Indian Tales

by Jamie De Angulo

Hailed by Ezra Pound as the "American Ovid" and renowned as a linguist and a self-described "amateur anthropologist," Jaime de Angulo drew on his forty years among the Pit River tribe of California to create the amalgam of fiction, folklore, tall tales, jokes, ceremonial ritual, and adventure that is Indian Tales. He first wrote these stories to entertain his children, borrowing freely from the worlds of the Pit, and also of the Miwok, Pomo, and Karok. Here are the adventures of Father Bear, Mother Antelope, the little boy Fox, and, of course, Old Man Coyote in a time when people and animals weren't so very far apart. The author's intent was not so much to rer anthropologically faithful translations-though they are here-as to create a magical world fueled by the power of storytelling while avoiding the dangers for the romantic and picturesque. True to the playful and imaginative spirit he portrays, de Angulo mischievously recommends to readers: "When you find yourself searching for some mechanical explanation, if you don't know the answer, invent one. When you pick out some inconsistency or marvelous improbability, satisfy your curiosity like the old Indian folk: 'Well, that's the way they tell that story. I didn't make it up!'"

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

Reviews

[Will Ansbacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

See, this is why I love GR. I don’t remember what idle browsing unearthed this book whose title and author I had both long forgotten, but there the cover was in GR, more or less the only thing I remembered.
It was over 30 years ago when my son was about 8 and there was nothing to read in the house because we hadn’t been to the library. In desperation I picked up this tattered water-stained paperback that had been abandoned by a former flatmate. It didn’t look promising, and I thought my son would be bored stupid by the mythic tales of Fox and Raven, but he was absolutely enthralled and we read the whole thing in a couple of nights.

[Derek Pyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oriole said to Fox, "Oh, come along let's play. You study too much; it will hurt your back. Why do you ask all those questions from the grown-ups? They don't know the answers. You only embarrass them."
"But I want to know the truth."
"What for?"
"Because I want to know the way it really happened."
"IT HAPPENED THE WAY they tell it."
"But they tell it differently!"
"Then it is because it happened differently."
p.87-88 Indian Tales

based on KPFA recordings of this eccentric anthropologist. From his work with various Native Californian tribes, Jaime de Angulo weaves together a cross cultural California native travel tail; as the characters make a trip across California they meet many tribes, giving us vision into different tribes, and these visions are rooted in the depth of Jaime's own work.

[Jay Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is this book so good? California Pit River Indian tales for children? Sounds like a total bore.

It is instead totally engaging, delightful and very moving.

The best (American?) writers write like this--transparently clear, relaxed, intimately. I'm thinking of Williams, Sherwood Anderson, Rexroth, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, etc. This style is really not a style at all, but expression of a certain kind of ease and mastery. This here is a very simple book, so any missteps, no matter how slight, would stand out. There are none.

De Angulo may have learned how to tell a story from the northern California Indian storytellers he worked with for many years; their humanity, humor and wisdom shine through the book.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of oral history tales captured by a man who spent time with Native American tribes in California in the early 1900's. My kids loved it, and it contained a number of interesting insights into the culture.

[GORDON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully retold stories of a California tribe by an ethnographer who showed up to do field work, and never left.

[Nancy Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read approximately 30% of the book, just trying to declutter by reading tab. Has some interesting stories about Native American Tribes of California. Some chapters are recounts of their underground architecture, others are full-fledged oral stories. Interesting read.

[danadickerson Dickerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread this recently. I really enjoyed the way de Angulo pulled together so many different elements into such a simple story. It's a family traveling from one location to another, yet the world unfolds before them along the way. He blurs the lines between fact and fiction, ethnography and myth, human and animal. It raises the question, is the chasm between modern and primitive so very great? Or is it simply a matter of perception? Is there such thing as a modern or a primitive mind? Doesn't it all spring forth from the same mind, just different angles. Jaime de Angulo is able to raise all these issues, without actually stating any of them. It's the type of story that can be read at face value or examined for greater depth.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo mejor que me ha pasado en un millón de años, opinión nada subjetiva. Un beso en los morros a Allen Ginsberg por hacer que publicasen esto. Toda mi infancia desde los seis hasta los diez. Cuando todo era bonito.

[izad]

REF: Una guía sobre el arte de perderse de Rebecca Solnit

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

'If you don’t have the answer invent one.'

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a religious fundamentalist tale, just not your religion. Before people, the world was brimming with consciousness and intelligence. This is the story of what happened next.

[Will Kastner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique and wonderful.

[Adam Hoffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess this is the perfect tale.

[Bill Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago. I want to read it again.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a tattered old edition of this, I think Little Brown, or whatever. Lovely tales.