Books about Natives by Non-Natives
LALONDE ROXANNE (lalonder@geog.ualberta.ca)
Fri, 14 Oct 1994 11:16:30 MDT
As a doctoral student interested in how Western and aboriginal
knowledge can be integrated to assist us in creating more sustainable
communities, I am immersing myself in a great deal of literature these
days, especially on traditional ecological knowledge. One book that I
just finished, I found interesting and enlightening but would like
some feedback from people who know more about this than I do. It is
"Voices of Earth and Sky: The Vision Life of the Native Americans and
their Culture Heroes" by Vinson Brown, published by Stackpole books
in 1974. Brown identifies himself as a non-Native who has immersed
himself in Native culture and was trained and allowed to have a vision
quest. In the book, he tells the story of how is father was given a
pipe bag that has been traced back to Crazy Horse. I am aware that
many Natives are concerned by the amount of literature that has been
written by non-Natives and am interested to see where this book fits
in. Brown discusses many things in this book that are quite inspiring
to someone of my background but I don't want to be misled. He has
written and published a number of books on various aspects of Native
history and culture.
If you can or wish to help, please feel free to contact me
privately or on this discussion group.
Thank you,
Roxanne Lalonde
University of Alberta