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Old Indian Legends
Early in the twentieth century, a Sioux woman named Zitkala-Ša published these fourteen Native legends that she had learned during her own childhood on the Yankton Reservation. Her writing talent, developed during her education back east, was put to good use in recording from oral tradition the exploits of Iktomi the trickster, Eya the glutton, the Dragon Fly, and other magical and mysterious figures, human and animal, known to the Sioux. Until her death in 1938, Zitkala-Ša stood between two cultures as preserver and translator.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1901
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About the author
Zitkála-Šá
44 books190 followersZitkála-Šá (Dakota: pronounced zitkála-ša, which translates to "Red Bird") also known by the missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Sioux writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She wrote several works chronicling her struggles in her youth as she was pulled back and forth between the influences of dominant American culture and her own Native American heritage, as well as books in English that brought traditional Native American stories to a widespread white readership for one of the first times. With William F. Hanson, Bonnin co-composed the first American Indian opera, The Sun Dance (composed in romantic style based on Ute and Sioux themes), which premiered in 1913. She founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 to lobby for the rights of Native Americans to American citizenship, and served as its president until her death in 1938.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
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July 13, 2025I didn’t finish this one. I love Indian history which is why I selected this but as one other reviewer mentioned, while this was a short book was very difficult to get into. At least for me it was. I didn’t even get through 15% of it so I’ll hold off on a rating. I doubt this is one I will revisit.
May 15, 2011
while i was in high school, i stumbled upon a 1901 edition of this book at an antique store. it wasn't until college that i learned that both Zitkala-Ša and the artist Angel De Cora were womyn and pathbreakers. This was the first published collection of First Nations folktales collected by a native. Angel was among the first native artists using "Western" art styles to portray native themes.
the stories themselves are great. Iktomi, a "spider fairy" is both impossible and easy to love. he is rude, self-centered and cares only for himself. so, of course, his shenanigans usually end with a loss for him. several of the tales are hilarious, notably "Iktomi and the Fawn" and "The Warlike Seven". several are heartwrenching. all are fun to re-tell.
the stories themselves are great. Iktomi, a "spider fairy" is both impossible and easy to love. he is rude, self-centered and cares only for himself. so, of course, his shenanigans usually end with a loss for him. several of the tales are hilarious, notably "Iktomi and the Fawn" and "The Warlike Seven". several are heartwrenching. all are fun to re-tell.
October 18, 2022
A wonderful collection of Native American folktales. Extra special because it was the first to be written by a First Nation author.
July 4, 2024
Zitkala-Sa tells some great stories here. Knowing a little bit of her background, it's interesting to see which choices she made (such as retaining something I would assume is closer to the original Lakota with "ten summers and as many winters" instead of "ten years") when translating these tales into English. The further complicating factor is that these are traditional "legends," and thus primarily oral, rather than written. Thus, each new time they're told, different flourishes are added, different details are forgotten or mis-remembered. With Zitkala-Sa's telling, it suddenly becomes inscribed in written text (perhaps at the perfect time, before these stories might have risked dying out). Thus her telling of them in English imposes a strangely petrifactive effect on the stories. When they're committed to paper, suddenly this demarcates a "right" and "wrong" way to tell the stories, something alien to the "original" (which, while still in an oral formulation, becomes less-coherent of a term).
Form aside, the stories themselves were so much fun. They felt like Aesop's fables (since most of them had an explicit moral to teach), but they were all developed quite a bit more than Aesop's. The Greek tales are extremely brief and at times almost insultingly on the nose, whereas these sometimes surprised me and almost always entertained me. Perhaps most interesting was the parallel of Zitkala-Sa's characters usually being talking animals (like Aesop's), but at times the lines between human and animal blurred. The first story begins thus:
IKTOMI is a spider fairy. He wears brown deerskin leggins with long soft fringes on either side, and tiny beaded moccasins on his feet. His long black hair is parted in the middle and wrapped with red, red bands. Each round braid hangs over a small brown ear and falls forward over his shoulders.
He even paints his funny face with red and yellow, and draws big black rings around his eyes. He wears a deerskin jacket, with bright colored beads sewed tightly on it. Iktomi dresses like a real Dakota brave. In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him—if ever dress is part of man or fairy.
Immediately, we are faced with something which could be terrifying (a spider fairy), but it's disarmed by how humorously the clothing is described. As the description continued, I had to return to the first sentence, as it anthropromorphized more than just with the clothing (giving him ears and hair), so the animal-human blurring happened almost immediately. I would assume such blurring accompanies the worldview of Native Americans where spirits (of animals, of humans, of plants, of the land) are more interchangable, are more "equal" (to bastardize the concept by quantifying it). In Judeo-Christian thinking, humans are not only above all other creatures, but are separated by a gulf (just as we are separated from angels and demons). This separation can be powerful, as it helped spawn such competing ideas as secular humanism and cutthroat capitalism and colonialism. So it's a double-edged sword, just like the Native American approach.
The morals in these stories seemed to cluster around hospitality and food, which I don't think was accidental given that US/Indian relations often clashed most catastrophically in that domain. Of course it's tempting for us to read contemporary politics into a text such as this, but we do know that Zitkala-Sa became very political in her later life, so it's not impossible she intended that. An interesting universal among premodern peoples was their hospitality, something utterly lost in the modern world, so full of suspicion (both of texts and of people). I was thinking about this recently with how expensive parking can sometimes be, in addition to something unheard of in the premodern age, namely homelessness. Because modernity so visciously promotes an almost purely transactional relation to each other, we end up with brand new problems that the world never faced before. It's equal parts heartbreaking and frustrating, but the nice thing about ancient wisdom is that it still applies to these new issues; unlike newer ideas, they don't have such a short shelf life.
A couple of the last stories ("Iya, the Camp-Eater" and "The Toad and the Boy") felt almost like horror stories, and I hope there's more like that in her other collection of stories. Both of these shared a common theme with many of the other stories, namely anxiety around fake identities. Once again, everyone nowadays loves to read back into old tales contemporary biases, especially the LGBTQ folks who like to read back in third-gender/two-spirit complications. It's striking how many of these stories focus on the importance of clear roles/expectations; Zitkala-Sa occasionally highlights exceptions, such as the mother in "The Toad and the Boy" ("She was strong and swung an ax as skillfully as any man"), but this single exception doesn't upend all the roles; if anything, it accidentally supports them, as this same woman lost her baby and couldn't find him for years.
This text isn't quite as imperiled as, say, Sappho's poetry (which has been abused to death and might be a blank slate for anyone to misuse), but it still tends in that direction. Her relative obscurity (on the whole, not in Native American studies, where she's one of the foremost Native American Women of the turn of the century) shouldn't overshadow her talent, which is quite evident. I look forward to reading more of her autobiographical texts, as they might help shed a light on the others.
Form aside, the stories themselves were so much fun. They felt like Aesop's fables (since most of them had an explicit moral to teach), but they were all developed quite a bit more than Aesop's. The Greek tales are extremely brief and at times almost insultingly on the nose, whereas these sometimes surprised me and almost always entertained me. Perhaps most interesting was the parallel of Zitkala-Sa's characters usually being talking animals (like Aesop's), but at times the lines between human and animal blurred. The first story begins thus:
IKTOMI is a spider fairy. He wears brown deerskin leggins with long soft fringes on either side, and tiny beaded moccasins on his feet. His long black hair is parted in the middle and wrapped with red, red bands. Each round braid hangs over a small brown ear and falls forward over his shoulders.
He even paints his funny face with red and yellow, and draws big black rings around his eyes. He wears a deerskin jacket, with bright colored beads sewed tightly on it. Iktomi dresses like a real Dakota brave. In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him—if ever dress is part of man or fairy.
Immediately, we are faced with something which could be terrifying (a spider fairy), but it's disarmed by how humorously the clothing is described. As the description continued, I had to return to the first sentence, as it anthropromorphized more than just with the clothing (giving him ears and hair), so the animal-human blurring happened almost immediately. I would assume such blurring accompanies the worldview of Native Americans where spirits (of animals, of humans, of plants, of the land) are more interchangable, are more "equal" (to bastardize the concept by quantifying it). In Judeo-Christian thinking, humans are not only above all other creatures, but are separated by a gulf (just as we are separated from angels and demons). This separation can be powerful, as it helped spawn such competing ideas as secular humanism and cutthroat capitalism and colonialism. So it's a double-edged sword, just like the Native American approach.
The morals in these stories seemed to cluster around hospitality and food, which I don't think was accidental given that US/Indian relations often clashed most catastrophically in that domain. Of course it's tempting for us to read contemporary politics into a text such as this, but we do know that Zitkala-Sa became very political in her later life, so it's not impossible she intended that. An interesting universal among premodern peoples was their hospitality, something utterly lost in the modern world, so full of suspicion (both of texts and of people). I was thinking about this recently with how expensive parking can sometimes be, in addition to something unheard of in the premodern age, namely homelessness. Because modernity so visciously promotes an almost purely transactional relation to each other, we end up with brand new problems that the world never faced before. It's equal parts heartbreaking and frustrating, but the nice thing about ancient wisdom is that it still applies to these new issues; unlike newer ideas, they don't have such a short shelf life.
A couple of the last stories ("Iya, the Camp-Eater" and "The Toad and the Boy") felt almost like horror stories, and I hope there's more like that in her other collection of stories. Both of these shared a common theme with many of the other stories, namely anxiety around fake identities. Once again, everyone nowadays loves to read back into old tales contemporary biases, especially the LGBTQ folks who like to read back in third-gender/two-spirit complications. It's striking how many of these stories focus on the importance of clear roles/expectations; Zitkala-Sa occasionally highlights exceptions, such as the mother in "The Toad and the Boy" ("She was strong and swung an ax as skillfully as any man"), but this single exception doesn't upend all the roles; if anything, it accidentally supports them, as this same woman lost her baby and couldn't find him for years.
This text isn't quite as imperiled as, say, Sappho's poetry (which has been abused to death and might be a blank slate for anyone to misuse), but it still tends in that direction. Her relative obscurity (on the whole, not in Native American studies, where she's one of the foremost Native American Women of the turn of the century) shouldn't overshadow her talent, which is quite evident. I look forward to reading more of her autobiographical texts, as they might help shed a light on the others.
August 22, 2021
she did the thing
August 15, 2022
Impish mischief amid nature’s harmonies.
October 11, 2022
A really wonderful, short collection.
November 19, 2024
Aesop’s Fable-style Native American Folktales
KindleUnlimited review. This Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota) collection of fourteen children’s folktales was written by Zitkála-Šá (Lakota for Red Bird) a Native American activists and author. There are seven stories feature a mischievous character like the Norse Loki. Iktomi is a spider fairy which means he can take the shape of a spider, a human, or anything else. When in human form, Iktomi takes on the appearance of a Dakota brave. He wears brown deerskin leggings with side fringe, deerskin jacket both with brightly colored beads and side fringe, and beaded moccasins. His face is colored with red, yellow and white paint with black rings around his eyes. Iktomi’s interactions with animals and humans provide for moral lessens to no emulate the actions if this lazy and mischievous little imp. He contends with ducks, wolves, muskrats, coyotes, peacocks, fawns, and turtles. In all his animal and human encounters, Iktomi is bested. Many stories, such as the Badger and the Bear or the Toad and the Boy, are reminiscent of Aesop’s Fables with the anthropomorphic animals teaching proper human behavior. In addition to Iktomi, other important characters are Iya the camp-eater and Manštin the rabbit each with their own lessons to give.
Because Sioux is an Ojibwa word meaning "adders" or "enemies", the Sioux refer to themselves today as Oceti Sakowin meaning "Seven Council Fires”. Zitkála-Šá cofounded the National Council of American Indians (later changed to National Congress of American Indians) and served as its president from 1926 until 1938.
KindleUnlimited review. This Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota) collection of fourteen children’s folktales was written by Zitkála-Šá (Lakota for Red Bird) a Native American activists and author. There are seven stories feature a mischievous character like the Norse Loki. Iktomi is a spider fairy which means he can take the shape of a spider, a human, or anything else. When in human form, Iktomi takes on the appearance of a Dakota brave. He wears brown deerskin leggings with side fringe, deerskin jacket both with brightly colored beads and side fringe, and beaded moccasins. His face is colored with red, yellow and white paint with black rings around his eyes. Iktomi’s interactions with animals and humans provide for moral lessens to no emulate the actions if this lazy and mischievous little imp. He contends with ducks, wolves, muskrats, coyotes, peacocks, fawns, and turtles. In all his animal and human encounters, Iktomi is bested. Many stories, such as the Badger and the Bear or the Toad and the Boy, are reminiscent of Aesop’s Fables with the anthropomorphic animals teaching proper human behavior. In addition to Iktomi, other important characters are Iya the camp-eater and Manštin the rabbit each with their own lessons to give.
Because Sioux is an Ojibwa word meaning "adders" or "enemies", the Sioux refer to themselves today as Oceti Sakowin meaning "Seven Council Fires”. Zitkála-Šá cofounded the National Council of American Indians (later changed to National Congress of American Indians) and served as its president from 1926 until 1938.
July 21, 2014
There are obvious parallels to be drawn between Iktomi and Anansi in the West African tradition, though Iktomi is much more a of a bumbling idiot. Iktomi as a character is ultimately a lovable character in that he is a sort of stand in for our childhood selves: acting impulsively, looking out for his own interest above all others, ill-mannered. The lessons of these tales are universal. The translation is a little shaky. Another commenter below pointed out a story about peacocks that doesn't even feel possible given the ecology or whatever of the Americas at the time. Those kind of liberties in translation took me out temporarily, but others were very effective. I appreciated the effort made to make my particular edition of this book feel like a continuous narrative as much as possible. It felt seamless / almost like a novel at places. I think it is important for these voices to be heard. It's good to broaden your horizons and not treat a certain history as the only history. For that reason I think this is a book that is probably more important to read as a sort of global citizen than it is to read for any rich moral lessons that can be squeezed from the text itself.
June 13, 2021
mi è piaciuto davvero molto! ci ho messo dieci giorni solo perché l’ho portato con me al mare (e posso dire che si presta molto anche alla lettura in spiaggia). i racconti sono brevi e ben comprensibili. stanno piacendo anche a mio figlio di cinque anni.
ho trovato interessantissime le spiegazioni sulle tradizioni gli usi e le credenze dei nativi americani: libro perfetto per i neofiti! la casa editrice ha diversi titoli legati a questo tema.
ho trovato interessantissime le spiegazioni sulle tradizioni gli usi e le credenze dei nativi americani: libro perfetto per i neofiti! la casa editrice ha diversi titoli legati a questo tema.
July 21, 2015
I definitely would have enjoyed these tales much more in a book with illustrations. I just don't enjoy reading on a kindle.
October 11, 2015
This is the first collection by this author, originally 1901. Some years back I read a reprint by Univ of Nebraska Press (1985). I liked it... It has a good home among my collection of folktales.
April 27, 2024
Fables and warnings on how to live .. that crafty spider villain is something else
May 13, 2017
This is a collection of oral tradition stories which Zitkala -Sa generously wrote down in order to preserve and share them with future generations and I'm grateful that she did. The stories are similar to Aesop's fables read to young children to impart life lessons. While reading this collection I thought each individual story could easily be made into a children's picture book and, indeed, after some searching I found that "Dance in a Buffalo Skull" has been made into a picture book. There are a few sweet and tender illustrations throughout this collection which capture well the feelings and emotions of the stories. A treasure of a book which I'm enjoying to read to my own children at bedtime. Poor Iktomi, the spider trickster, who never seems to learn the lesson, has been quite entertaining for the kids. Behind all of the stories I could feel zitkala-Sa's love for the story tellers and their stories of the plains people.
The old legends of America belong quite as much to the blue-eyed little patriot as to the black-haired aborigine. And when they are grown tall like the wise grown-ups may they not lack interest in a further study of Indian folklore, a study which so strongly suggests our near kinship with the rest of humanity and points a steady finger toward the great brotherhood of mankind, and by which one is so forcibly impressed with the possible earnestness of life as seen through the teepee door! vi Zitkala-Sa
The old legends of America belong quite as much to the blue-eyed little patriot as to the black-haired aborigine. And when they are grown tall like the wise grown-ups may they not lack interest in a further study of Indian folklore, a study which so strongly suggests our near kinship with the rest of humanity and points a steady finger toward the great brotherhood of mankind, and by which one is so forcibly impressed with the possible earnestness of life as seen through the teepee door! vi Zitkala-Sa
November 20, 2020
A lovely little collection of tales from the Dakota legends. The stories mostly tell of Iktomi, a hapless man who is a bit selfish and not too bright, and there are little lessons on being kind and honest. Lots of magical things happen--animals who behave like people, mystical events, and even Iya, a giant who can eat a whole camp or lake in one bite! These are clearly written to be told by a storyteller; I was picturing someone telling the stories out loud to a group of kids and it was just a charming experience.
NOTE: Some reviewers found it tough to read. Its style is not for reading. I recommend picturing a storyteller talking when you read, much like reading a play. Imagine the words being spoken and acted out. It's written not for reading so much as sharing verbally. I think you will enjoy the stories if you "hear" them in your mind.
NOTE: Some reviewers found it tough to read. Its style is not for reading. I recommend picturing a storyteller talking when you read, much like reading a play. Imagine the words being spoken and acted out. It's written not for reading so much as sharing verbally. I think you will enjoy the stories if you "hear" them in your mind.
April 3, 2019
I love the Iktomi tales, my heritage has a bit of Cherokee, but these tales are great for anybody wanting to understand a culture that very nearly died out. The author who's name translates to Red Bird managed to keep her culture close to her heart even as she went to the schools that were designed to stamp them out and make them good little assimilated Natives (which usually means being set up as domestic servants) These legends were to teach the Sioux children how to be a good person, a good brave, to be generous..Iktomi is a trickster that often gets in trouble because of his selfishness, these stories teach and entertain all in one..lovely!
March 5, 2021
OLD INDIAN LEGENDS is a short collection of oral Indian folktales, similar to fables, collected by Zitkála-Šá, an early 20th century Sioux woman. Most include the character of Iktomi ("the trickster"), a man both selfish and not very bright, who gets involved with a variety of characters and animals. Each short tale highlights a lesson that life teaches, and conveys something of the Native appreciation of life, creation, creatures, and humans' place and relationship. A quick and enjoyable read. I wish there were more.
May 13, 2023
This contains some old Indian legends that are very interesting. Most of them concentrate on telling some kind of life lesson to the listener. On creature is a spider who pretty much is a complete villain. The stories about him warn about being vain and selfish.
There's also story about sharing, one about not taking too much for granted and others about other life lessons.
The focus is on the animals and what they do. There are a few stories, though, that seem to have a very abrupt ending.
There's also story about sharing, one about not taking too much for granted and others about other life lessons.
The focus is on the animals and what they do. There are a few stories, though, that seem to have a very abrupt ending.
March 16, 2023
Although I found it short and the title a bit misleading since it was Dakota Indian Legends, rather than Amerindian in general, I have to give credit to Zitkala-Sa, who put this work out there in a difficult time (1901) to save a cultural tradition that was being lost. If only more people like her could have published their own dying cultural legends, regardless of how little they had left, more would have survived to this day.
October 22, 2023
3.5 - I enjoyed this small collection of Indian folklore. Most featured the character Iktomi, but there were a few without. It was nice to read these tales as they remind me of home while also being different. It's also incredible the amount that Zitkála-Sá did for the indigenous community in school and more because of her own experiences. An absolute legend.
October 23, 2017
The rhythm and structure of the tales is not what most would be familiar with in traditional tales, so it's hard to enjoy them on the page . . . though I'm sure there are tellers who can/do perform these stories extremely well.
March 26, 2021
There were a lot of mistakes in the text that I read (Kindle book from Amazon), so that the text was, at many parts, difficult to understand or follow. I liked some of the old folk tales in the book - fixing those mistakes and making the text easier to read would have made it more enjoyable.
January 23, 2019
I think little kids would love these stories.
February 20, 2019
It was short but very hard to digest.
June 10, 2019
Sweet and easy
Aesop Fables from another view point Light and easy reading. Just a feel good tiny book The stories blend well. together
Aesop Fables from another view point Light and easy reading. Just a feel good tiny book The stories blend well. together
January 2, 2020
Absolutely loved the stories in this book. Timeless. Important.
August 11, 2020
A beautiful book with interesting stories that are perfect for reading aloud. My partner and I read these stories to our baby in the womb, every night. Highly recommended!
November 5, 2020
Great children’s book!
September 22, 2021
Unique and important. I'm so glad Zitkala-Sa preserved these tales.
October 19, 2021
Loved the Old Indian legends.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews