This is an excellant collection of the oral myths and legends of the Native American people. It is well organized with the various legends having common elements. The only way I found to truly enjoy the book was to get out of the Western Thinking mode as it applies to myths and legends. These stories do not necessarily have a moral behind it, and quite often no real begining or end. They often are just a partial episode that could centuries into a tribes traditions.

It is interesting to note the More...

I read this book years ago for a Native American literature course. Being part Native American I have always been interested in stories from the indigenous people that were here first, and I think this is a good introductory volume for most North American to read, to realize we were not here first. There were others here first, and they had a diverse and rich cultures that we can learn more about. This is by no means a scholarly or anthropological volume, but I think most American and Canadian h More...

I'm on a serious Native American kick and this book was the fix I needed. The book is nicely organized into sections by major theme—life, death, birth, love, etc..., with a variety of myths from different tribes, giving a novice reader a good overview of Indian belief systems. Not sure if all the myths are intended for children though. Case in point; a censor might be in order for some of the surprisingly graphic ball-grabbing, frog vulva myths (Coyote and the two Frog Women), however, I have to More...

Stories and legends often represent the heart and soul of a culture. They tell tale of creation of life, the supernatural, higher beings, and even explain such miniscule things as why the crow is black and why a beaver’s tale is flat.

Perhaps the greatest storytelling culture is that of the American Indian…a culture so committed and dedicated to oral history, myths, and legends. In Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz’s colorful collection, American Indian Myths and Legends, nearly 200 stories help g More...

This book was very interesting with all of the stories from different tribes. It has a lot of different stories, some are even stories that they used to explain things. There are number of tribes who's stories are told in this book. There are serious stories and there are humorous stories. I would recommend it to anybody that likes Native American stuff or anybody that likes short stories.

American Indian Myths and Legends tells stories in ten different categories: human creation, world creation, universe creation, monsters and heroes, war, love, the trickster, animals, ghosts and the end of the world. The book is excellent in identifying the tribes where the story originated and for providing a background for the many Native American tribes. I keep it for a reference.

I just started this book and the myths and legends in this book are pretty cool some are "How the sun was made" and "How the crow got its color" it show you what indian tribe this story is from. I would recomend these storys for anyone who likes myths and legends about animals and how plants and animals were made or got it color. Im only on page 12 but I have already read 5 storys

This book was fabulous. It was the best compilation of Native American myths and legends that I have found. These stories should always be treasured and retold to upcoming generations. They reveal a rich past as well as present, and bring forth a somewhat "lost" culture in terms of what one usually associates with the United States.

I doubt the complete accuracy of some of the myths inside, it was written in the 1960's when Native American's where pop culture glory, but none the less they were enjoyable stories.

Very interesting. A collection of myths from different American Indian tribes, organized by the category they fell under (ie. Creation; Death & the Afterlife; Ghosts; etc.)

pretty great collection, though it's lacking historical/background information that would be helpful in understanding the various stories and their importance to their tribes.

I love all things Native American and this book hits the spot. It's a great way to learn about the Indian Way while being entertained at the same time.

I really liked this book. I thought it was extremely interesting to learn about another culture's beliefs. Some of the explanations don't quite make sense, but I enjoyed them none the less.

I'll have to check this out of the library again. I got maybe 1/5 through this thing, but then had to return it to the library, seeing as I have a bunch of other books that need finishing. This book is valuable in light of the cultures it helps bring to life, and the stories themselves are good, but they aren't always shining examples of narrative.

I absolutely loved this book. It isn't a book that you read start to finish, but you jump around. For the stories range from one page to 20 pages.

Concise and if you're like most, this book is exactly what you're looking for. Check out the story of how the world found Peyote.

Some of these stories were pretty stupid, but many were fun to read. I liked the coyote (trickster) ones the best.

American Indian Myths and Legends (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library) by Richard Erdoes (1985)

A great book for referencing very old traditional stories. Great for reading short stories out loud to the young ones.

Good bathroom reading. Full of hundreds of short, interesting myths and legends.

Fantastic Native American collection of short tales I re-read one every night !

I've read parts here and there. All very interesting stories.

Trying to learn about the legends of Oregon

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I love reading stories :)

I hope this is really the book I read. Hmm...

This was an interesting book to read especially of all the different legends and to see how they came up with them. A lot really didn't make any kind of sense to me or I felt were just too silly and I hate to say it but stupid (or maybe that's just me), also a lot just left me hanging or in ended in a rather weird spot. So I was kind of glad to be finished with this one.

I thought this a great collection of Native American folklore. Rather than dividing the tales by tribe, which most collections do, the editors divided the chapters by tale types instead. This makes the collection a wonderful general overview of Native American folklore, particularly if you are more interested in tale types rather than the tales of specific tribes, though tribe names are still listed for each tale.

Gathering 160 tales from 80 tribal groPups to offer a rich and lively panarama of the Native American mythic heritage. 100 drawings.

We have really enjoyed this book! It made great bedtime reading (for a pre-teen) because the stories were just the right length. It was very well-written compared to other anthologies of "folk" stories that I have read. All of the stories were engaging and many taught valuable lessons. It's a great pick-it-up-and-put-it-down book!

These stories were well-written and really interesting. It's always nice to have a book of bits and pieces that you can jump into when you're in the mood. Too often I get stuck in novels and can't do anything in the real world until I'm done with them.

I may actually buy this one, even though I'm through the library copy.