Native American Stories for Children

Here are some of Fairy Godmother's recommendations for Native American tales for kids!  Many of the authors featured specialize in retelling old Native American stories and have many more to offer than are included in this list; Paul Goble and Joseph Bruchac in particular tend to write and illustrate native North American myths and legends.  Click on any of the books below to find out more about it.



Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: Susan Jeffers adapts and illustrates a speech given by the great Native American Chief Seattle during trade negotiations in 1850, with beautiful results.  Chief Seattle's words ("The Earth does not belong to us.  We belong to the Earth") remind us that we are one part of a great ecosystem that deserves respect.



Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale touches on themes that are common to many cultures, including Creation, manhood tests, hero quests, and cycles of planting and harvesting.  The illustrations are based on the pictographs of the Native Americans of the southwest.



The Rough-Face Girl: In this Algonquin version of the Cinderella story, the youngest of three sisters is forced to always tend the fire, which causes her face, hands, and arms to be scarred and rough.  The two elder sisters are intent on marrying the Invisible Being, a powerful entity that lives in a giant wigwam near their village.  Unable to answer the question posed by the Being's sister, however, they are sent away.  Despite being mocked unmercifully for her appearance, the Rough Faced Girl makes herself new clothes and goes to meet the Invisible Being.  Can you guess how the story ends?



The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush: This story of Little Gopher, who couldn't keep up with the other boys of his tribe but seemed to have a gift for art, tells the old Plains Indian legend of how the colors of the sunset were given to the People by way of a very special flower.



How the Stars Fell into the Sky: This Navajo legend explains why as long as there has been humankind, there has been chaos. At the beginning of the world, First Woman wants to write the laws in the sky for all to see.  She sets about carefully arranging her jewels (the stars) so that all humankind will be able to read and understand.  Coyote asks to help, but grows impatient with the enormous, painstaking project and scatters the stars in frustration.



Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back: This book begins with an Abenaki storyteller explaining to his grandson that there are always thirteen scales on Old Turtle's Back, and each one corresponds to one of the thirteen moon cycles of the year, each with it's own name.  Drawing from the folktales of many different Native American cultures, the book contains thirteen verses, one for each moon cycle, such as the moon of Sleeping Bear, when all the animals are in hibernation. The illustrations, done by Thomas Locker, are absolutely stunning.



The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses is the story of a Plains Indian girl who gets lost in the mountains during a storm.  Befriending a wild stallion, she decides to stay with the herd and ride free even when she is found and has a chance to return to her people.  This Caldecott Award winner depicts the Plains Indians deep and sometimes sacred relationship to horses.



Rainbow Crow: With illustrations in the style of the Lenape Indians, Nancy Van Laan tells the old Native American tale of Rainbow Crow, who sacrifices his beautiful feathers and lovely voice in order to bring the gift of fire to his woodland friends, who are being buried alive in a snowstorm. Because of his selfless act, he is no longer a colorful bird but a black crow, with an ugly caw instead of a beautiful song.



Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest: At the beginning of this traditional story from the Native American peoples of the Pacific Northwest, all the world lies in darkness.  Feeling sorry for the people struggling to live in the cold and dark, Raven decides to try to bring to them the gift of light and warmth.  Knowing that the Sky Chief has this gift hidden, the Raven has to use his shape-shifting abilities and trickery to get the glowing ball and bring it to the people, thus giving birth to the sun.



Between Earth & Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places: Eleven legends of Native American sacred places are told in verse, accompanied by gorgeous illustrations. Locations include El Capitan in Arizona, which is sacred to the Navajo, and the Grand Canyon, sacred to the Hopi.



The First Strawberries: This Cherokee legend explains the origins of strawberries, which the Sun grows in an effort to keep the First Man and First Woman from fighting and going their own separate ways.



The Gift of the Sacred Dog tells the story of a young boy who goes into the hills to pray for his people, who can't keep up with the buffalo they need for food.  The Great Spirit rewards the boy's bravery and dedication by presenting him with horses, or "sacred dogs".  The domestication of the horse allows the people to be as fast as the buffalo, and prevents their starvation, making the young boy a hero.



In The Earth under Sky Bear's Feet, a grandmother tells her granddaughter about Sky Bear (also known as the Big Dipper) who circles the Earth each night.  Twelve stories about the Earth as seen from Sky Bear's point of view are told in verse, with beautiful illustrations.  Each of the twelve stories is from a different Native American tribe: the Lakota, Lenape, Anishinabe, Winnebago, Mohawk, Pawnee, Pima, Navajo, Missisquoi, Cochiti Pueblo, Inuit, and Chumash.



The Star People: A Lakota Story: Two children who wander away from their village, entranced by the shapes made by the billowing clouds, barely survive a prairie fire and end up hopelessly lost.  They wander alone and frightened, until the night sky seems to come to life.  The Star People, who the Lakota believed to be the spirits of the ancestors, guide the children home to safety.



The Buffalo Jump: A dangerous Native American hunting method, the "buffalo jump" involves a hunter inciting a whole herd of buffalo to stampede after him, then dropping off a cliff.  While the hunter lands on a narrow ledge of the cliff wall, the buffalo plummet to their deaths and are then harvested by the tribe.  Little Blaze wants desperately to be chosen to lead the buffalo jump and prove his bravery, but his older brother Curly Bear is chosen instead.  Little Blaze is jealous and resentful, until Curly Bear is running ahead of the herd and things begin to go wrong.  An exciting story with incredible illustrations!



The Great Race: Long ago the Creator held a contest to decide which creature should become the guardian of Creation.  Buffalo and man both raced for supremacy over the other beasts.  Paul Goble retells the myth long used by the Native Americans of the Black Hills to explain how humans won dominion over the buffalo.



An old Comanche story, The Legend of the Bluebonnet tells us of She-Who-Is-Alone, a young girl orphaned by a very long drought.  She's left with nothing but a doll, but when the Great Spirits ask for a sacrifice in order to end the drought and restore life to the Earth, She-Who-Is-Alone gives the doll as a burnt offering and scatters the ashes.  In return for her selflessness, she wakes the next morning to find a carpet of beautiful blue flowers growing as far as the eye can see.



In Gift Horse: A Lakota Story the author imagines what life must have been like for his great-great-grandfather Flying Cloud, a Lakota warrior.  In the fictional but historically accurate story, Flying Cloud goes through all the traditional steps to becoming a warrior of his tribe, including a vision quest, a buffalo hunt, and developing a relationship with the horse his father has given him as a gift.



Buffalo Woman is the story of a young hunter who draws his bow and prepares to shoot a female buffalo that he sees drinking from a stream.  Before he can shoot her, however, she turns into a beautiful human woman; the young hunter falls in love at once and makes her his wife.  The people of his tribe aren't kind to the Buffalo Woman or to the son she bears, Calf Boy.  Finally Buffalo Woman takes Calf Boy and returns to the herd, both of them reverting to their true animal forms.  The hunter goes after them, not wanting to lose the family that he loves.  He finally finds them, but the buffalo herd is no more accepting of him than his tribe had been of his family.  His son Calf Boy helps him discover not only how to escape the herd, but how to unite the herd with the people that hunt them.