Blackfoot Lodge Tales. The Story of a Prairie People

Abstract

'These tales 'bring alive the world of the Northern Plains buffalo hunters and warriors- Western Folklore. First published in 1892, Lodge Tales is based on George Bird Grinnell's extensive personal knowledge of the three tribes of the Blackfoot nation. Grinnell, an ethnologist, writer, editor, explorer, creator of Glacier National Park, and protector of Yellowstone National Park, had great compassion for and understanding of Indians at a time when most men of the frontier were both uninterested in and unable to record the Indians' oral literature. The Blackfoot nation recognized Grinnell as an invaluable friend and entrusted their heritage to his keeping. With that in mind, Grinnell presents as the first half of his book thirty stories of the Blackfeet, recorded as they were told to him - stories of war and adventure, ancient times, natural phenomena, origins of social customs, and tales of creation and the Creator. The remainder of the book deals with the history of the Blackfeet, their daily life and customs, tribal organization, and religion. 'The book is delightful for its presentation of a people whose honest expressions are recorded in all the freshness of their unpolluted, unrefined state. Reading them, one can...smell the Buffalo grass and the wood fires, feel the heavy morning dew on the prairie' - Western American Literature.