Old Indian Legends

Zitkala-Sa, 1876-1938Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 99K words
Chapters: 10

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-SaAuthor: Zitkala-Sa, 1876-1938,Language: English, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: Jul 5, 2008

Editor's review

Old Indian Legends is a collection of traditional Native American stories compiled and recorded by the Sioux writer and educator Zitkala-Sa (1876–1938), a public-domain e-book in the American history category. Raised in Sioux culture and educated in English, Zitkala-Sa brought both an insider's perspective and a clarity of written expression to her retelling of oral tales. The legends collected here mostly involve animal characters, creation imagery, and tribal wisdom for living; the language is spare and carries the rhythm of oral literature. Their value lies not only in the stories themselves but in showing how Native peoples preserved their traditions in written form, making the book useful to folklore studies, Native American literature, and cross-cultural research. It is best read as a written record of oral culture, with attention to recurring structures and symbolic meanings rather than judged by the standards of the modern short story.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Native American culture and oral literature
Students and teachers of folklore, anthropology, and Native American studies
Parents and educators who want to introduce children to multicultural stories

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting long, continuous plots or modern novelistic structure
Beginners who struggle with English and need a Chinese translation
Specialist researchers who prefer rigorous scholarly annotation and theoretical analysis

Reading tips

Read aloud to sense the rhythm and repetition of oral storytelling.
After reading, compare the common traits of animal characters across stories and trace cultural symbols.
When reading with children, tell the plot first, then guide them to discuss the lesson the story conveys.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Are these legends the author's originals or collected and retold?

The stories come from traditional Native American oral literature, particularly that of the Sioux, and were recorded and retold in English by Zitkala-Sa. She grew up in Sioux culture, so her retelling has an insider's perspective, but the book involved choices and transformations in putting oral tales into written English.

Is this book suitable for children?

The stories are short and simply written, and many feature animals as protagonists, making the book suitable as multicultural reading material. But the original is in English and carries the repetition and symbolism typical of oral literature; young children may need a parent to explain or a careful selection of stories, along with background notes.

Does the book include scholarly notes or an introductory study?

This is a public-domain e-book edition that mainly presents the story texts and does not focus on scholarly annotation or theoretical analysis. For research, consult specialist literature in folklore and Native American studies and use this book as an entry point to primary story material.

Comments

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About the author

Zitkala-Sa, 1876-1938 Author · American · 1876–1938

Zitkala-Sa (1876–1938) was a Yankton Dakota Sioux writer and editor from the United States, as well as an activist for Native American rights. Drawing on her bilingual writing and personal experience, works such as American Indian Stories record traditional Sioux life and the situation of Native people within white society, in a plain, autobiographical style. She also worked as an editor and used her writing and public activity to speak for Indigenous peoples; her works are important early texts of Native American women's literature. Public information is limited, so her biography should not be over-elaborated, yet the two works held here, Old Indian Legends and American Indian Stories, sufficiently show her sustained effort to preserve oral tradition and present Native perspectives, as well as her literary influence.