Mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas

literature

Also known as: American Indian literature, Native American literature, Native American mythologies(Show More)

Written by

Erna Gunther

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 7, 2026 •History

Mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the traditional oral and written literatures and mythological traditions of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. These include ancient hieroglyphic and pictographic writings of Mesoamerica as well as an extensive set of folktales, myths, and oral histories that were transmitted for centuries by storytellers and that live on in the language works of many contemporary Indigenous American writers. For a further discussion of the literature of the...