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And It Is Still That Way: Legends Told By Arizona Indian Children
Byrd Baylor asked children—Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odham, Pima, Apache, Quechan, Cocopah—to choose a story told to them by someone in their own tribe. It should be their favorite story, maybe the best story in the world. That story would be their gift to other tribes, to other children. It would share some of the oldest magic of the Indian world.
At a school in southern Arizona, Byrd Baylor saw a story about Rattlesnake and how he made the first brush shelter so the Papago people would have shade. This story was told by a Tohono O'odham child.
"As soon as I read the story," Byrd said, "I knew I wanted a special kind of book to hold this special kind of story. It would have to be written by children, not tampered with too much by adults.
"So I took the Rattlesnake story with me for good luck and camped in my favorite places and went to dances and ceremonials along the way...and talked to children in reservation schools. We talked about storytelling in the Indian way. We talked about how it feels to hear stories that aren't made up new and written down in somebody else's book but are as old as your tribe and are told and sung and chanted by people of your own family, your own clan.
"We talked about how it feels to hear stories that go back to the oldest memories of your ancestors, to times when animals talked like people, times when people changed into stars or rocks or eagles, times when the world was still new and there were monsters to be killed and heroes to kill them and gods to teach the first people the first things they needed to know.
"I asked the children (Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odham, Pima, Apache, Quechan, Cocopah) to choose a story told to them by someone in their own tribe. It should be their favorite story, maybe the best story in the world. That story would be their gift to other tribes, to other children. It would be sharing some of the oldest magic of the Indian world.
"In Arizona, Indians don't tell their stories in summer. The old people say snakes don't like to hear them and sometimes it makes them angry and they come and bite the storyteller. So stories are saved for winter when the snakes are sleeping. In gathering these stories, I saved them for winter too. I did not ask anyone to tell them in summer and I hope whoever reads them now will put the book away during the hot part of the year when snakes are listening."
Most of the stories in And It is Still That Way are just bits and pieces of longer and more complicated legends, but they are the part the children remember.
At a school in southern Arizona, Byrd Baylor saw a story about Rattlesnake and how he made the first brush shelter so the Papago people would have shade. This story was told by a Tohono O'odham child.
"As soon as I read the story," Byrd said, "I knew I wanted a special kind of book to hold this special kind of story. It would have to be written by children, not tampered with too much by adults.
"So I took the Rattlesnake story with me for good luck and camped in my favorite places and went to dances and ceremonials along the way...and talked to children in reservation schools. We talked about storytelling in the Indian way. We talked about how it feels to hear stories that aren't made up new and written down in somebody else's book but are as old as your tribe and are told and sung and chanted by people of your own family, your own clan.
"We talked about how it feels to hear stories that go back to the oldest memories of your ancestors, to times when animals talked like people, times when people changed into stars or rocks or eagles, times when the world was still new and there were monsters to be killed and heroes to kill them and gods to teach the first people the first things they needed to know.
"I asked the children (Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odham, Pima, Apache, Quechan, Cocopah) to choose a story told to them by someone in their own tribe. It should be their favorite story, maybe the best story in the world. That story would be their gift to other tribes, to other children. It would be sharing some of the oldest magic of the Indian world.
"In Arizona, Indians don't tell their stories in summer. The old people say snakes don't like to hear them and sometimes it makes them angry and they come and bite the storyteller. So stories are saved for winter when the snakes are sleeping. In gathering these stories, I saved them for winter too. I did not ask anyone to tell them in summer and I hope whoever reads them now will put the book away during the hot part of the year when snakes are listening."
Most of the stories in And It is Still That Way are just bits and pieces of longer and more complicated legends, but they are the part the children remember.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
44 people want to read
About the author
Byrd Baylor
59 books73 followersByrd Baylor has always lived in the Southwest, mainly in Southern Arizona near the Mexican border. She is at home with the southwestern desert cliffs and mesas, rocks and open skies. She is comforted by desert storms. The Tohono O’odham people, previously known as the Papagos, are her neighbors and close friends. She has focused many of her writings on the region’s landscape, peoples, and values. Through her books of rhythmic prose poetry, written primarily for children, she celebrates the beauty of nature and her own feelings of rapport with it.
Byrd has written many books for children.
Byrd has written many books for children.
Her books have been honored with many prestigious children’s book awards, including the Caldecott Award and the Texas Bluebonnet Award. All of her books are full of the places and the peoples that she knows. She thinks of these books as her own kind of private love songs to the place she calls home.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 3, 2020
I’d be interested in reading folktales, legends, and so on from Native American communities, preferably with some context for me about the communities and the stories. I’d be interested in the same thing geared toward children. This book is excerpts from such stories that children remember and told to the author. That is sweet, and I hope beneficial to someone, but didn’t work well as a format for me.
January 5, 2023
These are kids' versions of Native American traditional stories so they're very simple. And edited. The real stories are much more complicated than this so don't take these as complete. I'm not thrilled with the simplification so I chose to enjoy the book as children's own versions of the traditional stories they've heard.
November 11, 2021
A good collection of tales native to Arizona. I’m not too much of a fan of origin-story folktales (i.e. Why Bears Have Short Tails) but I quite enjoyed the section ”Great Troubles and Great Heroes”. I’d never before come across such legends.
June 26, 2024
Wonderful short stories told by natives on the reservation or when they were institutionalized in the Indian Schools. Stories told to them by their parents or the elders of learning, grace, gratitude, family and many lessons. Good read, hoping to share with my community.
January 31, 2018
Why bears have short tails is my favorite in this collection. I hadn’t heard it before!
July 5, 2018
These tales are related by the children, so they are charming, but the literary quality is all over the place. We will probably bring this out when we talk about folk tales and oral traditions.
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September 24, 2009Gave to my sister to read.
May 17, 2017
Booktube-a-thorn 2015 | Book 1
Read this one for the challenge to read a book without putting it down. It was a quick read and very interesting.
Read this one for the challenge to read a book without putting it down. It was a quick read and very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews