A Passamaquoddy Legend This is a truly old Indian story from ancient times. Once, an Indian was whirled up by the roaring wind. He was taken up in a thunderstorm and set down again in the village of the Thunders. Later, he described them as being very much like human beings. They used bows and […]
A Cherokee Legend An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, […]
A Choctaw Legend The Choctaw People say that when the People first came up out of the ground, People were encased in cocoons, their eyes closed, their limbs folded tightly to their bodies. And this was true of all People, the Bird People, the Animal People, the Insect People, and the Human People. The Great […]
Once in the long ago, Skel’aw’ (beaver) had a large family of young men and not far from the beaver house, there lived a lone woman, Waxes was her name. It was during the wintertime so it was very cold and all the land was covered with snow. The ice was very thick on the […]
An Inca Legend The word Raymi is equivalent to white mans word Easter. Among the four festivals which the Kings celebrated in the city of Cuzco, the most solemn was that in honor of the Sun, during the month of June. It was called Yntip Raymi, which means the “Solemn Feast of the Sun.” They […]
A Winnebago (Hotcâk) Legend When they told stories, people always said of what tribe they were. That they said. They are Hotcâk and numbered only about a thousand. They built a village. People were constantly on the go and kept moving. In the early days, they ate a variety of meat. They used to track […]
A Hopi Legend Away down the sípapu in the under-world the people lived in the same manner as they do here. The wife of the chief of the Bear clan often danced in the Butterfly dance (Políhtikivee), at which the chief got angry. The Spider clan had also a chief. The Bear chief sent the […]
An Algonquin Legend Now, truly, one would think that after all that had befallen Master Mahtigwess, the Rabbit, that he would have had enough of trying other people’s trades; but his nature was such that, having once set his mighty mind to a thing, little short of sudden death would cure him. And being one […]
A Zuni Legend Once, long, long ago, at Háwikuh, there lived a maiden most beautiful. In her earlier years her father, who was a great priest, had devoted her to sacred things, and kept her always in the house secure from the gaze of all men, and thus she grew. She was so beautiful that […]
A Seneca Legend Once, when the Senecas were at war with the Cherokees, they became very hungry. They spotted a bear and chased it until it ran into a den. One of the men followed the bear into the den. After going some distance inside, he no longer saw the bear but instead saw a […]
