Native American Mythology: Captivating Myths of Indigenous Peoples from North America Paperback – September 28, 2019

I am enjoying reading these myths. It is a short book with a limited number of stories and that is OK. I also bought a big book, AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS, selected ad edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, if you want to read more myths of the First People of Turtle Island.

Neglected by popular culture, maybe because Native Americans have so many different nations with their own mythology or because they are in a parallel society, their mythology is a bit lost, what is extraordinary considering the U.S. is culturally the most influential country in the present. But, aside some prophecies and genesis stories in History Channel, little is known about them and as so my joy when I read this book. I loved in special the myths with ghosts.Fortunately it is not an academic book, Matt Clayton organizes the myths in four chapters and with a clear and modern language; academic books tend to be dry and... well, they kill the emotion of the original stories. But if you want an academic point of view still this book would be valuable as it has interesting sources in its bibliography. The only part that could improve is the introduction to each myth; the myths themselves have been carefully written in an accessible language, but the introductions are a summary of them, so in some cases they feel like a repetition. Also, I don't know if the selected myths are a kind of anthology, or if the myths didn't survive the clash with Europe (you will find in some cases references to horses and Europeans) but the book has not many myths, what can be a plus if you only want to read something interesting as it was my case, rather than a complete overview.

This is a great starting off point for those wanting to learn more about Native American myths. The stories are clearly broken into regions and the author is humble in stating that it’s a far from comprehensive anthology. But this was just what I wanted-a starting off point that will help me be more knowledgeable going forward and knowing where to narrow down what I want to expand on. The language was also straightforward.I look forward to reading more in the series about other cultures.

I enjoyed this read. I would've enjoyed it more with more tribes being looked into for their stories as well. Very few tribal stories are in the book. Most Northern and NorthEast. No stories about the Southern Tribes.

There are interesting stories within this book, but some of them are told in an inauthentic way. By this I mean, one tale for example started with them explaining that it took place "before white people came", but in the same story they spoke of the protagonist using lances and shields. Native americans didnt have access to lances or shields, or even metals that made those types of weapons in general (and by the time white people came to america they certainly werent using lances and shields either.)The author gets around this by starting the story with "This person from this tribe in modern day minnisotta (or whatever) told this story to me".It felt like the author dodging responsibility and not bothering to so research into the authenticity of these stories.That being said, some of these stories (especially the creation stories) were very interesting. Unfortunetly some of the later tales in this book make me question the rest of this authors sources due to the reasons I have stated.Overall this book does have some good and some bad, but it's a fairly cheap book that's a quick read which I find value in. Thats why I give it 3 stars.

This read gives information that is not taught in school and you might not know. It is informative and is an easy read also.

Found it interesting and informative.

We forget how rich native American ( I like the.Canadian term-first americans) culture is,also we forget that myths tell of their world view.. This is a wonderful read . The bibliography opens a wider door for more.

J'aurais aimé que les histoires soient plus longues. Mais , j'aime bien ces legendes. Facile a lire pour quelqu'un qui n'pas bilingue.😉

Fascinante recopilación.

Book was a little thin. Not as much information as I thought there would be.