Indian Legends Retold

Talking animals, living clouds and resourceful tricksters fill Elaine Goodale Eastman's collection of North American legends. The tales are grouped by people and region, including Pima, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois, Tsimshian and Alaskan stories. An introductory discussion connects these traditions with local landscapes, food, crafts and customs. Charles A. Eastman's introduction explains how hearing and repeating such stories helped children learn moral lessons and develop respect for the natural world.

Raven gives the collection a comic edge. In the sampled tales, he teases a crab until the game turns dangerous, then exchanges his own feathers for splendid blankets that prove unreliable. His appetite, vanity and powers of transformation make practical lessons part of the action. Readers interested in folklore can compare the different traditions while following short narratives in which humor, spiritual belief and everyday conduct meet.