Series:

Sources of American Indian Oral Literature

2 total works

Cover of Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians
"We are dealing here with a living literature," wrote Morris Edward Opler in his preface to Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. First published in 1942 by the American Folk-Lore Society, this is another classic study by the author of Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians.

Opler conducted field work among the Chiricahuas in the American Southwest, as he had earlier among the Jicarillas. The result is a definitive collection of their myths. They range from an account of the world destroyed by water to descriptions of puberty rites and wonderful contests. The exploits of culture heroes involve the slaying of monsters and the assistance of Coyote. A large part of the book is devoted to the irrepressible Coyote, whose antics make cautionary tales for the young, tales that also allow harmless expression of the taboo. Other striking stories present supernatural beings and "foolish people."

Cover of Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians
The publication of "Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians" by the American Folk-Lore Society in 1938 illustrated the richness of the material on the tribes of the Southwest. Still a treasure-house of information, it appears with a new introduction and for the first time in paperback. Morris Edward Opler based his pioneering work on the accounts of Jicarilla men and women born in the nineteenth century. In a preface he explains that the stories, sacred and profane, were meant to be told on winter nights. The book takes up the creation of the universe, the birth of Killer-of-Enemies and Child-of-the-Water, the slaying of monsters, and the Hactcin ceremony. Other myths center on games and artifacts, hunting rituals and encounters with supernatural animals, and the trickster Coyote. There are also vivid, earthy stories of foolishness, unfaithfulness, and perversion; mon-strous enemies; and Dirty Boy's winning of a wife. A professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, Morris Edward Opler is an authority on the Apaches. In his introduction Scott Rushforth considers Opler's work as well as the history of the tribe.