Reviews of new books by, and about, Native Americans
Steve Brock
cans:
STATISTICAL RECORD OF NATIVE NORTH AMERICANS, edited by Marlita A.
Reddy. Gale Research Inc., 835 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit, MI
48224, (800) 877-GALE (4253). Keyword index, list of sources.
1661 pp., $89.50 cloth. 0-8103-8963-0
REVIEW
Prior to the publication of this book, there was a large gap
in statistical information on Native Americans. For example, a few
years ago, my wife was attempting to compile information on voting
registration and participation in tribal elections. Several tribes
responded that they didn't keep statistics on elections, other than
determining who won.
This book fills that gap. The "Statistical Record" is a
comprehensive encyclopedia of tables containing the latest
information on Native Americans in the United States and Canada in
the following areas:
- History
- Demographics
- The Family
- Education
- Culture and Tradition
- Health and Health Care
- Social and Economic Conditions
- Business and Industry
- Land and Water Management
- Law and Law Enforcement
Many of the entries tell powerful stories. Several tables in
the "Health" chapter point to deplorable conditions at Indian
Health Service hospitals that take more than half an hour to get to
for almost one-fourth of the population. Some of the statistics,
though, seem doubtful, especially the very low total U.S. Native
American population estimate of 1,959,000 people. I've seen
several estimates that are three times as high.
Altogether, this is a well-presented treasure chest of
essential data for academic and, more importantly, governmental
researchers. It may take years to interpret all the information,
but improvements in the lives of Native Americans won't come about
unless enough information is gathered. This volume goes a long way
in that direction, and it is highly recommended.
I'm also confident that future editions will include a chapter
on "Politics."
Note: Gale is working on the transfer of this volume into an
online database, a CD-ROM, computer discs, and magnetic tape. In
a phone conversation on July 16, they did not yet have a date for
completion.
MESSENGERS OF THE GODS: TRIBAL ELDERS REVEAL THE ANCIENT WISDOM OF
THE EARTH by James G. Gowan. Harmony Books (Bell Tower), 201 E.
50th St., N.Y., NY 10022, (212) 572-6120, (212) 572-6192 FAX. 209
pp., $13.00 paper. 0-517-88078-4
REVIEW
From the Torres Straight, to the forests of Borneo, to the
Kimberly region of Australia, Gowan consults with the traditional
people, who tell him their guiding principle of life. In all cases
it involves a reverence for the earth and its inhabitants. The
islanders who consult with the earth in some way before taking an
self-interested action that may harm a part of it; the Iban, who
plant sacred rice that will enrich the earth prior to planting rice
for human consumption; or the Australian policeman who guards
against the killing of Yaada, the kangaroo, who gave law to the
people, all are guided by a responsibility for the natural world.
These stories are infused with metaphysical adventure. Recommend-
ed.
SPIRIT WALKER, poems by Nancy Wood, paintings by Frank Howell.
Doubleday Books For Young Readers, 1540 Broadway, N.Y., NY 10036,
(800) 223-6834, (212) 492-9862 FAX. Illustrated, index of titles.
80 pp., $19.95 cloth. 0-385-30927-9
REVIEW
"Dwell for a moment in a single blade of grass.
Discover the secret of snowflakes.
In these patterns lie harmony, my child.
In harmony, the universe."
-- Mother's Words
These fourty-four poems and short stories are special messages
that echo through the boundless cosmos and into the heart of the
reader, striking spiritual chords that evoke reverence for the land
and its inhabitants. The luminous, flowing hair of Frank Howell's
Native American women could easily be clouds that are "ten thousand
winters old." One of the best books of the year and a wonderful
gift for all ages, this book will be much-praised and much-honored.
GROWING UP NATIVE AMERICAN: AN ANTHOLOGY, edited by Patricia Riley.
William Morrow and Company, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, N.Y., NY
10019, (800) 843-9389, (201) 227-6849 FAX.
This is a potent "coming of age" collection that embraces childhood
memories from frontier life to the city streets, from boarding
schools to urban rat packs. Each of the twenty stories, both
personal histories and excerpts from fiction, depict children and
the highly individual ways that they master life's lessons. The
authors include Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, Louise
Erdrich, Linda Hogan, and Simon Ortiz. Highly recommended.
NATIVE HEART: AN AMERICAN INDIAN ODYSSEY by Gabriel Horn (White
Deer of Autumn). New World Library, 58 Paul Drive, San Rafael, CA
94903, (800) 227-3900, (800) 632-2122 (CA), (415) 472-6131 FAX.
Notes. 293 pp., $13.95 paper. 1-880032-07-4
REVIEW
Horn's autobiography is filled with dreams - images of his
past that would float by, reminding him of his roots and tradi-
tions, and the path he must walk to preserve them. Given up by his
parents as a small child, Horn wandered through many foster homes
from New York to California as each pair of foster parents tried to
Anglicize him.
This book is Horn's search for his Native American identity as
he tries to teach others about his ancestors and the Circle of
Life. As a teenager, Horn met Uncle Nippawanock, a literature
professor at the University of South Florida, who encouraged him to
get an education, in addition to forcing him to decide to place
both his feet in the Red World.
In a vision, Uncle Nippawanock saw a deer running through a
mist singing Gabriel's name. As a result, the uncle's mother,
Princess Red Wing, conducted a pipe ceremony on the day after Horn
graduated from FSU, giving him the name "White Deer of Autumn."
Thus began Horn's life of writing, teaching, and activism. In
1973, he joined the American Indian Movement, began teaching in
Indian schools (Shoshone in Wyoming, and AIM's Heart of the Earth
school in Wisconsin), and wrote several stories and poems.
At an Indian center in Milwaukee, he met his wife-to-be,
Simone, Loon Song. They began to follow the path side-by-side.
Their children are named after extinct tribes.
Horn's acts of activism and his relationship with AIM brought
denunciations and death threats, so he retired back to south
Florida, where he teaches at the St. Petersberg Junior College and
visits elementary school classrooms with the message: "There is a
balance, and we must constantly seek it." Recommended.
DAWN LAND by Joseph Bruchac. Fulcrum Publishing, 350 Indiana St.,
Suite 350, Golden, CO 80401, (800) 992-2908, (303) 279-7111. Map.
317 pp., $19.95 cloth. 1-55591-134-X
REVIEW
Bruchac, an Abenaki storyteller, poet, and now novelist, has
penned a dynamic mixture of fact and fiction that instills a belief
that holding onto the past facilitates success in the future.
Young Hunter, an Abenaki (the name means "People of the Dawn
Land") who lives 10,000 years in the past, is sent on a journey
through what are now the Adirondack Mountains to save his tribe
from beings called the "Ancient Ones," a race of grey-skinned
giants with cold hearts and a great hunger. He carries in his
memory all of the legends of his tribe, as well as their history,
in case they are wiped out in his absence. Accompanying him are
three dogs.
As the hero travels toward his goal, there are many asides
which could be separate stories. There is always another adventure
just over the next horizon, and Bruchac keeps the tempo at a high
pitch. This lyrical circle of legends and natural history is a
strong beginning for this talented storyteller. Highly recommend-
ed.
THE VOICE OF THE GREAT SPIRIT: PROPHECIES OF THE HOPI INDIANS by
Rudolf Kaiser. Shambhala Publications, Inc., Horticultural Hall,
300 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA 02115, (800) 638-6460, (617)
236-1563. Illustrated, maps, bibliography. 143 pp., $10.00 paper.
0-87773-602-2
REVIEW
Kaiser, a West German historian primarily known as the
debunker of the famous environmental speech of Chief Seattle
(Seattle never said, for example, that "we are part of the earth,
and the earth is a part of us," although he probably felt those
sentiments), wants to share Hopi prophesy with a world "on a
perilous or fatal path."
His desire to inform readers about this private aspect of Hopi
religion apparently overrides their objections that he refrain from
doing so. Kaiser even includes his challenges to their oppositions
as part of the book. Yes, the Hopi have for for many years had
dissention within their leadership, but that is no reason to pilfer
their religion while their attention is diverted.
While the book does outline a credible history of the Hopi,
the inclusion of material that many of them vociferously do not
want revealed leads me to warn readers to stay away from this book.
SHOSHONE TALES, collected by Anne M. Smith, assisted by Alden
Hayes. University of Utah Press, 101 University Services Building,
Salt Lake City, UT 84112, (800) 444-8638 ext 6771, (801) 581-3365.
Illustrated, references, map. 188 pp., $24.95 cloth.
0-87480-405-1
REVIEW
Anne Smith (1900-1981), an ethnographer who extensively
visited the Shoshone bands in western Utah (Gosiute) and eastern
Nevada in 1939, relates the stories that she collected on subse-
quent trips after her graduation from Yale as the first female to
receive a doctorate. In 1939, there was only one large Shoshone
reservation.
To the Western Shoshone, storytelling ability was a highly
regarded talent, as the stories were a primary method of educating
the young about their culture and desired conduct within it. These
113 short tales contain elements of creation and origin, etiology
(diseases or abnormalities), the trickster, competition and
conquest, cannibalism, and many others. Most common (and most
amusing) are the trickster tales.
Smith went to great pains to attribute each story to its
teller, the translator, and the place where the story was recorded.
One of Smith's favorite storytellers was Anna Premo, of Owyhee,
Nevada. Her daughter, Beverly Crum, adds an appropriate afterword.
Recommended.
Anne M. Smith wrote last year's "Ute Tales," also recommended.
GIVING VOICE TO BEAR: NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS, RITUALS, AND
IMAGES OF THE BEAR by David Rockwell. Roberts Reinhart Publishers,
P.O. Box 666, Niwot, CO 80544-0666, (303) 652-2921, (303) 652-3923
FAX. Illustrated, index, bibliography, notes, map. 224 pp.,
$25.00 cloth, $14.95 paper. 0-911797-97-1 cloth, 1-879373-48-3
paper.
REVIEW
This entertaining and instructive examination of the bear as
a symbol to Native Americans has been recently published in a
paperback edition. Rockwell investigates bear symbolism in hunts,
initiations, healing, shamanism, as guardian spirits, and in
dances. He also describes the correlations between European and
Native American bear rituals, such as the bear dreams collected by
Carl Jung in the 1940s, and the honoring of the bear after a kill.
Missing, though, is the Bear symbolism used in the Cub Scouts.
Altogether, this is a lively and engaging profile of the "One Who
Owns the Den." Recommended.
TURTLE ISLAND ALPHABET: A LEXICON OF NATIVE AMERICAN SYMBOLS AND
CULTURE by Gerald Hausman. St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Ave.,
N.Y., NY 10010, (800) 221-7945, (212) 420-9314 FAX. Illustrated,
bibliography, map. 204 pp., $19.95 cloth, $13.95 paper. 0-312-
07103-5 cloth, 0-312-09406-X paper.
REVIEW
Newly released in paperback, "Turtle Island Alphabet" is a
selective dictionary of Native culture, from the "arrow" of a
prayer flying toward the sun to the "zigzag" lightning bolt that
the gods heave back as a warning, these words have many unusual
manifestations. Some letters have multiple entries ("bear,"
"buffalo," "basket," "bead," and "blanket"), while others must, by
necessity, be reached for ("Xaymaca" - now called Jamaica, one of
the places where Columbus landed). This is a small, but signifi-
cant, glimpse at Hausman's large collection of Native American
cultural anecdotes about "Turtle Island," the earth which rides on
the turtle's back. Recommended.
NAVAJO: PORTRAIT OF A NATION, photography by Joe Grimes.
Westcliffe Publishers, Inc., 2650 S. Zuni St., Englewood, CO 80110,
(800) 523-3692, (303) 935-0903 FAX. Illustrated (150 color and
black-and-white photographs). 192 pp., $45.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
0-929969-70-7 cloth, 1-56579-005-7 paper.
REVIEW
The sparkling photographs and portraits of this remarkable
volume depict the Navajo in many guises: craftspeople in their
studios, ranchers herding sheep on an ATV, a bull rider on the
rodeo circuit displaying a championship belt buckle, a retired
medicine man contemplating the future, a mother and her young son
posing below a wall decorated with patriotic emblems.
The differences between the young and old is very distinct.
Most of the elders are in traditional dress and are dignified,
showing little outward feeling. The teens, especially the boys,
are dressed in the clothing of the popular culture and appear
rebellious and defiant. A high school drummer in a band wears a
"Motley Crue" T-shirt, while Kerry Begay of Big Mountain wears his
baseball hat backwards, arms crossed, and won't look at the camera.
Along with these intimate portraits are breathtaking landscape
photographs: an ethereal sunset over Monument Valley, a dreamlike
image of rain clouds over Marble Canyon, or hallucinatory sandstone
formations in Antleope Canyon.
The spell of these photographs is intensified by the excerpts
of Navajo songs, interviews by Navajo journalist Betty Reid, and a
concise history of the people by ethnohistorians Garrick and
Roberta Glenn Bailey.
Grimes chose not to photograph the most important part of life
to the Navajo, their sacred dances (there are photographs of dances
at a Fourth of July Fair, but these are more festive than reli-
gious) and religious rites. What he does capture are a proud
people who walk in beauty. Highly recommended.
Steve Woods
good (or any !) Phd programs in Ethnographic film. Does anyone know of which
schools are exceptional and why ? Names I have heard have been
NYU, USC.
Any comments about these or others ?
---
Steven Woods +1-418-844-4691
Defense Research Establishment Valcartier Quebec City, Quebec Canada
Catherine M Leonard
wo...@jupiter.drev.dnd.ca writes:
>A while back there was a posting asking for information about Universities with
> good (or any !) Phd programs in Ethnographic film. Does anyone know of which
> schools are exceptional and why ? Names I have heard have been
>
>NYU, USC.
>
> Any comments about these or others ?
>Steven Woods
(Steven, I apologize for not responding in a timely fashion!)
At any rate, I recieved many e-mail responses (thank you all) but they all
came down to 3 programs:
1. USC in LA--said to be good but no details.
2. NYU--Ethnographic Film and Video Program, directed by Faye Ginsburg.
Again, not much in the way of detail, but Ginsburg's documentary on the
abortion debate in Fargo managed to please both sides of the debate, no
small feat IMNSHO. :-) Her ethnography on the same issue, _Contested
Lives_, is terrific and a good read too.
3. University of Leiden in the Netherlands--I was offered further info on
this program but haven't recieved it yet.
Finally, something published by the AAA has been strongly recommended as a
resource for finding grad programs. The citation given to me is:
TITLE: Annual Report and Directory
NAMES: American Anthropological Association
CALL NUMBER: GN 2 A252
Cameron Laird
>Here are short reviews of new books by, and about, Native Ameri-
>cans:
>
>STATISTICAL RECORD OF NATIVE NORTH AMERICANS, edited by Marlita A.
>Reddy. Gale Research Inc., 835 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit, MI
>48224, (800) 877-GALE (4253). Keyword index, list of sources.
>1661 pp., $89.50 cloth. 0-8103-8963-0
.
.
> Many of the entries tell powerful stories. Several tables in
>the "Health" chapter point to deplorable conditions at Indian
>Health Service hospitals that take more than half an hour to get to
>for almost one-fourth of the population. Some of the statistics,
>though, seem doubtful, especially the very low total U.S. Native
.
.
Can you elaborate on that sentence, Steve?
Native peoples in the USA have far better
access to medical professionals than I re-
alized if more than 75% of them are within
30 minutes of a Health Service hospital.
Am I misreading something? Is there some
fluky definition that cloaks the sense of
this statistic?
--
Cameron Laird
cla...@Neosoft.com (claird%Neoso...@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 267 7966
cla...@litwin.com (claird%litwi...@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 996 8546