The Maidu Creation Myth (Complete in 4 Volumes)

Santa Cruz CA: Native Images Press, 2002. First Editions. Hardcover. Four monumental (15 1/4" x 21 1/4") folio volumes, bilingual (English and Maidu) in parallel columns. Printed letterpress on Arches Cover White by Peter Koch; full linen binding by Taurus Bindery. Fine copies in paper folders, each with printed paper label to front cover. Each volume offered here is #3 (of 8 copies) reserved for the artist (of a total edition of 105 copies). This is the first publication of any part of the account of the Creation of the Mountain Maidu people of Northeastern California (originally narrated for transcription by the Maidu story teller Hancibyjim c. 1902) in the original language. Much more than an artistic interpretation of a Native American myth, masterfully conceived and executed (which it is) the four volumes represent significant scholarship presented for the first time.

Volume 1: The Creation as the Maidu Told It - Puktim, [26]pp, 15 illustrations, 2 full page images on pastedowns; Volume 2: The Adversaries - Hompajtotokyc'om, [26]pp, 17 illustrations, 2 printed pastedown images plus special color print (~ 13" x 20") laid in; Volume 3: Love and Death - Hybyk'ym Masy Wonom, [26]pp, 12 intaglios, 2 printed pastedown images plus special color print (~ 13" x 20") laid in; Volume 4: Coyote the Spoiler - Wepam wasatikym, [26]pp, 12 serigraphs, 2 printed pastedown images plus special color print (~ 13" x 18") laid in. For millenia the Mountain Maidu tribe has lived on the upper Feather River in Northern California. Anthropologist Roland B. Dixon collected (and in 1912 published in Maidu) versions of the Maidu myths, here rendered in English translations for the first time by William Shipley. Shipley founded and chaired the UC Santa Cruz Linguistics program 1966-80. As a graduate student in Linguistics at UC Berkeley in the 1950s, Shipley spent several years living in Maiduland and studying the language with Maym Gallagher, a brilliant Maidu who spoke the language with perfect fluency. Artist and lithographer Daniel O. Stolpe was greatly influenced by the two years he lived with the Swimomish Indians of Puget Sound, participating in their daily lives, folklore and rituals; he taught printmaking UCSC for a dozen years.