San Diego's Sestercentennial Got You Feeling Reminiscent? We've Got the Cure: Mourning Dove's Stories - An Authentic Compilation of Native Tales

From April through July, here in San Diego, both local elected officials and leaders of the Kumeyaay Nation are working together to celebrate 250 years of local history and heritage. A joint effort to commemorate the past and shed light on the region’s many peoples. And while leaders here in San Diego have waited until a big anniversary year to honor our history, native storytellers—like Mourning Dove—have long recognized the importance of preserving cultural traditions.

Considered one of the first native female novelists, Christine Quintasket (Mourning Dove), dedicated her life to transcribing the oral traditions of the Salish-speaking tribes in the Pacific Northwest.

Mourning Dove lived 1884-1936 in the native
borderlands between Washington and Canada.

Published in American Indian Studies at San Diego State University, comes Mourning Dove’s Stories, a rare unaltered collection of Mourning Dove’s original works.

Thanks to the extra efforts of editors, Clifford E. Trafzer and Richard D. Scheuerman, many of the stories in this compilation can be found virtually unchanged from Mourning Dove’s own interpretations—free from the westernized influence found in many previous presentations of her works which have been “corrected” by white men.

Featuring a diverse cast of characters—from Lynx to Coyote—all sixteen vignettes highlight the undeniable dualities of life and the careful balance between these dialectical tensions. As the pages turn characters go from brave heroes to cunning villains and back again. Through every transition the stories highlight the fragile balance between the good and evil that live both within and around us.

This book truly remains a treasured preservation of Mourning Dove and the story of her native people. Rich in wisdom and moral lessons, Mourning Dove’s Stories proves a quintessential reading for those interested in learning from the mistakes, examples, and truths of the past.

As many of us today are finally starting to appreciate the rich history of our locality (and our country as a whole), there is no better a moment to purchase Mourning Dove’s Stories as a way to complete the transformative journey through time and tradition. Mourning Dove herself lived in a transitional period in American Indian history—one where cultures collided and rapidly changed. So to the climate of today, as the United States increasingly becomes a region of diversity, we could all learn a lesson from this authentic assemblage of “the oldest truths of America.”

Purchase your own copy of Mourning Dove’s Stories here, so you to can learn from the truths and traditions of the past!