Old Indian Legends is a collection of Dakota legends, retold by the 19th and early 20th-century Dakota author Zitkála-Šá . The collection was compiled in 1901 when Zitkála-Šá returned to her birthplace in the Yankton reservation to take care of her mother, after she had spent several years in the assimilationist Indian residential school system, both as a student and as an educator. While taking care of her mother, she gathered traditional tales from Dakota storytellers which were retold in English for Old Indian Legends . The stories revolve around various spirits and heroes from Dakota myth, especially Iktomi, a shapeshifting spider trickster.