The legend tells us of Sacagawea ("Bird Woman") as the guide showing Lewis and Clark the way over the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, and fictionalized accounts have embroidered on her life as it might have been. In fact, however, her life as it might have been. In fact, however, the young Indian woman who accompanied the expedition did not serve as a guide--though her presence with her child probably ensured the expedition's safety by signifying to the tribes whose territories were crossed that it was not a raiding or war party. This carefully researched historical account separates the...

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.