American Hero-Myths

American Hero-Myths by Daniel Garrison Brinton, published first time in 1892, is still today one of the most important contributions to the comparative study of religions and an endeavor to present in a critically correct light some of the fundamental conceptions which are found in the native beliefs of the tribes of America.
The importance of the study of myths has been abundantly shown of recent years, and the methods of analyzing them have been established with satisfactory clearness, but it has not yet even passed the stage where the distinction between myth and tradition has been recognized. Nearly all historians continue to write about some of the American Hero-Gods as if they had been chiefs of tribes at some undetermined epoch, and the effort to trace the migrations and affiliations of nations by similarities in such stories is of almost daily occurrence.