Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians: Stories of other narrators, English translations


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians: Stories of Alfred Morsette, English translations


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians: Stories of other narrators, interlinear linguistic texts


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians


Book Description

When trappers and fur traders first encountered the Arikara Indians, they saw a settled and well-organized people who could be firm friends or fearsome enemies. Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras, close relatives of the Pawnees, were one of the largest and most powerful tribes on the northern plains. For centuries Arikaras lived along the middle Missouri River. Today, they reside on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Though much has been written about the Arikaras, their own accounts of themselves and the world as they see it have been available only in limited scholarly editions. This collection is the first to make Arikara myths, tales, and stories widely accessible. The book presents voices of the Arikara past closely translated into idiomatic English. The narratives include myths of ancient times, legends of supernatural power bestowed on selected individuals, historical accounts, and anecdotes of mysterious incidents. Also included in the collection are tales, stories the Arikaras consider fiction, that tell of the adventures and foibles of Coyote, Stuwi, and of a host of other characters. Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians offers a selection of narratives from Douglas R. Parks's four-volume work, Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians. The introduction situates the Arikaras in historical context, describes the recording and translation of the narratives, and discusses the distinctive features of the narratives. For each story, cross references are given to variant forms recorded among other Plains tribes.




Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians: Stories of Alfred Morsette, English translations


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. ø Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. ø The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians: Stories of Alfred Morsette, English translations


Book Description

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature. The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.




Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization


Book Description

Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization, a study of an important horticultural Plains Indian tribe, synthesizes the rich material Alfred W. Bowers recorded in the early 1930s from the last generation of Hidatsas who lived in the historic village of Like-a-Fishhook. This documentary record of their nineteenth-century lifeways is now a classic in American ethnography. The book is distinguished for its presentation of extensive personal and ritual narratives that allow Hidatsa elders to articulate directly their conceptions of traditional culture. It combines archeological and ethnographic approaches to reconstruct a Hidatsa culture history that is shaped by a concern for cultural detail stemming from the American ethnographic tradition of Franz Boas. At the same time, its concern for the understanding of social structure reflects the influence of the British structural-functional approach of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. The most comprehensive account ever published on the Hidatsas, it is of enduring value and interest.




Sahnish (Arikara) Ethnobotany


Book Description

This book describes the traditional use of wild plants among the Arikara (Sahnish) for food, medicine, craft, and other uses. The Arikara grew corn, hunted and foraged, and traded with other tribes in the northern Great Plains. Their villages were located along the Missouri River in northern South Dakota and North Dakota. Today, many of them live at Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota, as part of the MHA (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) Nation. We document the use of 106 species from 31 plant families, based primarily on the work of Melvin Gilmore, who recorded Arikara ethnobotany from 1916 to 1935. Gilmore interviewed elders for their stories and accounts of traditional plant use, collected material goods, and wrote a draft manuscript, but was not able to complete it due to debilitating illness. Fortunately, his field notes, manuscripts, and papers were archived and form the core of the present volume. Gilmore's detailed description is augmented here with historical accounts of the Arikara gleaned from the journals of Great Plains explorers-Lewis and Clark, John Bradbury, Pierre Tabeau, and others. Additional plant uses and nomenclature is based on the field notes of linguist Douglas R. Parks, who carried out detailed documentation of the tribe's language from 1970-2001. Although based on these historical sources, the present volume features updated modern botanical nomenclature, contemporary spelling and interpretation of Arikara plant names, and color photographs and range maps of each species. Kelly Kindscher collected and assembled the historical Gilmore materials; Logan Sutton contributed the Arikara spellings and linguistic analyses; and, Michael and Loren Yellow Bird-Arikara themselves-provided the cultural context. The work serves as an important regional ethnobotany of the Arikara Tribe, one of the most influential on the Northern Plains, and should be of great interest to ethnobotanists, ethnomedical practitioners, historians, and other Indigenous Peoples. More importantly, this book is for the Arikara people of all ages as documentation of, and reconnection to, their cultural heritage.