E-text prepared by D. Alexander, Meredith Bach,
the Carbon County Public Library (Rawlins, Wyoming),
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
WIGWAM EVENINGS
SIOUX FOLK TALES RETOLD
BY CHARLES A. EASTMAN
(Ohiyesa)
AND ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN
Illustrated by Edwin Willard Deming
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1928
Copyright, 1909,
By Little, Brown, and Company
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
BOOKS BY CHARLES A. EASTMAN
Indian Boyhood
From the Deep Woods to Civilization
Old Indian Days
Indian Scout Talks
Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains
In Collaboration with ELAINE G. EASTMAN
Wigwam Evenings
NOTE
The authors wish to acknowledge the courtesy of TheLadies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and TheWoman's Home Companion, in giving permission to includein this volume several stories which first appearedin their pages.
PREFACE
These scattered leaves from the unwrittenschool-book of the wildernesshave been gathered together for thechildren of to-day; both as a slightcontribution to the treasures of aboriginalfolk-lore, and with the specialpurpose of adapting them to the demandsof the American school and fireside.That is to say, we have chosenfrom a mass of material the shorter andsimpler stories and parts of stories,and have not always insisted upon aliteral rendering, but taken such occasionalliberties with the originals asseemed necessary to fit them to theexigencies of an unlike tongue and tothe sympathies of an alien race.
Nevertheless, we hope and think thatwe have been able to preserve in themain the true spirit and feeling of theseold tales—tales that have been handeddown by oral tradition alone throughmany generations of simple and story-lovingpeople. The "Creation myths"and others rich in meaning have beentreated very simply, as their symbolismis too complicated for very young readers;and much of the characteristic detailof the rambling native story-tellerhas been omitted. A story that to ourthinking is most effectively told in abrief ten minutes is by him made tof