One of the books I am currently reading right now (or, more accurately, referencing) is Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest, by Ella Clark, initially published in 1953.
It’s one of the books I have at home on the subject of Pacific Northwest Native American history which I use for research for my RAVEN novel series. For deeper research I use the University of Washingtons’s library, which is only fifteen minutes away.
It’s my favorite “go-to” book on PNW stories. Why? Because many of the stories told in the book are first-person accounts recorded from elderly Native American story tellers—some over ninety years old— of the various tribes in the region, so in this sense it’s a direct look back into stories from the 1800s and before. (I will mention that Ms. Clark was not a trained folklorist or anthropologist, and her book was written for the lay reader; she may not be adequate for academic research.)
But this does raise the delicate issue of how (and if?) to use these stories within my novel. That’s not easy, but I have a guiding principal: to write this novel—one which has a thematic element which uses the natural history of the Pacific Northwest as a contrast to the modern ecosystem of the region—and not accurately depict the Native American roots of this region is unacceptable. In other words, to discuss the history of Puget Sound without discussing the indigenous people of this region would be deeply insulting.
In my opinion, including indigenous history has to be done, and it has to be done well.
This book is just one part of that task.