Thirty Indian Legends of Canada

by Margaret Bemister

Excerpt from Thirty Indian Legends of Canada

For the most part the legends here told are drawn from original sources. Many of the stories are printed for the first time; others have been adapted from well-known authorities. The author wishes to acknowledge in this latter connection help received from the collection, The Indian in his Wigwam. Thanks are also due to Mr. G. H. Gunn, St. Andrew's Locks, Manitoba, for the Sleep Fairies; to Mr. C. Linklater, Portage la Prairie, Mani toba, for the Adventures of Wesakchak; to Mr. J. S. Logie, Summerland, British Columbia, for The Chief's Bride; to the Okanagan chief, Antowyne, for the other Okanagan legends; and.

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Genres: Short Stories, Native American, Mythology, Indigenous, Canada

159 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky collection of legends and myths. Unlike the "fairy tales" we are accustomed to, these have no proper structure: many do not even have a story arc. The tale starts somewhere and ends somewhere else.

That said, they have the raw beauty of stories which have not been doctored to meet modern sensibilities. These legends have been collected and presented without any window-dressing by the author, in 1912 - and going through them, we get the picture of a wild country inhabited by a hardy folk who existed in tune with nature. They lived, loved and quarrelled in an idyllic landscape untouched by time, before the white man arrived with his "civilising" mission.

A world worth aspiring to return to - even though it may be only be a pipe dream.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable short tales varying between a page and a dozen pages. Not riveting, and some I liked better than others. Fewer seemed to be 'creation explanations' than in some other culture's folk-tales, and they made me want to go back and read 'Beyond the clapping mountains' again, which was a favourite folk-tale collection of mine when I was young.

[Kanav · Rating 2 out of 5]

Certain legends are great to read and some don't even make a good ending, better to say make no sense. This explains that the tales with good endings are interesting and involve the reader and the tales without a proper ending are also irritating.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might make a good children's storybook, but it is nearly worthless as a folklore source. It does not give sources for the stories, not even to say which Indian groups the stories are from. I suspect some of the stories have been bowdlerized. And some of them are simply not very interesting.