Native American Mythology: Captivating Myths of Indigenous Peoples from North America

by Matt Clayton

If you're looking for a captivating collection of Native American myths, then keep reading...
Part of the history of Indigenous cultures is, of course, their traditions of storytelling. Myths, legends, and folktales all play important roles in explaining how the world came to be the way it is, as well as giving listeners entertainment with humorous or scary stories, or giving them role models to look up to in hero tales.

The author of this book has endeavored to provide at least one myth from every major culture group in North America: Arctic, Subarctic, Plateau, Northwest Coast, Great Basin, Great Plains, California, Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast Forest.

Of the many different genres of story available, four are chosen for this present volume. The first has to do with the origins of things, either of the world in its entirety or some aspect thereof that was significant to the people who created the story.

The other side of creation is death, and so the second section concerns tales of ghosts and monsters, some terrifying, some friendly, some the victims of prank-playing living people. However, out of the acts of destruction wrought by supernatural beings there is often something new created or a change worked that is necessary for the world to function properly.

Tricksters and heroes occupy the third and fourth sections of the book, respectively. Coyote is, of course, a favorite trickster character for most North American Indigenous groups, while Raven is important to peoples in the Pacific Northwest and Arctic regions. Beaver is a trickster for the Nez Perce of the Columbia River Plateau, and for the Pomo of California, little Woodrat also lives by his wits. These tricksters are by turns clever, gullible, victor, and victim, but always there is a moral lesson to be learned from the stories of their adventures.

The final section of the book presents stories of Indigenous heroes. Many of these heroes are shared by multiple cultures, usually within the same or adjacent culture areas.

Native American: Mythology Captivating Myths of Indigenous Peoples from North America invites you to go on a startling journey and discover the following myths:
Origins Ghosts and Monsters Trickster Tales Hero Tales
And much, much more! So if you want a captivating collection of Native American myths, click the “add to cart” button!

Genres: Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Native American, Religion, Anthropology

102 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 27, 2019

Reviews

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another book in this series that is well done. There is one thing I would like to have seen it do, though, and that is note which myths were established before the colonists arrived and which were established over after contact with the settlers.

All the myths are interesting albeit it a little strange at times. It starts off noting how the Native Americans got to America in the first place over 13,000 years ago. They spread out throughout the country and became various tribes with their own myths. The book goes into the locations of various groups, myths based on the origin of things, myths based on monsters and ghosts, myths based on tricksters and heroes and various other myths.

I find the creation stories to be the most interesting and the hero tales to also be really good. The myths were verbally passed down through history as the Native Americans (I prefer the term First People) did not have a written language until quite late in their history.

It's also very important that such myths be recorded and available to others since, over time, some myths may be forgotten.

Definitely a very good book.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the stories and I'm always looking to learn about new myths and tales of different communities, religions or ethnicities, but I wasn't a fan of the writing of this one. To me, this felt like something that's supposed to be shared aurally but had been written, which often doesn't translate well. You can see it sometimes in written retellings of classic Greek tales like that of the Iliad or Jason and the Argonauts. They were initially spoken and told through plays, but written versions can seem clunky and awkward. To me, this books suffered a little from this.

I have nothing against the content, again, I liked the tales, but the writing was a but a bit of a let down.

[Millennial Book Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty basic and broad in terms of subject matter. It tells different myths from different Native American cultures and discusses some common themes and archetypes these cultures and stories shared. I definitely think the book would be a good resource for people wanting to learn more about Native American mythology and culture, since it's a good starting point.

[Nella ☾ of Bookland · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't so much the actual myths I enjoyed, but rather learning about the cultures reflected through the stories. I liked the introductions before each myth because they put them into perspective, clarifying elements of the story that would have gone over my head because I didn't know to look for them.

[Lilith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for my birthday and enjoyed it I recently reread it and this is unique as not many books have been written on native american mythology and this was a great addition to my mini library

[Naomi Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this little collection of stories, but I did think there would be more to this book. It was very basic and broad but enjoyable none the less. Easy to read book, I think it would be fun for my sister to read too

[Mattie Otero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

I enjoyed this read. I would've enjoyed it more with more tribes being looked into for their stories as well. Very few tribal stories are in the book. Most Northern and NorthEast. No stories about the Southern Tribes.

[Stephani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this pretty boring. Maybe it’s just the content or the voice of the audiobook reader. If you’re looking for captivating mythology, go for Norse or Greek.

[Français Turcotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bien

J'aurais aimé que les histoires soient plus longues. Mais , j'aime bien ces legendes. Facile a lire pour quelqu'un qui n'pas bilingue.😉

[Justin]

This book is divided into four sections and is fairly short so the one section I was interested in only had a handful of stories

[J.S. Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short but good

The book itself can be finished off fairly quickly, but the stories it has are very good. I love Native American mythology and this book did not dissapoint.

[Magnus McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think there was only one myth here I already knew. That might not sound like a lot of new myths, but I know far too much about mythology. Cool!

[Lance Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like these

These books are quite informative and good for light easy reading. Been enjoying the series of his books so far

[Janet B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful

We forget how rich native American ( I like the.Canadian term-first americans) culture is,also we forget that myths tell of their world view.. This is a wonderful read . The bibliography opens a wider door for more.

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very short and basic introduction to the field of Native American mythology. It’s not a scholarly book by any means, but has a useful bibliography. The tales are told in a somewhat simple and westernised way, but this makes for a quick and pleasant read.

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro que recopila una serie de leyendas y mitos de las tribus indígenas del norte. Muy bueno y entretenido.