# Old Indian Legends — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Old Indian Legends by Zitkála-Šá.

- [Old Indian Legends](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/old-indian-legends.md): A collection of traditional Dakota stories featuring the trickster figure Iktomi, exploring themes of deception, transformation, and cultural values through various adventures and moral lessons.
- [Iktomi and the Ducks](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iktomi-and-the-ducks.md): Iktomi, a mischievous spider fairy, tricks a group of ducks by pretending to carry songs in his blanket. He builds a straw hut and convinces the ducks to dance with their eyes closed, then twists their heads and breaks t
- [Iktomi's Blanket](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iktomi-s-blanket.md): Iktomi, hungry and cold, prays to Inyan, the great stone grandfather, for food and offers his blanket as a gift. After receiving a freshly wounded deer as an answer, he regrets giving away his blanket when night falls an
- [Iktomi and the Muskrat](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iktomi-and-the-muskrat.md): Iktomi is eating boiled fish alone when a muskrat appears and, following custom, expects an invitation to share the meal. Instead of offering hospitality, Iktomi proposes a race with a stone on his back to decide who get
- [Iktomi and the Coyote](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iktomi-and-the-coyote.md): Iktomi discovers a seemingly dead coyote on the prairie and carries it home to roast for his evening meal. However, the coyote is only pretending to be dead and, after being thrown into the fire, leaps out and escapes, l
- [Iktomi and the Fawn](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iktomi-and-the-fawn.md): Iktomi, dissatisfied with his own form, seeks transformation from a peacock into a beautiful bird but fails to keep the condition of not flying, reverting to his original self. He then asks an arrow to turn him into an a
- [The Badger and the Bear](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/the-badger-and-the-bear.md): A family of badgers generously hosts a hungry black bear, who repays their kindness by stealing their home and food. The badgers are left starving until the bear's youngest, ugliest cub secretly gives them a piece of mea
- [The Tree-Bound](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/the-tree-bound.md): Iktomi tricks the young avenger, who possesses a magic arrow, into climbing a tree and then uses a charm to glue him to the bark. Stealing the avenger's arrow and buckskins, Iktomi plans to kill the red eagle and win the
- [Shooting of the Red Eagle](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/shooting-of-the-red-eagle.md): The real avenger arrives to shoot the red eagle, but Iktomi impersonates him and fails. After the deception is revealed, Iktomi is bound and disgraced. The true avenger then successfully kills the eagle with a magic arro
- [Iktomi and the Turtle](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iktomi-and-the-turtle.md): Patkaša the turtle finds a deer killed by another's arrow and is about to take it home when Iktomi tricks him into a jumping contest for the deer. Iktomi wins by cheating, then leaves to fetch his children, but Patkaša, 
- [Dance in a Buffalo Skull](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/dance-in-a-buffalo-skull.md): On a dark prairie night, field mice hold a joyful feast and dance inside an old buffalo skull, unaware of a pair of fiery eyes approaching from the river bottom. The eyes eventually slide into the skull's eye sockets, st
- [The Toad and the Boy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/the-toad-and-the-boy.md): A young mother leaves her baby alone briefly to gather willow sticks, and upon returning finds him gone. Despite extensive searching by the community, the child is not found. Ten years later, the boy has been raised by a
- [Iya, the Camp-Eater](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/iya-the-camp-eater.md): A baby is found in the tall grass by hunters and brought to the chieftain, who adopts him as his grandson named Chaske. During a feast and dance, the young mother hears voices from the baby's mouth and discovers he is Iy
- [Manštin, the Rabbit](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/man-tin-the-rabbit.md): Manštin, a kindhearted rabbit brave, warns his grandmother about Iktomi and sets off on a hunt to the North country. Along the way, he rescues a baby from the cruel Double-Face, returns the child to its parents, and magi
- [The Warlike Seven](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/old_indian_legends_se/chapters/the-warlike-seven.md): Seven unlikely warriors—Ashes, Fire, Bladder, Grasshopper, Dragonfly, Fish, and Turtle—set out to make war, but one by one they fall to natural mishaps. Only Fish and Turtle reach a village, where they are mocked and thr

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