Book Review: American Indian Trickster Tales by R. Erdoes and A. Ortiz

American Indian Trickster Tales selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz

Most every culture has its folk tales and most every set of folk tales has at least one trickster character. Norse tales have the god Loki; West Africa has Anasi the Spider; China has the Monkey King. Native American tribes have a variety of characters who are tricksters, the most popular one being Coyote. There's also Rabbit and Raven that cause mischief, along with a few other minor characters. Often tricksters are the butts of jokes, when they are not as smart as they think they are (like Daffy Duck against Bugs Bunny). Typically they cleverly try to get out of work by taking advantage of others (like Tom Sawyer painting the fence). But sometimes the trickster helps out others. In this book, a lot of tricksters have semi-divine roles in creating or organizing the universe, aside from their usual shenanigans. 

Pop culture generally mistakes folk tales for children's tales. While a lot of these stories are appropriate for the pre-teen crowd, many of them are much more adult in nature. Tricksters, in addition to satisfying their appetites for food or power, often satisfy their appetite for sex. They are not above changing shapes or genders in order to get a beautiful person "under the buffalo blanket." The tales here have plenty of amorous comedy and drama with more detail than I would like my pre-teen to read. This volume has a lot of simple black drawings of characters and situations, some of which are PG-13. I was a bit surprised to see them but they fit with the stories being told.

The stories are charming and enjoyable. Sometimes the trickster gets away with his misbehavior, sometimes he gets caught and either embarrassed or punished (occasionally both). If you like folk tales or mythology, these are light and enchanting.

All the stories are one to four pages long, so the book can be a quick read or something to dip in and out of over a long period. They are entertaining and show the vast creativity of Native American tribes.

Mildly recommended.