This article describes strategies that the author employed to make a general education course titled "Fairy Tales and Folklore" more diverse and inclusive. Students read primary texts and secondary articles as part of ongoing debates, then form their own arguments within the debate, thus coming to understand how fairy tales are embedded…

Native American storytelling has become a very vital issue in education. It preserves Native American history for the next generation and teaches them important lessons about the Native American culture. It also conveys moral meanings, knowledge and social values of the Native American people to the universe. More importantly, Native American…

In this essay, the author begins by acknowledging the necessity of teaching Native American and other indigenous literatures both alongside and independent of Western texts. Instructors should teach these works by listening to the Native authors' worldviews and literary traditions. However, when instructors try to teach Native literatures…

This publication contains 17 poems that portray experiences of the Native American poet. American Indian images and symbols are combined in these poems: (1) "Grace"; (2) "Bowl With Splatter-Painted Hand"; (3) "Turtle"; (4) "Poem for a Newborn Niece"; (5) "Willowemoc"; (6) "The Vision-Hunter Dies in the Rain"; (7) "At the Top of the Fire Tower in…

Studies the myth as history through the texts collected from Jim Stacey, a Yavapai narrator, in 1930. Demonstrates how Stacey adjusted myths to a system of cycles and shows how Stacey's versions of those myths differ from the versions of other Yavapai narrators. (CM)

Provides an annotated list of resources for a unit on American Indian myths and legends. All of the listed materials were written by American Indian authors, set down in print as told by various tribal story tellers, or gathered by respected authorities on the American Indian. (MKM)

Argues that it is useful to broaden students' horizons by exposing them to the rich folk heritage of many ethnic groups. Discusses resources and class activities which encompass Native American, Black American, and Asian mythology and folktales. (RS)

Following his own advice that elders of the tribe share their knowledge so that "the way of the Indians would come back to the children of today," Pete Beaverhead (1899-1975) tells of the traditions of respect and honor surrounding the eagle feather in a booklet illustrated with black and white drawings. The eagle is an Indian symbol of…

This paper analyzes religious, psychological, artistic, and environmental elements in one Naskapi myth, and provides a means of understanding the world of the Montagnais and Naskapi hunting tribes of the Labrador Peninsula. In "Ayas'i's Son," the (unnamed) hero is falsely accused of rape by his father's youngest wife. The son is exiled…

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…

Examines themes and images in Black and American Indian folklore and written literature. Suggests that in the literature of both cultures, there are common elements that reflect an affinity between the two groups, born out of similar cultural patterns and the common experience of being oppressed by a dominant race. (Author/MJL)

Describes how Native American folk culture carries important values. (JL)

Analyzes the use of Laguna symbolic geography and Laguna and Navajo mythology in the ceremonies that heal and revitalize Tayo, the alienated hero of Leslie Silko's novel "Ceremony." Describes the sunwise cycle through the four cardinal directions and the aspects of each direction. Contains 29 references. (SV)

"The Goldfinch" is a periodical that introduces young children to various facets of Iowa history. Each issue has a different theme topic and a number of articles covering diverse aspects of the topic being addressed. This issue focuses on myths and legends. Featured articles discuss how stories passed from generation to generation to…

A brief bibliography of books on American Indian life is included. (MM)