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Tanaina Tales from Alaska
By Bill Vaudrin
Volume 96 in the Civilization of the American Indian Series
A young Chippewa Indian from Minnesota collected these legends and stories told by the Tanaina Indians of southwestern Alaska. Called suk-tus ("legend-stories") and stemming from the seventeenth century, they are anecdotal narratives centered on a particular animal or animals common to the Tanaina country. Thus the tales are peopled with foxes, beavers, wolverines, porcupines, and other animals, some of which disguise themselves in human form for sinister purposes and all of which have human desires and weaknesses.
According to the author, some embellishments in the stories certainly resulted from contact with Western civilization, particularly during the Russian and early fur-trading periods, but basically they are aboriginal Tanaina and are told as they have been handed down through oral tradition.
Originally, suk-tus were related to entertain and instruct, and they are as apt to do so for today’s audiences as for yesterday’s, reflecting both the outlook of their originators and the nature of the environment in which they lived.
"When you’re tired of the tortured complexities of modern fiction, tired of city anguish and the hang-ups of your neighbors, sit down and open this book. You’ll be a child of the land again."-Vancouver Province.
"The language and telling of the tales captures the primitive’s sense of immediacy, relevance, vitality, and sheer joy in the story-telling art."-Choice.
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