Read about the greed of His’-sik the Skunk, about how Ah-ha’-le the coyote created humans, and about the quarreling couple who became Half Dome and North Dome.
For centuries these stories have instructed and entertained the Indians of Yosemite. Presented here in a form that represents, as closely as possible, the way they were traditionally told—and beautifully illustrated with the artwork of Maidu Indian Harry Fonseca—these stories offer an alternative, older way of understanding a beloved American landscape.
LaPena lectures widely on American Indian traditional and cultural issues, emphasizing California traditions, and he is a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento. His art has been exhibited since 1960 in twenty-two one-man and numerous group shows across the United States, Europe, Central and South America, Cuba, Australia, and New Zealand. He has been a consultant to museums across the country, including the de Young, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.
