Echoes of the forest, American Indian legends

Front matter

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Foreword

As one who is eager to welcome every addition to true literature that comes from his native State, I bespeak a cordial welcome for this book. Its range of themes is wide and interesting, its treatment of them warm and sympathetic, and its prosodical methods accurate and instructive to those who would win recognition in the broad tournament of the wide field of poetry. Its motives, too, as expressed in verse, are always for the true and right, and the whole work has characteristics of the flowers of imagination sown in the gardens of sane common sense. So, I expect the people not only of Michigan, bu 4 - of many other States, to read the following lines.

Will Carleton

Contents

PAGE

Story of the Little Princess . . . . 15

Echoes From " King of the Star " . . .28

Appendix

I Notes to " American Indian Legends " . . . 215

Longfellow's Hiawatha

The Creed of the Iroquois

Enchanted Waters

Notes to the Legend Confederation

The Legend of the Moccasin Flower

II Reviews of Indian Folk Lore Volumes ........ 233

Old Indian Legends

Indian Story and Song

Joyful Star

Indian Myths

Wigwam Evenings

Trails Through Western Woods

Myths and Legends of the Pacific

Northwest The Way of an Indian The Legends of the Iroquois The Crooked Tree Myths and Legends of Alaska American Indian Fairy Tales

III Bibliography 261

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

All who are interested in the North American Indians will welcome this little volume. Lovers of these children of the forest will feel that the time has come, in the name of truth and justice, when the best side of their character should not longer be obscured to their prejudice.

Our author has revealed something of the beauty and depth of the Indian nature. Drawing upon the great storehouse of North American Indian legends and traditions, he has selected some of the most striking and beautiful, and imparted to them attractive forms which body forth their spiritual beauty and truth. If to some critics these gems seem to make Indian life as a whole too romantic and rosy, they w T ill observe that at least the artist has been true to his sources. While the life of the red race as a native product of the New World is one of the most distinctive fields of American literature, most will agree that we have yet to find the genius to make these untrammeled elements of thought and passion a wholly worthy monument. Mr. Brown has attained a commendable degree of success. With a nice sense for the genius of the