Native American Books

Best of the Tom Brown Jr. books in my opinion. To bad they are not publishinng this one anymore. Thus the high price for this book. The information contained within should be considered sacred. Highly recommend it.

Dear Sirs, I hope you reconsider your decision not to publish this review. On October 7, 1998, the NY Times reported on the biggest Ozone Hole yet seen. To quote the article: "Government scientists said today that the gap in the planet's ozone over Antartica was greater than the size of North America and was the largest ever observed." In addition, on August 13, 2000, a frontpage article in the Sunday NY Times reported on how a formerly benign fungus which has been found in the US from time immemorial was suddenly killing millions of acres of oak trees in California. The article ends on a puzzling note with scientist unable to explain why this disease had become so virulent. However, it is well known that UV radiation affects plants earlier than Humans and one documented effect of UV radiation is a weakening of the immune system. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to theorize that UV radiation may be responsible for this latest plant die-off. I hope you give these issues consideration. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Like many people, I used to read the grim newspaper accounts of environmental destruction and wonder what it all meant. Then, in the late 1980s Tom Brown published The Vision and in the final chapter of that book provided the first glimpse into a future most of us want to deny. Now here in The Quest, he lets out all the stops and makes plain for the first time that mankind may very well be doomed.

Brown reveals that as far back as 1962, Grandfather, his Apache Native American Teacher, had warned that the appearance of holes in the sky would mark the beginning of the end of mankind on Earth. Sunlight would become deadly killing everything it touched. Plants would shrivel up and die, crops would fail and starvation would sweep around the world. People would be hunted like deer for food. Many events would foreshadow the appearance of the holes but finally there would be a time of peace. This would mark mankind's last chance to reverse his endless destruction of the Earth. If instead, he concentrated on material gain, all would be lost and the end would come as surely as the Sun rises.

From this beginning, Brown takes us through a series of personal visions wherein he is transported to the future and sees for himself the horrors that await us. In one account, he visits a city where human limbs hang in shop windows and walking skeletons covered with sores roam the streets. Everything reeks with death and Brown watches as a roving band of armed men hunts down an abandoned child, and without remorse, guts and skins him like an animal. Brown makes it clear that this an America city and not some distant third world nation.

Not all the stories deal with the future. Brown relates his own efforts to deny what he knew and avoid taking up his Vision of teaching the ancient tracking and survival skills. At one point, he witnesses a brutal father rob his young son of a promising future. Grandfather then asks Tom what obstacles will stop him from fulfilling his vision ? The question is clearly not meant for Brown alone and foreseeing an excuse many of us will use to deny our share of responsibility Grandfather points to a graveyard and asks `what will be the measure of your life Grandson? Will it be a lifetime of meaningless toil or one filled with purpose and meaning?'

This is by far Brown's darkest book but how does one sanitize such a horrifying account? There is no science here and those who believe ozone depletion is a figment of some environmentalist's imagination would be better off reading God's Last Offer, by Ed Ayres. Mr. Ayres presents related doomsday scenarios but with the science to back them. To those who are sensitive to the Earth, however Tom Brown's book needs no proof. Its truth is obvious.

The only question left open by Brown is when all this will take place? The question is important because many people will shrug off this account as part of some distant future. Although this book does not provide a timeframe a little reading in the scientific press will. It takes thirty years for CFCs to waft through the atmosphere and reach the ozone layer. If all CFC production ceased today, and it hasn't, we would still face 30 more years of degradation. According to NASA, there is already enough CFCs in the upper atmosphere to blow away 70% of the ozone layer. Take a equal amounts of ozone and CFCs, expose them to ultraviolet radiation and one can easily measure the rate of breakdown. The answer you will find is that we have a mere score and ten years left.

Grandfather made it clear that once the holes appear there would be no physical way to heal the Earth. Indeed, Time Magazine writing in the early 90s said that `the entire world's fleet of 747s operating around the clock, 365 days of the year' could not replace a fraction of the ozone that has already been lost. But Brown does leave us with a ray of hope: if enough people become aware of what is happening, combined we can achieve what technology cannot. Brown is a great believer in the combined efforts of many people working together. Seldom does he speak of grand heroic acts. Each of us, doing a little, can achieve a lot. Be forewarned that if you read this book you will never be able to look at your children in the same way again. Most of us adults living today will not bear the brunt of this horrible future but our children and grandchildren will. If you read this book and do nothing, the Time of Peace will pass and you too, like Brown, will have to answer the screams of your children as they clutch at you in the grave yelling "YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?"

This book presents principles of growth that we find common across time and cultures. Highly recommended both as interesting reading material, as well as an opportunity to reconsider values, meaning (and all that other existential stuff) and our own perspectives through a differant path. In recent popular venacular, "getting out of the box" of western culture.

All of Tom Brown's books are written on many different levels. As a just-starting-out naturalist, I read most of Brown's books with interest, but the deeper I go into the naturalist's world, the more powerful messages I get between the lines.

The book offers many insights on modern man- most of all, the notion that if one simply lets the world drift by, with all sorts of damage, trouble, etc. being done (mind you, yourself doing none of the actual damage), the message is clear- Why didn't you do something?

Probably the most powerful message in the book is, "There are no small things." To quote Bruce Lee, if you throw a rock into a pond, you get ripples- soon the ripples cross the whole pond. Every action we do has implications, good and bad. Make your impressions positive and beneficial.

For those lucky enough to attend Tom Brown's school, reading any of his books after taking a class- no matter how many times you read them previously- it's like reading an entirely new book. There are countless messages and powerful teachings in The Quest, and I give it my highest recommendation.

I read a lot of spiritual books and I've read lot's of Tom Brown's books, but I have rarely been so blown away than I was by The Quest. For one, let me tell you that this book will scare the heck out of you. But at the same time, it is really shocking what Tom learned from the fear he had to face. While reading it, I was dying to be able to sit down and share with someone what I was learning. It will blow your mind and change the way you think about the Earth.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down until I was through. Congratulations on an excellent delivery. Waiting for Kokopelli's Dream.

A friend of mine suggested this book to me, I told me it would be worth the effort taken to find it. I couldn't agree more. The life story of Manny Twofeathers told in his words is a inspiration.

Manny is by no means a polished author, but the plain language and the raw presentation help to make this a much more compelling and effective book.

With some of the graphic descriptions of the sacrifices and ceremony involved in the Sundances,

I would suggest this book to anyone who is looking for some inspiration as they make there way through a long and troubled journey.

I found myself identifying with the authors sense of wandering and how he found his true spirit within the sundance. The path he chose was not easy nor seen as sensable. Yet through his commitment and spiritual awarness, the author was able to achive the greater sense of self we all desire.

Road to Sundance is very well written and enlightening. I thank Manny Twofeathers for telling us of his journey. anyone who has any interest in Indian traditions or is looking for their spiritual path should read this. Ambyr

As one who knows Manny and is a Sundancer I recommend this book to anyone who truely wants some understanding of this most beautiful and powerful prayer. Manny's descriptions of how he got to this road and the road he traveled are straightforward and descriptive without loosing the respect for the ceremony. He describes the heart it takes to follow the Sundance Road.

Black Elk Speaks

I ordered the book for my friend Kayla. When I found out that she was writing a paper on American Indians, I insisted she read what I feel is one of the most amazing insights into a facet of the mind they, the American Indians know well; that of the Medicine Man, their Shaman. Black Elk Speaks opened my mind to a world I knew of only in reading other books on sages that have entered realities unknown to most of us, sages from other parts of the world. Our culture generally discourages any practice that helps an individual get beyond the mental confines of the world we know. In this book, we read about a people, in this case one man, that makes it his and their life-style or "Way" where the exception in the norm.

Robert Yanasak

These are the original records of a series of interviews about spiritual awakening that resulted in the classic book "Black Elk Speaks." When Black Elk describes his vision, it is the most beautiful, the most profound assessment of human experience that I have ever encountered. Black Elk speaks in the language and symbols of his culture, so a reader who has knowledge of his way of life will better understand what he was trying to convey.

I felt this book was a constant page turner. If your interested in native american literature this is a wonderful book to have in your collection. Find a quiet place burn some sage and cedar and begin your journey with the sixth grandfather.

This book is the most powerful book I have ever read. Black Elk exudes a spiritual connection that is unparalleled. He also was a man of service. He speaks with a poetic sense of the world that has been killed by science, rationalism and money lust. If we could recover the spiritual sense, this indigenous way of being, that this man had the world would be rich. This book is better than the book "Black Elk Speaks" by Neihardt, because Demallie publishes the interviews verbatim (Neihardt's influence is limited), he provides many footnotes and writes a 100 page introduction and biography on Black Elk using material not contained in the interviews. Demallie also discusses issues that arise from what Black Elk says.

In reading this book on Black Elk Speaks I was overwhelmed. It seemed like the book was meant to land into my hands. When I began to read this novel, I understood. My feelings about vision quests, and soaring with the creators helpers has been an enlightenment to me for being here. I see things that I read in Black Elk Speaks and I understand. I understand what it is like to want to save the people and to have this heaviness come over you when they don't understand you. I have heard your message and I understand.

This is an excellent book and CD to acquaint beginners with many American idioms. The way it is put together so coherently in short stories makes it simple to learn but at the same time efficient. The CD is also very well done. Even advanced students of English as a second language can find something to learn here.

Amy Gillett's Speak English Like An American For Native Spanish Speakers is a combination book and audio CD especially appropriate for native Spanish speakers who are familiar with the English language, yet who seek to take their fluency to new heights by mastering common English idioms. Over 300 of the most-used American English idioms and phrases are presented, complete with examples, definitions, and engaging dialogues that serve to tell an entertaining family story punctuated with amusing cartoons. A highly recommended self-teaching tool for advance native Spanish students of English as a second language, Speak English Like An American For Native Spanish Speakers is an especially appropriate and effective supplemental resource for personal, school, and community library Language Studies resource collections.

I can recommend Speak English Like an American to you. It is a very good way to learn important and useful American English idioms and expressions. I like the fact that the idioms are used in a story, then you get another example in a sentence, and then definitions in Spanish. There are good exercises also. This is a very interesting way how to study the language. I am using some of these expressions at work and people at my office are saying, "Oh Juanita, your English is improving!"

I believe this book is a must for the ESL classroom, since it is effective even while not being that expensive.

I bought this book for my girlfriend in Panama and this book has been very helpful. She knew some basic English but now is speaking English better and knows more words. She really likes the CD which she listens to in her car.

I never thought I would ever find such a book that I would ever not put down..This book kept me involved like I never been involved before. I loved this book from beginning to end. Also the artwork from Ms. Boyd's mother Silversong is just breathtaking to me. I laughed and cried and cried some more. I have owned my copy for 3 years now. I also have read this book 4 times since I have owned it. This book is part of my favorite possessions and will cherish it forever. Also when my daughters are old enough I will read it to them or have them read it themselves for the simple fact is the strength, pain, love, and sense of woman and family in this book are just absolutely breathtaking. I really recommend this book to anyone with a heart and the heart of a woman...I like to thank Ms. Boyd for writing her family's story. I never will forget it and although this may not be my family story, I will pass this onto my girls and onto their girls so they can see that women can have the strength to go through anything and that love conquers all and that the SPIRIT MOVES through all of us.....

This book is a clear work of literature where the reality of growing up Indian in 6 Generations is laid out before the world. It is a hard life but one where the women make a difference in the lives of their children and grandchildren. Their choices were often made for them until the past 2 generations. It is a powerful and moving story the should be read by all.

This book does have an epic quality about it... Also, it is the type of book that calls to and connects with the spiritual side of all of us regardless of our individual culture, race or gender. Ms. Boyd's gift is bringing a beautiful narrative quality to the experiences shared by her Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother as well as her own. As the challenges and hardships are recounted it seems incredible that the harshness experienced was so recent, relatively speaking. In a time before domestic-violence laws (as recently as 20 - 30 years ago) options were few and overcoming such oppressive treatment seemed to be as much an act of faith as of will. This is a story that's important to all, not just to these lovely Lawson women.

I am buying several copies to distribute to the women in my life. This is the best book I have ever read and I just happened upon it. It has changed my life, I am a better person for reading it. I love it, cant say enough about it, Loree Byrd is so talented, I would read anything by her.

Loree Boyd has done more than merely written a great book. She has demonstrated the pride, strength and respect so characteristic of Metis/Native people in Canada. As a Metis/Ojibway person myself, I found this story, based on Loree's family history, to be moving and inspirational. I laughed, I cried, and I smiled thoughout reading this book. Loree's personal story extends beyond the words of this book; touching the lives of many Metis and Native families throughout Canada. Knowing and recognizing the similarities of my own Metis/Native family history made reading "Spirit Moves" all the more bittersweat. This book should be read in every household in Canada- Metis, Native, and white! Mii-gwetch Loree for your courage, your pride and your story! In Spirit, James Fortier

I purchased this cookbook so I could cook something for a Native American presentation in my sociology college course. This book is great because it has lots of pictures and info about where the recipe came from or something else interesting about it. I haven't cooked anything from it yet, but I look foward to using the recipes for everyday cooking in adition to my presentation.

This is a "must have" cookbook if you'd like to prepare authentic Native American food. The ingredients are easy to find in any well stocked grocery store, and the recipes are not difficult. No "weird" ethnic foods here- just good meals made with what's available. The historical background for the foods of different tribes is an interesting read. The photographs and drawings are absolutely beautiful- those alone are good reasons to purchase this book!

i loved the book it gives you many different ideas to make things out of the ordinary

The photography is unbelievable and the recipes work! The book gives us a palatable way to enjoy the true native american way of cooking. I would highly reccomend this book to everyone that loves to experience the enjoyment of cooking new recepies and the even greater enjoyment of eating what they have re-created. A great book for all ages and ethnic backrounds. Good food and lots of it!

Great recipes...I orignally bought a copy of this book in 1994 and have tried virtually every recipe in the book. I subsequently purchased a copy in 2006 as a gift for a family member. I asked my family to consider a new tradition in 2006; replacing the standard Christmas dinner with a "Native Harvest" the outcome was brilliant. Consequently my entire family agreed to embrace this concept and pass it along to the children. We found inspiration in the recipes from this truly amazing cook book and an opportunity to honor our ancesters and Native American culture as a whole.

As a native of New Mexico I found this book wonderful. I live with a Navajo who was raised very traditionally and he found the book wonderful also. Douglas Preston is the best.

It's a pleasure to enjoy the author's background studies (dry) and then his reality (with large hail stones) on a search that leads to more respect... for everything.
Reading this book caused me to yearn for some concrete search of my own, and that is the dream this book passes along. It was given to me as someone else's favorite book. I can see why. Thanks.

It helps immensely to have travelled to the Navajo Nation when reading this story. I found that I had minor interest in the developing family story, compared to the lore and myth of the SW Native Americans. If you've travelled to the SW and are familiar with horses, you'll love this book.

A wonderful read, both encouraging and disheartening, with some real family values thrown in. A graphic, first-hand description of the way things were and are, and might be. Mr. Preston provides many enduring messages about the sanctity of life and living that the Bilagaana have nearly completely lost in our rush of subservience to the technology god.

This book and its predecessor, Cities of Gold, chronicle the amazing, arduous, foolhardy, inspired journeys of a "yankee" in search of the traces of cultures his own people have nearly annihilated. Unlike many memoirists, Preston doesn't shrink from chronicling his own failures and misjudgments, and that's what makes him so accessible to the people he meets along the way, and to the reader him or herself. Most of us will probably never have the guts to make these journeys or get to know all these people - that's what makes this book such a radical act of anti-tourism. Above all it's a poignant homage to "the people." (They know who they are!) If you're a horse person, a traveler to the southwest, or if you're just interested in the question "what is American?" you have to read these books now. And don't miss the great story about the skinwalkers - it's enough to keep you cold in July.

The Ten Grandmothers, required reading for a course in anthropology, inspired a lifelong interest in and appreciation of Plains Indian culture. It is romantic without romanticism, sentimental without bathos, realistic and uplifting.

I stumbled on this book years ago, and I joyfully re-read it each year. It is a wonderful, engrossing look at a long-ago time, beautifully captured through the words of Spear Woman, Hunting Horse, and their families and friends.

Although not a novel, it sure reads like one!

My favorite parts? The chapter where Spear Girl and Hunting Horse elope, the poignant journey of Apiatan and the piece where the grandmother and granddaughter go to visit the buffalo. Truly a wonderful read!

This should be required reading for anybody interested in Indian culture, lifestyles, history. Heck, for anybody who's a student of human nature.

i loved this book. as did everyone in my family. i borrowed this book from my mom three years ago to check it out and i ended up keeping it and reading it all the time. as a matter-of-fact, i'm currently re-reading it.

for me, this was a great look into the past and at the old ways. it proved to me that the Kiowa are some of the strongest people on the plains. and i am proud to be one.

Having grown up in Kiowa/Comanche country for all my child and adolescent life and having been immersed in the attendant legends, though from a white perspective, I began to research Southern Plains Indian culture much later in life. During my early investigations I came upon Alice Marriott's "The Ten Grandmothers". This was the book I was looking for but didn't know it. Other research had served up books "about" the Kiowas. This was as close to a book "by" the Kiowas as could be expected given that the Kiowas had no written language. Ms. Marriott has done a superb job of not only recording these stories of the old ways, but has let the Kiowa voice come through loud and clear. As you read these stories you feel yourself sitting around the fire in an 1800s Kiowa camp listening to these stories being told first hand.

One of my favorite chapters was about the day the children made a play camp and built a defensive earthen berm and ditch (I believe the Kiowas were about the only plains tribe to employ such a defensive tactic). Later that night White Bear began blowing his "liberated" cavalry bugle as he led the victorious raiding party back to camp. The women in the camp, awakened and thinking they were under attack by the cavalry, began tearing down the camp as the men mounted and rode out to meet the enemy and cover the escape of the women and children. Not knowing about the children's ditch, both incoming and outgoing parties of mounted warriors careened into this obstacle in the darkness. Those within earshot of the melee were in a panic thinking their worst fears were being visited upon them. The next day, a rule was announced by White Bear that, while play camps are good, children were not to make play camps with ditches; only the men could make ditches.

We owe Ms. Marriott a huge debt of gratitude for preserving these treasures that might otherwise have been lost.

This is an absolutely superb book. It's the story of the Kiowa people, a native American tribe of the southwestern plains & Wichita Mountains, told from the point of view of individual Kiowas. The "Ten Grandmothers" are sacred bundles with special powers which are important to the spiritualism of the Kiowa.

The stories in this book are marvelously crafted, and full of life and sensation, and they spread new light on old ways. The chapters feel mythological, yet they help the reader to understand the shared culture behind the daily life of the Kiowa people.

This book was first published in 1945, when there yet remained some very old people who remembered the old-time buffalo days. Historically, the book reads very true. The events of each chapter are fixed within historical times-lines which appear in the back of the book.

The author, a woman, has gifted us with wonderful portrayals of the life experience of female Native Americans. So often, women's roles and labors go unmentioned in other accounts of the old days. Alice Marriot wrote an account of the Kiowa that includes the experiences and interactions of people of both genders.

Notable chapters include one in which a young woman of seventeen - about to be forced by her relatives to marry a man she doesn't care for - runs off during the annual Sun Dance with a young man her own age. The exacting ritual of the Sun Dance is interspersed with the tribulations of this personal love story.

Later, when their first baby is small, Spear Woman struggles unsuccessfully to fulfill all her home-making responsilibities. Her unhappiness leads to conflict between the couple, until eventually, he realizes that she has too much work to do and needs female help and companionship. Such a moving story, for people of any era.

And the author brings us forward in time with the Kiowa tribe, from nomadic life into settled agriculture. And, by knowing what has gone before, the reader can perceive how their shared cultural history and mythology has colored and formed the Kiowa response to this sweeping change in lifestyle.

I can't recommend this stunning book highly enough. What a good read. Definitely a remarkable book for those interested in Native American culture. Do read it if you are interested in the old ways of the plains tribes. An excellent book.

This is a must have for anyone interested in learning more about the traditions and cultures of Native Americans. Thoroughly researched, well written, beautiful color photos, respectful.

This book is very well researched, and it makes one want to spend time traveling and learning more about Native American culture.

This book is worthwhile for readers new to Arizona as well as for those who may already live there.

I lived in Arizona for 28 years and traveled to many of the sites in the book, yet I still discovered a lot of new things reading it. I particularly enjoyed the sidebar stories about people, places and events that presented anecdotes and little-known facts about Indian Arizona.

In fact, in reading the book, I actually became a little nostalgic for many of the prehistoric sites I personally visited and explored over the years. This includes a moving experience that I had while visiting the Heard Museum In Phoenix.

One final note, the writing style is very clear and easy to read.

When you launch your own discovery of Arizona's Indian cultures..., I suggest you begin by reading a comprehensive new book, "Traveling Indian Arizona," by Anne O'Brien... Anne is an experienced hand in the Southwest, working with museums in Denver, Flagstaff, and Phoenix. She has assembled something much more than an instructive travel book; this is a small encyclopedia of the many native peoples that continue their customs, and their arts and crafts, in Arizona. The many color photographs and the essays by elders and by anthropologists provide an additional dimension. --Richard Sims, PhD, Director, Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, AZ

This is a very well written guide for anyone traveling through the Southwest. The author provides excellent historical information as well as suggestions for routes, places to stay and nearby places of interest. On a recent trip to Canyon de Chelly, we used the book to plan our route, stops along the way, and as a reference for the history of the area. The author obviously feels strong ties to the native people of the Southwest..

The Worry Stone By: Marianna Dengler
I thought this book was outstanding and it will bring color into any child's life. This book would be a high-quality book for any parent or older sibling to read to a younger child because of the wonderful pictures and inspiring story within its cover. Also, it is a story that you can make happen in your own yard.
This story is about an elderly lady named Amanda who as a child had a wonderful, caring grandfather. They would spend all their time together, telling stories and she was very fond of him. One day she discovers a stone her grandfather says is a worry stone and by rubbing it in your hand all your worries go away. Now, several years later, her grandfather has passed away. She goes for walks in the park all by herself and is awfully lonely. One day, a little boy comes and sits next to her. He too is lonely. No other kids would play with him and Amanda can't stand to see him sad. Then she gets an idea. The worry stone could help. Does it help, and do Jason and Amanda become friends, or will both of them be lonely and alone?
This book is very touching and will show kids that read this book compassion and understanding. I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars. You should defiantly read this book to a child who is about 3years old and up. See how touching it is for yourself.
**Kalie**

As a school librarian, I chose to read this book aloud as a source of comfort for our students after the attacks of Sept. 11 and then gave each student a "worry stone" (a polished river rock) to keep. The kids were spellbound by the story and seemed to treasure the memento.

The three stories in one gives the book a timeless quality that spans generations. An added bonus was the curriculum tie-in for us in California through the Chumash legend. I give this book my highest recommendation.

This is a wonderful book. It shows the power of positive thinking. It is three stories in one, and looks at the value of older people in our lives. It also gives advice -- without being preachy --about keeping our worries under control.

I recommend it for everyone.

This book has become one my family's favorites - hard to read without a catch in your voice. A story about the circle of life and the importance of grandfather/grandmother figures in a child's life. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! Beautiful illustrations!

This story is a beautiful interweaving of three stories, a Native American woman who loses her husband in war, a girl's relationship with her grandfather, and an old woman who discovers how to reach a lonely child that she has seen in the park. It is a gentle and lovely way to introduce to children the concept of death and a chance to discuss the value of the people we love in our lives and to understand the feelings of others. The story is wonderful in itself, but the illustrations make it even more so. They seem to glow with an inner light.