Here are several short reviews of new books on Native Americans:
THE OLD NORTH TRAIL: LIFE, LEGENDS, AND RELIGION OF THE BLACKFEET
INDIANS by Walter McClintock. University of Nebraska Press, 901 N.
17th St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0520. The University of Nebraska Press
online catalog is available on the Internet by telneting to
CRCVMS.UNL.EDU, username INFO, choosing UNIVERSITY PRESS, and
ONLINE CATALOG. Illustrated, index, notes. 539 pp., $14.95 paper.
0-8032-8188-9
REVIEW
McClintock (1870-1949) is one of the few Whites who, sent on
an expedition to an Indian settlement, settled in as a tribal
member. In this case, the expedition was that of the U.S. Forest
Service, and McClintock become the adopted son of the tribes'
spiritual leader, Chief Mad Wolf.
In this Bison imprint reissue of the 1910 book which was
originally published in England, McClintock had the unique
opportunity to chronicle the changing lives of a tribe struggling
to adapt to reservation life. He tells their story with an
engagingly personal style.
McClintock chronicles his adoption, taking part in the
everyday life of the tribe, participating in ceremonials (most
notably the Beaver Medicine Ceremonial, the Sun Dance, an initia-
tion into the Medicine Pipe Society, and the Crow-Beaver Ceremoni-
al), and listening to their legends told around the campfire.
Also included are chapters on the use of Blackfeet proper
names, Blackfeet societies, marriage customs, stories of Father De
Smet, and finally a sad prognosis that the Blackfeet will suffer
from Indian Policy directed by White-men. There are several black-
and-white photographs and paintings by McClintock. Some of these
archival photographs can be seen in the recently released movie
"Wiping the Tears of Seven Generations."
The book is an important addition to any western history
library collection. I'm not sure, however, if the term "Blackfeet"
is proper. I have heard that the correct term for both singular
and plural of the name is "Blackfoot."
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN DESIGNS: IRON-ON TRANSFER PATTERNS by
Madeline Orban-Szontagh. Dover Publications, Inc. (Needlework and
Pictorial Archive Series), 31 E. 2nd St., Mineola, N.Y. 11501.
Illustrated, instructions. 48 pp., $3.50 paper. 0-486-26883-7
REVIEW
Over 100 patterns have been assembled by Orban-Szontagh from
all over the West, including Canada and Mexico: Navajo, Hopi,
Pueblo, Dakota, Maya, Toltec, Tlingit, Haida, and many others.
Each pattern is printed on only one side of each page, ready to be
transferred for embroidery, painting, or beading, and they can also
be transferred to wood for wood-burning or painting.
The patterns depict humans, animals, mythological figures, and
symbols. They can be transferred more than once.
This is a wonderful Christmas gift for the craftsperson
interested in Native American themes. Be sure to enclose embroi-
dery thread, beads, or paint, with the book.
DANCING COLORS: PATHS OF NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN by C. J. Brafford
and Laine Thom, and BECOMING BRAVE: THE PATH TO NATIVE AMERICAN
MANHOOD by Laine Thom. Chronicle Books, 275 Fifth Street, San
Francisco, CA 94103. Illustrated, bibliography. 120 pp. each,
$18.95 each. 0-8118-0165-9 (Dancing) and 0-8118-0163-2 (Becoming)
REVIEW
These two books are general introductions to the way of life
of several Native American tribes, in pictures, stories, and
essays. Both books begin with an essay on the meanings and
ceremonies involved in becoming a man or woman, and a full member
of the tribe. The remainder of each volume elaborates on the theme
of growing up: hunting, warring, vision quests, recounting legends,
healing, and walking in beauty.
The written part of the books is overwhelmed, though, by the
intensely colorful photography of ceremonial clothing, blankets,
baskets, jewelry, pouches, headgear, drums, and other artifacts
from the archives of the Colter Bay Indian Arts Museum and the San
Diego Museum of Man. Each book has a section of black-and-white
photographs of prominent Native Americans from the past.
These books are wonderful testaments to the concept of
"travelling the full circle."
Thom is Shoshoni, Goshiute, and Paiute; Brafford is Pine Ridge
Lakota.
TEACHING AMERICAN INDIAN STUDENTS, edited by Jon Reyhner.
University of Oklahoma Press, 1005 Asp Avenue, Norman, OK 73019.
Index, bibliography, notes, four appendices. 328 pp., $24.95
cloth. 0-80-61-2449-0
REVIEW
This is the best reference for educators of Native Americans
to date, a primer that endeavors to rectify the counterproductive
efforts of the past.
The primary factor in the large attrition rate of Native
Americans from educational institutions, Reyhner says, is the
choice they must make between their home and school environments.
A large step toward reconciling the two was made at the 1992 White
House Conference on Native American Education, but funding of
tribally-controlled educational institutions still lags.
The book contains chapters on multicultural education,
curriculum and community development, language development, reading
and literature curriculums, and a section on special content areas
such as science, social studies, and math. All the chapters echo
with the idea that the best results come from programs that
reinforce the culture of the Native American.
The book is a must for any instructor of Native Americans -
most importantly in the primary and secondary schools.
STRUGGLE FOR THE LAND: INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE TO GENOCIDE, ECOCIDE,
AND EXPROPRIATION IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA by Ward Churchill.
Common Courage Press, Box 702, Monroe, ME 04951. Index, notes,
maps. 472 pp., $17.95 paper. 1-56751-000-0
REVIEW
One of the first things a society needs in order to carry out
land stewardship is freedom. "Struggle For The Land" consists of
eight case-studies which illustrate how the genocidal tendencies of
the European races have caused the loss of millions of acres of
land by indigenous tribes. These stolen lands are now being
destroyed through ecocide: the deliberate extermination of natural
habitat as a matter of state policy.
Native peoples are increasingly resisting this policy, but the
encroachment continues in areas such as the land claim struggle of
the Iroquois in New York, the Lakota in the Black Hills, and the
recently settled Navajo-Hopi land dispute. Also included are
chapters on the Shoshone struggle in Nevada and the Lubicon Lake
band of Cree in Canada, which have been publicized on Internet's
newsgroup: Native-net.
Churchill also details the larger battles over the mining of
uranium, nuclear weapons testing, and the storage of waste on
reservations are reflections of "radioactive colonization."
The book is hostile, but necessarily so. Churchill under-
stands that he must get our attention now or we will continue down
a path that is increasingly becoming irreversible.
ALGONQUIN LEGENDS by Charles G. Leland. Dover Publications, Inc.,
31 E. 2nd St., Mineola, N.Y. 11501. Illustrated, list of
authorities. 379 pp., $8.95 paper. 0-486-26944-2
REVIEW
The myths and legends of the northeastern bands of Algonquin
Indians, otherwise known as the Passamaquoddies, Penobscots, and
Micmacs, are recounted in this reissue of the 1884 original
edition. The Algonquin roamed the present-day lands of Labrador
and New Brunswick, Canada, and Maine.
The oral mythology of the tribe contains a creation myth
involving Glooskap, a divine twin of a bad wolf; amusing tales of
Lox, the mischief-maker and master rabbit the magician; scary
stories of Chenoo, beings that were half-devil and half-cannibal;
the girl who married Mt. Katahdin (the Bali-Hai of Maine), and
other narratives of supernatural beings and magic spells.
Leland also makes comparisons to the myths of the Norse,
Scandinavians, and Eskimos. An absorbing collection.
LONG BEFORE COLUMBUS: HOW THE ANCIENTS DISCOVERED AMERICA by Hans
Holzer. Bear and Co., P.O. Drawer 2860, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2860.
Illustrated, maps. 121 pp., $12.95 paper. 0-939680-93-9
REVIEW
Holzer, of the television show "In Search Of..." fame, has
found Mystery Hill, at North Salem, New Hampshire and its
archaeoastronomic significance. The site, an ancient repository of
megalithic records, is undeniable evidence that North America was
occupied by intelligent and reverent people. The existence of this
site and others such as the Kahokia Mounds, completely debunk the
popular (but becoming less so) notion that Columbus "discovered"
the "New World."
There is considerable controversy as to whether the site was
erected and maintained by indigenous people or European seafarers,
and Holzer leans toward the explanation that the builders were of
Phoenician extraction, and sailed from Portugal.
While the debate goes on, there is no disputing the phenomenal
arrangement of stones at the site, making it a solar and lunar
calculator and another example of an ancient people harmonizing
with the earth and the sky.
The goal of the book is to expose academic indifference to the
prehistory of North America, and Holzer's research and the emotion
of his presentation make the needed attention unavoidable.
THE JICARILLA APACHE TRIBE: A HISTORY, revised edition, by Veronica
E. Velarde Tiller. University of Nebraska Press (Bison imprint),
901 N. 17th St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0520. The University of
Nebraska Press online catalog is available on the Internet by
telneting to CRCVMS.UNL.EDU, username INFO, choosing UNIVERSITY
PRESS, and ONLINE CATALOG. Illustrated, index, bibliography, maps,
notes. 289 pp., $12.95 paper. 0-8032-9422-0
REVIEW
Thank goodness for revisions! Especially ones that actually
address the time period between editions. There are two books that
I have encountered in my thesis research on Ute history that were
published in the last two years, with no mention of a major water
project (Animas-La Plata) that has been scheduled for the last
thirty years. Yet they are billed as being comprehensive.
Tiller's revised edition, happily, has a special preface and
a lengthy afterword, both new, that catch the reader up to present
tribal events, especially their major struggle over the
quantification of their water rights that became public law two
months ago.
The focus of Tiller's book is the period 1846-1970. She
begins with a description of the tribe in 1846, and goes on to the
development of a dependency relationship with the U.S. government,
their increasing reliance on food rations, the dispossession from
their traditional homeland, the development of a reservation
economy, the search for education, impacts of the Indian Reorgani-
zation Act, attempts at assimilation, and finally, an era of
growth.
There are still many problems the tribe faces, such as a
critical housing shortage, sometimes unavailable health care, and
an inadequate educational curriculum. Tiller, however, feels that
the accomplishments of the tribe in the later years of their
history will help them rise to face them.
The book is exhaustively researched and Tiller gives a
balanced historical presentation. Also included are 25 black-and-
white historical photographs.
THE BATTLE OF BEECHER ISLAND AND THE INDIAN WAR OF 1867-1869 by
John H. Monnett. University Press of Colorado, P.O. Box 849,
Niwot, CO 80544. Illustrated, index, bibliography, notes, map.
245 pp., $22.50 cloth. 0-87081-267-5
REVIEW
Beecher Island isn't really an island, its better defined as
a sandbar. Notwithstanding it's name, Beecher Island is in the
middle of the Arickaree Fork of the Republican River near the
present town of Wray, Colorado.
On September 17-26, 1868, approximately fifty civilian scouts,
under the Command of Major George Forsyth, were pinned down on the
island by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, and
Arapahoes, numbering from an estimated two hundred to one thousand.
For the nine day period, the scouts withstood several charges and
ate their horses to survive.
When one scout escaped and brought reinforcements, the Indians
had left. To them, it was a minor battle. The press, however,
made the scouts national heroes.
This battle is the showcase of Monnett's presentation of the
U.S. government's policy of trying to split the northern and
southern tribes. During this period, General Ulysses S. Grant
almost moved the Indian Bureau to the Bureau of War.
Monnett tries hard to maintain a balanced presentation with
thorough research of both sides of the conflict. Though he is too
one-sided toward the scouts in his story of the battle, his
disclosure of the larger context contains more validity.
NATIVE AMERICAN TESTIMONY: A CHRONICLE OF INDIAN-WHITE RELATIONS
FROM PROPHESY TO THE PRESENT (1492-1992) by Peter Nabokov. Penguin
Publishing, 375 Hudson St., N.Y., NY 10014. Illustrated, index,
notes, map. 474 pp., $15.00. 0-14-012986-3
REVIEW
Finally out in a paperback edition, this is one of the books
that mainstream historians don't want you to see. Nabokov, an
anthropologist and cousin of Vladimir (of "Lolita" fame), has
compiled an exhaustive and meaningful Native American history in
the words of Native Americans.
The book is divided into two parts, beginning with "First
Encounter to Dispossession," in which prophecies and premonitions
by Black Elk and others tell of the coming of "these restless and
rationalizing Europeans." This section continues, describing
tribal brushes with traders, missionaries, soldiers, settlers, and
politicians, up through the reservation period, around 1865.
Part two (Reservation to Resurgence) is the result of
Nabokov's more recent work. Nabokov says that the tribes came to
see a pattern of expectation in these invaders - they were expected
to carry out the bidding of the White man, as well as to embrace
his religion.
The voices in part two shake with sadness, while others are
thunderous with pride. While many believe that the lives of Native
Americans are improving, Nabokov points to the 1988 majority
opinion of the Supreme Court, written by Sandra Day O'Connor, which
says that the religions freedom granted by the U.S. Constitution
does not apply to Native Americans.
While there are over a hundred testimonies by famous and
lesser-known individuals, each with their own particular point of
view, Nabokov's book echoes with the music of a common cry - to be
respected and for Whites to stop "trying to turn eagles into
crows."
LUCKY: THE NAVAJO SINGER, recorded by Alexander H. Leighton and
Dorthea C. Leighton, edited and annotated by Joyce J. Griffin.
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1591.
Illustrated, index, notes, bibliography, map. 240 pp., $29.95
cloth. 0-8263-1374-4
REVIEW
The Leightons were psychiatric researchers, interested in how
"normal" people handled inner conflicts that were destructive to
others. The couple, in 1940, decided to investigate members of
"Kainti," on the Navajo reservation. Their goals were to undertake
personality studies of residents and to apply the results in
understanding Navajo culture. One of the methods in attaining this
goal was the recording of life histories, and this is how "Lucky"
was and his translator "Bill Sage," were introduced to the
Leightons over fifty years ago. Most of the names and places in
the volume are aliases.
Lucky, orphaned at an early age, was reared by a Navajo elder
and learned much traditional wisdom. When interviewed, he was in
his forties, a great believer in witchcraft, a rover and itinerant
worker, who had eight living children. Lucky attended so many
sings that he became familiar with the words. His friends
contributed the materials for his medicine bag. He sang the
Blessingway, Ghostway, Apache Windway, and parts of the Nightway,
Featherway, Mountainway, Navajo Windway, and Coyoteway, but was not
schooled in the sacred lore that formed their basis. Lucky was
robbed and murdered in 1958.
This is a fascinating biography that accurately portrays
Navajo life and culture in the 1940s. A major contribution to
Native American, and especially Navajo, biography.
GIFT OF POWER: THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF A LAKOTA MEDICINE MAN by
Archie Fore Lame Deer and Richard Edoes. Bear and Co., P.O. Drawer
2860, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2860. Illustrated. 279 pp., $21.95
cloth. 0-939680-87-4
REVIEW
Archie Fire Lame Deer's father (John Fire Lame Deer, from
"Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions") was a Lakota Medicine Man, as was
his grandfather (Quick Bear).
Archie has worn several hats in his many years: soldier in
Korea, stuntman in Hollywood, counselor to jail inmates, and
visionary and healer to his tribe. During most the same time, he
was a brawler and an alcoholic. Twenty years ago, he woke up.
He carries on his legacy in modern times by examining current
influences on Lakota ceremonies, and in this book he soberly
explains the spirituality behind, among others, the sweatlodge
(which he fought to make accessible to Native Americans in the
federal penitentiary), the Sacred Pipe Ceremony, the Vision Quest,
and the most sacred Sundance.
With a vision that embraces the world (Archie is a close
friend of the Dalai Lama and has held sweats for him), this book
will no doubt be celebrated by New Agers - especially the chapter
on sacred stones. But the book isn't so easily categorized. It
exuberantly celebrates life while remaining in awe of it. My life
as a reviewer, though, would have been easier if the book had an
index.
FANTASIES OF THE MASTER RACE: LITERATURE, CINEMA AND THE COLONIZA-
TION OF AMERICAN INDIANS by Ward Churchill, edited by M. Annette
Jaimes. Common Courage Press, P.O. Box 702, Monroe, ME 04951.
Index, notes. 303 pp., $14.95 paper. 0-9628838-6-7
REVIEW
Those who know Churchill appreciate his knife-edged humor. In
this new book a compilation of book and movie reviews, he swings
the knife freely at Carlos Castenada, Ayn Rand, Tony Hillerman, and
the movies "Dances With Wolves" and "Thunderheart," and many
others.
The book begins with an essay titled "Literature as a Weapon,"
in which Churchill charges fiction writers with turning their
mixing of fact and fiction when portraying Native American life and
events into an "absolution" for the genocidal acts that have
constituted the history of white colonization.
Churchill's primary targets are white "spokesmen" for Native
Americans who have perpetrated "literary hoaxes," and the Native
Americans who have cashed in on the New Age market, writing "bad
distortions and outright lies about indigenous spirituality for
consumption in the mass market."
White spokesmen who are singled out are Castenada and his "Don
Juan" series, J. Marks (Jamake Highwater), Ruth Beebe Hill (author
of "Hanta Yo"), Lynn Andrews (author of "Jaguar Woman," and
others), and Sam Gill ("Mother Earth").
Native American examples, "plastic medicine men" who have
"peddled their trash while real Indians starved to death" are
"Chief Red Fox" ("Memoirs of Chief Red Fox"), and Hyemeyohsts Storm
("Seven Arrows," and others), Sun Bear, Rolling Thunder, and Brook
Medicine Eagle. Tony Hillerman ("Coyote Waits," and many others)
is singled out for making Tonto the Chief of the Navajo Tribal
Police.
When it comes to portrayals of Native Americans in film,
Churchill cuts deep. "Dances With Wolves" is a "sensitive
reinterpretation of yesteryear" which perpetuates the "business as
usual" acts of oppression in the present. Churchill calls the
movie "Lawrence of South Dakota." "Thunderheart" is labeled "South
Dakota Burning."
These reviews would be highly entertaining if they didn't
sharply point out that these are all representations of underlying
white acceptance of myth as fact. Churchill asks us to come back
to reality.
ALMANAC OF THE DEAD by Leslie Marmon Silko. Penguin Books
(Contemporary American Fiction), 375 Hudson St., N.Y., NY 10014.
Map. 763 pp., $13.00 paper. 0-14-017319-6
REVIEW
This volume, out in a paperback edition this month, is one of
the most complicated and depressing books I've read in some time.
I'm betting that there will be several English Literature disserta-
tions on its themes, and others critisizing them. The book was
written to be discussed.
The most striking facet of the book is its characters.
Beginning with elderly Native American twin sisters in Tucson (they
are compiling the almanac, the pages of which are made from horse
stomachs), she jumps to a larger world populated with druggies,
corrupt cops, crooked judges, members of the mafia, vietnam
veterans, sellers of stolen weapons, nude dancers, and American
Indians.
Most of them are misfits: having a hole in their head, heart,
or stomach. Some don't even have skin, as the captives of De
Guzman, the invader of Sonora, who made them into lampshades.
The almanac is a document full of prophesies that fortell the
European conquest of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and the
American Southwest. And through it, Silko indicts the Europeans
for their hundreds of years of crimes. The prophesy also tells of
a future in which the domination ends.
The novel, in many respects, is similar to Ken Kesey's "Sailor
Song." Both are set in a near future in which the earth is an
environmental cesspool (but Silko includes the Glen Canyon Dam
blowing up), and the characters are revolutionaries or oddballs.
But while Kesey had fun with his characters, Silko writes painful
passages about lives that are heart-wrenching.
While there may be confusion about what character is doing
what, Silko's message is clear: while there are several tribes (of
Native Americans, Whites, Mexicans, and others), there is only one
world. We can't improve our lives while it suffers.