Yurok Myths

About this book

Between 1901 and 1907 Alfred Kroeber then a young professor at the University of California Berkeley made numerous trips into the country o the Yurok Indians along the far northern California coast and inland on the lower Klamath River. The Yurok and their neighbors the Hupa and the Karok were the southernmost sharers of the great Northwest Coast Civilization. Kroeber concentrating on the austere culture of Yurok sought material artifacts for the University museum and collected Yurok myths - tales of woe times when the mythological heroes peopled the earth: the "never-eating" Pulekukwerek the philandering Wohpekemeu the scheming Coyote. From their informants Kroeber collected over 150 myths and variants transcribing some in the original tongue many on phonograph cylinders for later translation and most in English through an interpreter. Over the years as time form teaching and other research permitted Kroeber worked at editing and annotating the myths. His death intervened as he neared the end of his task. Now to mark the centennial of Kroebers birth the complete collection is published for the first time. Following Kroebers plan the myths told by each Yurok informant are grouped together. Each group is preceded by Kroebers biographical and psychological study of the informant and each tale is accompanied by Kroebers explanatory notes. The book is Kroebers final tribute to the Yurok. As Theodora Kroeber says in her Foreward "They were the first California Indians he came to know and they were the people and culture who most engaged his curiosity and attention."