Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific Coast of America

Franz Boas (1858-1942), geographer, linguist, physical anthropologist and ethnologist, is considered the father of modern North American anthropology.

The 1895 German publication of

Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas

gathered together in a single volume his earliest research in British Columbia, consisting of 250 B.C. First Nations myths and legends which had been previously serialized in German periodicals between 1891 and 1895.

In 1973, the B.C. Indian Language Project first commissioned this peer-reviewed translation from Dietrich Bertz of Victoria, who completed his revised draft in 1977, incorporating the introduction by Professor Claude Lévi-Strauss. Then began the Project’s immense task of researching, footnoting and annotating the text, which was to continue intermittently for over twenty years.

This volume of First Nations myths and legends is an extraordinarily important document in the history of North American anthropology.

AUTHOR

Dorothy Kennedy

Dorothy Kennedy was born in Victoria, BC in 1951. She has a Masters degree from the University of Victoria and a Doctorate in Anthropology from Oxford University. Together with Randy Bouchard, she founded the BC Indian Language Project in 1972, dedicated to the documentation and preservation of BC’s First Nations languages, cultures, and histories. Kennedy and Bouchard’s comprehensive study of the Native people of the Desolation Sound area, Sliammon Life, Sliammon Lands, was published by Talonbooks in 1983. They are also co-editors of Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific Coast of America, the acclaimed annotated translation of Franz Boas’ landmark anthropological study, Indianischen Sagen. As Bouchard and Kennedy Research Consultants they continue to contribute to the establishment of Aboriginal rights and title claims, having recently shown that the Squamish and Lil’wat both have Aboriginal rights and title interests in the Whistler area, making them First Nations co-hosts of the 2010 Olympic Games. A tribute to one of their First Nations collaborators is the newly released The Lil’wat World of Charlie Mack.

Reviews

“This is one of the richest collections of mythological texts available for the whole of the American continent.”
— Claude Lévi-Strauss, from the Foreword

“… these stories comprise the true matter of British Columbia … I can’t think of a work … more impressive in its contribution to the future generations of this province.”
— Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun