Modoc traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Modoc

Modoc

The Modoc are a Native American people who originally lived in the area which is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon. They are currently divided between Oregon and Oklahoma. The latter are a federally recognized tribe, the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma...

 and Klamath people of northern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and southern Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

.

Modoc oral literature

Oral literature

Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do...

 is representative of the Plateau region, but with influences from the Northwest Coast, the Great Basin

Great Basin

The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...

, and central California. Of particular interest are accounts supposedly describing the volcanic origin of Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 years agoby the...

 in Oregon. (See also Traditional narratives (Native California)

Traditional narratives (Native California)

The Traditional Narratives of Native California are the legends, tales, and oral histories that survive as fragments of what was undoubtedly once a vast unwritten literature.-History of Studies:...

.)

On-Line Examples of Modoc Narratives

• The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis
  Edward S. Curtis
  Edward Sheriff Curtis was a photographer of the American West and of Native American peoples.-Early life:...
  
  (1924)
• "The Legends of Crater Lake" by W. Craig Thomas (1984)

Sources for Modoc Narratives

• Applegate, O. C. 1907. "The Klamath Legend of La-o". Steel Points 1:75-76.
• Bancroft, Hubert Howe. 1883. The Native Races: Myths and Languages. 5 vols. History, San Francisco.
• Barker, M. A. R. 1963. Klamath Texts. University of California Publications in Linguistics No. 30. Berkeley. (21 Klamath myths collected in 1955-1957, including Bear and Fawns, pp. 7-117.)
• Clark, Ella E. 1953. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest. University of California Press, Berkeley.(Includes seven narratives, pp. 9-11, 53-61, 132-135, from Applegate 1907, Bancroft 1883, Curtin 1912, Gatschet 1890, Miller 1874, Steel 1890, 1907, and manuscript sources.)
• Clark, Ella E. 1963. "Indian Geology". Pacific Discovery 16(5):2-9. (Discussion of Klamath myth concerning the origin of Crater Lake.)
• Curtin, Jeremiah. 1912. Myths of the Modocs. Little, Brown, Boston. (Extensive narratives, including Theft of Fire, Orpheus, and Loon Woman, collected in 1884 from Koalakaka.)
• Curtis, Edward S. 1907-1930. The North American Indian. 20 vols. Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts. (Three myths collected from Long Wilson, vol. 13, pp. 210-213.)
• Erdoes, Richard, and Alfonso Ortiz. 1984. American Indian Myths and Legends. Pantheon Books, New York. (Retelling of narratives from Clark 1952, pp. 85-87, 109-111.)
• Frey, Rodney, and Dell Mymes. 1998. "Mythology". In Plateau, edited by Deward E. Walker, Jr., pp. 584-600. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Vol. 12. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Regional context for Modoc-Klamath myths.)
• Gatschet, Albert S. 1970. "Mythological Text in the Klamath Language of Southern Oregon". American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal 1:161-166.
• Gatschet, Albert S. 1891. "Oregonian Folk-Lore". Journal of American Folklore 4:139-143. (Three Modoc tales.)
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C. (Brief comparative notes, pp. 321-322.)
• Margolin, Malcolm. 1993. The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs, and Reminiscences. First edition 1981. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California. (A war narrative, pp. 115-116, from Ray 1963.)
• Ramsey, Jarold. 1977. Coyote Was Going There: Indian Literature of the Oregon Country. University of Washington Press, Seattle. (11 narratives, pp. 185-213, from Barker 1963, Curtin 1912, Curtis 1907-1930, Gatschet 1890, Spier 1930, and Wood 1929.)
• Stern, Theodore. 1956. "Sources of Variability in Klamath Mythology". Journal of American Folklore 69:1-12, 135-146, 377-386. (Analysis.)
• Stern, Theodore. 1963. "Ideal and Expected Behavior as Seen in Klamath Mythology". Journal of American Folklore 76:21-30. (Analysis.)
• Stern, Theodore. 1963. "Klamath Myth Abstracts". Journal of American Folklore 76:31-42. (Material from various previous collections, including Orpheus and Bear and Fawns.)
• Stern, Theodore. 1998. "Klamath and Modoc". In Plateau, edited by Deward E. Walker, Jr., pp. 446-466. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Vol. 12. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Brief overview of mythology, p. 459.)
• Thomas, W. Craig. 1984. The Legends of Crater Lake. In: Historic Resource Study: Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, by Linda W. Greene, Appendix E. National Park Service, Denver. (Long, romanticized version of a Klamath myth.)