Sunday September 20th, 2009 First Nations Legends

When I was little, I used to spend a part of every summer at my neighbour’s camp at Sandy Beach. I loved it there. We kids would spend most of the day in the lake (until we turned blue) and then after dinner, we’d sit around a huge bonfire burning marshmallows and listening with wide-eyed fascination to the grownups recount the same yarns that they had spun so many times before. Somehow, the repetition never bothered us and we’d often request “retells” – usually the ones about the Sleeping Giant – again and again. When I grew older, I realized that these enchanting stories were traditional, First Nations tales that had been passed down and shared orally through multiple generations and I was very excited to find that several of my most beloved had been documented and published so that I could read and enjoy them as often as I wished. I also discovered that quite a few could be found at the Thunder Bay Public Library ! Here are some of my personal favourites and I sincerely hope that they will stir your imagination and spawn an abiding interest in indigenous peoples’ folklore in the same way that they did for me.

LEGENDS FROM THE FOREST TOLD BY CHIEF THOMAS FIDDLER; ED. BY JAMES R. STEVENS. c1985
The premier storyteller of this book, Thomas Fiddler, was the last traditional, hereditary chief and a patriarch to the people of Sandy Lake. He was one of many elders who remained strong in his tradition despite the changes wrought by the 20th century. The tales that he relate often predate the 19th century and many reach back to Stone Age time. All are shaped by the boreal forest and centuries of forest survival, uninterrupted until recently by sedentary living, technology and Judeo-Christian concepts of life.


INDIAN MYTHS & LEGENDS FROM THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST OF AMERICA BY FRANZ BOAS; EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY RANDY BOUCHARD AND DOROTHY KENNEDY. c2002
This amazing historical resource, translated from its original German, is lauded as “a stunning legacy” and one of the richest collections of First Nations mythological texts which will “serve the Native and academic communities” for a long time. All true, but it is also hugely entertaining, informative and an invaluable asset to anyone seeking the real essence of British Columbia.



NORTHERN TALES: TRADITIONAL STORIES OF ESKIMO AND INDIAN PEOPLES. ED. BY HOWARD NORMAN. c1990
NORTHERN TALES, is a collection of folktales from the far North amassed from the tribal peoples of Greenland, Canada, Russia, Alaska and the Polar Region. It is meant to include indigenous peoples worldwide, who lived or still live a hunting and fishing life and who have predicated much of their cultural self-definition on ancestral, sacred, “tribal” beliefs.


TALES OF THE ANISHINAUBAEK BY BASIL H. JOHNSTON; ILL. BY MAXINE NOEL. c1993
“Anishinaubaek” (pronounced nish-NAH-bek) is an Ojibway word, translating literally as “the good beings”. Here is the spirit of the Anishinaubaek – legends of mermaids and medicine women, thunder spirits and wendigos – set against an elemental backdrop of wind, river, flower, forest and sky. Retold by Basil Johnston and Sam Ozawamik, and exquisitely illustrated by Maxine Noel, this book is a favourite of mine in large part due to Noel’s beautiful artistic renderings.

THE MANITOUS: THE SPIRITUAL WORLD OF THE OJIBWAY BY BASIL JOHNSTON. c1995
Once again, Basil Johnston, a noted scholar and leading expert in the Ojibway culture, records a spell-binding collection of tales, tribal teachings and native legends derived from the earliest oral tradition. Simple in narration, complex in ideology and wonderfully rich with incident and detail, they explain the mysterious ways of the natural world using the insight and wisdom of an ancient tribe.




The library also offers a selection of First Nations legends that have been worded and illustrated specifically for younger children such as the Nanabosho series written by Joe McLellan and his wife, Matrine. I especially like a collection of stories called GIVING: OJIBWA STORIES AND LEGENDS BY THE CHILDREN OF CURVE LAKE because, as its title indicates, it is written and illustrated by children for children. Today, with the advent of the Internet, First Nations culture and mythology is available to a much broader, more diverse readership and it remains wonderfully and inextricably interwoven into the fabric of our Canadian heritage.


Jill Otto, Library Technician