Californian Indian Nights

By Edward W. Gifford

Book Overview

"The rereading of these folklore selections in this attractively printed volume underscores again the uniqueness of California mythology...The tales that make up the mythology there are not the worn stand-bys of the world; these tales from the Pacific coast have a freshness of invention that one discovers all too seldom in collections of folklore. They are surprisingly indige-nous."--Ruth Benedict, American Anthropologist. "The volume is organized in such a way that it will be useful to students of literature as well as to students of anthropology, but the authors have not sacrificed accuracy and the critical use of their material in order to produce any kind of spurious picturesqueness. The volume is well gotten up and attractively illustrated."--Margaret Mead, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. "This is a most laudable attempt to make available to a general laity a representative collection of Californian Indian myths and tales."--Truman Michelson, American Historical Review. The compilers, Edward W. Gifford and Gwendoline Harris Block, were both associated with the University of California, Berkeley, Gifford as a professor of anthropology and director of the Museum of Anthropology and Block as an editor in the Department of Anthropology. Albert L. Hurtado, who provided an introduction for the Bison Book edition, is an associate professor of history at Arizona State University and the author of Indian Survival on the California Borderland Frontier, 1819-6 (1988), winner of the Ray A. Billington Prize for American frontier history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803270313
• ISBN13: 9780803270312
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great read, but don't read this book until you've read . . .

Don't let the title of my review prevent you from reading this book. This is probably the best, perhaps only source of this many Native Californian myths in paperback. If you do buy this book, you MUST read the sixty page introduction. It will help you navigate through the stories better. If you are new to reading Native American myths, my advice would be to read 'Teach Yourself Native American Myths' by Steve Eddy before reading Californian Indian Nights. Doing so will help you to absorb the many meanings contained within these myths and give you a better appreciation for them. Also, read them at night!