Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific Coast of America:
A Translation of Franz Boas’ 1895 Edition of Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas

Edited by Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy

Franz Boas (1858–1942), geographer, linguist, physical anthropologist and ethnologist, is considered the father of modern North American anthropology.

The 1895 German publication of Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas gathered together in a single volume his earliest research in British Columbia, consisting of 250 B.C. First Nations myths and legends which had been previously serialized in German periodicals between 1891 and 1895.

In 1973, the BC Indian Language Project first commissioned this peer-reviewed translation from Dietrich Bertz of Victoria, who completed his revised draft in 1977, incorporating the introduction by Professor Claude Lévi-Strauss. Then began the Project’s immense task of researching, footnoting and annotating the text, which was to continue intermittently for over twenty years.

This volume of First Nations myths and legends is an extraordinarily important document in the history of North American anthropology.

 

Reviews:

“This is one of the richest collections of mythological texts available for the whole of the American continent.”
— Claude Lévi-Strauss, from the Foreword

“… these stories comprise the true matter of British Columbia … I can’t think of a work … more impressive in its contribution to the future generations of this province.”
— Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun