Indian Legends from the Northern Rockies )

by Ella Elizabeth Clark

The stories in this unusual collection come from the twelve tribes of Indians that, in historic times, have lived in the present states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. They include myths, legends, personal narratives, and historical traditions preserved by highly respected storytellers, and reveal much about the lives and beliefs of the early Indians. The sections of the book are arranged to represent Indians of six linguistic Nez Percés; Flatheads, Kalispels (or Pend d’Oreilles), and Coeur d’Alênes(Skitswish);  Kutenais; Shoshonis and Bannocks; Arapahoes, Gros Ventres, and Blackfeet; and Crows and Assiniboines. Although attention is focused on Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, the factual introductions to the various sections cover a larger―from the Cascade Range of western Washington and Oregon almost to the Mississippi River. Because the Sioux frequently came into Montana and Wyoming to make war and to hunt buffalo, two of their landscape legends are included. These are the stories which used to be told around winter fires for the entertainment and instruction of the Indian family. The simplicity of style characterizing the narrations is truly reflective of their origins in oral literature. Mythology is related to history in this volume, which belongs in any library or home where instruction is intended to delight.

Genres: Native American, Folklore

372 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1966

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

[Brian Fagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book showed up in the Updates column on my Goodreads homepage last month. My son and I were planning a camping trip in the Northern Rockies, and I bought it as something we could read excerpts from around the campfire each night, learning about the traditions of the native people of the land we were visiting. So we read quite a bit of it out there, between bites of s'mores some nights, and between sips of bourbon others. The rest of the book I read in the mornings while he caught up on his beauty sleep, and a couple of remaining chapters when we got home.

The collection of Native American legends was compiled by Ella Clark and published in 1966. The tribes that lived in the Northern Rockies include the New Perces, Flatheads, Kalispels, Couer d'Alenes, Kutenais, Shoshonis, Bannocks, Arapahos, Gros Ventres, Blackfeet, Crows, Sioux and Assiniboines.

There are quite a few legends that several tribes share versions of, not surprisingly, like The Origin of the World. And a number of the stories have parallels in myths of the Western World, or to Bible stories. Some are clearly morality tales. My favorites have always been legends that explain why animals look or behave the way they do, and those that tell why a mountain or river or species of tree has the characteristics that it does.

Side comments by some of the storytellers are sometimes pretty heartbreaking:

Chief Plenty-Coups of the Crow Indians: "When the buffalo went away, we became a changed people ... Idleness that was never with us in the buffalo days has stolen much from both our minds and bodies. The buffalo was everything to us. When it went away, the hearts of my people fell to the ground ..."

Clark learned that "war, too, was thought of as a sport by some tribes, except when the fighting was in defense of what the warriors considered their tribal territory." "At the Guardian Spirit Dance, a young man, after consultation with his father or uncle and with a medicine man of his band, might make known the guardian spirit that had appeared to him in his boyhood vision; he would then sing, for the first time in public, the song the spirit had taught him. Thereafter he was usually called by the name of his protector."

One nice example of a story that explained a natural phenomenon is the Nez Perces legend The Beginning of Summer and Winter. In it, at the beginning of time, when the people had not yet populated the territory, there was just one family living in the far north of the earth, and one family in the far south. The family in the north ran out of food, and the brothers decided to challenge the brothers of the family in the south to wrestling matches, for control of the world and its resources. When a boy from the north defeated a boy from the south, the cold weather of the north took control of the earth for six months. When an opposing pair of brothers next wrestled, the southern boy won, and warm weather prevailed. The wrestling matches continue to his day, and that is why the winter and summer seasons alternate.

My other favorite tales include:

- The Shoshoni legend of The Sweet and Bitter Springs, which refers to two adjacent natural springs along the base of Pike's Peak. In ancient times, a warrior from each of the two warring tribes came to drink at one of the springs. One of the warriors became enraged that the enemy warrior was using the spring. In a fit of anger, he drowned the man in the spring's pool. The Old Man, the creator, appeared on the scene and turned that spring into bitter brackish water, to forever caution the people against such immoral behavior.

- The Vision Before the Battle, a Flathead legend, in which the people are enjoying a perfect day in camp. Then five buffalo appear on a nearby mountainside. The top hunters race off to kill them. When they arrive at the area the buffalo were seen in, they are gone. The hunters look back toward camp to find a massacre taking place by their enemy the Blackfeet. They speed back home, but the enemy has left, and the old men, the women and the children have been killed. The chief hunter goes off in isolation to seek wisdom and strength form Amotken, the Power of the Upper World, the Cause of life and death. After following a rigorous program of physical and spiritual cleansing, he is given the power to successfully lead his warriors in retribution.

- The Nez Perces story of The Origin of the Lolo Trail, a trail that the Lewis and Clark expedition later used when they crossed the Bitterroot Range. It concerns a poor boy who became lost in the mountains when he became separated from his people's hunting party. The creatures of the world came together in a council to decide what was to be done with the lost human boy. Grizzly Bear volunteered to keep him, as she had no children of her own. Together they traveled through the mountains on a trail known by the bear. They used the trail each year to move back and forth from the bear's winter den to the summer feeding grounds. Eventually the bear was killed, but the boy stayed in the mountains, using the bear's den and her feeding grounds on the other end of the long trail. When the boy grew up, he returned to his people and showed them the trail that is still in use today.

[Steve Maples]

Indian Legends from the Northern Rockies
Indian legends from the northern RockiesIs an anthology of short stories gathered from the oral traditions of the tribes located in the northern Rockies and plains. The stories are lovely and like most oral traditions build upon the mythology of people craving anecdotal lessons. Many of the stories are about relationships between people. The stories are a nice insight into the cultural underpinnings of Native Americans. The books provide a very authentic feel, and give the reader a good initiation to Native American culture.

[Terry Misfeldt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ella Elizabeth Clark relates detailed accounts of Native American legends, many of which convey the close connections of tribal lore to the religious context of other human beings. Excellent research tool for any writer considering the involvement of tribes that inhabit the Northern Rocky Mountains.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories themselves were great, with some condescending comments from the editor.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly accurate, but a good read of old tales that are becoming lost.