A few versions of Native California traditional narratives were written down by Franciscan missionaries, notably Jerónimo Boscana in the early nineteenth century.
Travelers, government agents, and local residents, such as Hugo Reid and Stephen Powers, added to this documentation in the later nineteenth century.
As anthropology in the United States transformed itself into a profession in the early twentieth century, preserving a record of native myths became one of its first major undertakings.
Much of the basic documentary work had been completed, and native cultural traditions had grown weaker with the passing of the decades.
These traits are not universally present, but they characterize most of the narratives: Folklorists have commonly attempted to distinguish between myths, legends, tales, and histories.
Their unity comes mainly from the presence of a continuing central character or from a causal sequence of events, rather than from any overall theme, plot, or narrative purpose.
In the traditional narratives of native North America, the Western expectation of essentially "good" or "evil" characters or events is generally not met.
The same character is likely to act beneficently in one episode but malevolently in the next, according to the accepted norms of behavior or to criteria of general welfare.