North American Literature for Kids - Did anyone know how to write? What sort of stories did they have?

North American Literature


It's not impossible that some people in North America knew how to write before 1500 AD. Some Cherokee people tell stories about an early way of writing, for instance. But there is no evidence from before 1500 of any writing in North America. There's nothing that looks like paper, and nothing with writing on it. If people were writing at this time, the evidence has all rotted away or people have hidden it. So they can't have been writing very much, or there would be stone inscriptions and things that would have lasted, as there are for the Aztec, the Inca, and the Maya in South America.

Most kids learned stories by hearing them told out loud. These stories were usually about religion, or about how people should act. Some of these stories were written down, much later, and you can read some of them here:


To find out more about North American literature before 1500, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:


North American literature after 1500 AD
Main North America page
Main South America page
Main Literature page
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