James Mooney

To Mrs. Matilda Cox Stevenson for the Sia myths, and to the late James Stevenson for the Navajo myths and sand painting.

To the late Frank Hamilton Cushing for the Zuni myths, to the late Frank Russell for the Pima myths, to the late Stephen Powers for the Californian myths, and also to James Mooney and Cosmos Mendeleth.

The recent publications of the University of California on the myths of the tribes of that state have not been included.

Thanks are also due to the Smithsonian Institution for the illustrations accredited to them, to the Carnegie Institution of Washington for illustrations from the Desert Botanical Laboratory at Tucson, Arizona, and to Mr. Ferdinand Ellerman of the Mount Wilson Observatory, and to others.

They were here before we were.

Much of the historical English language discussion of the Raven Mocker comes from ethnographer James Mooney's 19th century work among Cherokee communities.

His work is historically important, but he was still an outsider.

Some Cherokee religious materials preserved in archives are purportedly regarded as culturally sensitive.

Mystery and magic lay all about them.

it is a far cry from the stories of the north along the banks of the mississippi from that land of long winters through the country of the mound builders to the sunnier southland yet from north to south around the glimmering indian fires grouped eager men and women and children listening to the story-tellers but quite different are the tales of the southland of the cherokees biloxes and chidimachas they are stories of wild turkeys of persimmons and raccoons and of the spirits which dwell in the mountain places where none dare go stories also are they of brer rabbit and the tar wolf which came from indian slaves working in the fields in early days through the negro slaves working beside them to the children of the white men it is a loss to american literature that so much of the legendary history of these indian tribes has gone beyond hope of recovery exquisite in color poetical in feeling these legends of sun moon and stars of snow ice lightning thunders the winds the life of the forest birds and animals about them and the longing to understand the why and the how of life all which we have only in fragments longfellow's work shows the wonderful beauty of these northern legends nor has he done violence to any of them in making them poetical his picture of the departure of hiawatha the lone figure standing stately and solemn as the canoe drifted out towards the glowing sunset while from the shore in the shadow of the forest came the low indian chant mingling with the sighings of the pine trees is truly indian for the mystical and poetical is strong in the indian nature as in all the other volumes of this series no effort has been made to ornament or amplify these legends in the effort to make them literary or give them literary charm they must speak for themselves what editing has been done has been in simplifying them and freeing them from the verbose settings in which many were found for in this section of the country settled before it was realized that there was an indian literature the original work of noting down the myths was very imperfectly done thanks are due to the work of albert e jenks on the wild rice indians of the upper lakes to james mooney for the myths of the cherokees to george catlin for some of the upper mississippi legends to the well-known but almost inaccessible work of schoolcraft and to others k b j end of preface

Sherrod Brown.

For 30 years, Brown put his party first.