American Indian Fairy Tales

American Indian Fairy Tales
by Margaret Compton

This is a collection of Native American folklore, retold for children and young adults, over a century ago. The author, probably not a Native American herself, drew on authentic lore from a wide variety of culture regions, but sprinkled in stereotypical language and anomalous items from the woodland area ("squaw," "papoose," "wigwam"). However, the author was obviously well-intentioned and, for her time, appears to have had a fairly progressive attitude. Notably, she preserves some of the motifs in the stories such as grotesque monsters and cross-dressing, which some other children's book authors of her day (and ours) might have glossed over.