Customer Reviews:
Before the revolution.......2007-06-09
Our standard secondary school history jumps abruptly from Jamestown and Plymouth Rock to Lexington & Concord. The intervening 150 years are barely mentioned. The Jennings trilogy examines this period. In the instant volume we see the native Americans neither as passive victims nor noble savages but as politicians, diplomats, merchants and power players. Though probably doomed from the start due to the absence of immunity to European diseases, for a period of several decades they interacted with the early colonists on a basis of near parity. The Iroquois actually attempted with some skill the become the central player that would resolve the French-English rivalry and leave them at the center and in command. Jennings shows us that though this didn't happen and though the odds may have been against it such goals were far from fantasy. It's enough to cause one to imagine that "chutzpah" is a Mohawk term. One can only wonder, if the Indians had not been devastated by disease what the political map of North America would look like today.
Jennings slays a bunch of comfortable historical assumptions.......1999-05-06
Francis Jennings, long associated with the Newbury Library American Indian collections has brought his vast knowledge to bear on the subject of the Iriquois as the fearsome 5 or 6 nations who independently cowed both their fellow tribes and the English and French colonists. He proves it wasn't so with so many documents of which we have never heard in our schoolbook history texts that I wonder how such material escaped notice previously. In the process he slays some American Sacred Cows such as Francis Parkman. One learns that the Indian frontier was no such thing and didn't exist but was a commonly inhabited piece of terrain, peopled by various tribes and the European invaders who traded with them. Relations were, for the most part, reasonably amicable, which accounts for the fact that during later wars the Eastern Indians frequently exhibited what we call civilized treatment of enemies and prisoners. (Of course there were the exceptions, usually well justified.) But in the beginning, the Dutch, Swedes, English and French, all found it necessary to deal with the various tribes quite diplomatically in order to survive, and use them in their wars of empire with one another. Furs in return for trade goods were king. The undoubted reality is such a vast contrast with the accepted picture of our frontier that this book, as well as Jennings others in this series, should be required reading to repair the damage done in our schools by claptrap such as Parkman and other revered historians who followed his lead, writing off the Indians as barabarians and the frontier as a clearly delineated line across which whites stepped only if they were willing to take their lives into their hands. Instead we find two cultures living amicably in common communities up until the first half of the 1700's when the balance was upset by driving out the Indians such as the Delewares and Shawnees so that they located in the Ohio country and became relatively independent. The Iriquois had a large hand in this and it was their undoing. Read the book. It is a complicated subject but well worth digesting. I recommend reading it in small doses and having an atlas nearby.
Average customer rating:
- Interesting Culture and Dunamic & Creative People
- Authentic and Poetic
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Navaho Indian Myths
Aileen O'Bryan
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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The Book of the Navajo
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Dine: A History of the Navajos
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Diné Bahane': The Navajo Creation Story
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Navajo-English Dictionary (Hippocrene Dictionary)
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Meditations with the Navajo: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony
ASIN: 0486275922 |
Book Description
Rich compilation of tribal fables and legends recorded in the 1920s from an elderly Navaho chief. Myths include "The Creation of the Sun and Moon," "The Sun's Path," "The Maiden who Became a Bear," "The Making of the Headdress," "The Story of the Rain Ceremony and Its Hogan," and many more.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Culture and Dunamic & Creative People.......2002-06-06
This book is very enlighting on the myths and belifs of the American Idian and their cultural beliefs.
A very dynamic people and culture that has survived a long enduring time of trials. The "white man" taking over their lands and alienating them from the very soil they sewed for hundreds of years.
Mystical beliefs, omens and the rverence of the people in their communities and how everyone was imprtant to the whole.
THis is book is a beautiful example of what makes the Native American people so special, unique and strong. Read it!
Authentic and Poetic.......1999-04-05
In 1928, Aileen O'Bryan recorded the narration of Sandoval, Hastin Tlo'tsi hee (Old Man Buffalo Grass), then "first chief of the four chiefs of the Navaho People." His nephew Sam Ahkeah acted as interpreter. This book was originally published in 1956 as "The Dine: Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians," by the U.S. Government Printing Office, as Bulletin 163 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. As this transcription is both authentic and poetic, I recommend it to the general reader as well as the scholar.
Book Description
Despite popular belief, Native peoples did not simply disappear from colonial New England as the English extended their domination in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Rather, the Native peoples in such places as Natick, Massachusetts, creatively resisted colonialism, defended their lands, and rebuilt kin networks and community through the strategic use of English cultural practices and institutions. So why did New England settlers believe that the Native peoples had vanished? In this thoroughly researched and astutely argued study, historian Jean M. O’Brien reveals that, in the late eighteenth century, the Natick tribe experienced a process of “dispossession by degrees,” which rendered them invisible within the larger context of the colonial social order, thus enabling the construction of the myth of Indian extinction.
Customer Reviews:
Just plain dull.......2004-03-13
Academic jargon and boring prose doom this short book from the beginning. The authoir has forgotten she needs to tell a story. Details of land transactions, of which she goes on far too long, read about like a phone book.
Dispelling the myth that Native Americans simply disappeared.......2003-07-26
Dispossession By Degrees: Indian Land And Identity In Natick, Massachusetts 1650-1790 by Jean M. O'Brien (Associate Professor of History, University of Minnesota) is a close and scholarly study of how Native American peoples from different tribal backgrounds came together for the purpose of working collaboratively to cope the cultural impact of European invaders, and to form a life for themselves even as English settlers extended their range of influence during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Dispelling the myth that Native Americans simply disappeared from the land, Dispossession By Degrees presents a carefully researched focus upon the Natick tribe and settlement that sought to coexist with an unending influx of settlers. An invaluable, informative, insightful contribution, Dispossession By Degrees is an original and very highly recommended addition to Native American Studies reading lists and American History reference collections.
Book Description
Contributors to Native Pathways ponder questions about American Indians' participation in the broader market U.S. market highlighting how indigenous peoples have simultaneously adopted capitalist strategies and altered them to suit their own distinct cultural beliefs and practices. Including contributions from historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, Native Pathways offers fresh viewpoints on economic change and cultural identity in twentieth-century Native American communities.
Contributors:
David Arnold
William J. Bauer
Tressa Berma
Jessica R. Cattelino
Duane Champagne
Clyde Ellis
Chris Paci
Lisa Krebs
David LaVere
Kathy M'Closkey
Nicolas G. Rosenthal
Paul C. Rosier
Jeffrey P. Shepherd
Book Description
Chickasaw Society and Religion brings back into print one of the most important ethnographic sources on Chickasaw Indian society and culture ever produced, making it available to a new generation of students and scholars. The Smithsonian Institution ethnologist John Swanton published his work on the Chickasaws in 1928 as part of the Forty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and, like Swanton’s many other works on Southeastern Indians, it has remained one of the primary sources for scholars and students of Chickasaw and Southeastern Indian culture. Swanton combed printed and archival documents in constructing a picture of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Chickasaw life.
Swanton’s keen eye for detail and his impressive knowledge of Southeastern Indian cultures make this study the starting point for all Chickasaw scholarship. Swanton broaches topics as diverse as Chickasaw marriage patterns, naming, government, education, gender roles, subsistence, religion, burial customs, and medicine. He also displays an intimate understanding of Chickasaw language throughout the essay that will aid future researchers.
Average customer rating:
- Indian
- Enchanting and riveting, this story will stay with you
- Island Of The Blue Dolphins!
- May be too adult for 10 or 11 yr olds
- good
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
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Bridge to Terabithia
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ASIN: 0395069629 |
Amazon.com
Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years.
O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island. This beautiful edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins is enriched with 12 full-page watercolor paintings by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books, including Ali, Child of the Desert. A gripping story of battling wild dogs and sea elephants, this simply told, suspenseful tale of survival is also an uplifting adventure of the spirit. (Ages 9 to 12)
Book Description
The gripping story of young Karana, who survives by herself for eighteen years on a deserted island off the California coast.
Customer Reviews:
Indian.......2007-10-01
White people found her people and took them off island with lie of freedom. She escaped and remain on island with brother. Wolves eat brother. She walk alone and with a special wolf who is kind to her. one day she enter a water cave, found out the truth about her people fate. her people died and she survived. one day white people return to the island once again, she finally allow herself to join them. she became famous and she is buried in california. her clothing is in museum in Italy. wonderful story of her courage life.
Enchanting and riveting, this story will stay with you.......2007-08-27
I have to smile when reading these other reviews that say this book was one of their favorites as a child. It also was mine. I've read so many books, that most times the memory of the details within them grow dim, but not with "Island of the Blue Dolphins". I can still picture the breathtaking beauty of the island where Karana spent her growing years. I still remember her joys and trials of living alone for so long, after everyone had left. Her ingenuity and strength still amazes me. I can't wait until my children are old enough so I can enjoy this Newberry book with them. It's definitely one in a million.
Island Of The Blue Dolphins!.......2007-08-19
When I was on vacation at Martha's Vinyard I went to the book store and bought Island Of The Blue Dolphins for myself and I loved it!! I love it so much because of it's beautiful discriptions and details that I can picture in my mind. This book is beautifully written and has wonderful detail of natural survival of hunting, and making friends (Rontu and Rontu-Aru and the English girl Tutok, the fox and Won-a-nee the otter). How many wonderful and beautiful adventures of exciting survival can one indian girl have? I am 10 years old and recommend this book to whoever loves reading and is a fan of detail and beauty!!!!!!!!
May be too adult for 10 or 11 yr olds.......2007-08-15
My 11 yr old enjoyed this book but says it was too sad for her taste. Kids!
good.......2007-08-13
THIS BOOK WAS FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER. She liked it very much. I am looking for some other books for 7th graders do you have any suggestions?
Average customer rating:
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The Short, Swift Time of Gods on Earth: The Hohokam Chronicles
Donald Bahr ,
Juan Smith ,
William Smith Allison , and
Julian Hayden
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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ASIN: 0520084683 |
Book Description
In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Juan Smith, reputedly the last tribesman with extensive knowledge of the Pima version of this story, spoke and sang while William Smith Allison translated into English and Julian Hayden, an archaeologist, recorded Allison's words verbatim. The resulting document, the "Hohokam Chronicles," is the most complete natively articulated Pima creation narrative ever written and a rare example of a single-narrator myth.
Now this extraordinary work, composed of thirty-six separate stories, is presented in its entirety for the first time. Beautifully expressed, the narrative constitutes a kind of scripture for a native church, beginning with the creation of the universe out of the void and ending with the establishment in the sixteenth century of present-day villages. Central to the story is the murder/resurrection of a god-man, Siuuhu, who summoned the Pimas and Papagos (Tohono O'odham) as his army of vengeance and brought about the conquest of his murderers, the ancient Hohokam.
Donald Bahr extensively annotates the text and supplements it with other Pima-Papago versions of similar stories. Important as a social and historic document, this book adds immeasurably to the growing body of Native American literature and to our knowledge of the development of Pima-Papago culture.
Book Description
Longtime residents of the Sonoran Desert, the Tohono O'odham people have spent centuries living off the land-a land that most modern citizens of southern Arizona consider totally inhospitable. Ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan has lived with the Tohono O'odham, long known as the Papagos, observing the delicate balance between these people and their environment. Bringing O'odham voices to the page at every turn, he writes elegantly of how they husband precious scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize wild edible foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O'odham children's impressions of the desert, and observations on the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Whether visiting a sacred cave in the Boboquivari Mountains or attending a saguaro wine-drinking ceremony, Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people in a book that has become a contemporary classic of environmental literature.
Average customer rating:
- Washakie: Chief of the Shoshones
- The First Citizen of a New America
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Washakie, Chief of the Shoshones
Grace Raymond Hebard
Manufacturer: Bison Books
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ASIN: 0803272782 |
Book Description
Washakie was chief of the eastern band of the Shoshone Indians for almost sixty years, until his death in 1900. A strong leader of his own people, he saw the wisdom of befriending the whites. Grace Raymond Hebard offers an engaging view of Washakie’s long life and the early history of Shoshone-occupied land—embracing present-day Wyoming and parts of Montana, Idaho, and Utah. Washakie is seen signing historic treaties, aiding overland emigrants in the 1850s, and finally assisting whites in fighting the Sioux. According to Hebard, Washakie’s role in the battle on the Rosebud in June 1876 saved General Crook from the fate that befell General Custer eight days later on the Little Big Horn.
Customer Reviews:
Washakie: Chief of the Shoshones.......2002-01-26
This is the first published biography of Chief Washakie, the legendary leader of the Eastern Shoshone Indians, and is reprinted from Grace Raymond Hebard's original edition, "Washakie: An Account of Indian Resistance of the Covered Wagon and Union Pacific Railroad Invasions of their Territory " (1930). Hebard (1861-1936) was a professor of politcal economy at the University of Wyoming and became enamoured of Chief Washakie and the Shoshones during the early 1900s. Her book is basically an unstructured anecdotal read that jumps around in time and place.
I used her as a resource in my own book, "People of the Wind River: The Eastern Shoshones, 1825-1900," but only with great care and corroborating evidence. Hebard's sources were sons of Chief Washakie (including Dick, Charles, and George Washakie, all of whom were paid informants), the Reverend John Roberts (Episcopal priest on the Wind River Reservation from 1883-1948), Fincellius G. Burnett (Wind River agency farmer & ancestor of former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson), and retired Indian agents and Army officers who had personal contact with Washakie. She also relied on some of the published annual reports of the Office of Indian Affairs (forerunner of the current Bureau of Indian Affairs).
That said, Hebard reveals family stories and legends about Washakie and often quotes verbatim from published government documents. Hers is a good introduction to the the famous chief and his people, but should be read with a cautionary eye. It is not a biography in the modern or scholarly sense, but functions more as remembrances of a cherished relative. Many of the events or actions attributed to Washakie by Hebard cannot be substantiated with other archival evidence and thus her work borders on hagiography. On the other hand, the very fact that such stories exist are testimony to the impact Chief Washakie had on those who knew him. He was a fascinating individual, leader, and statesperson during a difficult time of transition for the Eastern Shoshones.
The First Citizen of a New America.......2000-04-19
The author of this book, Grace R. Hebard, was a professor and it shows. This is an awkward book to read. She hops around in space and time and that can be quite confusing to someone who doesn't have her familarity with the history of the region.
What the book lacks in structure, it more than makes up for with its compelling subject: Chief Washakie. I'm sure that few Americans outside of Wyoming have ever heard Chief Washakie's name, yet his accomplishments as a statesman, unifier and leader of his people is unequalled.
He led the Shoshone people through most of the 19th century, into the 20th century. He was a remarkable individual speaking English, French and Shoshone. His charismatic hold on his people only ended when he died in 1900 at the age of 102.
One thing that repeatedly struck me is, in the scheme of things, this was so recent. Another aspect that I enjoyed was that Chief Washakie encountered so many of the characters that we identify with the settling of the West: Kit Carson, Scajawea, Jim Bridger and many others.
The sensibilites of the times described in this book are not what we expect now, and the author brings contemporary (1930) biases to her interpretation. The updated introduction in this edition tries to alert the reader to some of the biases that influence Hebard's comments.
As difficult a read as this book is, I couldn't put it down. As a footnote, Chief Washakie will be memorialized in Statuary Hall the U.S. Capitol in the fall of 2000. He is one of two individuals chosen to represent the spirit of the State of Wyoming.
Book Description
In this spiritual, moving autobiography, Wilma Mankiller, former Chief of the Cherokee Nation and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, tells of her own history while also honoring and recounting the history of the Cherokees. Mankiller's life unfolds against the backdrop of the dawning of the American Indian civil rights struggle, and her book becomes a quest to reclaim and preserve the great Native American values that form the foundation of our nation. Now featuring a new Afterword to the 2000 paperback reissue, this edition of Mankiller completely updates the author's private and public life after 1994 and explores the recent political struggles of the Cherokee Nation.
Customer Reviews:
Boring and Hypocritical Read.......2007-09-24
This book was horrendous. She is an ultra-sensitive cry baby who can't move on with her life. Aside from her life which literally has almost no accomplishments, the history of the Cherokees is just as boring. She rambles on and on about treaties and agreements that were broken by the united states and won't shutup about it the whole book. We get it, america ripped the native americans off. big deal. that's history, might makes right, and many nations in history faired worse off than the indians. countries have attacked each other for land for years, at least we allowed them to continue to exist. then, somehow she compares the trail of tears to the holocaust, which is just ridiculous. theres a difference between a walk that they chose to take by not previously cooperating, and a genocide of 6 millions jews through torture and starvation.
DONT READ THIS BOOK
Fascinating Reading!!.......2007-08-13
I read this one in four days ~~ it helped that we had some downtime while camping in a small state park. It is a wonderful memoir about a strong woman who, in spite of physical obstacles, managed to lead the second largest Indian Tribe in America. It is not just a memoir about a strong woman, it is also a history of a strong Indian tribe. It is an absolutely wonderful book and one that every serious reader of history should read.
I picked this book up two years ago while traveling in Cherokee, NC, and never found the time to read it till recently, when I knew that we would be outside and camping again. (It seems that I do my best reading when we're traveling ...) I found the subject title fascinating and when I did finally get to the book, I found it even more fascinating and curious. This is a woman in every sense of the word. Wilma Mankiller is a heroine that every woman should look up to ~~ young and old.
Wilma Mankiller grew up in poverty-stricken Oklahoma and while she was still young, her family relocated to California as part of the Native American relocation program that was offered just after WWII. She grew up in California, married young and had two daughters. She became involved with the civil rights movement and at the same time, she has never lost sense of her own heritage. After her marriage fell apart, she moved back home to Oklahoma, went onto working for the Cherokee National Tribe doing various things and eventually became the first Woman Chief. Intermixed with her personal tale are ancient stories from the Cherokee history ~~ of the times before they left their homelands, about the Trail of Tears, and so on. It's history mixed in with personal story-telling and it's a wonderful way to read this book.
Unlike some reviewers, I did not find Mankiller bashing the whites for all their problems ~~ she was very diplomatic in telling the readers about the history ~~ but the history has shown that when the white settlers came to America, they did break treaties and their promises, and there's reason why the Native Americans don't trust them ~~ the government of US and its citizens have not given them reason to. But on the same breath, Mankiller mentions that her tribe has a hard time with change ~~ she doesn't sit there and bemoaned the loss of their ancient lands, she gets out and work on solving the problems that her tribe is facing. She admits that change has occurred and she's very realistic about fixing the problems. I cannot but help admire her for that.
This is an excellent book ~~ it's guaranteed to be a thought-provoker in conversations and discourses ~~ at least it has for my husband and me. It is such an interesting tale about a woman who never learned the words, I can't. She never gave up the fight for her people. This book is just a small testimony to that fight.
8-13-07
Well written, a mere glimpse into the Cherokee experience, but take the commentary with a grain of salt........2007-05-23
In "Mankiller: A Chief and Her People," author and former Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller recounts her experiences growing up on reservations, government relocation, and her activism in Indian affairs.
This book is well written and offers, if nothing else, of a peek into the mid 20th century Native American and reservation experience.
There is no doubt that those of us with Native American heritage, particularly Cherokees, have ancestors who have been dealt less than a fair hand throughout the history of the United States. But I find it unfortunate when such potentially powerful leaders of social movements seeking to rise above past adversities, place generalized blame on the "white" community at-large for current problems. It is regrettable that Mankiller, who is herself half-white, can wholly reject one part of her heritage while fully embracing the other.
Mankiller speaks with contempt of the "white lady" do-gooders, who tried to reach out to her as a reservation bound child. This is precisely the type of racial bitterness that keeps many fellow modern Native Americans "victims," feeling helpless and reservation bound.
Cherokee heritage has a long history of acceptance and assimilation, not necessarily just into white culture either. Other cultures (even Europeans) were long accepted into early tribal clans.
While we must never forget the reprehensible Trail Of Tears or any other federally sanctioned forced relocation of any tribe or peoples. There comes a time however, when all persecuted cultures must move foreword, as the tribe most certainly has. We must begin to embrace the long acknowledged civility and citizenship of the Cherokee people and stop seeking modern scapegoats for our moments of misery.
Having said this, I commend Mankiller for achievements in both American and Cherokee societies. To have witnessed the transitions of Native American culture at the height and hub of the American Civil Rights Movement grants Mankiller the prerogative to share her story and her perspectives in this book.
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, AUTHORS DESERVE READER'S OPINIONS!
A Great Historical and Biographical Read!.......2006-10-08
Wilma Mankiller's book held my attention with a narrative of her life and a historical account of the Cherokee People. The interweaving of these two aspects made it possible to understand the history of the People as I had not understood it before. And the historical foundation made Mankiller's story even more poignant.
For those with a Cherokee background, this is a must read but also highly recommended for anyone interested in Native American issues. You won't find any boring historical accounts here!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!!!.......2001-07-15
I found it very hard to close this book! I was riveted to Chief Mankiller's every word and finished her book still wanting more. Her knowledge of Cherokee history and legend is vast and taught me many things I never knew. Also, her strength and enduring spirit is inspiring to me as a Cherokee. She succeeded, through her own life story, in instilling a new sense of pride in me that has made me become more involved in keeping native american culture alive and well. After reading her book I truly felt proud to be Cherokee. She should be an inspiration to us all. Highly recommended reading!
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- The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)
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