Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest

by Ella Elizabeth Clark

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.

Genres: History, Native American, Folklore, Nonfiction, Mythology, Reference, Native Americans

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Ella Elizabeth Clark was born at Summertown, Tennessee in 1896. After attending high school in Peoria, Illinois in 1917 she became a high school teacher though she did not receive her B.A. from Northwestern University until 1921. Miss Clark continued to teach high school English and dramatics until 1927 when she received her M.A. from Northwestern and began teaching at Washington State University. From 1927 to 1961, when she retired from the English faculty as professor emeritus, she taught both beginning and advanced writing and literature courses and wrote on such diverse subjects as Indian mythology, botany, and firefighting in our national forests.

In 1933, in collaboration with fellow faculty member Paul P. Kies, she wrote a writer's manual and workbook which was soon followed by an annotated anthology of poetry which she authored alone. It was also in the 1930's that Miss Clark began her travels in Canada, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest in search of the varied myths and legends of the North American Indian which were dying in the wake of the new urbantechnological age. She continued this work into the next decade while continuing to be an active teacher and member of several professional, campus, and local history associations. The Second World War involved Miss Clark as a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service in the Cascades for several summers. This new experience provided her with rich materials for publication on the varied flora of the Cascades and attempts to prevent fire from destroying this natural heritage.

However, the major core of Miss Clark's work continued to be the diverse legends of the Indian. Her findings were published in Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953), Indian Legends of Canada (1960), and Indian Legends From the Northern Rockies (1966). This scholarly interest in mythology flowed over into a general concern for the well-being and future of the American Indian which is apparent not only in her published works but in her personal correspondence.

(from http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu/masc...)

Reviews

[Jeffrey Caston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is based on an old book, but it was wonderful. It is full of tall tales, legends of the creation of the world and moral messages. When I first picked this book up, I was looking for some very particular reasons and research to help my writing. It had a bookmark in it. That bookmark was placed at a tale entitled "How Raven Helped the Ancient People." I knew from that moment I was meant to have this book. I found it so wonderful and entertaining and useful all at the same time.

I found it particularly interesting about how so many of the tales dealt with the issue of greed and why greed was bad. Words and ideas to live by.

It enlightened me on geography and history that to my embarrassment, I had not known before.

It inspired me because another common theme was a discussion and arguments about forming the world between the Creator, Coyote, and Raven. Since I am trying to "create" a world with my own fiction writing and it will have history and people and full of things and life, I found this analogy quite interesting. So thank you Coyote and thank you Raven for all the discussions I foresee in the years to come.

[Felicity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not recommended for serious folkloric study. The preface with its note about editing out 'bodily fluids' gave me pause, and I later found the originally collected version of one story, only to discover Clark had removed an entire pregnancy.

I also think her focus on tales that explain the origins of geographic features makes the volume less interesting to the general reader.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The foreword notes that some wording has been changed for the layperson. It is a product of its time and some of the stories are repetitive. That being said, as a layperson, I found it an enjoyable insight into some of the stories around the places and people of the Pacific Northwest. Anyone who has a reverence for such things will enjoy learning a bit more. If you don't believe me then ask Coyote's three sisters who live in his stomach as huckleberries.

[J.Aleksandr Wootton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book took itself a touch too seriously for a semi-scholarly work, but the stories are quite good.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize when I picked this up that the stories had been curated to focus on the myths related to the PNW geography. I liked the theme because I like geography, but it limited how useful it was to my research. A lot of the stories were collected by white colonists during the westward expansion era (and the author stated that all of them were re-written for this book to composite the sources), so I don't know how trustworthy the stories really are at face value. There's a lot of overlap in many stories which hopefully means that they were genuine pieces of the Native cultures.

I did enjoy reading it, and I think it's a good book to find stories / myths to investigate further. But I'm wary of rating it higher than 3 stars because of its age (anthropology has changed since the 50s) and because I think there's a lot of potential bias in how and which stories were preserved by white colonists to the PNW.

[Jacob Reams · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're interested in the PNW, this book might be a fun jumping-off point for a road trip to see the landmarks associated with many of the legends (which are geographically organized). Or if you're familiar with the places already, hearing what their original human stewards have to say about is definitely interesting and in my eyes important. I wouldn't suggest reading the book from cover to cover in the way I did though.
I have no doubt that in their original context: the places, times, language and culture, these stories were something different altogether. Though there were occasional short bits of commentary presented, a few notes about the way in which the story was collected, the stories were mostly left to stand on their own, which, for me, made them feel a little rootless. Kinda like sifting through a jar of someone else's agates.

[Aubrey Berry · Rating 2 out of 5]

picked this up as research for a project im working on. being from Oregon alot of the material is interesting and shines some light on the history or the region. that being said this book could be 100 pages. most of the stories are repeated many many times with very small changes to the details. I mean literally repeats the exact texts from previous pages. extremely frustrating. but maybe that speaks to it being more than 50 years old. I think with some editing and revisions this book could be a tight compelling piece of history. as is you can skip it. I did find some good material for my project so that was nice. I'll summarize it briefly; Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams had a fight over a beautiful daughter of a chief. then coyote came into the world and changed things. I just saved you over 200 pages lol.

[The other John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one's a 1953 collection of tales from Native American tribes of Washington and Oregon, gathered from historical documents and interviews with Native elders. The book does have a white-centric feel to it that I don't think you'd get with a 21st collection of these tales. Or maybe I was just projecting that. Either way, the important thing is the stories themselves. They are very enjoyable and well recounted.

[Shannon (That's So Poe)]

DNF (Did Not Finish) @ 26%

This is an old collection of Indigenous folklore in the Pacific Northwest, and very worthwhile as an anthropological resource for those stories. It's a little hard to read just for fun, though, since each story is quite short and multiple similar stories from different groups are right after one another, making it a bit tedious to read. Still a worthwhile book as historical record, but not quite what I was looking for.

[WILMA BROWN · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book full of Legends of Native Americans. I find the stories fantastic. It's so interesting how they love "MOTHER EARTH" I have always loved the folklore.
Others made comments about this book that are not very nice. We all have our opinions.
I love the book. You can skip to chapters of different tribes or go page by page.
I would suggest this to anyone that loves the Wild West.

[Alan Bach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outside of the Coyote stories almost all the stories are unfortunately just how certain landmarks came to be rather than creating a continual mythos of recurring characters., At least the the landmarks are generally quite prominent ones and so I can go "oh I've been there!" a few times, rather than the stories just being about random rocks in the middle of nowhere.

[Stasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly the kind of book you sit down and read cover to cover, but I enjoyed the stories about places I see every day:)

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting stories. Took a while to read, cause it didn't grab my attention totally. Bunch of short stories!

[Lorena · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a "local" to the geographical features around which many of these Native stories evolved, I appreciated the regional formatting. Some stories have been edited and others are likely influenced by intermingled cultures, such as has been a part of the evolution of stories forever. I enjoyed the stories and shared many of them with my children.

[Sabrina Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good compilation from the elders

[Coho Cabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is packed with wonderful cultural stories from the tribes of our region.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to have a collection of myths from the original inhabitants of the land we work and play in.

[Julie Manthey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation of legends is both beautiful and interesting. There is both poetry and creativity included in these legends that transcend time. I hope more people discover this lovely gem.

[Audrey Approved · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're from the PNW, this is a fun read. It's nice to be able to connect the stories to the areas you've been before. I especially liked descriptions of how these stories were collected.