Native American Books

I immensely enjoyed taking this journey with Chris Kraus' heroine Sylvie, savoring every description and nugget of pathos. I began to feel a deep affection for her as the story unfolded. This work has broad appeal given the author's own background; a fascinating mélange centered around art, philosophy and the past. This background has provided the author with ingredients for a truly engaging and spectacular point of view about the time, places and subjects on which she bases her story. The writing has the flavor of a deeply satisfying stew, cooked to perfection. I was moved by Sylvie's appreciation of the beauty of the ordinary as she confronted the painful experiences in her life, described as only Chris Kraus can do.

"torpor" is a beautifully written novel by a brilliant author with a fresh and authentic voice. Both Kraus' style and subject matter will appeal to a wide audience. Not enough women are familiar with Chris Kraus' writing - hopefully "torpor" will change that. However, Kraus is not specifically a women's writer: the male audience will be just as spellbound. We are very fortunate for her gifts, and for "torpor".

An American girl meets and marries a French boy who's carrying around an enormous number of paralyzing memories of the Holocaust, and she decides to adopt a baby from a Third World country.

If only I could ask Chris Kraus my 20 questions! Among them would be, How would you describe the form you work in? It's very distinctive, very Chris Kraus, but what is it? I've heard people refer to your books as "comic" books, not like Nancy and Sluggo but something more like a Jane Austen sense of social comedy.

Torpor conveys like very few novels the misery of a long term relationship. You compare them to "hypothermia, giving yourself up in free and loose embtace into a dream state that turns out to be inertia." Do all relationships disintegrate into clownishness? You cite the comic French pairs, Mercier and Camier, Bouvard and Pechuchet, as models for your nagging lovers.

What's also so striking about your book is that you're not afraid to make a dog one of your main characters. I don't think any reader will forget the heroic dachshund Lily who gets carted around Europe in a sort of hideaway sack, nor that it's Lily's suffering that Sylvie and Jerome overlook in their picaresque adventure.

Sylvie is afraid that no one will ever take her seriously because she is untrained and has no MFA. And Jerome, who is a full professor at an Ivy League university, is always taunting her about this. Ms. Kraus, I read your book of essays, VIDEO GREEN, and the title essay is pretty much about the same thing, only translated to the art world. Galleries are everything, and there is no entry into getting a gallery unless you have an MFA from a select school. The whole system seems hopeless.

Back to Torpor, we of the New Narrative movement want to claim you as one of our own for your amazing vulnerability and the frankness with which you paint Sylvie as basically a sort of loser doomed to fail at anything she takes up.

And the gossip level is fairly astounding. We feel like we're backstage with Nan Goldin, Felix Guattari, Kathy Acker, so many more from the worlds of high art, French theory, transgressive literature. Of course, Ms. Kraus, everyone wants to know the identity of the few you have concealed in pseudonyms, especially "the writers Kenneth Broomfield and June Goodman."

Sylvie can't even look at Kenneth Broomfield or even think about him without one unfortunate comment, which he may or may not have made, ringing in her head. We've all been there, haven't we.

If you were here, I would ask you, do you write for a "particularly cultured audience?" And you would probably say something like, no, I write for a curious one, I want my books to be read by a girl just starting community college,

The problem with Europe, and Jerome by extension, is that people can't separate the present from the past of fifty years ago, or a thousand years ago. As Jerome is haunted and motivated by the events of his childhood, the Romanians seem to be trapped in a nightmare medievalism. In one city Jerome and Sylvie try to stay at, Brigitte Bardot appears to applaud the citizens who have let 300,000 wild dogs run feral in the streets. Meanwhile, in LA, there's no past and there's no imperfection and everything is beautiful.

Kraus writes beautifully about sex, and there's a strong passage where Sylvie is transported back to earlier ages when she's experiencing orgasm, back to 17, 14, once to age 5. It's very moving.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to ask these questions of the writer, but I can recommend TORPOR to anyone interested in either happiness or despair, America or Europe, the new or the old.

There are some books that can't easily be talked about in company because to share an enthusiasm for the work is to confess one's... well, either sins or transgressions, or what.... There are some writers, and Chris Kraus is one of them, who can't be easily taught because you can't discuss her without talking honestly about yourself. Anyone can be clever about, oh... you know... the writers who are easy to talk about.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK. The last page is devastating but you need to read the whole thing ahead of it.
Read her other books, too.
She'll probably not get the attention she deserves, because the critics will find ways to keep her local and small.
But you won't, will you?

This little book (only 126 pages) does many different things, all very well, and most better than books many times its size. Hedren has chosen 54 specific historical sites relating to the Great Sioux War and arranged them chronologically, with site 1 being the Grattan Battlefield in Wyoming (commemorating an 1854 incident which helped set the stage for later events) and site 54 being Sitting Bull's grave in South Dakota (he died in 1890). In addition to these 54 "official" sites, Hedren identifies and directs readers to many other related locations nearby.

Each site gets a number (which is also pin-pointed on a map), a brief description of the its significance, and directions to it (also whether it's on private property or not); then follows a longer historical account of the site's role in the War and a number of photographs indicating what a visitor to the site would see. It's a magnificent tool for anyone touring the area (most sites are in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska), but it's just as valuable (and exciting) for anyone interested in the Sioux War who can't leave his livingroom. A great book. Highly recommended.

This book is fabulous in that in that it not only charts the tour sites of the Great Sioux was with excellent maps, directions and fantastic pictures but also provides excellent mini-histories on what occurred at each site including bios on the main participants. Just reading this book gives you a good historical perspective for the great plains war with chapters that categorize the historical sites by period starting with the Gratten marker in Wyoming. The Gratten monument was for a Lt. and his company that threatened Conquering Bear's village over the alleged theft of a cow resulting in his death and his companies (1856). This book proceeds with sites and histories flowing the Red Cloud War of 1866, through the Little Bighorn Campaign period and aftermath, the summer and winter campaigns. Also includes historical sites after 1877 such as sitting Bull's Canadian sites with descriptions of the sites and pictures. Hedren covers every major historical site from old forts, some of which have been reconstructed and some have actual structures that he describes and has pictures of. You can virtually follow the expeditions of the army or find exact locations of significant village sites. This book adds an extra dimension to any trip as Hedren shows you additional sites, some obscure, right next door to the more publicized sites. A great example is Little Bighorn, just 30 miles away is the pristine Rosebud Battlefield site where Crook encountered the Sioux and Cheyenne in a desperate and critical battle a week before Custer. In addition, the Powder River Battlefield where Crook's forces struck first but lost the initiative in March is just further west of the Rosebud Battlefield. This book provides so much information and easy directions including those that are on private property (includes caution to seek permission) that an adventurous traveler can seemingly so it all in a long week but perhaps two. The book's pictures are better than many books that are dedicated to a specific battle. The pictures of the massive Bear Butte Mountain are incredible as its mass is seen along a flat plain. The also book includes pictures of the main participants and their places of rest. A book that Walter Camp would be proud of as he documented many of these sites almost 100 years ago before they were lost to obscurity. I wish I had this book when I visited the Little Bighorn two years ago; however, there is so much great information I would have had to stay west another week.

Superb volume; spent happy hours reading about places we've been lucky enough to visit and reviewing ones still to come if we can ever cross the Atlantic again. Amazon is a fantastic storehouse for books on our favourite subjects.This one is a must as an aide memoire and a forward planner.

This book is a must read for anyone who has read any of the works by Harvey Arden and/or Steve Wall! Extremely well-written and the chapters are in the first person of both authors. It is, I think, their best work that I have read so far. This is an honest, unpretentious, examination by the authors of their own journey connecting with the elders and the insights they offer. You will not be able to put it down; I read it in one afternoon without a break. I intend to re-read; it is that good.

These tweo white men are chosen to take a journy in life. This is not a come on along along and pack you bags. This is an inner and spiritual journey for these two men as much as it is a journey for the elders of different nations to accept and trust these men to some of the their most private thoughts and lives. a book well written and appericated that it shows The People as the caretakers that they are to the world.

A wonderful account of two men, a writer and a photographer, who become enveloped in a new consciousness; or more accurately an old one. I was up until the wee hours every night until I finished it. And each morning I found myself more aware of the Creator's presence in every stone,tree and being - an awareness and an awakeining that they are all following God's instructions. Thus, I was gently brought to the question: am I following the Creator's instruction? The "Origional Instructions" Harvey and Steve have passed on to me in this volume have helped me answer that question.

This is a model of how to write about tribal politics today. It is sympathetic yet balanced, and devoid of ideological posturing. The authors are a political scientist, a historian, and a lawyer, and they bring their combined backgrounds to the study of government on Montana's seven Indian reservations.

They find success stories such as Fort Peck and Flathead, and failures of governance coexisting with potential wealth, such as the Crow. Rocky Boy's and Fort Belknap represent the all-too-common depressing story of a community trapped in a cycle of poverty. The Northern Cheyenne case is particularly interesting because they argue that politics reflects a choice between two values (economic development versus traditional values), and the tribe has legitimately decided against development.

The focus throughout the book is squarely on politics on the reservation. Outsiders-- whether natural resources corporations, the State of Montana, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs-appear in the book when they interfere in reservation affairs, but the authors emphasize the choices that Native Americans make (or fail to make) for themselves. Though they do not say so directly, the authors' guiding light is really the Federalist Papers: constitutionalism, a separation of powers, legitimacy and effective leadership are all important in governance. One might criticize this stance as a form of intellectual imperialism, though when one sees the failures of the Crow reservation in particular, it's clear that a greater concern for these institutional rules would be useful regardless of culture.

The reservations have 2000-7000 resident members each, making them the size of small towns in population terms. One might ask whether the conventional categories of municipal government (mayor and council, town administrator, etc.) would be useful models for revised tribal constitutions, making due allowance for tribal sovereignty and cultural distinctiveness.

In the study of contemporary Aboriginal peoples, this book is a breath of fresh air. I am a second year Native Studies and Canadian Studies double-major at Trent University in Canada. Most books dealing with tribal government and modern native people talk about Native conflicts with the European colonizers and the US government. While this is certainly a worthy topic and one that needs to be brought to attention of far more people throughout the world, this book answers a question that has been left untouched: "Do these tribal governments promote soverignty and do they respresent their people in a positive way?" I find this book, which focused specifically on the Montana Reservations, invaluable for three reasons. The first is that it makes important distinctions between the different tribes and forms of government, thus dispelling the myth that all Native tribes and people think alike and/or face the same circumstances. Second, the book talks about the phenomenon of conflict within tribes, as well as conflict between tribal governments and their members. It does not ignore the effect that outside policies and peoples have had on tribal governments, but it is not the main focus of the text. This has largely been ignored in academic scholarship, and this reveals how complex contemporary Native society is and also a good starting point for other explorations, such as Native activism that deals specifically with their tribal governments. Finally, the book is humble in its demeanor, which is unfortunately, becoming more uncommon in academic scholarship today(i.e. Ward Churchill). The authors are non-Native, and admit that they are NOT trying to provide a definitive answer or conclusion for tribes, but are simply trying to provoke further examination and discussion on the topic. They never claim to hold an academic or intellectual monopoly or superiority over others. Overall, this book a refreshing view of Native peoples, their contemporary governments, and the issues that plague Indian Country. It is also interesting for myself in seeing what the future might hold for Canadian Native tribes, who are still struggling to obtain soverignty and self-government.

This compilation provides students and professionals with a fine overview of 20th century politics in Montana. Recommended for upper-level undergrads, graduate students, and those seeking a deeper understanding of a legacy of injustice. A must!

My brother gave me this book shortly after my family and I visited the Tuscarora Reservation in New York this summer. Our great-great grandmother was a Tuscarora, although her family settled in Pennsylvania and never continued the journey to New York. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It helped me to understand what I saw and learned from talking with Chief Leo Henry and, also, with Preston Chuy in Smokin'Joe's Smoke Shop. I have a new appreciation of the Native American branch of my family! Thanks so much!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There many nuggets of interesting current and historical facts and descriptions. My favorite thing about the book is all of the pictures. It seems like the entire community contributed something. It must have been a monumental task collecting the pictures that span many generations of Tuscarora. Thank you to the authors for doing this - Excellent!

These two young men did an absolutely wonderful job putting these images together along with cultural history. Definitely a treat for the eyes!

This book is a good source to balance the word and image of Islam and Muslim in the western world. Muslim is not only in Arabian peninsula or Gulf contries, in fact Indonesia is the largest muslim population in the world. Many pictures on the book can give the different side of Islam in Southeast asia. They don't speak arabic, they don't have big nose,they are short, skiny etc. I recommend this book for the people who wants to know Muslim in Southeast asia without reading a long history book.

But there is unbalance information in the book I noticed, specially information about Indonesian muslim in the introduction. Steve Raymer seems doesn't have a good source that he can get the information about Indonesian muslim. Might be because they are so many and he tries to put it in the same ammount as Malaysian which is only about 1/6 or 1/8 of Indonesian in comparison. It is best if he can consult or clarify his information with the Indonesian sociologists, historians, or scholars in order to validate the information. One of the examples is on second page, the picture doesn't not macth the note (citation). The picture is showing the people who are suplicating, is not always in arabic, but he says those people are reciting the koran. This is just small example.
I recommend people who have this book to check with the Southeast Asian people to clarify the information.
More than that, good work and well done.

As one who's lived in Southeast Asia off and on for the past seven years, the thing that strikes me about the book by Raymer are the brilliant photos, yes. But the way they are put together gives a human face to Southeast Asia's Muslim peoples. A fair and realistic look at them is refreshing in light of many Western reports that tout them all as gun-toting extremists.

Steve Raymer has done an exceptional job at capturing the humanity of Southeast Asian Muslims through the lenses of the faithful camera. The pictures are breathtakingly beautiful, while the accompanying caption and text serve as an easy-to-read commentary especially for those expecting only an excursion into the subject. His attempt at a sympathetic understanding of a culture that is relatively obscure to the average Westerner is commendable; the journalistic objectivity being a salient feature of the book.

Raymer, in my opinion, succeeded in shattering the perpetuated myth surrounding the perception of Muslims. Not only does he cogently disprove the notion of a monolithic Muslim culture across the Muslim world, but he also demonstrates the existence of diversity with which Islam is practiced in this forgotten region. The cognitive image of either a rich Middle-Easterner or a terrorist brandishing an AK-47 so often associated with Islam must now be relegated to the domain of stereotypes. The book is probably a silent apologist for the peace of Islam.

Caveat emptor for those expecting their stereotypes confirmed and prejudices accomodated; the book is sure to frustrate them.

The maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words had never been truer. The picture is now worth millions of humans.

A searing indictment of white racial hatred, gross stupidity, avarice, and a cultural superiority complex bordering on madness, which forced Colorado's Ute people, like other Native people, off their ancestral homelands. White American history has too often had a grandiose view of its origins, conveniently omitting or minimizing duplicitous government policies and the general mood of the populace, with a few exceptions, calling for the extermination of the Utes and other tribes to make Western expansion and wealth possible. This book reveals these omissions in gripping detail and sets the historical record straight. Our children need to know that having fought and won freedom from the British and for black slaves, the US fell flat on its face and became the very tyrants they despised when dealing with Native people. This book should be mandatory reading for every high school student.
We all live on both forcefully taken and sacred ground long inhabited and revered before any white man set foot on these shores. We know where the Utes and Lakota are, but where are the Agawam & Nipmuc (MA), the Ponca & Kansa, the Chinook (WA)? Native people today have yet to fully recover from the sordid beginnings of the US. We owe an immeasurable debt to them, not only financially for treaty funds mismanaged but spiritually as we belatedly see the wisdom in their deep respect for the land that guided them to live in harmony with it and the greater circle of life, of which humans are but one member. I pray we wake up as a people before the initial and unabated greed for short-term profits fouls our nest irreversibly.

Written by Peter R. Decker (Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University), "The Utes Must Go!": American Expansion And The Removal Of A People encompasses three centuries of Ute Indian history, as it chronicles the involuntary removal of the Ute Indians from Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Its title drawn from a newspaper advertisement championing the removal of Utes in the Denver Tribune, "The Utes Must Go!" is a powerful true drama of a proud people who suffered from pioneer settlement and racisim, and who also experienced tragedy from misguided intentions, such as Indian Agent Nathan Meeker's ill-fated attempt to turn Indian hunters into farmers, which brought about tragedy at Milk Creek in 1879. A colorful and detailed account, offering glimpses into figure thats made their mark on history such as Colorado Governor Frederick Pitkin, General William T. Sherman, newspaperman Horace Greeley, and much more. A well-researched, fact-filled, and undeniably attention-gripping in its depiction of raw territorial and colonial greed.

Peter R. Decker has written a magisterial, riveting work about the removal of the Ute Indians from Colorado. He paints the American West of the mid-to late-19th century with such colorful, vivid strokes that one can't help but be transported to the "scene of the crime."

This is truly an impressive and important accomplishment of documentation and narrative. Decker's biographical sketches of the key players in the drama -- from Ute leaders Ouray and Captain Jack to hapless Indian agent Nathan Meeker, to Interior Secretary Carl Schurtz, are masterly in themselves. For sheer energy and artistry, nothing I've read on the subject approaches it.

I received this book as a gift. What a great gift. The book contains many short stories that would have appeal to both the young reader as well and the older reader. The book would have a broad range of appeal. The book contains may one liners which can be used in our normal lifestyle. This book is a keeper and will become part of your library.
This book will be on my gift giving list....

Jim Great Elk Waters is wise, observant and a great story teller. History came alive for me through his tales of Indian culture and his positive approach to life is evident in every story. His book will appeal to lovers of history, to families needing the answers reflected in his quote, "Happiness, laughter and family voices in a home keep more people living right than all laws man can make," and to those people looking for inspiration, "You can be your dreamed self if only you believe." I enjoyed all of his "Views from the Medicine Lodge."

Written by Jim Great Elk Waters (the Shawnee Sub-Chief and a legislator on the Shawnee Nation URB Tribal Council), View From The Medicine Lodge is a thoughtful and thought-provoking collection of essays, stories, and poems that present Native American-based inspiration and life lessons to contemporary readers of all backgrounds. Lasting wisdom and deeply meaningful ponderings fill the pages this thoughtful account, which emphasizes the importance of finding balance between Man and Nature. View From The Medicine Lodge is an enthusiastically endorsed recommended for Native American Spirituality and Cultural Practices reference collections and reading lists.

Written by acclaimed Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle, Walking The Choctaw Road is a delightfully presented, inherently entertaining, and thoughtfully informative collection of original tales drawn from personal, mythical, and oral accounts. Written in a down-to-earth, highly accessible style, Walking The Choctaw Road is a joy to read, embracing tribal traditions with wry humor, enhanced with liberal highlights of both energy and excitement. Walking The Choctaw Road is an enthusiastically recommended contribution to personal reading lists and Native American Studies collections.

I originally heard these stories read by Tim Tingle. The book is very good on its own but hearing the stories makes them come alive. A wonderful book, easy to read, very personal and accessible. Appropriate for adults and older children, I gave this book to my teen-age son for Christmas.

The photos in the book were chosen carefully, they reflect what people wore, how they looked and lived. The illustrations by Choctaw artist Norma Howard are exceptional as well.

The only caveat is this is storytelling, fiction, not every word should be considered historical fact.

After marrying into a Choctaw family, I wanted to learn more about my husband's culture. These stories are a great representation to describe where the Choctaw have come from and what experiences have made them who they are today. My only complaint is that the book is too short! Now my appetite is whetted for more.

As a Mono Indian, I have nothing but words of praise for Gaylen Lee's work. He begins by saying that he only speaks for himself, which is important since our families' experiences are all so different depending on contact and acculturation. I am grateful that this book was written, as it is something all people can read, appreciate and gain understanding of a California tribe.

The reader hears the authentic voice of a tribe of Indians of the US far west. Lee knows his people's language and uses Native words liberally. He exlains attitudes and concepts that were at such odds with white thinking that it made the Indians vulnerable to domination. He does not apologize for his people's culture. Adults whose knowledge of Indian life may have ended with elementary school social studies will find this book astonishing

Non-Indians reading "Walking Where We Lived" may have to re-think everything they once believed about California's indigenous population. On the eve of the state's sesquicentennial celebration, Gaylen D. Lee offers a view of the Gold Rush and subsequent settlement of California by Americans and immigrants that is clearly, from his perspective, nothing to celebrate. But Lee's book is hardly a whining narrative of the atrocities suffered by the native people of California. Instead, it is a celebration of his family and families like them who have managed to survive and perpetuate their culture, religion, and values despite the onslaught of intruders. Following the pattern of the seasons, Lee describes the lives of his ancestors, historical events which affected them, their loss of freedom, and the endurance of a way of life in the face of generations of adversity. "Walking Where We Lived" is rich with detail. Lee's description of the daily activities of his family and forbears is based upon knowledge passed to him and actual experience. As a child he accompanied his family to gather acorns, berries, and plant materials. He watched the women make baskets which he says are still used in his home. He learned to hunt and fish in the old way. Although he understood English, he spoke only the Nim language prior to beginning kindergarten in the mid-1950s. The generally peaceful life lived by the Nim and their fellows all over California was shattered as Americans moved to claim every inch of the new state following secession of the territory by Mexico and the world-famed gold rush. Stories of the Mariposa Indian Wars in the spring of 1851, and other skirmishes are generally told from the point of view of Central California settlers eager to rid their new land of pesky savages. "Walking Where We Lived" offers a view from the other side. It is not surprising for a man in Gaylen Lee's situation to be angry, and anger surfaces occasionally in his book. The region surrounding his life-long home place was once traversed freely by his ancestors. Now the land is fenced off and paved over. Rivers are dammed. Animals which once lived with and helped sustain the people are seldom seen. What is surprising, in the face of generally accepted lore about the Indians of California, is that Lee's family-and others-have maintained their culture and sense of community despite near annihilation.