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

Yana people

The Yana people were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the western side of the range. The Yana-speaking people comprised four groups: the Northern Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana, and the Yahi...

 of the eastern Sacramento Valley

Sacramento Valley

The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...

 and foothills of northeastern California.

Yana oral literature belongs primarily to the central California tradition, but it also shows influences from the Great Basin and Plateau cultural provinces. (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 Yana Narratives

• "Yana Texts" by Edward Sapir
  Edward Sapir
  Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
  
  (1910)

Sources for Yana Narratives

• Bright, William. 1993. A Coyote Reader. University of California Press, Berkeley. (Narrative based on Sapir 1910, pp. 105-117.)
• Curtin, Jeremiah. 1898. Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind. Little, Brown, Boston. (Reprinted in 1995 as "Creation Myths of America.") (13 Yana myths, including Theft of Fire, with commentaries.)
• Gifford, Edward Winslow, and Gwendoline Harris Block. 1930. California Indian Nights. Arthur H. Clark, Glendale, California. (Four previously published narratives, pp. 129-132, 198-201, 216-218, 235-237.)
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C. (Brief notes, p. 341.)
• Luthin, Herbert W. 2002. Surviving through the Days: A California Indian Reader. University of California Press, Berkeley. (A Yahi narrative collected from Ishi by Edward Sapir in 1915, pp. 152-177.)
• Sapir, Edward. 1910. "Yana Texts". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 9:1-235. Berkeley. (Myths and other texts, including Theft of Fire, Loon Woman, and Bear and Fawns, collected by Dixon in 1900 and by Sapir in 1910, with some comparative notes.)
• Sapir, Edward. 1923. "Text Analyses of Three Yana Dialects". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 20:263-294. Berkeley. (Central Yana and Yahi narratives, pp. 266-267, 283-285.)
• Swann, Brian. 1994. Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America. Random House, New York. ("Dragonfly Woman" and "Rolling Skull," recorded from Betty Brown and Sam Batwi by Edward Sapir in 1907, pp. 717-736.)