| How did horses first appear to the tribes of the North American plains? According to the traditional stories of the Blackfoot Indians, a wise man dreamed of strange animals in a far-off land: they were as tall and strong as elks, but could be tamed to drag tipi poles like dogs and ridden to hunt buffalo. After traveling for many days, he came across the strange animals drinking at a lake. Managing to catch first one, and then the whole herd, he brought them back to the tribe. In the traditional world of the American Indians, storytelling was of fundamental importance for recording the history of the tribe, as well as interpreting their interactions with the natural world around them. In this final collection of",stories from the tipi,", Caldecott-medal winner Paul Goble masterfully brings to life 23 traditional stories from the Blackfoot, Lakota, Assiniboin, Pawnee, Winnebago, Omaha, Hidatsa, and Cheyenne nations. Throughout, we witness how perfectly attuned the Native Americans were to the natural world around them. For, in the words of Black Elk, the holy man of the Lakota:",One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these may have a valuable lesson to teach us, and even the smallest ant may wish to communicate with man.", |
