Old Indian Legends

Old Indian Legends

by Zitkala-Sa


Early in the twentieth century, a Sioux woman named Zitkala-Ša 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-Ša stood between two cultures as preserver and translator.