Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes

Book Description

For the first time in the two hundred years since Lewis and Clark led their expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific, we hear the other side of the story—as we listen to nine descendants of the Indians whose homelands were traversed.

Among those who speak: Newspaper editor Mark Trahant writes of his childhood belief that he was descended from Clark and what his own research uncovers. Award-winning essayist and fiction writer Debra Magpie Earling describes the tribal ways that helped her nineteenth-century Salish ancestors survive, and that still work their magic today. Montana political figure Bill Yellowtail tells of the efficiency of Indian trade networks, explaining how axes that the expedition traded for food in the Mandan and Hidatsa villages of Kansas had already arrived in Nez Perce country by the time Lewis and Clark got there a few months and 1,000 miles later. Umatilla tribal leader Roberta Conner compares Lewis and Clark’s journal entries about her people with what was actually going on, wittily questioning Clark’s notion that the natives believed the white men “came from the clouds”—in other words, they were gods. Writer and artist N. Scott Momaday ends the book with a moving tribute to the “most difficult of journeys,” calling it, in the truest sense, for both the men who entered the unknown and those who watched, “a vision quest,” with the “visions gained being of profound consequence.”

Some of the essays are based on family stories, some on tribal or American history, still others on the particular circumstances of a tribe today—but each reflects the expedition’s impact through the prism of the author’s own, or the tribe’s, point of view.

Thoughtful, moving, provocative, Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes is an exploration of history—and a study of survival—that expands our knowledge of our country’s first inhabitants. It also provides a fascinating and invaluable new perspective on the Lewis and Clark expedition itself and its place in the long history of our continent.

Customer Reviews:

Those who learn not from history repeat it........2006-10-05

Most good ideas are simple, and, as the title of this book suggests, it is a simple collection of some extremely profound ruminations by Native Americans on the acts and impact of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Nine extremely well educated authors were asked to address the effects of the Corps of Discovery for its bicentennial. They are not representative of the man in the street. They may, however, have captured the essence of feeling and sense of the collective beings of the many tribes whose lives were impacted forever, and give a foreboding of what manifest destiny may mean in the 21st century.

We learn facts, Sacagawea was not her name, she was not Shoshone, the natives shared their wives with the expedition, the Crows stole the Expedition horses and out traded Lewis and Clark by selling them nags, that the tribes knew of both oceans, had seen and dealt with Americans, Spanish, English and French before, that at least one of the tribes had sent emissaries to the east coast around the time of the American Revolution, and that Lewis and Clark, in reality, traveled fairly well known and used paths to the Pacific Ocean and back with the assistance of a multitude of tribes who fed and guided them. Although the natives viewed such a journey as difficult, there were regular trade routes established along much of Corps' path.

We learn too of the relationship of the "Corps of Discovery" to the doctrine of discovery that held the "civilized" countries could lay claim to all they discovered. Part of Jefferson's plan was to cement the United States' claim to the Louisiana Purchase. At least one tribe had to forcefully civilize the Corps when its members entered the homes of the tribe uninvited seeking food. After the starving Corps was reprimanded and made its apologies, it was fed.

We can also learn much of the Native American concept of God and the misinformation in Lewis and Clark's journals. The journal's report one tribe was a sun worshiping tribe when it was the custom of the tribe to worship the Great Spirit by facing toward the rising sun in the morning much as Muslim face Mecca. The sense of spirituality and connection with the land coursing through the various essays is the book's most powerful aspect.

We learn too of the absurdity of the "Great Father" in Washington concept. Though the eyes of hindsight, we all to clearly see how the lives of hundreds of thousands of courageous souls were lost by the "Great Father's" promises of help and threats of death to those who would not accept.

Cynics amongst us may see some parallel to the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq in which the Great White Father seeks to help the people to his way of life that he knows is best for them. Our manifest destiny now seems to be to force our way of life on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Korea, at least.

None of the authors addressed this 21st century vision of manifest destiny, but none embraced what the white man did to their ancestors and their way of life. Perhaps more could be learned and more might be said. More harm has been done by those who say they are there to help than those who outright admit they are enemies.

I am no Lewis and Clark scholar. However, any thinking person interested in both sides of the story will find this collection of essays provocative and probative of the lessons of our past that have important application to our present.

© Hamilton D. Moore

Interesting, probably worth reading for L&C fans, but not a great book.......2006-08-06

It is clear from Undaunted Courage or any version of the Journals that L&C could not have survived without the constant gracious help of Indians (which is what they call themselves in this book). The painful historical irony is clear without reading the book, especially with the Nez Perce (who kept the expedition from starving when the tribe could have killed L&C and taken their weapons, and who were chased out of their country a few decades later by U.S. troops). What is interesting in this book is how the various authors address this issue in the 21st century. There are passages about how the Indians must have viewed L&C at the time, but not much new. Various tribes are represented, and they have their own views on Sacajawea. The concept of the book was good, and there some are very good parts, but overall it's not compelling writing or reading. If the purpose was to record these views in a book, whether compelling or not, then it serves its purpose.

An impressively wide-ranging set of essays charting more than just their journeys.......2006-07-08

Plenty of history books tell the Lewis and Clark expedition story from different angles; but here for the first time is the other side of the story from nine descendants of the Native Americans whose homelands were traversed by the two intrepid explorers. From a newspaper editor who writes of his childhood belief he was descended from Clark to essays which reveal family encounters, tribal law, or the expedition's long impact on tribes today, Lewis And Clark Through Indian Eyes provides an impressively wide-ranging set of essays charting more than just their journeys.

The Indians Have It.......2006-07-05

Only a man of the lifelong sense of fairness and perspective of Alvin Josephy could have had the idea of letting Indian historians weigh in on such a momentous event. Alvin Josephy's intimate association with these writers gives the title of editor way more weight that it would normally get. This is a very important book, the last effort of a historian committed to the Indian side of the story. He lived to finish it--as he lived to understand and tell the Indian story. I am personally proud to have worked with and know Mr. Josephy for many years and I hope this book inspires young people to seek the other side of the story.

Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes.......2006-06-07

This is an important book. In 2001, I asked a Hidatsa woman working on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial effort about sources concerning the Native American view of Lewis and Clark. She answered that there wasn't a source. Further, she said that no one person could write such a book. The tribes with whom Lewis and Clark made contact were different in many ways; including their forms of government and how they lived their lives. Her words were certainly true. That this book contains essays by nine authors having different tribal backgrounds is a long step in the right direction. Certainly there are tribes and bands not represented; notably, the Blackfeet Nation is missing. Further, because the editor properly chose to accept the essays "unfiltered," the reader has to adapt from one essay to the next. However, the book is easy reading.

Precisely because nine essays were necessary, it is dangerous to generalize the content of this book. Several of the authors admire the people of the Lewis and Clark Expedition but conclude that the outcome was no big deal. The European diseases preceded Lewis and Clark and the hordes of non-Indians that followed Lewis and Clark would have come anyway. Almost every tribe had significant contact or knowledge of white people prior to Lewis and Clark. They were aware of how the whites had treated Indian tribes in the eastern United States. A common theme reiterated by nearly every author is that their people have always been here and will always be here. The broken treaties, removal from homelands, lost population, distribution of reservation lands to whites, and poverty brought about by the European invaders are deplored; but the writers see hope in the Indian accomplishments and resurgence of pride during recent years.

The authors of these essays are writers, historians, and tribal executives. Each identifies his or her self with a tribe or combination of tribes. However, nearly all have lived much of their lives away from the reservations and have achieved success in "white society." After considerable thought, I decided that this was the proper choice. The vast majority of non-Indians like myself are so ignorant of Indian history and thought that we need an "interpreter." Who better than someone who has stood in both camps. Be forewarned, the introduction of this book is terrible. It is inaccurate, condescending, and unnecessarily contradicts material in the essays. If you have any interest in Lewis and Clark, history, or those Americans we often call Indian; read this book. Discount the introduction and read the essays twice.

Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples

Average customer rating:

Missing Key Events
A good book on the subject
Through Indian Eyes
Our greatest shame
Excellent

Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples
Reader's Digest Editors
Manufacturer: Readers Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 089577819X

Book Description

A fascinating look at our common history as the first Americans experienced it. Lavishly illustrated, with hundreds of photos, paintings, drawings, maps, original illustrations, and rare archival images. The story is amplified by memorable quotations from native people.

Customer Reviews:

Missing Key Events.......2007-07-04

This book is good but I have problems with it. It is far too generalized and doesn't contain relevant details of important events.

In 1996 I began researching Native Americans/American Indians because I was aware of Indian traits from my family tree, one on my mother's side and one on my father's side. Since then, I have learned a few things that are not mentioned in this book, which I believe are significant enough to warrant mention. They are the first official "Thanksgiving" following a massacre of the Pequot in 1637 New England and the "Trail of Death" (Potawatomi) & "Trail of Tears" (Cherokee). Both of the latter were instigated following enactment of removal laws that started in the late 1820s.

The absence of these events, for me, casts doubt on the validity of the book's claim to be "The Untold Story of Native American Peoples".

Here is a quote from one of the websites I searched.

"The first official Thanksgiving wasn't a festive gathering of Indians and Pilgrims, but rather a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children, an anthropologist says."

A good book on the subject.......2006-05-19

Reader's Digest produces good work when it comes to books of this kind on various subjects.

I enjoyed this book.

Well written. Nicely illustrated. A good source of information. Great for anyone who wishes a basic view on this subject.

Through Indian Eyes.......2005-09-27

This is one of the best books I've ever read about Native American life. Plentiful pictures and illustrations add so much to the subject matter. Truly great!

Our greatest shame.......2004-06-18

This oversized and lavishly illustrated volume is a readable and sweeping history of the Indian societies that were disrupted and in many cases, destroyed, by the coming of the white man.

The book begins with an overview of the earliest Americans, those who crossed the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the last Ice Age, 12,000 to 30,000 years ago, "possibly much earlier," and, most likely, were responsible for the final extinction of the large mammals - sabre tooth tigers, mammoths, camels, giant beaver.

Using archaeological finds - temple mounds, burial sights, artifacts - many of them pictured, the editors construct details of long-gone cultures throughout the arctic and North America, from specialized hunters of the sub-arctic to the intriguing Anasazi, who built the elaborate cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon.

The narrative then moves on to better documented pre-Columbian tribes. Organized by geographic region, the book describes the tribes- some nomadic, some agricultural - giving examples of the foods they ate, the creation legends that were passed down through the generations, trading and warring customs, and technology. Many of these people welcomed the Europeans and the new trading goods they brought, but all learned that "prolonged contact with whites eventually brought terrible disruption."

Pivotal points in the struggle between natives and newcomers are depicted in brutal detail, from General John Sullivan's "scorched earth" policy against the Seneca during the American Revolution to Tecumsah's short-lived success in winning back lost territory during the War of 1812, to the Custer disaster at Little Bighorn in 1876 and the reprisals that followed.

The last section deals with modern Indians, "The Reservation Years" (universal citizenship was not granted until 1924), the racism faced by returning veterans after World War I and II, white encroachment on desirable reservation lands, the changing policy of federal Indian bureaus and the rise of Indian militancy culminating in 1973 when Indian protesters occupied Wounded Knee for two months and won national attention to their cause.

The book ends on an upbeat note, with a discussion of casino gambling that focuses on the money raised for the tribes and skims over the controversies, mentioning factional "bitter controversies," without going into detail.

While this approach holds true for many issues and incidents raised in the book, there is much here that most Americans know little about, from details of the various battles and callous government policies, to the legends, religious beliefs, medicines, foods and cultural attitudes of various tribes.

The volume's design is vivid and highly attractive. Photographs and paintings depict battles, trading scenes, ceremonies and landscapes as well as artifacts like pottery, clothing designs, amulets and sculpture. Although there are four to five illustrations on every double page, the illustrations complement rather than overwhelm the text which is readable throughout and filled with day-to-day details which capture the imagination.

While the subtitle, "The Untold Story," is not strictly accurate (much of this material appears in numerous other books) "Through Indian Eyes" is an attractive and sympathetic addition to a body of history too long ignored.

Excellent.......2003-06-04

Insightful, very helpful.

Book Description

Essays, poetry, bibliography, and critical reviews of children's books by and about Indian peoples. A dependable and honest guide for parents and instructors interested in teaching kids about the diversity of Native America.

Customer Reviews:

Best source around for critical discussion of Native lit.......2001-06-13

A copy of Through Indian Eyes should be in every elementary, middle and high school library, as well as every public library across the United States, Canada, and other countries where children read books about the indigenous people of the Americas. It is unsurpassed in its presentation of critical analysis of the ways in which Native Americans are represented in children's books. The book includes insightful essays by well known authors (Michael Dorris), as well as critical reviews of popular children's books that distort and/or misrepresent Native culture.

Through Navajo Eyes: An Exploration in Film Communication and Anthropology

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A classic and quietly radical innovation

Through Navajo Eyes: An Exploration in Film Communication and Anthropology
Sol Worth , and John Adair
Manufacturer: Univ of New Mexico Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826317715

Book Description

Originally published in 1972, this pioneering book has become a classic in visual anthropology. Worth and Adair set out to answer the question, What would happen if someone from a culture that makes and uses motion pictures taught people who have never made or used motion pictures to do so for the first time? They taught filmmaking and editing to a group of six Navajos in Pinetree, Arizona. This book explains what happened, what they and the Navajos said and thought about what happened, and how they analyzed the films in a cultural context. The films, still available for rent, are described in detail and illustrated with still photographs.

Richard Chalfen, a research assistant on the original project in 1966, has updated the book with a thorough discussion of the importance of the Navajo project and a critical assessment of the reactions to it.

Customer Reviews:

A classic and quietly radical innovation.......2000-03-25

"Through Navajo Eyes" examines the importance of cutural perspective in ethnographic filmmaking. Sol Worth and John Adair's study of the Navajo made a simple innovation. Previously, filmmakers had usually pointed the camera at others in order to create an audiovisual representation of their world. In essence, Worth and Adair instead handed over the camera to see what would result. The results were fascinating, and elude definitive interpretation to this very day. This "experiment" has been repeated many times, and in many places, which is perhaps the greatest testament to the power and originality of a simple, yet ultimately radical, shift of control over the perspective and re-presentation of reality in film.

Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes

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Simply a "must" read
hi
Add this to your Curriculum
Very accurate history
An essential book in the history of the Americas

Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes
Ronald Wright
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Human Rights | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0395659752

Book Description

Presents native accounts--some translated for the first time from native American languages--of the plunder and persecution wrought by white settlers and explorers on the one hundred million people already living in the Americas in 1492.

Customer Reviews:

Simply a "must" read.......2004-10-28

Simply a "must" read for the Americans (talking about the whole continent for those who are geographically challenged LOL), the Europeans and anybody else interested in the "discovery" of America.

Well-researched and full of interesting facts concentrating on the 5 significant native cultures of the Americas: The Aztecs, the Mayas, the Incas, the Cherokees and the Iroquois. It is easy to read as well !!!

IMO it should be part of every high school history curriculum. Guaranteed to dispel many of the myths that are taught in schools today and reinforced by Hollywood.

Bravo Mr. Wright !!!!

hi.......2002-07-19

Although the material in this book is probably covered in greater detail elsewhere, it is pretty unique that the experiences of indigenous groups as diverse as the Iroquois and Incas, are presented here with equal detail. One learns interesting facts about each of them. While I knew about Manco Inca's revolt and establishing a mini-Inca state in the jungle, I had no idea that this was followed by a sort of "Inca Renaissance," with plays, histories and poems written in Quechua. In addition, the five groups that Wright chose either had their own written language or quickly learned one after European contact (and the Cherokee even had their own newspaper), so this history is genuinely "through Indian eyes." The unifying thread (in addition to the resilience of all 5 groups) is that the colonization of the New World by Europeans was not significantly different that of Africa and Asia- without the disease factor, the Americas might today be wholly governed by their original inhabitants.

Add this to your Curriculum.......2001-03-26

My emotions, while reading this book, ranged from disbelief to outrage. Do not read this book on a full stomach.

For me, Ronald Wright exposed the faulty notion of America's 'virgin wilderness'. Before I read this I did not appreciate the size or sophistication the Native American nations he has profiled in 'Stolen Continents'.

Though this is a tragic history, it is one that should be told. The section on 'Rebirth' is encouraging, for some nations. For others it seems like the relentless attacks, that have deprived so many of so much, will never end.

I hope Mr. Wright profiles other aboriginal nations with this all too rare perspective.

Very accurate history.......1998-07-14

I can't speak for the history of all the five nations, but my wife is Cherokee. Her family predates the arrival of the white race. She has a big thick book documenting the family genealogy compiled by her father, a true researcher. The words of Dragging Canoe, a realitive, are comprehensive and exact. Some quotes are new to the family, so Mr. Wright really did his research.

Mr. Wright painted an eye opening view of the real American Indian history, not what I learned in school and saw on TV.

An essential book in the history of the Americas.......1998-05-19

As a native American whose people came perilously close to being wiped out completely, I welcome and applaud the care, consideration and integrity with which Ronald Wright has addressed the history of five native nations in the Americas--the Aztecs, Maya, Inca, Iroquois and Cherokee. By selecting cultures from north, central and south America, he shows, unequivocally, how pervasive disease and the voracious appetite for gold, land and vassals were in the nearly total devastation of the peoples of this land.

Book Description

This collection of thirty-six narratives presents the Dakota Indians' experiences during a conflict previously known chiefly from the viewpoints of non-Indians.

Customer Reviews:

History in All it's Contradiction.......2006-02-08

A number of years ago, I was privileged to take an Internet class on the Dakota War of 1862 that was being taught by none other than Mr. Gary CLayton Anderson. After the course was over he took us to all the battle sites, trading posts, and places where treaties were signed. The good professor had a very great knack for evoking the visuals. That is a tendency that has carried over into his books. To write this book he has spent literally hundreds of hours combing through manuscripts, museum archives, and musty old books and newspapers in order to find first hand accounts of Minnesota's only Indian War. The results are absolutely stunning. The Dakota warriors and tribal chiefs who waged war on the whites come across not as peaceful children of nature or even as blood thirsty savages, but as men of flesh and blood. Although there are heroes and villains in this book, there are times when it is very difficult to tell them appart. At the same time as Chief Little Crow countenanced bloody massacres of women and children he secretly ordered his foster brother to save as many of them as he could. In addition, there were very few "hostile" Indians who didn't have some white people or Americanised Indians they desired to protect. Most of the people in this book seemed only interested in protecting their families and friends. One of the most sympathetic figures proves to be a Dakota "half breed" known as Joseph Coursolle or Hinhankaga, depending on which language you spoke. To Coursolle, after his daughters were taken prisoner by "hostiles," getting them back became his obsession, one understandable to any parent. The most fascinating thing about this book was that there were Indians who favored the whites and whites who favored the Indians. Coursolle, whose mother was Dakota, would go on to become a Corporal in the US Army, serving as a scout and a sniper against the men who had stolen his family. And among the "hostiles" hanged at Mankato was a white man who had been adopted into the Dakota Nation. In closing, this book reveals what happened in all it's complexities and brutal truth. History, no matter how hard one may try to change it to fit one's own politics, is so complex that even the characters you come to know intimately can still surprise you. No matter how hard some people may try, it cannot be pushed into a box. I am very much surpised that noone has tried optioning this book for TV or a movie. It would make a very powerful tale.

The Indian Side of the 1862 War.......2002-11-27

Historians discovered many years ago that oral history is a vibrant cornucopia of information. Even better, integrating oral history into traditional modes of inquiry opened up more chances for earning a Ph.D., or getting that career making book contract. In the case of "Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862," oral history is the only game in town. Every selection in the book is an oral story from Indians or mixed-blood Indians about the disastrous uprising that killed hundreds of soldiers, settlers, and Indians. One of the editors of "Through Dakota Eyes" is none other than Gary Clayton Anderson, the premier scholar on Dakota history. As usual, Anderson goes above and beyond the call of duty in researching the narratives, providing background color on the people involved (and also providing information about what happened to these people after the uprising, something I greatly appreciated).

For nearly a century after the uprising, articles and books concerning the 1862 war only used white narratives as sources of information. There is definitely nothing wrong with relying on these narratives; they are invaluable sources of information on the uprising. The white narratives also reveal the tragic dimensions of the conflict, showing how innocent men, women, and children died (or persevered) in especially brutal ways. With the addition of these Indian narratives, however, historians can now go inside the camps and meeting places of the Dakotas intimately involved in the conflict.

The narratives are lumped into distinct categories dealing with different stages of the uprising. Each category then provides a succinct description of that particular phase of the war. With each narrative, the editors provide a small capsule of information on the person telling the story, allowing the reader to understand that person's place in the overall scheme of things. It is recommended to read the endnotes for each narrative, as they provide excellent information on each narrative. Excellent maps and pictures of many of the people involved also help the reader to understand the accounts.

Some of the narratives are more helpful than others. A few are difficult to understand due to poor grammar or contradictory information. Several of the narratives appeared in newspaper articles or as testimony in a case against the government in 1901, and there is a possibility that someone altered or changed them as they saw fit. That does not mean there are not any "WOW!" moments found here. In Cecelia Campbell Stay's account of the attack on the Redwood Agency (also known as the Lower Agency, where the killing began in earnest on August 18th), Cecelia describes seeing the sunlight flashing on the bayonets of Captain Marsh's patrol as they headed to their doom at the ferry crossing. Another narrative, now widely used in accounts of the uprising, comes from Wowinape, the son of Little Crow (the leader of the warring Dakota). Battle narratives allow the reader to feel as though they are at Fort Ridgely, New Ulm, or Birch Coulee as the cannons roar and the bullets fly.

As the editors point out, many of the mixed-blood Indian narratives identify a central tension of the conflict, namely the division between Indians who adopted white modes of civilization (the farmer Indians) and those who stayed true to traditional Indian values (the blanket Indians). Many of the mixed-blood Indians worked closely with whites; they feared the war parties of the traditionals just as much as whites did. As the war began to wind down, it was the mixed-bloods along with some full-blooded Indians who confronted the warring Indians, forcing these hostile forces to turn over their white captives in an effort to make peace with the military forces sweeping into the area.

This is an absolutely essential book for anyone interested in the Minnesota 1862 uprising. Actually, anyone writing a paper on this conflict without using this book as a source could find themselves in hot water. Since the editors graciously organized the narratives in chronological order, there is no reason someone unfamiliar with the conflict and its principal figures would have any difficulty understanding the book. Gary Anderson and Alan Woolworth have made an important contribution to Indian scholarship with this impressive tome.

An indepth look at life of an indian in the 1800s.......2000-03-29

This book has some wonderful narratives from the very people who were caught up in the middle of the uprising in Minnesota in 1862. The author does a good job of explaining how the book is laid out. You definitely need to read the intro to understand this. While I was reading the book, I felt as though I was there in the middle of it with all those involved. I don't excuse what was done, but I have a better understanding of what horrors the indians went through that drove them to this place. I would definitely recommend this book.

Reimagining Indians: Native Americans through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940

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Reimagining Indians: Native Americans through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940
Sherry L. Smith
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195157273

Book Description

Reimagining Indians investigates a group of Anglo-American writers whose books about Native Americans helped reshape Americans' understanding of Indian peoples at the turn of the twentieth century. Hailing from the Eastern United States, these men and women traveled to the American West and discovered "exotics" in their midst. Drawn to Indian cultures as alternatives to what they found distasteful about modern American culture, these writers produced a body of work that celebrates Indian cultures, religions, artistry, and simple humanity. Although these writers were not academically trained ethnographers, their books represent popular versions of ethnography. In revealing their own doubts about the superiority of European-American culture, they sought to provide a favorable climate for Indian cultural survival in a world indisputably dominated by non-Indians. They also encouraged notions of cultural relativism, pluralism, and tolerance in American thought. For the historian and general reader alike, this volume speaks to broad themes of American cultural history, Native American history, and the history of the American West.

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Wonderful Architypal Stories for Living

Through the Eye of the Deer

Manufacturer: Aunt Lute Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Solar Storms
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ASIN: 1879960583

Book Description

By bringing together the voices of Native American women writers across time, regions, and tribes, this collection makes visible a dynamic tradition of women's wisdom and storytelling. From early legends to present-day fiction and poetry, this tradition emphasizes women's spiritual connection to the natural world and their contributions to tribal and familial community. Central to women's strength is the role of animal figures-Coyote, Owl, Beaver and Bear-who act as guides, helpers, and personal totems, appearing unexpectedly in the modern urban landscape as well as being a constant presence in nature.

The work of more than forty authors appears in this volume, representing tribes and regions extending over most of the U.S. and parts of Canada. Among the authors included are Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Paula Gunn Allen, Linda Hogan and Beth Brant, along with writers whose work appears here for the first time.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Architypal Stories for Living.......2001-06-18

This book brings to our lives the anchient art of story-telling as is only seen in cultures living near the Earth. The stories have an ancient flavor and yet speak to our busy soul-serching lives today. This is a book that will inspire group discussion and personal growth as Estes' works have done. Women will be retelling these symbolic stories given us by the native women of our county as they have with "Women Who Run With the Wolves." This is a great book for women's circles and self-exploration groups wanting short stories with deep meaning and impact. I have enjoyed the book greatly and retell the stories in speaking engagements. The depth, humor and poignancy of these tales will stay with readers long after finishing the book.

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Through Indian Eyes
Judith M. Gutman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Crying for a Dream: The World through Native American Eyes

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This Book Literally Saved My Life!
Voices and Pictures from Native America

Crying for a Dream: The World through Native American Eyes
Richard Erdoes
Manufacturer: Bear & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men
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365 Days of Walking the Red Road: The Native American Path to Leading a Spiritual Life Every Day (Religion and Spirituality)

ASIN: 1879181681
Release Date: 2001-12-01

Book Description

A powerful collection of text and full-color photographs that offers an intimate glimpse of Native American life.

• Includes rare photos and firsthand accounts of the sun dance, sacred pipe, yuwipi, and vision quest ceremonies.

• By internationally recognized ethnographer Richard Erdoes, author of Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions and Gift of Power.

How do you go about knowing a people? In this phenomenal combination of landscape, ceremony, individual portrait, and prose, Richard Erdoes brings forth the lesser seen world of the Native American experience and vision. With the aid of firsthand accounts collected during three decades of personal interactions with indigenous tribes, Erdoes chronicles the traditional rites, individual lives, and historical persecution of North America's indigenous peoples.

The images and words of Crying for a Dream represent Erdoes' finest work. His focus on the natural and sacred world of North America's indigenous peoples includes elements of the Sioux ceremonial cycle and portraits of native peoples from the plains, mesas, and deserts. The sun dance, sacred pipe, yuwipi, and vision quest are described by the author and his subjects and are illustrated with more than 70 photographs.

Customer Reviews:

This Book Literally Saved My Life!.......2006-06-10

When this book first came out I was in an Intensive Care ward not expected to live. As a 50th birthday gift, one of the nurses put this book under my pillow. I did not know it was there. During the night I had 'visions' of a Native American man sitting next to my bed talking with me in a language I did not speak but somehow could understand. He told me many things. None of them could possibly come true. A couple of days later the Gail, the nurse, told me about the book under my pillow. When she pulled it out for me to see I almost went into cardiac arrest! The man in my vision was the same man from the book! A Lakota Medicine Man. I told Gail about my dream and she said she hoped it meant he was looking after me. Long story short; Months later I found myself on his reservation. The entire story is a book and a half. Incredible things happened to me from the time the book appeared in my life. Because of that book I am still alive today, fourteen years later. I hope to write a book of my own so that I can tell the entire story. This book is magical. Everyone who needs spiritual guidance to the right path should have it in their home.

Voices and Pictures from Native America.......2000-11-06

This is an excellent book on the subject of Native Americans. This book is filled with beautiful photographs and significant qoutes from various Native Americans, as well as brief descriptions of Native American history up to the present day. There is a very strong emphasis on various religious ceremonies such as the Sweat Lodge and Visionquest. Certain groups, namely the Sioux, Navajo (Dine) and Pueblos, are focused in on. All in all, however, this is an excellent book, more emotional and intuitive than anything else. Hopefully you'll be as moved by it as I was.

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