North America Books

Outstanding book; fascinating stories told by an amazing woman; so important for minority women writers and all serious readers.

Wonderful book. Gives insight into not only Lakota Cultural Past and Present, but very personal looks at life through the eyes of a Lakota woman at a tenuous time in US history.

"American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings" is a collection of pieces by Zitkala-Sa (also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin). The book is edited, with an introduction and notes by, Cathy N. Davidson and Ada Norris. Born on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota in 1876, Zitkala-Sa worked as a writer and activist for Native American causes, and died in 1938.

The editors divide Zitkala-Sa's writings into 4 main sections: "Old Indian Legends," "American Indian Stories," "Selections from _American Indian Magazine_," and "Poetry, Pamphlets, Essays, and Speeches." I really loved the legends, which are Zitkala-Sa's versions of tales that had been passed down orally. These stories are full of magic, transformations, fantastic beings, and amazing feats. Many tales feature Iktomi, a "spider fairy" who is a mischievous trickster.

The section on stories features realistic narratives of Indian lives. All together these stories create a vivid and fascinating portrait, with details about Indian crafts, food preparation, and social customs. The many nonfiction pieces in the book cover a number of topics, such as Native American soldiers in World War I, Native American religion, and Indian political issues. Many of these pieces show the author to be a really forward thinking woman with a global perspective; her acknowledgement of the "universal cry for freedom from injustice" really seems to foreshadow the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other great activist-writers of the later 20th century.

The book is full of great supplemental materials: a comprehensive introduction; a lengthy bibliographic list of suggestions for further reading; an informative note on the texts; and endnotes. Zitkala-Sa is truly a fascinating figure. As the book's introduction notes, she "trod the unstable terrain between radicalism, separatism, assimilationism, and intermittent conservatism." The American Indian experience as embodied in her writings shows both fascinating parallels and contrasts with other ethnic American experiences. I consider this book a valuable contribution to Native American studies, women's studies, and American literature; I recommend it highly both for classroom use and individual reading.

Zitkala-Sa: American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings edited with an introduction and notes by Cathy N. Davidson and Ada Norris. Highly recommended.

Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), a South Dakota Sioux (through her mother; her father was white) born in 1876, the year of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, was an educator, musician, writer, and activist. She served as the secretary and treasurer of the Society of American Indians (SAI) and as editor of SAI's American Indian Magazine.

This collection of Zitkala-Sa's work includes background information about the author; a chronology of contemporary events; selections from "Old Indian Legends" (retellings of oral story traditions); "American Indian Stories"; selections from American Indian Magazine; and some of her poetry, pamphlets, essays, and speeches.

"Old Indian Legends" introduces Sioux traditions, including Iktomi (a trickster who often takes the form of a spider), Iya the glutton (able to consume whole villages), and the characters of the Sioux world-coyotes, ducks, the terrifying Red Eagle and the stranger who slays it, turtles, toads, mice, bears, badgers, and more. While at first these traditions and stories may strike the outsider as different and alien, to some extent they can evoke some European fairy tale traditions (which also may seem alien to modern sensibilities). Some of the most charming, like "Dance in a Buffalo Skull," are written in human terms but have no human characters. "Dance," with its "two balls of fire" growing "larger and brighter" and building of suspense, is an excellent short horror story as well.

The editors note that Zitkala-Sa "makes significant changes to the traditional tales in order to address key political and social issues . . . specifically, land infringement, challenges to tribal sovereignty, and the effects of missionary boarding schools on Yankton or Sioux culture more generally." Careful in her use of her second language, English, Zitkala-Sa makes a telling transposition in her preface to "Old Indian Legends"; the Indian is the "little black-haired aborigine," while the European-American is the "blue-eyed little patriot." Can the people who subjugate and destroy the original natives of the land be anything more than "little" patriots? How great can their patriotism be? The answer is implicit, but Zitkala-Sa believed the old Indian legends belong as much to him simply because of "our near kinship with the rest of humanity" and because "After all, he [the Indian] seems at heart much like other peoples."

Several of "American Indian Stories" (which established Zitkala-Sa's literary reputation) are mostly autobiographical. Some describe her representative experience at a Quaker boarding school in Wabash, Indiana. In these, Zitkala-Sa masterfully makes the reader feel how shocking and horrifying our comfortable culture was to children who grew up in a different-but comfortable-culture, beginning with the cutting of her hair. There are the "loud, metallic voice" of the bell and the "annoying clatter of shoes on bare floors." There is always a "clash of harsh noises"-but mostly there is the "murmuring of an unknown tongue." Zitkala-Sa and others are lured to the school by the promise of "red apples"-a clear reference to Genesis. She refers to her own culture for her revenge on the devil.

The most poignant tale, one that is frequently anthologized, is "The Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star Woman," in which a woman must obtain rights she never would have needed but for white man's law through the trickery of two Indian men who have learned dishonesty in the white men's schools. "A Warrior's Daughter," also often anthologized, tells of an Indian woman who takes action and therefore fate into her own hands-Zitkala-Sa's prescription for women and for her people.

"Selections from American Indian Magazine" and "Poetry, Pamphlets, Essays, and Speeches" are largely exhortations and expositions of Zitkala-Sa's viewpoint. In "The Red Man's America," she satirizes "My Country, 'tis of Thee" to reflect the Indian's disenfranchisement-a favourite theme. Although her advocacy of Indian citizenship was not shared by all Indians (for example, the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy), Zitkala-Sa felt that, without that right in their own country, Indians would continue to languish unnecessarily as wards of the state, without power or basic rights in a democratic land. Other topics include warnings against the use of peyote; the bravery of Indian soldiers during WWI as well as the place that bravery should have earned the Indian in American society and the brotherhood of man; the need for Indians to become educated and to learn English (her own painful school experience notwithstanding); and the Black Hills claim and similar injustices, such as theft of Ute grazing land, the laws against Indian dance, and the lost treaties of the California Indians. To Zitkala-Sa, Indians were not on an even playing field with whites and, until they took action to educate themselves, secure their rights, and obtain the power of legislative and legal representation, they would continue to be helpless to manage their future.

I recommend that you read Zitkala-Sa together with On the Rez, Ian Frazier's description of today's life on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Together, they tell a tragic tale of the past 130 years that does not bode well for the "brotherhood of man."

Diane L. Schirf, 22 September 2003.

There are two short stories by Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) that have greatly effected my consciousness.

"Why I Am a Pagan," writen for the Atlantic Monthly in 1902 is a brilliant essay. It deals with the spritual independence of Native Americans. An independence found outside the walls of a church, as Bonnin herself writes:

"A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan."

Her voice is innocently defiant, because she is a native of a land under the occupation of a foreign government. Only by being conquered are her beliefs, and customs, found to be immoral. To hold on to them in the face of oppression takes great courage.

This theme is continued in another short story "The School Days of an Indian Girl" (Atlantic Monthly, 1900). In this short story, Zitkala-Sa, writes about the experience of a young Native girl going to a distant "White" school. The story hits upon the cultural clashes that occur.

At home the young Native girl is the apple of her mother's eye. Taken from her home she becomes a subject to authority. Zitkala-Sa describes the event of her hair being cut at the "White" school:

"I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities."

Zitkala-Sa's writing is unrelentingly honest, but has some comedic tones in it as well.

This is a detailed and heartbreaking story of the failure and collapse of the American steel industry. Sometimes the details are more than one needs to know, but this book will serve as an excellent case history on the underlying reasons for the transfer of the "rust-belt" jobs overseas, and now America's reliance of foreigners to produce the goods we use, in return for pieces of paper (Bonds) giving them claims on American wealth.

Mr. Hoerr tries to write a dispassionate history, but it is difficult in the face of such monumental stupidity and greed. "A vibrant forty-six mile stretch of river valley, providing primary jobs for over thirty-five thousand steel employees... would be devastated and expunged from economic memory in less than five years." "After that, the opportunities are limitless... from here to there where McDonald's needs someone to serve the one-trillionth burger." (p12-13).

The author was a reporter during this period, and apportions blame to both the steel company management and the unions, but clearly reserves his primary animus for management. They saw labor as an undifferentiated mass of dumb "hunkies", the pejorative term for people of Slavic origins, who only needed to take orders. That attitude was repaid, as Mr. Hoerr says: "I have known only two major corporations that actually engendered feelings of hatred among their employees, GM and US Steel." (p206) Management eventually acquiesced to the form, but not the substance of labor participation by forming "Labor-Management Participation Teams," but usually ignored their recommendations. There was also a willful neglect in spending the capital to modernize the operations - USX finally proposed building the first continuous caster plant in the Mon Valley in 1986! - at the very end. (p550) Instead it infuriated the labor force by spending its capital in buying Marathon Oil.

The author had access, and draws telling portraits of the principal actors involved, from the USW's I.W. Abel, Lloyd McBride, Lynn Williams, Bernard Kleiman and Edmund Ayoub. On the management side there was David M. Roderick, Thomas Graham and David Hoag.

I worked in US Steel's Homestead Works for two summers during my college years - '65 and '66. At the time I thought this work was the most "real", and those mills would be eternal - America would always need steel, and would obviously need to produce it. Fortunately the avenging angel passed me by, as I decided this work was not for me. Once again another "wolf" has finally come to America - this time high (and higher still) gas prices, which will force more economic dislocations that prudent planning could have avoided. Will American society be able to organize its economy prudently, to truly meet the real needs of its citizens, and minimize massive dislocations? This book is an excellent story of previous follies - can we learn from them?

Coke works at Hazelwood closing chapter on demise on steel in entire region. Read also: Homestead, with new forward by author, best one-town summary

I read this years ago, and I thought it was an excellent analysis of the collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh, filled with compelling tales of individual people.

The books feels like a Greek tragedy, in which the protagonists are doomed to a slow slide towards the edge of a cliff. Institutionalized conflict overcomes the efforts of people from both labor and maangement to halt, or at least slow the inevitable slide.

For people who think that the current dot.com crash is a serious downturn, this book offers a very good counter-perspective. When an area loses 100K jobs in 10 years, and whole towns essentially close, that's a *real* downturn.

On the other hand, there's always hope. Pittsburgh has bounced back, and has a much more diversified economy. The last time I visited, I could see the sky, which was more difficult in the steel days. To grasp those days, either see the early Tom Cruise movie "All The Right Moves", or for depth, read this book.

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn about what went wrong in this basic industry. Not only a study of the collapse of the steel industry in the Mon Valley, the book is also a study of the pain of postindustrialization that swept the country in the 1980's. Esentially, the author is writing about a national trend, but focuses on the Pittsburgh area, which is really a microcosm. It is also a good look at what happens when unions and management can't get their acts together.

My dad - who died a couple of years ago - published this book. He was very proud of it, and I think he would have been very pleased to see that Amazon customers are responding to it favorably.

My father told me that no Irishman lets the truth stand in the way of a good story. Who knows what of history is true in any culture. This book recognizes it and makes it an excellent blend and easy reading.

Seumus MacManus is a great story teller in the finest of the shanachie tradtion. This is history through story telling. Most is factual, but the folklore is weaved into the telling of the tale. The descriptions of the life and work of Daniel O'Connell are priceless. As a boy, growing up, I was never certain of what was real and what was fanciful about my Irish heritage. But, isn't that much of the charm of the Irish? I highly recommend this book to the reader who wants to be entertained and disdains dry history books. This is a fun read and a wonderful way to learn of the surprising and incredibly interesting history of an amazing people. I also recommend a new book by Frank Delaney, Ireland, published in 2004. Read it and you will understand why I prefer my history learning to include people like the Shanachies who passed on the oral traditions. But, if you really want to learn about the Irish, go to Ireland, and let the people tell you of their history and culture. I learned more in 16 days in Ireland than anything I have ever read. It is a proud culture of wonderful people. It is important for the reader to know that this was published in 1921 and reflects the attitudes of that time in Ireland.

A classic work of Irish-American partisan history. This was the Irish history taught at our grandparents knee and stories both whispered and shouted at many an auld shebeen. Unfortunately, much of it is highly exagerated and based more upon cultural politics than verifiable history. There is no doubt that the history of the English occupation has been long and cruel, but that in and of itself does not make all things Irish angelic. According to the poet MacManus, Ireland before 1169 was an idylic wonderland inhabited by saints and scholars and noble warriors. Do not misunderstand: I love this book. I retell these tales to any and all who will listen. But it is not history as much as folklore. His dedication to his deceased bride- the poet Ethna Carberry- is touching and sad, but gets obsessive as she is mentioned in almost every chapter. My old copy - 1921- contains blank pages in the back with the instructions to paste the newsclippings about the Treaty there. This book is perhaps one of the last places one can find the stories of Fin MacCool, St. Patrick, Owen Roe O'Neil, Patrick Sarfield and the Fenians all in one volume, and each capter ws writen by different experts (and Nationalists).

The gentle nature of the Irish people is greatly emphasized in this book. The ideas of democracy were practiced in ancient Ireland, according to MacManus. Women were treated as equals in a time when they were but chattle in other areas of the world. The desire to aquire knowledge is clearly evident in the way the scholars of celtic culture were respected and looked to for direction. I was amazed by the Englishmen that participated in the destruction of Irish culture. In particular, Sir Walter Raleigh and the masacre of the Spanish soldiers that came to assist the rebellion of the English invasion of Ireland. That is a part of history not taught in American schools today. We were taught that Raleigh was an heroic man. This book opened my eyes to the true barbarian he was. These are only a few of the details that shocked and interested me about my heritage. I am still reading and anticipate the aditional information I to come.

Genocide has recently become an issue again in current events. The Yugoslavians are having at the Albanians. Africans have and are decimating Africans. Germans have reduced Jewish and Roman Catholic numbers efficiently and effectively. Spanish, French, Scandanavian and English swacked the native Americans and their cultures from Alaska to the southern most end of South America. It's an old story. The English are not alone in their chapters. In fact, they still pompously and righteously perpetuate their own form of genocide at the hands of the native Irish, as they have with South Africans and Indians.

Seumas MacManus allows this to be perfectly clear, not as a biased self appointed judge, but as a historian making available in print information previously unavailable to me and others of Irish descent who have lost their roots because they've been hacked away from them by shame.

It seems once again unjust that a work which salutes the dignity, power and grace of a people is left to die its own death and is no longer published. I was looking for a copy to purchase so I could leave it for my children and their children. I know of no shenachies to continue the tales. Another positive cultural influence destroyed by the insecure British. Just think of what could have been if the British weren't so afraid of the people they didn't understand and therefor massacred and worked with them toward their mutual benefit. We'll never know.

Wonderful history of the native Indians of the Connecticut River Valley and their ancestors from Canada. As you read each chapter, the author provides you with a visual view of the life of her family and those who played a part in their lifetime. You are left with a great respect for your environment and the care that all of us need to take with it or we may loose it. Ms Parker causes you to pause and smell the sweetgrass, listen to the crunch of snow under your feet and appreciate every living thing for the part each plays in our existence. A thoroughly enjoyable book!

Wonderful history of the native Indians of the Connecticut River Valley and their ancestors from Canada. As you read each chapter, the author provides you with a visual view of the life of her family and those who played a part in their lifetime. You are left with a great respect for your environment and the care that all of us need to take with it or we may loose it. Ms Parker causes you to pause and smell the sweetgrass, listen to the crunch of snow under your feet and appreciate every living thing for the part each plays in our existence. A thoroughly enjoyable book!

Aunt Sarah Woman of the Dawnland was a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to read a book that will give you the opportunity to learn and be amazed at the same time. This book tells the life story of Sarah, a Native American Healing Woman and the 108 years that she lived. The author really put her heart and soul in writing this book. I don't want to reveal too much. I just want to say this is a must read book!

Wonderful history of the native Indians of the Connecticut River Valley and their ancestors from Canada. As you read each chapter, the author provides you with a visual view of the life of her family and those who played a part in their lifetime. You are left with a great respect for your environment and the care that all of us need to take with it or we may loose it. Ms Parker causes you to pause and smell the sweetgrass, listen to the crunch of snow under your feet and appreciate every living thing for the part each plays in our existence. A thoroughly enjoyable book!

I was at the Big E in Springfield last year (1998) and I saw a Native American woman that I was compelled to speak with. Her story started coming out at the beginning of the conversation and continues with me to this day. In between I read this book and it was inspiring and yet historical. It was nice to read something about Native Americans that was positive; something that showed their love and devotion to their families; something that talked about their culture; something that spoke about their spirit; something that spoke about the early settlers from their perspective..... I could go on an on. If you want a book that you won't be able to put down -- this is it. If you liked Angela's Ashes and the other McCourt books, you will love this. If you are a Native American you will finally be proud. If you are a human, you will relate to this story. It can have a profound effect on your life.

I like reading about other people's experiences in the spirtual realm. This is a good book about following your inner intuitions and getting back in touch with the root matters of life. A bit depressing at times, supporting at others, this book makes for a great read to add to your spiritual repretoir.

Spirituality lived in real life; the way this man literally follows his dream was so inspiring my husband and I set out on a journey of our own especially to meet the writer.

Spirituality lived in real life; the way this man literally follows his dream was so inspiring my husband and I set out on a journey of our own especially to meet the writer.

I could not put the book down. He had a spiritual repeative dream an he followed it across the country. You must read the book, I don't want to give anything away. Very spiritual. I want to know where the Totem is , Jonathon .

Transcending time, space and material reality, this author takes a giant leap of faith by following his divine visions and dreams to fulfill an ancient Hopi prophecy. His nearly 10 year journey takes him through a series of spiritual awakenings and mystical revelations that compel the author to carve an enormous totem pole which must then be transported from his home in Maine, to an unknown location in Arizona.

This book stirs not only the longing to believe in guidance from a higher source, but also the awakening to the understanding of a greater purpose that we are here to serve. From the mystical to the practical, Jonathon shares his emotions, pain, doubts and fears. An ordinary man (an artist and a carpenter) with an extraordinary gift of vision, he ultimately helps us to understand the power of our spiritual connection to one another and to other frequencies of existence within our universe. Never again will I feel afraid to trust in the divine! This book has answered so many questions about the meaning of life and the discovery of true bliss. A must read for anyone who wishes to rise above the fear and control consciousness of planet earth, to reconnect with the essence of the divine.

We used this book every day - and usually more than once. It is filled with great suggestions and recommendations. We found a few entries "outdated," but that can be expected. The suggestions for which shops to visit in small and large cities I found to be particularly helpful. Best book I have ever bought for travel.

Best Places Alaska is an outstanding travel guide that features only the 'best' restaurants, lodgings, and destinations in Alaska, including guides and outfitters in its lists of recommendations for particular Alaskan regions. An excellent, involving survey of Alaska's best places, Best Places Alaska is a recommended take-along tote.

A fantastic guidebook describing some of the off beat places in Alaska. If you want the true Alaskan experience, get this book. It contains over 200 restaurant and lodging reviews and stories of the 'best' places in Alaska. One of the three must travel books (Milepost, Discovering Denali, and Best Places Alaska) if you are going to the Last Frontier.

When planning our Alaska vacation to celebrate my parent's 50th anniversary, we bought this for them to read (since they don't use the internet). They read it with regards to all the stops on our itinerary for the cruise/land package we were taking and found it tremendously helpful!

I have to admit. I went to Alaska alone without a guidebook. But I had a great time anyway! When I came home, I decided to go back again, but this time with a guidebook. After going through many of the guides, we choose this one, because it was written by people who live and work in Alaska. It's full of practical tips ("Bears and Humans), offbeat trivia ("Chicken"), and subtle information ("Eskimo Etiquette"). From small towns way up north, to the rugged beauty of the Kenai Peninsula, and to the urban fun of Anchorage, this guide covers it all. Read this, and you'll be calling the airlines to book your flight the next week!

THIS BOOK IS ANOTHER MANDATORY READING FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN THE EXCHANGE OF CULTURES OF THE INDIGENOUS OF TURTLE ISLAND AND THE AFRICAN, WHICH HAS BEEN GOING ON BEFORE THAT THUG COLUMBUS CAME OVER HERE.

Until now I have only read excerpts from bell hooks' works. Then I recently saw a C-Span program in which bell hooks led a discussion with a college audience. Reminded of the intriguing excerpts I had read, I chose Black Looks as my first full encounter with this intriguing woman's thoughts.

I did not examine the readers' comments on Black Looks until completing the book, but I too would like to take the opportunity to give the book my whole-hearted endorsement for everyone's perusal.

Unlike the reader who began a review highlighting his leftist political affiliation and interracial marriage/family, I DO believe that this book was intended for that individual reader, as it was intended for me, a white female -- and for all men and women of all colors, backgrounds, and sexual orientations. One's skin color, (marriage) partner, children, class status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and gender, among many other characteristics, do not determine one's dedication to overcoming the racist, heterosexist, capitalist patriarchy. Indeed, I think that this idea is a theme running throughout Black Looks, as evidenced in bell hooks' essays on Clarence Thomas and Madonna.

I do not find incivility in bell hooks' thoughtful expressions and critiques. Rather, I find a much-needed naming of the incivilities that happen to people in this world, due to various "-ism"s and those who espouse them.

Complaints of "bias" or "slant" in bell hooks' essays and other works seem nonsensical to me, when I recall that no human being's thoughts, feelings, and perspective are "objective." Moreover, "objectivity" is not a quality that one desires in cultural criticism, which functions to set forth an alternative point of view that is so often silenced. An individual who feels the need for "objectivity" in Black Looks might seriously question whether any book, television program, song, or other form of media is "objective," including those forms of communication that comprise mass media.

I think that an individual who can accept that this book is for him/her can also begin to look at mass media with a more critical gaze, an activity that is sorely needed after the hours of unquestioning consumption of TV/movies that fills the evenings and weekends of many Americans.

I'm biracial . . . my father is white and my mother is black, Latina, and Asian. hooks makes us look deeply and critically at the linkages of race, class, gender, and sexuality in ways that are painfully honest and moving. Oppression is never an easy topic. As she has stated, reading hooks' work should make us feel angry, sad, & uncomfortable. Finally, an intellectual who goes beyond the "taken-for-granted" simplistic non-analysis and makes us THINK DEEPLY! This book is a classic!

The book speaks for itself. There aren't enough adjectives in the english language to describe the dynamics of this book. I don't have anything more to say,except 'READ IT.'

The cover of this book caught my attention at the library, so I just had to check it out. I must say, Bell Hooks's ideas and opinions are right on the money. She mentions issues such as black male masculinity, feminism, and racism and breaks them down very well. She's not the average traditional black feminist. She's not afraid to talk bad about white folks (like Madonna) and she's brave enough to use the word "white supremacy"; not in a militant way, but more reserved. It's easy to tell she's a liberal, but she's not restricted to traditional left-wing philosophy because of her strong Afro-centric view-points. This is a must read for all Black people, especially Black women who hardly have any intellectual role-model to look up to.

The essays and poems in this collection, which would make a good gift book, are meaningful, and the American Indian tone is meditative and enriching. Even the cover, in dark colors and smooth to the hand, encourages contemplation.

This book is a beautiful collection of stories and references to ceremonies, a good addition to any library of books on native ways or shamanism. It is not a "cookbook" of rituals or ceremonies, but a book that honors the beliefs and energies behind the ceremonies as important.

The primal wisdom that emanates from these ancient teachings lifts up the spiritual practice of reverence-one that is often lacking in modern times. Horn demonstrates a kind of radical amazement, a deep feeling tinged with both awe and wonder as he sees the sacred in all things. These ceremonies touch the heart because they arise out of a felt sense of participation in the universe, a kinship with all beings and with matter.

Anyone wanting ceremonial richness in their own lives will cherish this book and will feel emboldened to start where they are right now-even in the middle of a city, far from the kind of natural surroundings available to the ancients. "It is the spirit of the ceremony that is most important," reassures a grandmother. This is treasure to own and consult, a treasure to give.-SA

The Book Of Ceremonies is an intensely sensitive, reverent collection of Native American sacred songs, poems, stories, observations, and ceremonies. It's prayerful tone is beautifully underlined by the delicate, perfect black and white art work by the author's son, Carises Horn. Drawing from a variety of sources, The Book Of Ceremonies unifies and presents thoughts on Preparing, Greeting and Gratitude, Love, Marriage and Divorce, Birth and Death, Dreams and Visions, and Seasons and Healing. An additional list of recommended reading includes Native Heart: An American Indian Odyssey by Gabriel Horn, and other selected books by Kent Nerburn, Jason Gardner, and Loree Boyd. The Book Of Ceremonies is a beautiful book to be treasured and shared.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

Clear instructions, and helpful advice. The many humorous asides and fascinating photographs (black and white) make for great reading even if you never intend to actually make a bow. Mr. Hamm also covers arrows and traditional Native American bow decorations and quivers. This book will be of infinite help to those intrepid bowmakers out there.

Jim Hamm's book is very entertaining as well as enlightening reading. As an archeologist I am indebted to this author for filling in many blanks for me. My understanding of a primary technology for prehistoric peoples has increased many folds due to the work and clear presentation in Hamm's book. In my two professions as Archeologist and Indian Arts Dealer as well as an archer, this publication has filled a void in knowledge. I'd finished re-reading "Ishi in Two Worlds" just prior to picking up Hamm's book. Jim Hamm has provided understanding of "primitive" lifeways, technology, and the skill and diversity regarding a fundamental weapon and food gathering tool for me. I'd begun to read only to be able to comment to customer's inquiry about the title in our Indian Arts shop, but Hamm's engaging writing style and obvious command of his subject drew me in. I recommend the title not just for those who would build their own bow and arrows, but also for archeologists, anthropologists, pre-historians and the intellectually curious. "Bow & Arrows of the Native Americans" would be an excellent supplementary text for academic Anthropology courses. Could we hope for a publisher to overcome the "out of print" condition for this book? Of course, I am now intrigued by the other Hamm titles.

Every book but this one says simply to cut a branch, work it a bit, cut some sticks for arrows and have at itBR hamm tells how to do it righBrHis methods are not easy, but then, nothing worthwhile isBRInstructions are clear and complete, however, discussion of point making is limitedBRThe only things omitted were the cut fingers and blistersBRFrustration is well coveredBRPThis is not a book for someone wanting an analysis of bow styles among the different groups, but a book for someone who wants to make a "Primitive Bow" that shoots true, fast, and accurately , and is adequate for big game hunting BRHighly recommended

The book was wonderful. Even if I never get to make my own bow, I'am still glad I bought the book. Very well written and easy to understand. The last chapter is worth the price of the book.

This book is well done. Full of good information for the beginning bowyer. The only criticism I have is that it does not cover all of the woods used by the american indian. overall I rate the book as excellent.

This is a unique piece of literature that gives you a sense of pride for those unsung heroes of the past who made significant history. Great pictures and autobiographical sketches. This should be in every American's household library!

"Here is a picture of the emergent civil rights movement plunging forward, adeptly taking its strategy of nonviolent direct action to the national stage" writes Eric Etheridge in the introduction to this wonderful book.

Etheridge found approximately 320 mug shots of Freedom Riders who had been arrested in Mississippi in 1961. Ironically, the mug shots were warehoused by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a Mississippi agency formed in 1956 "to protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi...from encroachment thereon by the Federal Government." The Commission got the mug shots and arrest records from Jackson and Mississippi State police. (The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights is an excellent history of the Commission.)

Etheridge has worked as a magazine story editor and on various Web-related projects. He was able to track down and photograph and interview more than 100 Freedom Riders. Many of the modern photos appear next to the original mug shot, as well as the all of mug shots of every Freedom Rider arrested in 1961 in Jackson.

A sample entry (for Larry Bell) consists of the two photos and the following text:

"Born: March 5, 1942, in Monroe, GA. Grew up there and in Los Angeles, where his family moved in 1950.

"Then: Freshman, Los Angeles City College.

"Since then: Returned to Los Angeles, working as a janitor during the day and attending City College at night. In 1966 was one of the first blacks to go to work for United Airlines in California. When he retired in 2000, he was a flight-attendant supervisor and also trained newly hired flight attendants. Still lives in Los Angeles.

"Quote: The clothing that they gave us in Parchman was a t-shirt that was military green and some green boxer shorts. No shoes, no. And as we began to protest, they took them from us and left us with nothing. Then they took the mattress, so now we had to lie on a metal slab with them little round holes--and boy, you talk about some hard sleeping at night? When you're sleeping on the thing, there's that indentation where your skin goes through that little round hole, and there you are, half of you is like being suffocated and the other half is being cut out, you couldn't sleep any way you tried. So we sat up and we debated all night, and we got more boisterous in our songs."

As Etheridge notes: "The irony here is that the Sovereignty Commission documented the success of the Civil Rights movement instead of defeating it, and left behind a great visual record and the names of everybody involved."

There are two excellent histories of the Freedom Riders: Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Pivotal Moments in American History).

Etheridge's excellent book adds a human element of great power to the story.

***

Reviewer's Disclosure: I worked on various Civil Rights matters in Mississippi between 1961 and 1970 as a law student and later as young lawyer.


Robert C. Ross 2008

My review is not in anyway impartial or detached. Forty seven years ago tomorrow (June 2) myself and five fellow Riders were arrested in Jackson. Three members of our group are no longer with us today, with this disclosure in mind I will now review "Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders" by Eric Etheridge.
The book is beautifully printed and the portraits are of outstanding quality. The text is, of course, minimal but to me at least, provacative in the extreme. The interviews Mr. Etheridge was able to conduct and include were the flesh on the bones. Incidently, I spoke with Mr. Ehteridge and was advised that the interviewing connected with his project is continuing and they will eventually show up on the internet.
This book is a perfect complement to Raymond Arsenault's "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice"(see my review). For primary history enthusiasts, I cannot strongly enough recommend: Mississippi Department Archives and History (MDAH Digital Collection). To get a feel for the real situation in Mississippi of what segregation meant in that state.
Perusing the portraits was like a portal back into time. Bittersweet memories of accomplishment and failure. Yes, we accomplished the immediate objective of integrating interstate travel and in the ensuing years(at the cost of a lot of blood) removed most overt forms of discrimination. But, sadly if one takes the time and energy to peer into her or his surroundings(locally and globally) the idealism of that time is rarely observed.
WE SHALL OVERCOME?

Captures the youthful optimisim of peole who knew they were doing the right thing and were willing to spend time in jail for their belief in the equality of human beings. The police mug shots, although very impersonal, convey the moral presence of these young people. The contemporary interviews and photos give the reader a glimpse of another era. You can also look at this book as an art book......the black and white photos really draw you into the written text. I think this makes a wonderful coffee table book meant to stimulate conversation and would be a great gift for a graduating student during these times when again it seems like our country has lost it's moral compass.

Breach of Peace is a great book for several reasons. It is beautifully designed and printed, with very high-quality reproductions of Etheridge's exceptional contemporary portraits of 1961's freedom riders and of their mug shots, recovered from the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which had been formed in 1956 to protect the state from Federal encroachments like the recent Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The featured freedom riders' pages display their portraits and mug shots, their stories then and now, and a quote from the interviews which Etheridge conducted as he traveled through the United States to meet them. Each story is moving but the accumulated effect of reading all of the stories is almost breathtaking. Courageous in their youth, these exemplary Americans have gone in many directions but all seem to have dedicated their lives to freedom, education, and equality.

You see in the mug shots dozens of youthful citizens who proudly traveled to Mississippi, knowing they would be arrested and imprisoned, staring with heads held high at the police cameras. There was no shame and little apparent fear, just a confidence that they were engaged in a mighty cause. Of course none of them could have imagined that these mug shots would have been preserved and found more than forty years later.

The juxtaposition of the mug shots with Etheridge's modern portraits is fascinating. I might find interesting any collection of portraits of people matched with their younger selves. But Etheridge's multitonal black and white pictures are particularly beautiful, and they work incredibly well next to the stark black and white mug shots of 1961.

Breach of Peace is organized chronologically, so that you see how various groups of freedom riders arrived, week after week, in Mississippi, and how the youth movement, first mostly black, led to the later participation of more young whites and then older, already-engaged progressives. At the end of the book, there are a number of extended interviews.

I think this book would be a cherished gift for many people, including teenagers and college students who may be questioning their innate idealism in the presence of what might appear to them to be a cynical and dystopian culture. There have been few books which so successfully allow us to observe dozens of people, initially attracted to participate in a seemingly impossibly challenging confrontation with racism, who have committed their lives to improving our society.