Presents a poem based on a captivity account by French born Pierre Radisson, who was captured in 1652 by the Mohawk Indians near his home in New France and inducted into the tribe. Includes a list of study questions. (Author/AEM)

Describes the songs and accompanying dances of the Ponca tribe's Helushka society--a traditional society of warriors, tribal leaders, and men of exemplary behavior. Includes Ponca (Siouan) transcriptions of 12 songs, with English translations and commentaries. Contains 46 references. (SV)

Presenting a brief survey of American Indian self-expression through singing, this article examines both ceremonial and powwow songs with both meanings and definitions. (RTS)

Asserting that sleep-inducing verses do have significant meaning and direct relationships to cultural expectations this article examines and discusses four Hopi lullabies in regard to linguistics, oral tradition and culture. (RTS)

This is a tale of Two Fall Together, the name of a stretch of foamy water in the Mohawk River where a young man and Angry Spirit struggled and the Mohawks eventually lived in peace. (Author/RTS)

This book contains the traditional tales and beliefs of the Chippewa, Dogrib, Slavey, and Loucheux peoples. These histories and traditions were spoken to a priest named Emile Petitot (1838-1916) who wrote the words down in the Dene language. This edition was translated from the French and compared with versions in the original tongues by the…

Noting Indian tribes had invented ways to record facts and ideas, with graphic symbols that sometimes reached the complexity of hieroglyphs, this article illustrates and describes Indian symbols. (Author/RTS)

The classic Koyukon tale "K'etetaalkkaanee" recounts the epic journey of a traveler, strong in spirit power, who traverses the North. As he follows the destined path, he effects the transformation of animals, establishes customs, defines features of the physical world, and illustrates practical wisdom. The tale is recounted in Koyukon,…

The Tlingit and Haida are Native Americans who inhabit southeast Alaska and share many traditions and stories. Written by a non-native scholar, this book contains nine Tlingit and Haida tales concerned with shamans and kushtakas. Land otters were fearful hybrid beings of the spirit world. Able to live on land and in water, they had the special…

This story was told to the author by her grandmother, a Yurok born at Pecwan in 1898. Long ago, at a council meeting, the animals decided to ask the Great Creator for tails. He agreed and promised to give each animal a tail the next morning. The first animal to get up would have first choice. Coyote built a big fire and tried hard to stay awake…

This booklet integrates 9 stories from the multicultural southwestern United States, 90 photographs of a storyteller telling the stories, and running sidebars where the storyteller gives hints and secrets to parents, educators, and would-be storytellers. The photographs in the booklet capture the storyteller in the remarkable poses that make him…

This booklet accompanied a 1991 exhibition of migrant arts, mounted by CAMPS (Creative Artists Migrant Program Services) and an ongoing program of collection and documentation research on migrant folk arts at the BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center. There are four passages in migrant lives: through historical time, through space, through the seasons of…

Pablita Velarde, renowned artist and lecturer, recalls some of the Tewa legends handed down orally through the generations. She heard her grandfather and great-grandfather relate these tales on cold winter evenings at Santa Clara Pueblo when she was a child. The six stories told by Old Father Story Teller are "The Stars," which ties the…

While Native myths and legends were educational tools to transmit tribal beliefs and history, traditional American Indian poetry served a ritualistic function in everyday life. Few traditional Native songs, which all poems were, survive; only Mayan and Aztec poems were written, and most of these were burned by a Spanish bishop. In addition, many…

This children's coloring book devotes a page to each of twenty of the most familiar American Indian plant foods: avocado, green beans, black walnuts, cocoa, corn, peanuts, pecans, chile peppers, pineapples, popcorn, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, sugar maple, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, tapioca, tomatoes, and vanilla. Illustrating each…