The Winnebago Trickster and Fire Narratives in Paul Radin’s Early Collections

Record summary

Paul Radin’s late-nineteenth-century collection of Ho-Chunk, historically called Winnebago, narratives includes Trickster episodes and cosmological material that can involve fire, celestial order, and transformations. The material is useful for comparing luminous motifs with broader North American transformer traditions. However, the best-known scholarly publications appeared later, and Radin’s field notes, translations, sequencing, and editorial decisions require reconstruction. This lead identifies a research corpus rather than a single uniform tale or a claim that the narratives describe physical paranormal events.