obliged.

[Hawken]

Here's the Native legend I mentioned in post # 9.

http://www.alexinwanderland.com/2013/12/30/legends-falls-mythology-niagara-falls/