文档介绍:INDIAN WHY STORIES
INDIAN WHY
STORIES
SPARKS FROM WAR EAGLE'S LODGE-FIRE
FRANK B. LINDERMAN [CO SKEE SEE CO
COT]
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INDIAN WHY STORIES
I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK TO MY FRIEND CHARLES M.
RUSSELL THE COWBOY ARTIST E BIRD GRINNELL THE
INDIAN'S FRIEND
AND TO ALL OTHERS WHO HAVE KNOWN AND LOVED OLD
MONTANA
FOR I HOLD THEM ALL AS KIN WHO HAVE BUILDED FIRES
WHERE NATURE WEARS NO MAKE-UP ON HER SKIN
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INDIAN WHY STORIES
PREFACE
THE great Northwest--that wonderful fron- tier that called to itself a
world's hardiest spirits--is rapidly ing a settled country; and before
the light of civilizing influences, the blanket-Indian has trailed the buffalo
over the divide that time has set between the pioneer and the crowd.
With his passing we have lost much of the aboriginal folk-lore, rich in its
fairy-like characters, and its relation to the lives of a most warlike people.
There is a wide difference between folk-lore of the so-called Old
World and that of America. Transmitted orally through countless genera-
tions, the folk-stories of our ancestors show many evidences of distortion
and of change in material particulars; but the Indian seems to have been
too fond of nature and too proud of tradition to have forgotten or changed
the teachings of his forefathers. Childlike in sim- plicity, beginning with
creation itself, and reaching to the whys and wherefores of nature's moods
and eccentricities, these tales impress me as being well worth saving.
The Indian has always been a lover of nature and a close observer of
her many moods. The habits of the birds and animals, the voices of the
winds and waters, the flickering of the shadows, and the mystic radiance
of the moon- light--all appealed to him. Gradually, he for- mulated
within himself fanciful reasons for the myriad manifestations of the
Mighty Mother and her many children; and a poet by instinct, he framed
odd stories with which to convey his explanations to others. And these
stor