Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest [Paperback]

Ella E. Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2003

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The vast amount of research the author has put into preparing this collection is obvious but never intrusive."--Indian Times -- Review

About the Author

Ella E. Clark, who died in 1998, was Professor Emerita of English at Washington State University. She heard her first fragments of Indian myths while serving as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service in the Cascade Mountains. She collected tribal tales in libraries and archives in the U.S. and Canada for many years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (February 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520239261
• ISBN-13: 978-0520239265
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable native american lore, June 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (Paperback)

Though this book was first published in 1953, the stories and legends enclosed in Ms. Clark's book are interesting in 1999. I was surprized to find a story and lore concerning a local rock painting site. Each of the stories are indentified by the tribe or nation they come from. This book is a must for anyone interested in Native American lore or legends.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When Mountains were People, September 22, 2010

By 

Althea (Olympic Peninsula, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (Paperback)

This book, although it is almost 60 years old, is still a valuable resource for anyone interested in Native mythology, especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest. If you lived in Greece your experience of the people and the places there would be vastly enhanced by knowledge of the Greek myths; it is the same here--there is an ancient history underlying the ordinary towns and landscapes of Washington and Oregon, and Ella Clark went to great lengths to gather and preserve what she could of it.
The book is well organized in five sections: Myths of the Mountains; Legends of the Lakes; Tales of Rivers,Rocks and Waterfalls; Myths of Creation, the Sky and the Storms; And Misc. Myths. One-fourth of the stories were given to Ms. Clark by Native people, and at the beginning of these she gives credit by name and tribal affiliation. The others were compiled from the writings of ethnologists, missionaries, pioneers and travelers and where she knows the source she again gives credit, so that if you have a further interest you can investigate the Source Notes or the Bibliography.
There are numerous Coyote and Raven tales, but there are other less familiar Heroes and Changers too. What I liked most was the inclusion of the Native names for many of the local places. For instance, I wake every morning beneath the Olympic Mountains, which I have learned were called Ho-Had-Hun, and which were, of course, people. They were apparently people who didn't always get along with each other. Mt. Rainier (Takkobad) was once part of them but because of a disagreement with her husband she went to live on the other side of the water. She scratched his face, got in her canoe and left. She took her young son, Tahoma, with her, along with her snow water, camas roots and herbs and flowers. She didn't go so far away that she couldn't keep and eye on him though, and on clear days you can still feel the connection between them.
Connections are everything. And this little book addresses the connections between mountains and people, people and animals, animals and spirits, spirits and "inanimate" objects, in over 100 tales.