Other editions of book The Myths of the North American Indians

The myths and legends of the Algonquins, Iroquois, Pawnees, Sioux, and northern and northwestern Indians offer rich insights into the character and beliefs of the tribes that once dominated extensive territories of North America. The distinguished British anthropologist and folklorist Lewis Spence has collected many of the most interesting and compelling of these myths and presented them here according to ethnic grouping, prefacing the collection with important historical and ethnological information that will give the reader an accurate view of the conditions under which these fascinating tribal cultures once flourished.The myths range in theme from steadfast love to rivalry between warriors to victory over powerful forces, and in their unfolding lie powerful images of the innermost fears and aspirations that motivated the behavior of Algonquin, Iroquois, Pawnees, Sioux, and northwestern Indians alike. Lewis Spence relates each tale in a simple, direct way that will appeal to children as well as to adults. The book includes photographs and drawings that depict various tribes in their typical costumes and dwellings. It contains as well a map of the geographical areas where primary language families were spoken.This fascinating book, a major forerunner of modern studies of myth, combines an appealing presentation of Indian legend with factual and illustrative material that gives each myth meaningful perspective. Students of anthropology and ethnology will enjoy the especially rich variety of mythical imagery in this generous collection, and general readers in search of a good story for themselves and for their children will find in these pages a treasury of suspenseful tales that reveal much of the spirit of North America’s original cultures.

The myths and legends of the Algonquins, Iroquois, Pawnees, Sioux, and northern and northwestern Indians offer rich insights into the character and beliefs of the tribes that once dominated extensive territories of North America. The distinguished British anthropologist and folklorist Lewis Spence has collected many of the most interesting and compelling of these myths and presented them here according to ethnic grouping, prefacing the collection with important historical and ethnological information that will give the reader an accurate view of the conditions under which these fascinating tribal cultures once flourished.The myths range in theme from steadfast love to rivalry between warriors to victory over powerful forces, and in their unfolding lie powerful images of the innermost fears and aspirations that motivated the behavior of Algonquin, Iroquois, Pawnees, Sioux, and northwestern Indians alike. Lewis Spence relates each tale in a simple, direct way that will appeal to children as well as to adults. The book includes photographs and drawings that depict various tribes in their typical costumes and dwellings. It contains as well a map of the geographical areas where primary language families were spoken.This fascinating book, a major forerunner of modern studies of myth, combines an appealing presentation of Indian legend with factual and illustrative material that gives each myth meaningful perspective. Students of anthropology and ethnology will enjoy the especially rich variety of mythical imagery in this generous collection, and general readers in search of a good story for themselves and for their children will find in these pages a treasury of suspenseful tales that reveal much of the spirit of North America’s original cultures.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Excerpt from The Myths of the North American Indians It is, indeed, surprising how vague a picture the North American Indian presents to the minds Of most people in Europe when all that recent anthropological research has done on the subject is taken into account. As a matter of fact, few books have been published in England which furnish more than the scantiest details concerning the Red Race, and these are in general scarce, and, when obtained, Of doubtful scientific value. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Myths of the North American IndiansThe North American Indian has so long been an object of the deepest interest that the neglect of his picturesque and original mythologies and the tales to which they have given rise is difficult of comprehension. In boyhood we are wont to regard him as an instrument specially designed for the execution of tumultuous incident, wherewith heart-stirring fiction may be manufactured. In manhood we are too apt to consider him as only fit to be put aside with the matter of Faery and such evanescent stuff and relegated to the limbo of imagination. Satiated with his constant recurrence in the tales of our youth, we are perhaps but too ready to hearken credulously to accounts which picture him as a disreputable vagabond, getting a precarious living by petty theft or the manufacture of bead ornaments.It is, indeed, surprising how vague a picture the North American Indian presents to the minds of most people in Europe when all that recent anthropological research has done on the subject is taken into account. As a matter of fact, few books have been published in England which furnish more than the scantiest details concerning the Red Race, and these are in general scarce, and, when obtained, of doubtful scientific value.The primary object of this volume is to furnish the reader with a general view of the mythologies of the Red Man of North America, accompanied by such historical and ethnological information as will assist him in gauging the real conditions under which this most interesting section of humanity existed.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Lang:- eng, Pages 436. Reprinted in 2013 with the help of original edition published long back[1914]. This book is in black & white, Hardcover, sewing binding for longer life with Matt laminated multi-Colour Dust Cover, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, there may be some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers who want to know more about our old treasure so we brought it back to the shelves. (Customisation is possible). Hope you will like it and give your comments and suggestions.Original Title:- The myths of the North American Indians 1914 [Hardcover] Author:- Spence, Lewis,