Native Traditions

In Voices from Hudson Bay Cree elders recall the daily lives and experiences of the men and women who lived and worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company post at York Factory in Manitoba. Their stories, their memories of family, community, and daily life, define their past and provide insights into a way of life that has largely disappeared in northern Canada. The era the elders describe, from the end of World War I to the closing of York Factory in 1957, saw dramatic changes—both positive and negative—to Indigenous life in the North.

In America’s history of settler colonialism, the “master narrative” framing inscribed into law, literature, and media has functioned as a powerful tool of control and conquest. America’s early history is not merely a record of events but a carefully constructed story — a dominant, overarching framework shaped by those in power to justify their actions and maintain control. Moreover, presenting settler actions as inevitable, morally justified, or necessary for the advancement of “civilization” allows the master narrative to distort and erase Indigenous perspectives.

A creature of myth and magic emerging from the mist-shrouded forests of the Northwest, Coyote appears as a creator, messenger, hero, trickster, fool, or shapeshifter. Always on the lookout for fun, mischief, or the opportunity to help humans, Coyote’s encounters with gods, demons and the supernatural bring to life the rich cultural traditions of the Northwest peoples.

Explore captivating Native American myths.

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity. Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-20th century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word "psychedelic" was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: The earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples.

In the 18th century, when Europeans first came upon the giant mounds and earthworks dotting the North American landscape, they couldn't imagine that the Native Americans they came into contact with were capable of producing such advanced technology and masterful engineering. In fact, when President George Washington sent Rufus Putnam to survey land in southeastern Ohio, Putnam reported that he'd discovered an impressive walled earthwork complex, which was obviously the work of some long-forgotten ancient civilization.

Many of us don’t know much about mythological stories from these regions, and it is my pleasure and privilege to educate you on the intricate details that lie within them. That’s why I have also provided some fascinating facts and historical background about each of these peoples. Creation myths, legacies, the sacrificing of children, the empires, and their wars are all mentioned and touched on in this book.

A collection of stories, poems, and meditations that illuminate the spiritual world of the Navajo. Explores the Navajo's fundamental belief in the importance of harmony and balance in the world. Shares Navajo healing ways that have been handed down for generations. Includes...

Charles Alexander Eastman (1858-1939) was a mixed-blood Sioux. He became one of the best known Indians of his time, receiving a bachelor of science degree from Dartmouth in 1887 and a medical degree from Boston University three years later.

Charles Eastman is unique among Indian writers, whether storytellers or oral historians. He was raised traditionally, as a Woodland Sioux, by his grandmother, from 1858 to 1874, until he was 15. He thus gained a thorough first-hand knowledge of the lifeways, language, culture, and oral history. His father (thought to have been hanged at Mankato, Minnesota) reappeared and insisted he receive the white man's education.

In Cherokee myth - as in other indigenous American traditions - the whole of creation is alive and able to communicate like humans and with the human beings who share their environment. Cherokee myths explain how the world came to be the way it is and imparts important lessons about Cherokee cultural values.

Immergiti nella meravigliosa vastità della cultura dei nativi americani, scopri l'impressionante potenza della loro spiritualità ed entra in contatto con l'incredibile patrimonio di tradizioni, racconti, insegnamenti, leggende e ispirazioni che hanno lasciato. Entrare in contatto con le tradizioni, gli usi, i costumi e la visione dei nativi americani significa riscoprire la tua identità, ti permette di risvegliare la tua capacità di ascoltare ed connetterti con le forze della natura e con il grande spirito di cui ognuno di noi è parte.

In this exquisite collection of children’s folktales, Zitkála-Šá shares the legends that were handed down to her through generations of Yankton storytellers. These tales display the wide range of insights and observations that accrue to such stories through repeated iteration, but they also benefit from the sharp ear and finely tuned sensibility of Zitkála-Šá as a writer. Her characters seem to speak to us—often crying out to us—in the same tones that Zitkála-Šá must once have heard.

This story has its beginnings on a day long ago when Earth rolled and heaved, and rocks fell like rain... Thus began what some today would call a “migration” of The Walking People. Leaderless and bereft of the shared knowledge of tradition, they set off on their journey. Their story is the story of how one particular group of human beings was able to start anew - to learn through difficulty and changing circumstance to prosper as a Whole People.

Physician, activist, and author Charles Alexander Eastman was the first Native American certified in Western medicine and one of the first authors of any background to emphasize the Native American perspective. In The Soul of the Indian, he shares the customs, rituals, celebrations, and beliefs of Native American spirituality, and in so doing provides a powerful account of the “Great Mystery” at their core.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas have widespread beliefs related to personal guardian spirits. Natives believe that for any success in life there must be protection by a supernatural power. And, in this, they are absolutely correct. The Natives deified guardian spirits since ancient times; and, as it turned out, not in vain because they are directly related to people, to their psyche. All the guardian spirits of the ancient Natives were part of nature.

Kushtaka or Kooshdakhaa is a Tlingit word meaning “land otter man.” The Kushtaka is on one hand the nemeses of the Tlingit people, yet necessary to their Shamans who play a critical role in the survival of the Tlingits. The Tlingit people are as mysterious in their beliefs as the Kushtaka, making for strange bedfellows.