Place-based literacy learning is hardly an innovation in education and need not revolve around Native American legends. The objective of place-based literacy learning is to use local literacy artifacts to facilitate critical thinking about cultural, political-economic, and environmental connections to promote community sustainability by relating local narratives to the wider world. Drawing on their collaborative experience teaching students about Native American legends in the Pacific Northwest, the authors describe how place-based learning can benefit students anywhere. The authors share a story of how and why Columbia Plateau creation legends found their way into local language arts curricula. The authors have found that collecting and examining stories of place encourages collaboration and socialization while learning. They have discovered that indigenous literature combined with the presence of tribal elders in language arts classrooms allows adolescents to move past stereotypes of others to form deep insights into cultures.