The First Americans: Legends, Folklore & Myths Across the U.S.A.
Description and Edited by
Phyllis Goldman
Copyright 2011 Phyllis Goldman,
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
Allosaurus Publishers
The Editor wishes to thank all the contributors for their editorial assistance.
Michelle Bradt, Caitlin Hawley, Kristin M. Hecht, Justin Price & Karen White
Phyllis Barkas Goldman, Founding Editor
• The editor wishes to thank Karen White for her editorial assistance during the course of this publication.
Created, Designed, and Printed by the North Carolina Learning Institute for Fitness & Education, Inc.
Revised© 2011 by The North Carolina Institute For Fitness & Education, Inc.
P 0 Box 10245, Greensboro, NC 27404. All rights reserved. This book or any parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0247-5
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"The greatest strength is gentleness."
• American Indian Proverb
"Each bird loves to hear himself sing."
• American Indian Proverb
"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can not speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."
• American Indian Proverb
The First Americans: Legends, Folklore & Myths
Introduction
American Indian culture is comprised of a wide range of thoughts on both spiritual and moral subjects often using animals, the environment, and nature. In some legends, animals were characterized to help humans understand lessons of morality. Native American storytelling and legends are mysterious, witty, and subtle, in order to convey relationships between people and nature.
Many legends, myths, and folklore are still told today. Some are old, some are new, but all are part of the beautiful culture that the indigenous peoples of North America have had for thousands of years.
The materials in this book have been arranged according to the region in which their storytellers lived.
Legends:
A legend is a story that is passed down orally through multiple generations of people. They are often believed by the storyteller and audience to have actually taken place within their cultural history, but they are actually a mixture of both fact and fiction.
Legends are usually set in a specific time and place with a main character that is often seen as heroic.
Myths:
A myth is a story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that are used to explain the meanings of events in the natural world. Mythology has a very rich cultural history. It is not just a collection of stories. It is used as a way for the storytellers to share their beliefs, their ways, and how they lived.
Folklore:
Folklore is a collection of stories that can contain tales of a culture's traditional beliefs and cultural practices. The stories were preserved and passed from generation to generation and were constantly changed due to memory, immediate need or purpose, or the degree of talent of the storyteller.
The Northeast Region
· Rabbit and the Man in the Moon
· How the Raccoon Got Its Dark Eyes and Tail
· Why the Bear Has a Short Little Tail
· The Littlest Fly Flies High
· How the Buzzard Saved the World
Rabbit and the Man in the Moon
Their home was near a stream where they could drink all the sweet water they wanted and where Rabbit could catch the colorful fish that swam past.
All year long, Rabbit would go out into the forest and set up his traps, always knowing the best places to put them and the best ways to bait them. He always returned home with food.
He was upset that something or someone was stealing the bait from his traps. He could see the tracks in the snow; long and slender like no creature he had ever seen before.
Morning after morning he would rise earlier and earlier, hoping to catch the thief in the act, but always arriving at the traps too late. Determined to catch this beast, Rabbit built a special snare and waited behind some rocks, waiting to spring the trap on this strange robber.
He waited all day. When night came, the moon was full and casting its cold white fire across the cold white Earth.
As Rabbit watched his trap, suddenly the sky became very dark, as if the moon had been swallowed up.
Rabbit was more puzzled than frightened, but he continued to watch the place where his trap lay, straining his eyes to see through the darkness.
It was a long time before Rabbit noticed a strange pale light coming towards him and his trap. This must be the thief, Rabbit thought to himself. The light became brighter and brighter until the entire clearing was illuminated by a familiar glow.
Rabbit had to keep his eyes almost shut so he would not be blinded, but now he could see his trap.
After a moment, the light stopped moving and rested in the center of Rabbit's snare. He immediately tugged on the rope, capturing the creature in a tight loop. He heard some odd sounds from the trap, but
