Indian Tales (NORTH POINT PBK)

Jaime de Angulo drew on his forty years among the Pit River tribe of California to create the amalgam of fiction, folklore, tall tales, jokes, ceremonial ritual, and adventure that is Indian Tales. He first wrote these stories to entertain his children, borrowing freely from the worlds of the Pit, and also of the Miwok, Pomo, and Karok. The author's intent was not so much to render anthropologically faithful translations - though they are here - as to create a magical world fueled by the power of storytelling while avoiding the dangers of the romantic and picturesque.