The Myths of the North American Indians

The volume surveys the traditional myths, legends, and ethnological contexts of Indigenous peoples across North America. It opens with divisions, customs, and historical background, then examines regional myth-systems, comparing Native conceptions of the sacred and mundane with European viewpoints. Subsequent chapters collect and retell creation stories, culture-hero and trickster narratives, cosmologies, and ritual lore from Algonquian, Iroquois, Sioux, Pawnee, and northern and northwestern groups, illustrated with color plates and ethnographic notes. The author synthesizes field reports and comparative insight to highlight environmental and cultural factors shaping belief, and provides a bibliography and glossary for further study.