Customer Reviews

Havasupai Legends: Religion and Mythology of the Havasupai Indians of the Grand Canyon

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For the limited amount of information that the authors obtained, this was a fair compilation of Havasupai legends. I sure wish there were other resources that could have helped confirm what they described. Maybe someone else has more information, and I hope Mr. Euler can publish an update. The first few sections of the book were very informative, especially the funeral arrangements of Mexican Jack by his family. It really illuminated me about how very practical funerals were conducted, although I was surprised to find out that he wasn't cremated like many tribal members before him. I did not appreciate the legends portion of the book. Maybe it was the limited information provided by the shaman or the story-passer-on-ers, but to me it seemed to be a mixture of altered story telling--almost like a rumor mill where info is somewhat skewed as it is passed along. For one thing the mention of female sexual practices was contrived--almost artificially inserted--for entertainment. I sensed that the legend passers were male and that their frustrations or fixations (whichever the case) with female genitalia helped spice up the legends. The authors description of these incidental sexual acts were extrapolated from an earlier author from 1929 which may or may not be accurate. So I took the descriptions of these legends with a grain of salt. But like many other myths--they are based on fact. So I would love to read about an updated or more comprehensive sequel to this book.