How Chipmunk Got Tiny Feet: Native American Animal Origin Stories

Long ago animals could walk and talk like human beings, and they were not as they appear today: Possum didn’t always have a a skinny tail, nor Coyote yellow eyes. Horse wasn’t always fast, and, believe it or not, Chipmunk did not always have tiny feet. These seven animal origin stories explain how the animals went through difficult life lessons and, with Mother Earth’s help, came to be the animals we know today.

Gerald Hausman, a noted scholar of Native American culture, has drawn from Koasati Creek, Navajo and Tsimshian traditions to retell this rich mythology. Illustrated with stunning artwork by Ashley Wolff, every story has a message, and always the message is the same: Here is the world…. We must live in it together, not apart.