The First Americans: Legends, Folklore & Myths Across the U.S.A.. Phyllis Ph.D. Goldman

      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

      

Many years ago Rabbit was a great hunter, one of the greatest hunters in the land. He lived with his wise old grandmother in the forest.

      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.

      

However, one cold winter when the snow was deep and the days seemed shorter than usual, Rabbit went out to check on his traps, only to find them empty. Several mornings he went out, and found all the bait gone and the traps empty.

      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

Скачать книгу