diplomat Durling Voyce-Jones contending it shows a paradigm shift in our thinking, Patrick Buchanan calling it idiocy, and George Will saying it's fiction. For the first time, this bibliography brings together some 450 citations on the debate. The work describes the debate in the words of one of its major participants, Bruce E. Johansen, author of three other books on the subject. The bibliography also takes the reader back to suggestions of the idea long before the contemporary debate. Lakota author Charles Eastman brought up the subject in 1919, Mohawk teacher Ray Fadden developed it in the 1940s, and John F. Kennedy touched on it in 1960. Bringing the debate to its full flower in the present day, the bibliography illustrates both fervent support and equally emphatic denial in the academy and the public press. The book is both a scholarly tool and a lively exploration of issues bearing on the study of history and multiculturalism.  (less)

Of great interest to students of linguistics and Native American culture.  (less)

Americans realize. This book will bring to light important facts and highlight controversial issues regarding well-known figures from American history and folklore, while situating the questionable actions of these politicians within their historical and political times. While most people know that Davy Crockett went to Congress and died at the Alamo, few realize that his only previous combat experience was in one conflict during the Creek War, which was more massacre than battle. Daniel Boone was a hunter and frontiersman who waged war against the Indians, but he was also a state legislator. Both Abe Lincoln and Jeff Davis were involved in pre-Civil War battles against Native Americans. How and why did the era of the Indian fighter turned politician begin? Which party was the party of the Indian fighters? Why did the era end just before the Civil War? Mitchell explores this American political phenomenon and reveals how it influenced politics in other nations around the world."  (less)

editor of The Handbook of North American Indians, presents the sacred traditions of the Iroquois, Winnibego, Fox, Menominee, Delaware, Cherokee and others. What makes this volume so unique is that it gives the reader direct access to the original works (in the words of the Indians themselves) rather than having them filtered through some interpreter. Included here are cosmological myths, thanksgiving addresses, dreams and visions, speeches of the shamans, teachings of parents, puberty fasts, blessings, healing rites, stories, songs, ceremonials for fires, hunting, wars, feasts and the rituals of various spiritual societies. PThe Preface to this volume is by William C. Sturtevant of the Smithsonian Institution, who is General Editor of The Handbook of North American Indians.  (less)

“a blood-colored outgrowth of a thorny shrub.” Names do make a difference. Minorities and oppressed people are especially sensitive to the terminology used to describe them or their culture. The same words may mean different things to NativebrAmericans or to white people, or they may be insulting in one language and either meaningless or used inappropriately in another. For example, no Native American woman wants to be referred to as a squaw, an Algonquian-based insult. A Native American physician does not expect to be called “chief.” Some tribes are designated by strange foreign terms likeiGros Ventre/i(“Big Bellies”),iNez Perce/i(“Pierced Noses”), oriApache/i(a Zuni Indian word meaning “enemy”). Native cultural and religious terms are sometimes appropriated by Western businesses for their commercial value. Would you feel comfortable riding in a Jeep Jew or drinking Communion Beer?brbrI have also seen people go to the other extreme: they try so hard to make every word polite and politically correct that they become tongue-tied, like a centipede that is asked, “How do you move all those legs?” I once met a young white man who had learned Indian sign language from a book and planned to use it when he visited an Indian reservation. He believed that this would demonstrate his respect for tradition. I was sorry to disappoint him: “When Indian people don’t speak one another’s languages, they communicate in English. People are likely to think that you are ‘signing’ because you’re deaf.” I don’t wish to scare you from talking with or about people who are unfamiliar. If you speak with a@p£×=qÿ¾Û€  (less)

even its esthetic qualities, others have dismissed them as inherently unreliable. In INative American Verbal Art: Texts and Contexts/I, William Clements offers a comprehensive treatment of the intellectual and cultural constructs that have colored the textualization of Native American verbal art. Clements presents six case studies of important moments, individuals, and movements in this history. He recounts the work of the Jesuits who missionized in New France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and textualized and theorized about the verbal expressions of the Iroquoians and Algonquians to whom they were spreading Christianity. He examines in depth Henry Timberlakes 1765 translation of a Cherokee war song that was probably the first printed English rendering of a Native American poem. He discusses early-nineteenth-century textualizers and translators who saw in Native American verbal art a literature manqui that they could transform into a fully realized literature, with particular attention to the work of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an Indian agent and pioneer field collector who developed this approach to its fullest. He discusses the scientific textualizers of the late nineteenth century who viewed Native American discourse as a data source for historical, ethnographic, and linguistic information, and he examines the work of Natalie Curtis, whose field research among the Hopis helped to launch a wave of interest in Native Americans and their verbal art that continues to the present. In addition, Clements addresses theoretical issues in the textualization, translation, and anthologizing of American Indian oral expression. In many cases the past records o?ø  (less)

even larger units, the seeds of the many tribes and nations that we call Indians or Native Americans.brIn most of these cultures, women held positions of honor in the community. John Demos looks at four Native American groups--the Puebloans of the North American Southwest, the Iroquois of the Northeast woodlands, the fur-trading tribes of the central Great Lakes region, and the Cherokees of the interior Southeast--and explores the possibilities open to women and how colonization by Europeans forever changed their lives.brIn many Indian tribes, property passed through the female line, from mothers to daughters to granddaughters, giving women considerable power and influence through the link to their clan. Women often held the primary responsibility for farming, craft production, and even house construction or boat building. Behind this broad array of roles and duties lay a fundamental respect for women as women. In startling contrast to the premodern European view, Native American cultures supported a balanced view of the sexes. Men were considered superior in some ways, women in others, and both were necessary to the survival of the group.brContact with European explorers and missionaries, the effects of the American Revolution, and the new United States government's policies toward Native American cultures irrevocably transformed every tribe. As a result Native American culture declined and women in particular lost opportunities, influence, and status that had formerly belong to them.brBut The Tried and the True is not only a story of decline. John Demos looks at the full range of Native American women's experiences and finds that words like adaptation, recovery, and survival also apply. These first American women l?ã333333ÿ¾Û€  (less)

in Lost Copper (1980), is based on her feelings of indignation toward non-Native American writers who claim they can understand how it feels to be Indian and that they can create work truly from an Indian perspective. Rose's contention is that this cannot be done. She does not call out any ""White poets"" in particular in this poem, but she does offer descriptive insight into the way they go about their work and the possible reasons that these poets choose to adopt another culture as their own-at least in their poetry. Because Rose is able to present her beliefs in graphic, illuminating language (as opposed to an overly emotional diatribe) and to maintain a sense of honest poetry throughout the piece, it does not fall into the ranks of dull sermonizing. ""For the White poets who would be Indian"" draws upon the idea of ""white shamanism,"" a term used by some Native American poets-including Rose-to address the issue of white writers pretending to be so entrenched in Native American ways and beliefs that they are ""just as Indian"" as those born into the culture. The word ""shaman"" refers to a very powerful and revered figure in many tribal societies, indicating one who acts as a link between the visible human world and the...."  (less)

William Melton, who was a revered elder of the village and advisor to the Village Chief. William sought to protect his family on the journey as they traveled by foot, horseback, steamer, and wagon. Abuse, hunger, illness, and death plagued the displaced Choctaw. William finally resettled his family beside the Red River in Kulli Tukoli where the long, arduous journey ended. Each family began a new life with one horse, one rifle, and one can of gun powder. Because of their skillful trading, hunting, and farming, the Melton family soon prospered. William came to know a Christian missionary who became a trusted friend who educated the young braves and taught the families to live successfully with whites in the new land. Much of this compelling story is told in the words of the colorful, memorable characters. Readers of all ages, especially those interested in our Nation's history and Native American culture, will enjoy this inspiring tale of survival and the perseverance of a unique and vital heritage.  (less)

discovered another marketable commodity -- their own culture.PIronically, she shows, it was the reticent Mikasuki-speaking Seminoles (who call them-selves i: laponathli: ) who developed the tourist market so successfully. By the 1930s virtually all of Florida's Indian population was engaged in the business. They participated in fairs and expositions in Chicago, New York, and Canada. In large commercial Seminole villages in Miami and Ocala, the antigovernment i: laponathli: sewed brightly colored patchwork, wrestled alligators, and opened their palm-frond chickees to the public, attractions that visitors to the state have enjoyed for much of this century.PThough their exhibition economy originally was condemned by the government, it provided income for families as well as a lasting cultural identity for the people. Today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida promote their tourist activities to world-wide markets as cultural heritage and ecotourism.PIllustrated with thirty evocative photographs, West's book supplies an original and colorful social and economic history of an unconquered people. Often told in the words of the many Seminoles whom West interviewed, this book is the only one available on the topic of the cultural tourism activities of an Indian tribe.  (less)

had studied yoga, and whenever I came to visit she immediately demonstrated her continued splendid health by standing on her head in her miniskirt. I once asked Nana, who had outlived four husbands, the secret of her vitality. She confided that she had taught herself meditation and had been practicing for over ten years. I was intrigued, given my own many years as a meditator, and asked her, "Nana, what do you do when you meditate?"brbr"I read in a book on yoga that you're supposed to take an Indian word and repeat it over and over again," she answered. "So I picked my own Indian word, and I've been chanting my mantra (she pronounced itiman-tra/iin her thick Brooklynese accent) every day all these years."brbrGrowing more curious by the moment, I asked, "Nana, what is the word you use?" Proudly she answered, "Cheyenne, Cheyenne, Cheyenne."brbrNot knowing the difference, my dear Nana had chosen the name of a Native American tribe instead of one of the sacred Sanskrit syllables from India that are usually used in meditation. But as she talked about her experiences of chanting her sacred "man-tra" over ten years, I was struck by the obvious benefits to her life and being--physically, emotionally, and spiritually.brbrAnd so it is with profound respect for the power of chant, as well as a smile in the face of the mystery that is life, that I begin this book.brbrbA Personal Path/bbrbrMany people I know speak of the deep connection they felt to Spirit when they were children. I'm not sure that was true for me. I grew up in a liberal Jewish family with a strong emphasis on values, but there seemed to be about as much @? (õÂ?ÿ¾Û€  (less)

photographs of artifacts from the collection of the Smithsonian¹s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) that help to illuminate and extend the poetry. Ranging in age from seven to seventeen, the young poets whose work appears in this volume were participants in a mentoring program for new Native writers conducted by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Most of the poems in this book were written in response to images from the NMAI collection showing objects from the writers¹ culture groups. The combination of the voices and the images provides a powerful look at Native American life and history that is both beautiful and memorable.  (less)