Effects of colonization on the native folklore of America: A study of selected prose narratives

Abstract

America as a continent have been colonized multiple times by different colonizers like Britishers, Spanish, French and Dutch people. Slavery of the African people also made a large population of black people in the state of America. Before the colonization America had different Indian tribes as its native population with their own culture and folklore.  This paper is an attempt to explain the adaptation process of native Indians to the new ideas of origin myths that came with the colonizers and how the native folklore myths and these new myths are co-existing in the American folklore. This paper will address the question with the help of selected prose narratives about the origins of mankind in the American native Indian tribes.