Saturday, March 18, 2017

Books read in 2017: No. 9 -- Myths and Legends of the Sioux

by Marie L. McLaughlin

Started: March 16
Finished: March 18

Notes: This is another of those quirky little free e-books I find from time to time on Amazon (I've got quite a number of them now on my Kindle). Not quirky because they are weird, but because they are uncommon, not well known, often 19th or early 20th Century texts that have been largely forgotten. This one is of interest to me because it apparently focuses upon folk tales of the Sioux, as told to the author by her grandmother, who was Sioux.

Mini review: To be clear, the author also lets it be known her husband was an officer at various forts and reservations during the 19th Century, so she also heard and/or learned a number of these tales while living in such environs. Many of these are morality tales, but a few seem to be simply for fun, or perhaps were even considered part of Sioux history. Unktomi, a spider figure, shows up in a number of these tales as something of a trickster, not unlike Coyote in some other Native American myths; most times Unktomi seem merely mischievous, but in at least one story he is quite bloodthirsty. Those with interests in folklore, myths, American Indians, the Sioux specifically, etc., will probably want to check out this one.

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

gonna try to download this.