Native American Books

This is an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable read. Compassionate, sympathetically written, by times heart rending. A tribute to the almost forgotten Mosopelea tribe. Professor Hobson touched all of my emotions with this. I look forward to his next title.

The Last of the Ofos is elegantly written and historically informed. Poignant and touching, but not cloying, this is a must-read. A wonderful book!

The Last of the Ofos gives us a man whose resourcefulness and sense of adventure takes him across much of the 20th Century of the United States. Thomas Darko is innocent and worldly simultaneously, and brings a fresh but honest look at much human foolishness as he runs rum with integrity, searches for the woman who abandons him without sentiment, shows us the best and worst of those who idealize Native American culture and always returns to the life of simple self-sufficiency that gives him more satisfaction than all his adventures.

I loved the book and the dignity and truthfulness of the story. I stumbled across it in the University of Oklahoma bookstore and my curiosity was generously rewarded.

Of the many excellent reviews of this book - starred in PW, for example - why did you choose the Kirkus Review's? The Ledgerbook was supervised, vetted and blessed by Arthur Amiotte, a Sioux Elder, with more credentials than you can count. A leading advocate of the power of education, Mr. Amiotte 's approval of and great delight in the authenticity of this book has obviously been overlooked in the KR reviewer's research. Throughout the entire country, this book has been cited again and again by educators and parents alike as being the most powerful, interactive teaching tool they've come across in years, not to mention being an extraordinry feast for the eyes. Please research your reviews before choosing the one that will (incorrectly in this case) represent the book to your many readers. Subjecting an extraordinary book to bad PR out of ignorance should be beneath you

*The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue-Eagle* is a beautifully designed and constructed book that harkens back to the ledgerbook storytelling of the Plains Indians, especially the young students of the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. From the marbled endpapers to the ruled and "textured" pages that are the backdrop of this book's storytelling, this is a well executed picture book for all ages.

This book is the fictitious story of Thomas Blue-Eagle, a young student at the Carlisle School who uses "the white man's language" to relate who he is and where he comes from. Illustrated in a pictograph style, Blue-Eagle's story is a poignant imagining of the real-life stories of the Plains Indians at the end of the 19th Century.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Won the Christopher and International Readers Awards in 1995 because it is an authentic history, fictionalized, with stunning illustrations in the style of Plains Indians. We found it in the museum stores of the Southwest, where it was a favorite of the librarians. There is also a cd-rom called Journey of Thomas Blue Eagle, done by the illustrator.It is a favorite gift book of ours and hugely appreciated by the recipients

The Legend of the Forest is one of my favorite books. It is a good Christian adventure book. This book is definitely one you won't be able to put down; one that kids of all ages will enjoy. I like it so much I've read it twice. I can't wait till the second one.

I must admit that I did not have high expectations... But I got the book because the story line sounded interesting. Wow! An excellent book and very exciting. My kids also enjoyed it as it is safe for the entire family.
I look forward to the next book by Thomas Glenn.

This is a must read book!!! I couldn't put it down. I had to force myself to stop reading just to get some sleep. My wife (a public school teacher) read it and her comment was the action and suspense was "masterful". I expect to see this book in schools as a reading project. Thomas Glenn brings American Indian history to life...I can't wait for his next book...The Legend of the Forest is a Grand Slam!!!

Many references to Alaska and many Alaska native riddles are included. Riddles from South America and Mexico are hardest, because answers aren't familiar things. Black and white illustrations were very good. They gave away the answers to the riddles. I would like to recommend this one to the 2nd through the 12th grade, along with a recommendation that teachers and parents also read along with the younger students.

It is misleading to promote this book for 9 to 12 year olds! My spouse and I sat down one evening and read the riddles, trying to see which ones we could figure out....much better than spending the evening in front of the tube! The Native riddles get your brain thinking in different directions. Soon I found myself making up my own riddles, using the same sort of "twist" in the descriptions. I plan on getting several friends this thought-provoking, inexpensive book for Christmas, and I'm in my 30's!! I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in Native culture or who enjoys tricks of the spoken word!

I always trust the work of Bierhorst; he is excellent at making Native American culture accessible without trivializing or idealizing.

In this book, he takes advantage of children's affinity for riddles (not neglecting that adults can enjoy riddles as well). Some of the riddles are unlikely to be solved by a child, but the answers and the riddles themselves give insight into the culture from which they come. Note that the cultural source is always given.

Other riddles are accompanied with pictures that give a hint so that the child can answer some of the riddles - a nice touch to keep the child's interest and confidence.

An example: "Wonder, wonder / Who can she be? / The dark lady on her golden chair." Answer: a pot on the fire (Guarani from Paraguay).

The source of the riddles ("Who the Riddlers Are") is a clever mix of information useful to a child - pronunciation of the tribe's name, a more detailed description of their location, a index to the riddles attributed to them, and the source of the riddles. "Sources" provides a traditional bibliography.

There is a wonderful introduction to riddles and their cultural place - in gambling, dance, initiation rites, within stories etc.

A wonderful addition to a child's multicultural library.

This book seems to be a wonderful portrayal of a Native American family and community and their culture and history. One point that I appreciate is that the author tried to stay true to the Choctaw cultural activities, arts and lifestyle in the beautiful drawings and text. The author did not meld several different tribal cultures together as a homogenous "Native American culture." The message of the book also helps young readers to respect the sacrifices and values of the tribe, as well as to question the way Euro-Americans treated them in the past. A treasured book.

(I got this book in Dublin, Ireland, recently.)

This is a truly delightful book. The drawings are lovingly created and the story is both touching and well written. What makes it even more compelling is that it is based on a wonderful true act of human generosity over 150 years ago, from one impoverished people to another, who, although worlds apart in both distance and cultures, had a common enemy, in hunger and oppression.

The author travelled to Oklahoma to research the book and has gone to great lengths to ensure the drawings are authentic as well as inspiring. I particularly like the drawings of the great-grandmother and indeed,the clever shadow of the American eagle when Choona raises his arms in the final drawing as well as the subtle, celtic symbols to be found in this same drawing. "The Long March" is a must for the millions of us with Irish-American heritage - every Irish American child should read this book!

In 1847 an impoverished displaced group of Choctaw Indians collected from their meager resources the sum of $170 to send toward food relief for the Irish Potato Famine.

Through the memories of Choona, now known as Tom, who is very, very old, we learn of how he, as a young man, at last learned of that part of his family's history about which no one would speak & yet everyone looked so wounded. The Long March, when his people were forced to walk from Florida to Mississippi all through one fearsome, killing winter.

The Long March is rich in American history & memory. The marvelous drawings create a magically real place. This is a must for anyone who loves looking at other ways to live in community; other ways of teaching the spirit to grow & learning about courage, wisdom & respecting the memories.

An amazing book - to be read & read again & again & the pictures to be studied & dreamed over. Beautifully evocative.

Love, Miracles & Medicine Men is an energetic account of how two spirited friends explore the unfamiliar. Their extraordinary journies lead them to incredible encounters with the yet inexplicable. Their Medicine Man possesses benevolence as well as a sence of humor. With love, respect and much perserverance these brave women find vision, trust, confidence and truth in miracles.

If you are a non-fiction reader that enjoys a true human experiece that opens doors for you that you didn't even know exsisted. THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. I read the book in 1 day on an airplane in flight. Now I think my next trip will be going out to the Native American Grounds to visit with some of these fascinating people.

I was lucky enough to get a copy last month and read it straight through in one evening. It was recommended to me by a friend who had read it and was amazed at what insights into healing the Native American Culture has to offer. Above all, it was very informative to the non-native American. I grew up trusting in doctor's and hospitals, not knowing about any other alternatives. Native American's treat illnesses in a holistic way, healing the mind, body, and spirit. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in how other cultures approach the healing process. Especially to non-native American's such as myself who grew up without a clue to alternative medecine.!

I read this book in one setting. What a fascinating journey Sladen takes you on in this first hand account of a significant moment in history. I've been reading books on the west my entire life and I have to say this is the best single book one could read on the American Southwest. It chronicles the remarkable meeting between General O.O. Howard and the Great Apache leader Cochise. Sladen records Cochise's personality and style in great detail. He gives a vivid portrait of life in an Apache village. He presents Tom Jeffords and Howard as they really were. He describes the incredible county this drama played out in with the sensibility of a true lover of beauty and nature. Sladen's become one of my heros along with Cochise and Edward R. Sweeney who edited this book and wrote a brilliant biography of Cochise.

Cochise is an elusive character. There are no photographs of him, and only one eloquent speech, which was recorded by an Army interpreter. Otherwise, we are left with vague secondhand accounts that often make him a two-dimensional cardboard cutout. Sladen's journal breathes life into this dynamic individual. It is fascinating reading, and, as Sweeney the editor points out, Sladen is not judgmental. He simply describes life in the Apache camp. A wonderful book.

Another book on my shelf from U. of Oklahoma that gets better with rereading.

Though this one was released more than 5 years ago, it reads as though written yesterday. And that is something, since the diary that underpins it was written in 1872.

This is must reading for anyone enjoying information of the period of the Apache wars in Arizona/New Mexico area. Other than the author's previous biography on Cochise, nothing is available giving personal views of Cochise and his people. And Cochise's statement that no whiteman would look upon his face was well kept. These two military men, and Tom Jeffords were among the few that ever did.

Enough good words cannot be said about this one.

Semper Fi.

This is among the finest--from the perspectives of production qualities, scholarship, and content--of publications documenting indigenous healing ceremonies which employ psychoactive sacraments. The publisher's box contains a 9 x 12 inch clothbound book, 4 cassette tapes recording the ceremony in a separate folio clothbound box, and folio-sized softbound musical score. The hardbound book is 282 pp bound in tan cloth with a red Mazatec embroidery design, and is primarily a tri-lingual (Mazatec, Spanish, and English) transcription of the ceremony. It also includes General Index, Analytical Index, Notes on the Mazatec Language (George M Cowan), Musicological Notes on the Ceremony (Willard Rhodes). The set is rare, especially in good condition, and of interest to collectors and libraries. Transcriptions, commentaries, and CDs of Maria Sabina's work are available at moderate prices in publications with ordinary production qualities.

Bret Blosser

"Maria Sabina and Her Mazatec Mushroom Velada" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy." http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy

Very authentic, very true, and very rare from what I gather. Strangely I found this book at a bookstore where I got it for the price of its weight !!!!!!!!!11 Dream on, if u do manage to get your hands on it. You'll certainly like.... worth not one but numerous reads !

I used this novel with my high school English class last fall. I teach in an urban environment where kids are reluctant to read, period. But I found that the students were REALLY into it. I had students who I suspect never read, reading it and telling me so. They kept saying, all year, "can't we read another novel like Mollyockett?".

It is told in flashback by the title character, Mollyockett, a medicine woman/weaver/wanderer, the last of her nation, the Peqwackets. She tells the story to a young English settler, Sarah. As she loses strength, Sarah tends to her and listens to her stories. For the most part, she tells the story chronologically... and she has an interesting life. Pat Stewart weaves the stories together seemlessly so that nothing seems forced or strange. If anything, she makes the reader want to know more about the real story.

We were lucky to be able to host the author at our school and she captivated the kids. Mostly, they wanted to know about Native American Medicine practices, since they were studying that as part of their unit, but many wanted to know how she actually wrote the story; she told them about the process of researching the history and making up parts she didn't know about. I still think some of the students had a hard time realizing that the story was based on the life of a real person!

It is rare to find historical, fictionalized accounts of Native Americans, and even rarer to find ones about Abenaki or any other New England Native American groups.

Anyway, I highly recommend this novel to teachers to use in their classrooms, but also to anyone who likes historical "fiction"... uhm, fictionalized history?

Basically, when we read fiction (or as in this case, fictionalized history), we want a story...the kind of story that in early times would have kept us listening to the storyteller until the tale was completely told. Pat Stewart's device, letting Mollyockett, the last of the Pequawkets, tell the story of her long life in the white man's world is just this kind of tale. It is clear that the author has carefully researched the life and times of her real-life character and that Mollyockett's story is based in fact. However, by taking some poetic license Stewart has been able to breathe life into Mollyockett, going beyond the facts and fleshing out the personal qualities and skills of this unusual woman. The result is a series of well-told tales that are revealing of both the storyteller's life and character, informative of the Native American history of New England, and revealing of the ambiguity of the French and Indian Wars. Avoiding the pitfalls of using any vernacular, Stewart has Mollyockett speak clear, almost poetic language. A storyteller herself, Stewart has faithfully produced a character that spins her own stories with a compelling, yet gentle voice that absorbs the reader. I recommend this book to readers of all ages who like good stories about real people and events that really happened.

In just 163 pages, Pat Stewart tells the story of Mollyockett, an Abenaki Indian woman who lived most of her life in the hilly country of western Maine. (Or, rather, bedridden in her final days and hours, Mollyocket tells her own story to a ficticious young gift descended from one of Andover, Maine's, first settlers).
What a remarkable story she tells--a tale of the struggle between native people and settlers, a story of this strong woman's own deep apirituality and faith.
Even the book design is distinctive, modeled after a purse which Mollyockett wove and which now belongs to the Maine Historical Society.
I recommend this slim, creative and engaging book as a fine way to meet one of our country's native ancestors.

From the DJ: A terrible monster is plaguing the Anasazi villages of the Southwest's canyon country, so much so that the villagers are afraid to plant their crops. Who will same them from this monster's wrath? The Twins, twelve-year-old sons of Changing Woman, respond to the villagers' cries for help and decide to seek out and destroy this monster, the Walking Giant. Armed with lightning arrows - gifts from their father - and magic feathers, they set out to defeat their enemy, and become heroes of the people in so doing. Immortalized for centuries through the oral storytelling tradition, the Twins now come alive on the pages of this colorful book, a partial recreation of the traditional Navajo story, retold and illustrated by two talented Navajo people.

I liked this book because it was very nice and somehow funny. Mostly I liked the characters in the sroty and what they did to save their village. It is a great book for all ages to read and I enjoyed reading it. I hope everyone that read this book will enjoy it as much as I did.

This was one of the first pieces that Bahe and Vee worked on together. Bravo! I am in awe of Bahe's illustrations and captured by Vee's words. Being a Native American, I can see and read the vision of the two's colaborative work and how they both echo each others impressions of this traditional Navajo story. It should be a part of our childrens plate of literature to consume prior to going to the Euro-Classics.