Rich compilation of tribal fables and legends recorded in the 1920s from an elderly Navaho chief. Myths include "The Creation of the Sun and Moon," "The Sun's Path," "The Maiden who Became a Bear," "The Making of the Headdress," "The Story of the Rain Ceremony and Its Hogan," and many more.
This is the most complete version of the Navajo creation story to appear in English since Washington Matthews' Navajo Legends of 1847. Zolbrod's new translation renders the power and delicacy of the oral storytelling performance on the page through a poetic idiom appropriate to the Navajo oral tradition. Zolbrod's book offers the general reader a vivid introduction to Navajo culture. For students of literature this book proposes a new way of looking at our literary heritage.
More than 160 tales from eighty tribal groups present a rich and lively panorama of the Native American mythic heritage. From across the continent comes tales of creation and love; heroes and war; animals, tricksters, and the end of the world. “This fine, valuable new gathering of ... tales is truly alive, mysterious, and wonderful—overflowing, that is, with wonder, mystery and life" (National Book Award Winner Peter Matthiessen). In addition to mining the best folkloric sources of the nineteenth century, the editors have also included a broad selection of contemporary Native American voices.
The Navajo people often told stories that taught the listener the tribe's customs and history. In this hero myth, the story of the twins who saved Earth from the monsters leading to the creation of the Navajo clans is shared. The Navajo hero myth is retold in this brilliantly illustrated Native American Myth. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Short Tales is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Lost City of the Monkey God comes an entrancing, eloquent, and entertaining account of the author’s adventurous journey on horseback through the Southwest in the heart of Navajo desert country. In 1992 author Douglas Preston and his wife and daughter rode horseback across 400 miles of desert in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were retracing the route of a Navajo deity, the Slayer of Alien Gods, on his quest to restore beauty and balance to the Earth. More than a travelogue, Preston’s account of their “one tough journey, luminously remembered” (Kirkus Reviews) is a tale of two cultures meeting in a sacred land and is “like traveling across unknown territory with Lewis and Clark to the Pacific” (Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee).
A retelling of a Navajo Indian legend in which Turquoise Boy searches for something that will make the Navajo people's lives easier. Includes a brief history of the Navajo people and their customs.