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1Myths and Legends of Alaska

By Katharine Berry Judson

Editor Katharine Berry Judson collates and presents a narrative history of Alaskan Myths. Originally gathered and recorded by government ethnologists, she paints an overall picture of Alaskan history as told by its many tribes. From the Eskimo to the Tlingit, from the Tsetsaut to the Haida, the origin of the still-wild state begins with the great Bird (often called "Raven") and branches out, through its legends, in wonderful and amazing directions. (Summary by John N. Daily)

Twenty-three stories of the history of early Oregon plus an appendix: A Brief Summary Of The History Of The Old Oregon Country From Original Sources. OLD OREGON was a mighty sweep of country, and a most romantic one. From the northern border of Mexican California to near Sitka in Russian America it stretched, nearly eight hundred miles. Eastward it stretched over a country of mighty mountain … until the limits of the Oregon country, at the crest of the main range of the Rockies…. The romance ever lingers…. I have given four years of devoted study to Oregon history, three of them among the special collections of the Northwest, and over a year in London. In England I had full access to the documents of the Public Record Office, including unpublished accounts of the various explorations, and also, what was a far rarer privilege, access to the journals, diaries, and letters of the Hudson's Bay Company. Simple as this book is, every statement is based on original authority. Comment on the British and American claims to the country is founded entirely upon sources. These sources include journals written by fur-traders In the mountains and on the march, private letters between themselves, official reports of chief factors to their Company in London, diplomatic correspondence of American and English diplomats, and published works, in original editions, of exploration and discovery. It has been my aim to make this volume a clear, straightforward account of the romantic discovery and settlement of Old Oregon… (Author's Preface and david wales)

3Myths And Legends Of California And The Old Southwest

By Katharine Berry Judson

"...The preparation of a volume of the quainter, purer myths, suitable for general reading, authentic, and with illustrations of the country portrayed, but with no pretensions to being a purely scientific piece of work.... This volume is intended for popular use." As with most mythologies or religions, these stories tell how the world came to be, how places and peoples got their names, how social customs and mores developed, adventures of the ancestors or gods, and much, much more. (Summary from the Author's Preface and David Wales)

The basis on which these myths were selected necessarily excluded those which showed traces of the white man's religion or of the red man's coarseness. Relatively speaking, only a few myths could be selected. These were the creation myths, the origin of the races, the theft of fire, the salmon, and especially those connected with the physical features of the country, such as those of Takhoma, Shasta, the Columbia River, and the group of mountains of the bridge of the gods…. No claim is made for original work in this volume, except with regard to the selection of the myths and the rewriting of several in which the Indian simplicity and directness had been destroyed by attempted witticisms, by philosophical remarks, or by wordy explanations. A consistent effort has been made to tell these stories as the Indians told them…. Neither is this volume intended to be a very serious or a learned one. It is, however, authentic. All myths for which a responsible authority could not be found have been rejected. - Summary by Author's Preface

5Myths And Legends Of British North America

By Katharine Berry Judson

[The Native American] story tellers of the camp related, with dramatic gestures, stories of the Days of the Grandfathers, in the beginning of the Newness of Things. Nothing was too large or too small to come within the bounds of their beliefs, or within the play of their fancy. Only authentic myths and legends have been used in the compilation of this volume. The leading authorities are the publications of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, of the Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as the ethnological publications of the Canadian Bureau of Mines. As in all other volumes of this series, only the quaint, the pure, and the beautiful, has been taken from the tales of the Indians. Any one wishing pure ethnology, good and bad together, would do better to go to ethnological reports. The material here is from these tribes: Haida, Eastern Eskimo, Bella Coola, Wyandot, Cree, Thompson River, Carrier, Shuswap, Lillooet, Ojibwa, Central Eskimo, Chicotin, Kwakiutl, Nicola Valley and Fraser River, Algonquin. - Summary by Author's Preface and david wales

6Myths and Legends of the Great Plains

By Katharine Berry Judson

Myths and Legends of the Great Plains is a compendium of myths and legends from the Great Plains region of the US. It includes many short stories, and also quite a few songs and poems. Each tale is tagged with what culture it is from - (Summary by Kyle Van De Glast)

It is a loss to American literature that so much of the legendary history of these Indian tribes has gone, beyond hope of recovery. Exquisite in color, poetical in feeling, these legends of sun, moon, and stars, of snow, ice, lightning, thunders, the winds, the life of the forest birds and animals about them, and the longing to understand the why and the how of life—all which we have only in fragments…. As in all the other volumes of this series, no effort has been made to ornament or amplify these legends in the effort to make them “literary,” or give them “literary charm.” They must speak for themselves. What editing has been done has been in simplifying them, and freeing them from the verbose setting in which many were found. For in this section of the country, settled before it was realized that there was an Indian literature, the original work of noting down the myths was very imperfectly done. These tales come from the following tribes: Winnebago, Chitimacha, Wyandot, Biloxi, Ojibwa, Mandan, Menomini, Cherokee, Sioux, Knisteneaux, Choctaw (Bayou Lacomb), Fox, and Natchez. ( Author's Preface and david wales)

8Myths and Legends of Alaska (version 2)

By Katharine Berry Judson

The myths in this 1911 volume are authentic. The original collections were made by government ethnologists. Only the quaintest and purest of the myths have been selected. The leading myth of the North the Raven Myth, is given with a fair degree of completeness. . These tribes are included: Eskimo (Bering Strait), Tlingit (Wrangel), Tsetsaut, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Athapascan (Upper Yukon), Eskimo (Lower Yukon), Eskimo (Port Clarence), Koyukun, and Koryak (Siberia). - Summary by Author's Preface and david wales

9Myths And Legends Of The Great Plains (version 2)

By Katharine Berry Judson

Here, amidst the vast sweep of the plains which stretch away to the horizon on every side, boundless, limitless, endless, lived the plains Indians. Standing in the midst of this vast green plain on a soft May morning, after the Thunder Gods have passed, when the sun is shining in the soft blue above, and the sweet, rain-swept air is blown about by the Four Winds which are always near to man, day and night,—standing far out on the plains with no hint of the white man or his work—one sees the earth somewhat as the Indian saw it and wonders not at his reverence for the Mysterious One who dwelt overhead, beyond the blue stone arch, and for the lesser powers which came to him over the four paths guarded by the Four Winds….<br><br>The authorities used in this compilation are those found in the annual reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Publications of the United States Geographical and Geological Survey: contributions to North American Ethnology…. No claim whatever is made for original work. Indeed, original work of any kind in a compilation such as this would impair the authenticity of the myths, and therefore destroy the value of this work. Nor has any effort been made towards “style.” The only style worth having in telling an Indian legend is that of the Indian himself.<br><br>These stories are from the following tribes: Osage, Cherokee, Lenni-Lenapi (Delaware), Omaha, Teton, Comanche, Assiniboin, Sioux, Pawnee, Dakota, Kiowa, Mandan Arikara, Ponca, Yankton Arapahoe, and Kansa. Summary by Author's Preface and david wales.