Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.

Ella E. Clark, who died in 1998, was Professor Emerita of English at Washington State University. She heard her first fragments of Indian myths while serving as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service in the Cascade Mountains. She collected tribal tales in libraries and archives in the U.S. and Canada for many years.