The Indians of the northwestern plains always laughed at the tales about "Old"-man, heard around the lodge fire in the wintertime after sunset. For a powerful character, he was comically flawed. "Old"-man made the world but sometimes forgot the names of things. Victim and victimizer, he seemed closer to common experience than the awesome god Manitou. Frank B. Linderman thought "Old"-man was, under different names, a god for many Indian communities. These stories--collected from Chippewa and Cree elders and first published in 1920--are full of wonder at the way things are. Why children lose their teeth, why eyesight fails with age, why dogs howl at night, why some animals wear camouflage--these and other mysteries, large and small, are made vividly sensible.

While trapping in Montana during the 1880s, young Frank B. Linderman befriended the Kootenai Indians. At their campfires he heard about Skinkoots the coyote, Co-pee the owl, Frog Chief, and the other animal people. The telling impressed him, and in 1926 he was able, from long familiarity, to translate the tales for "Kootenai Why Stories." Old-Man appears as the flawed undergod known by different names to other tribes, a figure provoking more hilarity than reverence. The frog is another prominent character in this northwestern Indian lore. Also recognizable for their distinctive attributes are the grizzly bear, deer, rabbit, and skunk. Making sense of nature, the stories explain why the coyote has thin legs, why the moose has a moose's nose, why the deer carries a black mark on the underjaw, and how the animals stole the springtime and put an end to winter. Linderman's retelling captures the mystery and spirit of a forested world.