Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends

by Margot Edmonds, Ella Elizabeth Clark

This wonderfully colorful and appealing anthology gathers more than 130 Native American legends, many told to the authors by elder storytellers and tribal historians.

Genres: Mythology, Native American, History, Folklore, Nonfiction, Religion, Classics

384 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1989

Reviews

[L.G. Cullens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of the collections of Native American legends authored or coauthored by Ella Elizabeth Clark. I've had this book since the late nineties, among others, collecting all I could find. Ella E. Clark's books are the most prized by me, being as she went to great lengths in pursuit of authenticity. Many are long out of print, but can be found in used books outlets.

Where other of Clark's books are more regionalized, this is a broad spectrum covering tribes of the Northwest, Southwest, Great Plains, Central Region, Southeast, and Northeast regions of North America.

So what's the big deal about Native American legends? Besides reviving memories of legends heard in my youth, and employing some, or the ideas of, in my writing, I've long wondered how Native Americans came by some of the legends. Legends that may have been collected and recorded in the last couple hundred years, but are supposedly many thousands of years old, passed down orally. Some are for entertaining youth, many more are moral/ethics lessons, and others are about ancient history, some uncannily accurate in their essence.

For example, (from Ella E. Clark's Indian Legends from the Northern Rockies, Shoshone and Bannock's section) the earth was first fire, then water, then Turtle Island was formed, with the story enhanced of course. How would primitives imagine this?

Another example (in this book) is titled The flood on Superstition Mountain which bears a resemblance to the Noah's Arc Bible story, but likely has its origins in a time before the Bible, certainly before Native Americans were aware of the Bible.

In other words, this book and others by Ella E. Clark, can stir up a lot of thoughts and questions. They can even bring to mind moral issues that we've trampled on.

At the same time, I would caution readers about the many versions of Native American legends that are to be found in today's 'information world.' Many are our own versions misinterpreted or twisted for our own purposes.

[Heather Clawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grew up in New Mexico and had the opportunity to actually hear some of the pueblo storytellers which was an incredible experience. Unfortunately, their talent doesn't seem to tranlate well into the written word. The funny thing is that I recognized some of the stories in the book and they're pretty spot-on for accuracy. But...I dunno....the magic didn't seem to be there. One of the issues I've always had with these types of stories (be they Indian, or Japanese or Bushland, etc.) is that weird random crap happens ALL THE TIME for no apparent reason other than to advance the storyline to the inevitable conclusion. New characters appear without warning and to inexplicable things that make other things happen but with only tenuous ties to cause and effect. I understand the significance of oral histories but I've never been able to get my head around these random chaotic outbursts. It's like a verbal slap to the head. However, if you enjoy this kind of literature, the book contains legends from several different Indian cultures and is remarkably accurate.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good collection. As a Canadian, I found some parts of it disappointing (I expected slightly more emphasis on the peoples that lived on both sides of the border—historically, they didn't have the concept of a border between Canada and U.S.A., not to mention some of the language, e.g. "Indian", seems cringey). Even though I didn't go into the book with an interest in the cultures of the southernmost peoples, the stories from those regions are quite interesting. I don't know a lot about indigenous legends, but I enjoyed the way the stories preserved the flavour of oral storytelling; all of them are quick and easy reads and most of them have some sort of moral.

The authors did a fantastic job compiling the legends and providing concise explanations about the social/historical contexts. There are also a lot of illustrations of different objects created by the various nations, although I don't think they added anything valuable to the text. One thing that bothered me a lot is that there were a ton of editing errors...so many mistakes with capitalization, spacing, typos, and inconsistent spellings. It's a small thing, but it made the book seem unprofessional.

[Pauline Mountain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of the Federal Writers' Project, part of the New Deal alphabet programs during the Depression. As such, the field of anthropology wasn't yet standardized, so quality was uneven over time. The stories represented in this collection were collected after the Indian Wars, when extinction of this country's Native population was an official government policy and it was entirely possible when they would be successful, so they collected as many stories as they could as fast as they could for scholarly use after everyone was dead. The government miscalculated.

The stories tend to reflect a white Victorian male sensibility, which leads to even a minimally educated reader to notice the hitches here and there. The collection seems to have no sorting by theme, which would be done now, ninety-some years later. Even so, the similarities between groups and differences because of geography make this collection interesting reading.

[Mira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, even though it seriously needed editing. It has many, many stories from many tribes, and thus gives an interesting overview of the way multiple Native American tribes viewed the world. However, it would have been nice to learn a little more cultural context. There is very little included here. Mostly, you just get short stories or parables, some of which are hard to understand without any knowledge of the people behind them.

[Katya Zablocki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that some of the introductions were pretty condescending, but the stories themselves were great and I like that they gave credit to the original story tellers as much as possible

[David Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a general survey of American Indian folklore, taking a few tales from each tribe to give the general reader a good feel of the types of stories being told back then. On the whole it was an interesting read, well executed, and free of a lot of political baggage. Just a nice presentation of old tales from the various traditions of the many First Nations.

The survey set-up has both its strengths and weaknesses, it should be said. On the plus side you see the widespread tropes associated with these cultures: founding hero/villain twins, coyote-as-trickster, corn gods and goddesses, the earth as a turtle, they're all here, an many appear multiple times in slightly different versions. It lets you see how these stories travelled and influenced cultures beyond their originators, becoming developed themes in the stories. There's also a large number of creation stories, with a good deal of variety, and a number of tales regarding why things are the way they are. Why this animal looks a certain way, why this tradition is always done, etc. The downside is you only get one or two stories per tribe, three to four for the larger ones, so there's no real deep dive into any specific culture. I guess this allows you to do further reading if you find any particular tradition you like, but several times in this book I found found myself upset that there were no more from a certain tribe or a certain tradition. Drawback of the survey approach, I guess. And as with any large collection, the story-telling quality can vary wildly. Part of this is do to these stories mostly being pre-contact, and not following the story-telling conventions so prevalent in the modern world. The story 'beats' don't always flow the way we expect them. But some of the stories just don't land as well as the others. Inevitable with such a large selection. So not quite five star, but a very solid and comprehensive book that will appeal to fans of the Fist Nations or American history in general.

[Rebecca Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rated this one lower, but there are a few reasons for that. I will share, so that I can be clear with the reasons, and why the rating is the way it is.

First, I did enjoy the stories. I love reading more about different cultures, and learning their mythologies, and delving more into the essence of each one. It also gives me something to draw on and share with students as we are moving through different areas of study. I like being able to have different resources for them to draw on - from books, documentaries, websites and much more.

Now for the lower rating. The four corners region is alive with the Native American cultures. As you attend different functions, you can sit and listen to stories, watch the dances, try the foods and see the amazing pieces that they turn out. Listening to the native storytellers is magical. Their voices almost draw you into a trance, and you lose track of time they sing song through the different stories.
The stories in the book, while interesting, just lack the magic. It was a bit flat on the page, and while there are some good stories, and perfect for those who have not heard the native storytellers, it just didn't resonate with me.

I will still be recommending this book to students - as they can draw on the materials.

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw it on display and I thought I’d try it! It was on a table that had been set up for Native American Heritage Month, and hadn’t been cleared out yet in early December.

Overall, it’s good! It’s a bunch of stories put together from all over the continent, categorized by region: Northwest, Southwest, Plains, Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast. (although there are a couple from Hawaii in ‘Southwest’, which I don’t know if that… goes in a different category?). Each story has a short–or not-so-short, in some cases–introduction, along with the name of which indigenous Nation it came from.

It did feel like some regions got more focus than others. And it’s a bit scattershot: there’s not really too many common themes, other than occasional Creation myths, Flood myths, trickster stories, or the origin of corn. Again, they’re good stories, it only feels as if there’s not much tying this collection together here.

It’s definitely a good place to start looking for different traditions, and it gets you an idea of the kinds of things that are important to different cultures. And the back of the book has a butt-ton of sources to look at on your own.

[Zach Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the presentation of this book. It does a good job of grouping the legends into regions and tribes that gave a bit of context and made it easier for me to get into. At times I wished that I knew more background on the animal characters in the tales, since they are mostly pretty sparse.

I particularly enjoyed two of the legends. The first is one out of the southwest about how people lived at various levels beneath the earth and made their way up to the surface. The second is the story of how the Iroquois peace came about and the laws that they made to hold themselves together.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the tales and the tidbits about the various tribes and histories, and I loved that the book covered all regions of North America in one collection (it was interesting to compare the differences and similarities across the stories).

It was a bit odd reading the legends told through the "translation" of two white women from the early 1900s, though. I'm going to seek out some books by native authors to read these stories through their voices.

[Chelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I don't think things translate well as many of the stories didn't seem to make much sense. Also could have used another editor. But much of it was interesting.

[Carlos Acosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs heavy editing

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Native American legends were interesting but were presented with very little context. I had a hard time sticking with them and would have appreciated more background.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flipped through this. Liked some of the stories, but was hoping there would be more about animals.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting legends!

[Melissa Markham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of short legends and myths from Native Americans across the U.S. Interesting to read and interesting to see themes that are also seen in other religions.

[Jenifer]

I'm reading a part where this girl's parents didn't accept her getting married with this warrior.So the warrior went off to fight but never came back.The girl goes off to find him in a boat but just gets stuck on a island.Then this man comes to help her but the girl don't know he likes to kill men.When she come to his house she finds her lover's head on the floor.At night the man shows her bodies of men without heads.The man demands the girl to get all the blood out and go to his sister's house for them to drink.The man decides to go with her in case she goes running off.The girl walks ahead of him but the man does not know.She starts running to the man's sisters houses killing them one by one.Then she runs back to the man's house,sitting on the porch stairs.When the man comes back the man says"how could you!now i shall kill you for this wrong!".The man runs into the house and comes right back.The girl was standing up aiming with a bow and arrow at him.He promises the girl that he would not harm her.So the girl gives him back the bow and arrow,but the man quickly aims at her.The girl makes a run for it.She climbs up to the roof where the man can't catch her.The man tries to shoot,but the girl keeps poking her head out and in.The man says"here take the bow and arrow and just shoot me!!"the girl says"i'm not afraid of you i'm just afraid that you might kill me someday".She gets down from the roof and goes inside the house with the man.At night, she kept the man up talking to him.She did this for many days until one night,the man fell in a deep sleep.The girl gets up and goes to the kitchen.She opens a drawer where she finds a very sharpen knife.She goes outside and grabs a strip of wood.She comes back in and she places the wood on the man's neck.She grabs the knife and cuts the man's neck off.She runs outside to the shore where she finds her boat,which was not at all broken.She gets in the boat and sails back to her family.REALLY GOOD BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

[Lester Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Voices" is a collection of 130 Native American legends, from Alaska to Maine to Florida. It gave me some insight into the mindsets of the storytellers and the entities which Native Americans worshipped. At times, a story would remind me of a Grimms Bros or H C Andersson fairytale. Many of the stories give anthropomorphic qualities to wild animals, with the coyote, raven and thunderbird having supreme powers.
I give the editors credit for including explanations about the tribes before every story. There's also a map at the beginning to show the approximate places where the tribes lived.

[Yaaresse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm probably being too generous because this book needed a good copy editor, but I still love that these stories have been collected and are available.

Many traditionally oral stories don't always translate well to print. I think that is true in this case. I found that reading the stories aloud made them more interesting than reading them silently. They were, after all, evolved as spoken word.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of native American legends was outstanding, I loved the tales of the Alaskan tribes the most (mostly because I'm part Alaskan). It goes in depth about the natives and there legends. its not just about one tribe of native American's either, it's about all the tribes in the u.s.a.

[Amanda Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining read, did not have the tale “How the Raven stole the Sun”. Anyways, some of these are surprisingly gory, some do have sad endings. Most have happy endings and are light reads. I recommend for people who are curious about tales from different cultures.

[Al-anoud Al-Serhan]

Interesting! being a fan of greek mythology i was eager to read this book and see if there are any similarities .the girl who married the moon is def my fave !

[Kenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories were all very interesting. I sometimes got hung up on some editing snags, but I enjoyed the layout of the compilations by region.

[Angela Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool book, but it definitely needs some editing... Loaded with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to a broad range of Native American myths.