Customer Reviews

Old Indian Legends

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In this wonderful collection of D/N/Lakota stories originally published in 1901, Zitkala'sa ("Little Red Bird") retells fourteen legends (listed below)from the oral tradition. Most of the stories involve Iktomi (Unktomi) the Spider Trickster and his moral misadventures. Other stories include the Avenger and Iya ("Mouth")the Glutton. Most of the stories are used in showing the proper norms for D/N/Lakota society: be generous, do not be greedy, be hospitable, do not boast about yourself, do not deceive others to attain things, be merciful, be a good relative, etc. The reader will notice that some of the later stories do not follow the pattern of teaching morality, but seem to reflect older stories that do not always seem to follow logically. All in all, they are amazing stories that Zitkala'sa, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, wrote for primarily white audiences. There is a nice biographical sketch of Zitkala'sa and the illustrations by Angel De Cora are interesting in that they imagine the characters in human form.

Here are the stories as they appear in the book: "Iktomi and the Ducks," "Iktomi's Blanket," "Iktomi and the Muskrat," "Iktomi and the Coyote," "Iktomi and the Fawn," "The Badger and the Bear," "The Tree-Bound," "Shooting of the Red Eagle," "Iktomi and the Turtle," "Dance in the Buffalo Skull," "The Toad and the Boy," "Iya, the Camp-Eater," "Man'stin, The Rabbit," and "The Warlike Seven."

This is a clever and interesting book of Indian Legends. The first several stories are loosely linked and are probably best read in order, but otherwise the stories stand alone. They are a bit more violent than many Western tales, so if you're concerned about exposing your kids to violence, I might suggest reading over them first (I pretty much suggest that for every book of cultural tales, though).

Also, many attitudes have changed since the times these stories were written, so although they cannot exactly be construed as prejudiced, there are a few odd phrases and translations that wouldn't have been used if the stories were transcribed today--nothing offensive, just odd.

There were no formatting errors in the text. There is an active Table of Contents, but it is a chart, half of which is inaccessible. Even the available half looks incorrect in my kindle-for-pc program, though it's fine on the kindle itself. The kindle edition also lacks any discussion or author biography.

The stories included are:

Iktomi and the Ducks
Iktomi's Blanket
Iktomi and the Muskrat
Iktomi and the Coyote
Iktomi and the Fawn
The Badger and the Bear
The Tree-Bound
Shooting of the Red Eagle
Iktomi and the Turtle
Dance in a Buffalo Skull
The Toad and the Boy
Iya, the Camp-Eater
Manstin, the Rabbit
The Warlike Seven

Book was not that interresting and probably would not read another book like it. It was free so I was not too worried about liking it or not. All in all, it was slow reading and easy to lose intrest in.