Rich in cultural and linguistic information, the traditional stories of the Coast Salish people contain the keys to cultural revitalization. Tellings from Our Elders presents eighteen stories in Snohomish, a dialect of Lushootseed, the language of the indigenous peoples who live on the southern and eastern shores of Puget Sound, as told by members of the last generation to claim the language as their mother tongue.

Many of these stories - or syeyehub - were recorded decades ago, but few were transcribed, and even fewer analyzed. Deep understanding of the structure and...