Book Description
Ishi, the last Yana, died in 1916, working in San Francisco's Anthropological Museum as a de facto living anthropological exhibit. But Yana mythology did not die with him. Decades before, Jeremiah Curtin, a remarkable American linguist, had collected many Yana and Wintu myths and preserved them for posterity and future scholars.
Product Description
Despite the title, which suggests that this is a comprehensive study of Native American creation myths, this is actually a very good set of animal myths from two tribes of California, the Wintu and Yana. These tribes inhabited the northern Central Valley; the Yana are closely related to the Yahi, the tribe of Ishi, the 'last wild Indian'. Also, these are not creation myths per se; they are tales from an epic cycle about the proto-animal inhabitants of the California dreamtime, the beings who existed before the arrival of humans. That said, this is a very reputable collection which is cited to this day in scholarly papers about native California. Curtin treats this this lore with great respect, and because he is also a first-rate story teller, this is also a great read. Curtin, a distinguished folklorist and author, also wrote extensively on Irish folklore.--J.B. Hare
