Early in the twentieth century, a Sioux woman named Zitkala-Sa published these fourteen Native legends that she had learned during her own childhood on the Yankton Reservation. Her writing talent, developed during her education back east, was put to good use in recording from oral tradition the exploits of Iktomi the trickster, Eya the glutton, the Dragon Fly, and other magical and mysterious figures, human and animal, known to the Sioux. Until her death in 1938, Zitkala-Sa stood between two cultures as preserver and translator.

American Indian Stories (1921) is a collection of stories and essays from Yankton Dakota writer Zitkala-Sa. Published while Zitkala-Sa was at the height of her career as an artist and activist, American Indian Stories collects the author's personal experiences, the legends and stories passed down through Sioux oral tradition, and her own reflections on the mistreatment of American Indians nationwide. In "My Mother," Zitkala-Sa remembers the walk she would take with her mother to the river, where they would gather water to use in their wigwam. This simple chore becomes a cherished tradition between the two, allowing Zitkala-Sa's mother to educate her on the circumstances that led their people to the reservation, depriving them of land and life itself. "The Legends" traces Zitkala-Sa's childhood experience of learning from the oral tradition passed down from the Dakota elders. In "The Coffee Making," she remembers the first time she made coffee. While her mother has gone out for the day, an elder pays a visit to their wigwam. Remembering that her mother usually makes coffee for visitors, Zitkala-Sa attempts to play hostess to her visitor, who humors her and takes the time to share stories about his life and their people. American Indian Stories is a charming and politically conscious collection of stories from one of the leading American Indian writers of her generation, a committed activist and true voice for change who saw through her own eyes the lives and experiences of countless others. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Zitkala-Sa's American Indian Stories is a classic of American Indian literature reimagined for modern readers.

Combining personal experience with traditional storytelling, Zitkála-Sá reflects on her life as a young woman raised on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota and educated at a Quaker school in Indiana. Whether remembering her mother, reflecting on the importance of legends, or recalling her first time making coffee, Zitkála-Sá, in American Indian Stories, uses her voice to elevate her people.

Old Indian Legends (1901) is a collection of traditional stories from Yankton Dakota writer Zitkala-Sa. Published while Zitkala-Sa was just beginning her career as an artist and activist, Old Indian Legends collects fourteen traditional legends and stories passed down through Sioux oral tradition. Intending to keep the stories or her people alive, Zitkala-Sa popularized and protected these cultural treasures for generations to come. In "Iktomi and the Ducks," spider-trickster spirit Iktomi befriends a group of ducks by playing them music to dance to. Gaining their trust, he sends them into a dancing frenzy causing them to break their necks, after which he takes them to his teepee to cook a meal. When a tree branch snaps outside, distracting Iktomi, a pack of wolves moves in for a feast of their own. In "Iktomi's Blanket," a starving Iktomi prays to Inyan for a blessing of food. Stumbling across a deer carcass, he believes his prayers have been answered and prepares a fire to roast the deer meat over. Feeling a chill, however, he goes to his teepee for a blanket, leaving the fire unattended. Throughout her collection, Zitkala-Sa faithfully and respectfully retells the stories of her people. Old Indian Legends is a charming compilation from one of the leading American Indian writers of her generation, a committed activist and true voice for change who saw through her own eyes the lives and experiences of countless others. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Zitkala-Sa's Old Indian Legends is a classic of American Indian literature reimagined for modern readers.

In the mythology of the Lakota and other Oceti Sakowin peoples, Iktomi is a spider-trickster spirit and cultural hero. In the vast wilderness of the American Midwest, Iktomi experiences a series of humorous and instructive trials that illuminate humanity's relationship with nature. In Old Indian Legends, Zitkála-Sá uses her voice and expansive traditional knowledge to elevate the stories of her people.

Oral traditions and myths have long been an integral part of Native American cosmology. Not only have they been - and continue to be - an essential part of handing down Native American customs, norms, beliefs, and cultural histories, but they also form a communal mythic discourse. This discourse is not a "fixed text," but rather a dynamic process of interactive relations that are developed over generations of experience, and passed from relation to relation and generation to generation. In this sense, the traditional structures of mythic discourse serve an integrative function: to form a coherent basis for communal identity in terms of a shared set of fundamental ideas and beliefs expressed in multiple forms. The oral traditions and myths recorded in this book are part of the communal mythic discourse of the Lakota Sioux people. Originally collected and recorded at the close of the nineteenth century by two Native language speakers - Marie L. McLaughlin and Zitkala Sa - these oral traditions provide some of the least distorted or colonially disrupted examples of the Lakota Sioux communal mythic discourse. Containing over 40 oral traditions, Lakota Sioux Legends and Myths brings together into a single volume these remarkable myths and legends. Edited and with a forward by Peter N. Jones, Ph.D., Lakota Sioux Legends and Myths is a welcome and refreshing addition to the literature. Once again the beauty, depth, and knowledge contained within the Lakota Sioux oral traditions can speak for themselves.

Zitkala-Sa wrestled with the conflicting influences of American Indian and white culture throughout her life. Raised on a Sioux reservation, she was educated at boarding schools that enforced assimilation and was witness to major events in white-Indian relations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tapping her troubled personal history, Zitkala-Sa created stories that illuminate the tragedy and complexity of the American Indian experience. In evocative prose laced with political savvy, she forces new thinking about the perceptions, assumptions, and customs of both Sioux and white cultures and raises issues of assimilation, identity, and race relations that remain compelling today.

This accessible and affordable volume combines two essential collections by Sioux author Zitkala-Sa. "American Indian Stories" assembles short stories, autobiographical reflections, and political essays that offer poignant reflections on the author's sense of being stranded between the white and Native American worlds. "Old Indian Legends" features tales from the oral tradition -- legends passed down through the generations that form a genre known as the "retold tale."
Born on South Dakota's Yankton Reservation in 1876, Zitkala-Sa felt "as free as the wind that blew my hair, and no less spirited than a bounding deer." At the age of eight, she traded her freedom for the iron discipline of a Quaker boarding school. Disillusioned by American society as well as her own tribe, Zitkala-Sa attended college, became a teacher, and wrote about her experiences in a variety of books and magazines. A prominent advocate for Native American rights throughout her life, she was a key figure in the legislation that granted Native Americans citizenship in 1924.

A groundbreaking Dakota author and activist chronicles her refusal to assimilate into nineteenth-century white society and her mission to preserve her culture--with an introduction by Layli Long Soldier, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Whereas

Bright and carefree, Zitkála-Sá grows up on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota with her mother until Quaker missionaries arrive, offering the reservation's children a free education. The catch: They must leave their parents behind and travel to Indiana. Curious about the world beyond the reservation, Zitkála-Sá begs her mother to let her go--and her mother, aware of the advantages that an education offers, reluctantly agrees.

But the missionary school is not the adventure that Zitkála-Sá expected: The school is a strict one, her long hair is cut short, and only English is spoken. She encounters racism and ridicule. Slowly, Zitkála-Sá adapts to her environment--excelling at her studies, winning prizes for essay-writing and oration. But the price of success is estrangement from her cultural roots--and is it one she is willing to pay?

Combining Zitkála-Sá's childhood memories, her short stories, and her poetry, American Indian Stories is the origin story of an activist in the making, a remarkable woman whose extraordinary career deserves wider recognition.

The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.