The Myths and Legends of the North American Indians is a book written by Lewis Spence and was first published in 1914 by London George G. Harrap & Company.

It contains a collection of legends and myths of different Native American tribes and 32 coloured illustrations relating to some of the stories, which were created by James Jack.

When Spence moved to London in 1906, he began to study mythology and folklore, which led to the creation of The Popul Vuh: The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kiches of Central America in 1908.

[5] In the early twentieth century, there had already been other books collecting the myths and legends of the Native Americans, several of which in their preface expressed a want to make known the character of the Aboriginal culture through sharing their stories:[7][8][9] For example, in North American Indian Fairy Tales Robert Coutts Armour claimed that the Indians' Folk-tales are the best reflection of their character.

[1] The second chapter covers overarching mythologies that are generally present in all tribes, for example the central cultural beliefs of animism, totemism, and fetishism, or common religious ideas about gods or morality.

Spence concludes that the stories of the North American Indians resemble European and Scandinavian folk tales, but stresses that they nonetheless possess a very distinguishing atmosphere of their own.

[1] In the preface Spence stresses the need to put the tales of the North American Indians into writing and to confront the white American population with it: "[The primary objective is] to furnish the reader with a general view of the mythologies of the Red Man of North America, accompanied by such historical and ethnological information as will assist him in gauging the real conditions under which this most interesting section of humanity existed.

[16] While Spence's work in general has been described as "[meeting] stiff criticism in professional journals",[17] The Myths and Legends of the North American Indians specifically was reviewed in the July 1915 issue of The Journal of Race and Development and the book's stories were described as being "told in a very interesting fashion.

[31] In the early twenty-first century (2000 to 2023), accompanying the influx of books on the topic,[27] emerged other kinds of story collections recounting Indian tales.