Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons were at the center of a large body of myths in which they played important roles, from creators of earth and all life to heroes (male and female) in battle. From approximately 160 extant Native American myths, Jim Elledge has selected all those which would be most readily identifiable by contemporary readers as dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals, as well as those which focus on them as prominent, if not main, characters in the myths. He has located a literature that existed long before the European colonization of North America and asserts that, not only does North American literature begin with the oral traditions of Native Americans, the beginning of North American literature includes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender literature in the form of these and other myths.