Native American Books

Bill Gulick gives a command performance in this book of the Nez Perce Indians. He depicts the life and times of these Indians so clearly...from the time they befriended the Lewis and Clark Expedition in September of 1805 and the years to follow, including all the historical documentation leading up to the plight of Chief Joseph and hundreds of his people into exile. The story doesn't stop here either. He also documents what happened after the famous 1877 Battle of Bear's Paw in Montana and how they were all sent off to reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma, soon to be subjected to other hardships. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in this part of America's past. Mr.Gulick indeed did his homework!

An all-around fantastic book. This is the 11th book I have read on the subject of the Nez Perce people (please see my Listmania!) and this one impressed me as much as any of them, in some ways even more so.

The pre-war history is covered very thoroughly and the author manages to present it in a way that was as good as any I have read. The war and flight period as well as the post-war period are treated rather lightly, but still the reading was superb and all the major events are given adequate attention.

The final chapter, titled "The Nez Perce Today", was excellent and unique in that the author describes some of the challenges that the Nez Perce currently face and which we all, as Americans, are involved in. One of the most important of those challenges is the problem of declining salmon runs and the rapid deterioration of the Columbia River watershed.

One thing I especially appreciated about this book was the generous use of first-hand accounts to tell much of the story. The author did an excellent job of finding the best historical records and inserting appropriate accounts and quotes in just the right places.

However, more than anything else, what truly makes this book special and unique is the vast number of photographs that are included throughout. Most of them are pictures I have never seen before. The painting on the front cover is also especially appealing as it depicts several horseback-mounted Nez Perce (including leaders Joseph, Ollokot, and Looking Glass) on the shore of their beloved Lake Wallowa. Beautiful!

Mr. Jackson did excellent research for this book. I have numerous ancestors mentioned in the book and even had a picture of one that I had never seen before. Anyone interested in the history of the Western Mt, Idaho and Eastern WA area, will need to read this book. I hope that the Author publishes more material from his research.

From the book, I found out that the Metis of the Pacific Northwest formed many communities in that area. My great-grandparents were born in Walla Walla, WA. and we were told that they were French- Canadian and "Black Irish". I read that in Walla Walla, is where they founded communities and that they hid there ancestry and called themselves French-Canadian. So, on reading this, I found out that the missing part to my full heritage was actually a mixture of French and Native American Indian. I owe a great gratitude to Mr. Jackson. Thank-you!!! Sean

This is a fun read filled with good quality photographs. Though I wish it were longer and more specific about the children's schooling and future plans.

This is a great book to explore and examine the wonderful native Alaska culture! A must for Alaskan teachers!

I feel this book is a very good representation of the Tlinget lifestyle. Both my daughters have gone to the Islands in Southeastern Alaska to teach Bible School to the Tlinget Children and do work projects. Both my daughters enjoyed learning about the Tlinget culture and this book will teach children who are unable to visit Southeast Alaska about this special culture. The pictures in this book from Kake were taken when my one daughter was there and she is the person doing the face painting on page 12. My daughter fell in love with the children of Kake who were starving for attention. I thought sure when she arrived home she would have Nicki in your suitcase. He is the little boy in the purple shirt on the cover of the book.

The author does an excellent job presenting how Tlingit are attempting to celebrate, embrace and reestablish their cultural ways in this honor book for the 2000 Carter G. Woodson Elementary Division Award, National Council for Social Studies. The author describes how the Russians and then the United States attempted to erradicate the culture of the established Tlingit and how children are encouraged to go to week-long camps to learn about Tlingit art, storytelling, language, and customs. It would be important for children to understand why an author would write "some Tlingit must have a hard time looking at the American flag." Discussion will abound in relation to this book. Photos are interesting and provide helpful information. Maps are included. Good for classroom, school, and public libraries.

A Child's Happy Heart is a cheerful picturebook about keeping track of what's really important in life: the gentle powers of wisdom and love that can make one truly happy. Following adventures of Khobi, a young native boy from the Arctic, and his best friend Hero, a white dog with a thick coat, A Child's Happy Heart shows Khobi and Hero discovering the strange new city with stoplights, friends... and bullies. Khobi and Hero have come to share the secret of a happy heart. When Khobi's new friends tell him about learns of the bullies who always seem to be angry even though they own so many things, Khobi explains that the bullies have angry hearts. "They don't understand. Things can't make you happy. There are many ways to be rich. My riches come from a happy heart." The joys of helping one another, learning to treat others as one would like to be treated, and discovering happiness through love and friendship are a central theme in this upbeat picturebook, with a message that desperately needs to be shared in today's overly materialistic society.

This story is full of wonderful messages for children and adults. The author's love of children comes alive in the written story and the illustrations tie it all together. We anxiously await more books in this series, as promised in this book. Thanks, Sue, for such a down-to-earth story.

well:i happen to be going thruogh the internet looking some things up.ran across this.if i had a chance to buy it right now i would,i think it sounds,like a wonderful book to own and read at your own pace.i am writting a story on the settlers known as pioneers,or pilgrims.and i hope to publish it someday.i have been a writter for 39 years this year sept 22sd.my birthday.i love to read all the montana history on all this kind of stuff,to me its so interesting i can close my eyes picture everything.i say buy this book everyone.i am a cowboy poet,and a roundup rodeo Queen from gardiner,were always through there going to my uncle bills,out at roy.the bill davis ranch.saddle-up.

I had reviewed this book for another medium, and articles in July 12, 1998 Minneapolis Star Tribune demanded that I use this medium to point out the importance of seeing the realities of Native Americans on White Earth reservation at this period of time.

One article touted Minneapolis mayor, Hubert Humphrey, making reference to his earlier days as a graduate student in the state of Louisiana, and his horror at seeing how badly people treated minorities.

Another article related the commotion caused at THIS time concerning the clash of White Earth organized native police forces, created with government funds, and police of the state of Minnesota over potential problems of jurisdiction.

One wonders what conditions existed at White Earth reservation about the same time that Humphrey pointed out his disgust with treatment of minorities in the state of Louisiana? Well, the book on hand would give a graphic picture of those realities. Highly recommend! ed for any person of any state who has the urge to cast stones at other places where people hate this and that.

And highly recommended during a campaign year when the race for Minnesota governor includes one Mondale, Humphrey and Freeman, vying for the democratic slot.

Good reading for impressinable youngsters. Issues dealing with integrity, clashing cultures and a man who chooses not to take the easy way out. Inspiring.

The Choctaw Code is one of my all time favorites and was an especially liked read aloud chapter book for my fifth grade students in Atoka, Oklahoma. Readers relate to the growing beautiful friendship between Jim and the boy and the values being taught by example of the Choctaw people's way of dealing with justice and life. The story paints a picture of unselfish communication between two people of two very different cultures. I am pleased that it is back in print.

The book begins with a rich descriptions of the various settings in which the stories of the Choctaw people continue to be told. Mould provides vivid accounts of a range of storytelling sessions and clearly shows that it isn't accurate to view this tradition as a lost art. He then provides a useful description of salient aspects of Choctaw history and culture to contextualize the stories. His discussions of the various narrative genres and the various spiritual and supernatural beings are especially intriguing. The book then consists of a well-organized and highly readable presentation of fascinating stories. Some of them were compiled from previous collections while others are stories that he collected with the assistance of people within the Choctaw community. The stories are interesting reading and provide an important documentation of a vibrant storytelling tradition. It is especially interesting to read these stories while thinking about the continuity of contemporary tales with the older stories of the past.

Choctaw Tales by Tom Mould, Phillip (University Press of Mississippi) Including stories from the 1700s to today, Choctaw Tales showcases the myths, legends, supernatural tales, prophecies, histories, animal tales and jokes that make up the rich and lively Choctaw storytelling tradition. The stories display intelligence, artistry, and creativity as the Choctaw narrators, past and present, express and struggle with beliefs, values, humor, and life experiences. Photographs of the storytellers complement the text. For sixteen tales, the Choctaw-language version appears in addition to the English translation.
Many of these stories, passed down through generations, address the Choctaw sense of isolation and tension as storytellers confront eternal, historical, and personal questions about the world and its inhabitants. Choctaw Tales, the first book to collect these stories, creates a comprehensive gathering of oral traditions from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
"Choctaw Tales is an admirable piece of work, in its care, its sense of responsibility, and its value to a larger community. Mould's account of his relations with the Choctaw people is impressive and his book can stand as a model of how to pre-sent traditional Native American narratives. Clearly the book will be of great value to Choctaw people and of equal value as an example to Native American people elsewhere?' -DELL H Y M E S, author of "In Vain I Tried to Tell You": Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics and Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics

TOM MOULD is a professor of folklore at Elon University and is the author of Choctaw Prophecy: A Legacy of the Future.

"A superlative work...focusing on shifts in the political, economic, and cultural lives of the Choctaw, the author demonstrates the degeneration of the group's political status from nation to tribe to ethnic enclave, as well as its economic marginalization through forced entry into the world capitalist system....Faiman-Silva eschews a simplistic model of victimization without denying the glaring inqualities and injustices of past andn present interactions with the surrounding world. She presents vividly the internal heterogeneity of Choctaw solution seeking."

Editorial Review:

Named a C. Wright Mills Award Finalist by the Society for the Study of Social Problems (1998), this text draws on micro- and macro-analytical frameworks to critically examine the political economy of the Choctaws from their early life in Mississippi to the late twentieth century. Forcibly relocated in the early 19th Century from the lower Mississippi River Valley to Indian Territory (now Southeast Oklahoma, the Choctaws are today a dynamic and complex rural ethnic community in Oklahoma. This text models the tribe's social change from indigenous nation, to tribe, to ethnic minority community status. Many Choctaws are today employed as nonunionized laborers for large corporations, including Weyerhaeuser Timber Company and Tyson Foods, yet they still seek to retain some aspects of their traditional culture, through particpation in local church-based communities, regional tribal centers, and through tribal activities headquartered at Durant, Ok. Combining participant observation anthropological fieldwork and archival research, the author uncovers the processes by which the local economic and social practices of the Chocatws have become intertwined with, and, in some respects, dependent on corporate, extra-local, and global economic forces. The pathos of the tribe's struggle in the twentieth century is documented first-hand, while at the same time generalizeable conclusions are modelled through charts and maps. A thorough and passionate exploration.

A very good updated version for the maya enthusiast,you'll enjoy it page after page,Martin and Grobe has done it again!!!

The First Edition Chronicle has become the standard reference text for students, professionals and enthusiasts of Maya history and epigraphy. Of course I immediately ordered the revised edition since the authors are eteemed contributors to the rapidly evolving field of Maya studies. In reading the revised edition I am re-discovering the exceptional readibility of what could be a dry, historical account.