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Hold the world's wisdom in the palm of your hand with the ISTA Flash 9.0. The most comprehensive collection of books on religion, mythology, folklore, and the esoteric ever assembled. An incredible value, with over 1700 sacred books, many of which are rare and hard to find.

Native American Religions

Prayer to the Mystery: Edward Curtis 1907 [Public Domain Image] Oglala Sioux man, Picket Pin, wearing breechcloth, holding pipe with mouthpiece pointing skyward, buffalo skull at his feet.

A long-standing problem with this section (and several others at this site relating to traditional peoples’ spiritual beliefs) has been the lack of authoritative information. We are in the process of expanding this section by scanning public domain ethnographic accounts on specific Native American religious and spiritual practices. We are fortunate that there is a wealth of such material available, which makes it so much more puzzling why more of it is not on the Internet yet.

The study of Native Americans by anthropologists has had its share of bad science and ethical problems. However, the texts we are in the process of scanning were written by 19th and 20th Century ethnographers who were known for their careful and respectful approach to the people they studied. These were scholars who lived for years with the people they studied and obtained permission to transcribe their oral sacred literature.

General

These texts cover a wide range of Native Americans or don’t fit into one of the categories above.

 Tales of the North American Indians
by Stith Thompson [1929]
The classic cross-cultural Native American folklore study.

The Path on the Rainbow
by George W. Cronyn [1918]
A ground-breaking collection of Native American oral literature: poetry, chants and rituals.

 The Soul of the Indian
by Charles Eastman [1911]
100,801 bytes

 Indian Why Stories
by Frank Linderman [1915]
163,221 bytes

 Old Indian Legends
by Zitkala-Sa [1901]
105,552 bytes

 American Indian Fairy Tales
by Margaret Compton [1907]
Authentic Native American lore retold for children over a century ago.