Editor: Karl Kroeber, Columbia University
Bibliographer: LaVonne Ruoff, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
Editorial Ass't.: Frank Palmeri

        With this second issue of the revived ASAIL Newsletter we introduce what we hope to be continuing reports on publications, and sources for publication, by Native American authors and about Native American literatures. Any information on these matters will be gratefully received. We hope, also, to continue to expand the number of our reviews.
        As indicated in the last issue, our policy is to send the Newsletter free to anyone wishing it. We plan to improve the quality of our production and to extend the number of pages in each annual volume: there will be a supplement to this issue distributed in December. We are soliciting Foundation support, but in the meantime we will accept with gratitude contributions toward publication expenses anyone cares to make. Checks should be payable to the Editor, ASAIL Newsletter.
        Our first issue of Volume II, appearing next spring, will be devoted principally to the Special Sessions at the December MLA convention in Chicago. In our first issue we printed an excellent essay by Elaine Jahner; anyone submitting an essay for publication here should be brief, should enclose a return envelope with adequate postage, and not be impatient for a response. Like our format, our staff is small.

        With this issue, the ASAIL Newsletter introduces a bibliographic section designed to call its readers' attention to new books, periodicals, articles, and dissertations in the field of Native American literature. We would {2} appreciate receiving copies and off-prints of published works as well as announcements of completed dissertations, forthcoming books, and new scholarly projects in the field.
        The bibliographic section of this issue deals with books recently published, forthcoming, not widely known or out of print, and with some useful bibliographies (prices are given when available; articles will be included in subsequent issues). A special section on periodicals follows these notes.

--A. LaVonne Ruoff                  

BOOKS
-Recently Published:

Kegg, Maude (Chippewa). Memories of Indian Childhood in Minnesota, ed. and transcribed by John Nichols. Onamia, Minn.: 1976. Privately printed. 29 pp. $3.00. Stories written in Ojibwe and English. Limited number of copies available from John Nichols, Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada.

Momaday, N. Scott (Kiowa). The Gourd Dancer. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Illus. 64 pp. $6.95 (hb); $2.95 (pb). Poetry.

_________________________. The Names. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Photographs and glossary. 170 pp. $10.00 (hb). Memoir.

_________________________. The Way to Rainy Mountain. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1976. Illus. Al Momaday. 89 pp. $2.95 (pb). Memoir, history, and tales.

Newberry Library Center for the History of the American Indian Bibliographical Series, Francis Jennings, gen. ed. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univ. Press. $3.95 each; $12.50 package price for the five volumes published in 1976:
        Dobyns, Henry R. Native American Historical Demography: A Critical Bibliography. 112 pp.
        Heizer, Robert F. The Indians of California: A Critical Bibliography. 80 pp.
        Helm, June. The Indians of the Subarctic: A Critical Bibliography. 104 pp.
        Iverson, Peter. The Navajos: A Critical Bibliography. 80 pp.
        Tanner, Helen Hornbeck. The Ojibwas: A Critical Bibliography. 88 pp.
Each volume has an essay and alphabetical list of all works cited. Essay citations are keyed to more complete {3} information in the list. Each volume contains a short list of works constituting a basic library collection for that subject area.

Ortiz, Simon J. (Acoma). Going for the Rain. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. 128 pp. $6.95 (hb); $2.50 (pb). Poetry.

Silko, Leslie (Laguna). Ceremony. New York: Viking Press, 1977. $10.00 (hb).

Vizenor, Gerald (Chippewa). Tribal Scenes and Ceremonies. Minneapolis, Minn.: Nodin Press, 1976. 191 pp. 3.95. Collection of previously published articles on contemporary issues and on tribal ceremonies and poetic images. Address: 519 Third St., Minneapolis, Minn. 55401.

Williams, Ted C. (Tuscorora). The Reservation. Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1976. Illus. by author. 254 pp. $12.00 (hb). Autobiography.

-Forthcoming:
Hungry Wolf, Adolf (Blackfoot). The Blood People. New York: Harper & Row. September 1977. 400 pp. $12.95 (hb). History of the Bloods from the final wars of the 19th century to the present.

McNickle, D'Arcy (Flathead). Wind from an Enemy Sky. New York: Harper & Row. December 1977. 256 pp. $7.95 (hb). Fiction. Confrontation between Indians and non-Indians over building of huge dam in sacred mountains of a Northwestern Indian reservation.

Niatum, Duane (Klallam). Digging Out the Roots. New York: Harper & Row. July 1977. 64 pp. $5.95 (hb); $2.25 (pb). Poetry.

Ramsey, Jarold, ed. Coyote Was Going There. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1977. Anthology of oral literature from Oregon.

Stories of Traditional Navaio Life and Culture. Tempe, Ariz.: Navajo Community College Press. June 1977. Accounts given in Navajo by twenty-two consultants and translated into English. Address: 325 East Southern Ave., Suite 11, Tempe, Arizona 85282.

-Now out of Print:
Four American Indian Authors, ed. John Milton. Vermillion, S.D.: Dakota Press, 1974. Poetry of Paula G. Allen, John {4} Baroness, Tad Haycock, and Jeffrey Saunders.

McNickle, D'Arcy (Flathead). Runner in the Sun. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1954.

Russell, Norman H. (Cherokee). Indian Thoughts: The Small Songs of God. LaCrosse, Wisconsin: Juniper Press, 972.

-Selected Books Published Prior to 1976:
        Because the following books were published by small, non-commercial, or Canadian university presses, they may not be generally known.

Barbeau, Marius. Tsmi syan Myths. National Museum of Canada, Bull. #174, Anthropological Series, No. 51. Ottawa, Canada: Dept. of Northern Affairs and Nat. Resources, 1961. 97 pp. Collection of oral literature, illustrated with photographs of native carvings depicting the myths. Address: Canadian Govt. Bookshop, Daly Bldg., MacKenzie and Rideau Streets, Ottawa, Canada. Appears as part of Publications of the American Ethnological Society, XVIII, ed. Marian W. Smith: The Tsmishian: Their Arts and Music.

Beavert, Virginia, project director (Yakima). Anadu Iwaeha, The Way It Was: Yakima Indian Legend Book. Yakima, Washington: Franklin Press, 1974. 225 pp. Price dependent on discount schedule. Includes a preface on brief history of the Yakima, introduction on traditional Indian child raising. Legends and stories divided into those of explanation, with a lesson, and about landmarks. Contains biographical infonmation on storytellers, list of tribal illustrators, and glossary. Address: The Consortium of Johnson-O'Malley Committee of Region Four, State of Washington, P.O. Box 341, Toppenish, Washington 98948.

Markoosie (Eskimo). Harpoon of the Hunter. Montreal: McGill-Queens Univ. Press, 1970. Illus. Germaine Arnaktauyak. 81 pp. First Eskimo fiction published in English; available in paperback.

Mourning Dove (Humishumi), comp. (Okanogano). Tales of the Okanogano, ed. Donald M. Hines. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1976. 182 pp. Art work by Harvey West. Thirty-eight tales, collected and translated by Humishumi (d. 1936). An enlarged version of Coyote Tales, published by Caxton Press, Caldwell, Idaho. Present version reproduces Humishumi's text more accurately than did the earlier version. Address: Box 400, Fairfield Washington 99012.
{5}
Sewid, James (Kwakiutl). Guests Never Leave Hungry. The Autobiography of James Sewid, ed. James Spradley. Montreal: McGill-Queens Univ. Press, 1972. 310 pp. Autobiography.

-Selected Bibliographies:
Hirschfelder, Arlene, comp. American Indian and Eskimo Authors: A Comprehensive Bibliography. New York: Association on American Indian Affairs, 1973. 99 pp. $3.00 (pb). Annotated. Includes information as to whether book is in print, description of contents, tribal affiliation of author, price, and publisher address list. Essential guide to works by Indians. Address: Interbook Inc. 545 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018.

Index to Literature on the American Indian. The Indian Historian Press, 1451 Masonic Ave., San Francisco, CA 94117. Lists yearly current periodicals with American Indian articles.

Marken, Jack W., comp. The Indians and Eskimos of North America: A Bibliography of Books in Print through 1972. Vermillion, S.D.: Dakota Press, 1973. 200 pp. 45.00 (pb). Partially annotated. Divided into bibliographies, handbooks, autobiographies, myths and legends, all other books, and reprints of University of California Series in Ethnology. Entries listed alphabetically. Contains 2-page alphabetical, selected subject index, listed by page number only.

_____________________. "Some Recent Resources in Indian Literature." American Indian Quarterly, 2 (Autumn 1975), pp. 282-89.

National Indian Education Association. Native American Evaluations of Media Materials. Minneapolis, Minn.: NIEA, 1975. 2 vols. $50.00. First edition of Project MEDIA Catalogue. Dictionary catalogue, alphabetically listing subject, title, and author entries; evaluates both print and non-print materials. Each entry contains up to five types of information on the item: bibliographic data (title, author, edition, publisher, price); subjects relevant to Native Americans in the material; Native American tribes represented in the material; evaluation written by Native Americans who are, whenever possible, members of the tribe referred to in the material. {6} Successive editions to be produced from Project MEDIA computer data base annually. Cumulative supplements to be produced quarterly.
        Final (cumulative) supplement to the first edition of Native American Evaluation of Media Materials now available. $20.00. Additional 1,100 media materials; with 2,100 entries of first edition, brings total access to 3,200.
        Address: N.I.E.A., Project Media--Catalogue Department, 1115 Second Avenue, South--2nd Floor, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403.

Richburg, James R. and Phyllis R. Hastings, comp. "Media and the American Indian: Ethnolographical, Historical, and Contemporary Issues." Social Education, 36 (May 1972), pp. 526-533, 562. Includes descriptions of individual films, evaluations, recommended grade levels, and distributor information.

Sayre, Robert F. "A Bibliography and an Anthology of American Indian Literature." College English, 35 (March 1974), pp. 704-706. A brief guide.

"Selective Bibliography of Bibliographies of Indian Materials Eor Adults." American Libraries, 4 (February 1973), pp. 115-117. Prepared by ASD Adult Library Materials Committee, Subcommittee on Materials for American Indians, with annotations by Will and Lee Antell (Chippewa).

Stensland, Anna. Literature by and about the American Indian: An Annotated Bibliography. Urbana, Ill.: NCTE, 1973. 208 pp. $4.95 (pb). Divisions: Books by and about the American Indian, bibliography, study guides to selected texts, biographical information on American Indian authors, basic books for a collection, sources of additional materials, directory of publishers, author and title index. Designed for use by middle-school and high-school teachers, it is nevertheless a valuable guide for college teachers. Unfortunately, it does not indicate which books are out of print.

{7}
PERIODICALS AND SPECIAL ISSUES

        A nationally known Native American poet has pointed out to us that it is not easy even for an Indian already published to have poems and short stories seriously considered by publishers. For beginning Indian writers the situation is worse. Unless Native American writers can establish more outlets for publication of their work it will be difficult to develop talents from which all parts of our society could benefit. There are, fortunately, several admirable publications. Among those cited below we draw attention to two or three representative of the range and variety of American Indian creative vitality. For instance, Time of the Indian, expertly edited by James L. White, a project of COMPAS, Community Programs in the Arts and and Sciences, St. Paul, Minnesota, directed by Molly LaBerge, is a collection of poems and pictures by Indian youngsters, enhanced by fine photographs. Daniel Western's poem "Sacred Songs" is characteristic of the work in this volume.

                 I was born part of this earth.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 My Mother, all living beings.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 My Grandfather, the sky.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 My Father, all creatures of the air.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 The eight Grandfathers.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 The four corners of the earth.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 The great wind giant of the North.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 The red road of the dead.
                 I was born part of this earth.
                 The blue and black road of destruction.
                 I was born part of this earth,
                 The old ones say
{8}
                 the old way's gone,
                 the old ones say.
                 Still,
                 I was born part of this earth.

        Sun Tracks, published by the Amerind Club of the University of Arizona, is an attractive magazine of poetry, art work, essays, stories, photographs. The Fall 1976 issue among other features includes Kiowa legends from The Journey of Tai-Me by N. Scott Momaday, "The Way It Is," nine poems by Nila Northsun, and a conversation with Leslie Marmon Silko. The Spring 1977 issue features a special section of writing by Indian young people.
        Roberta Hill edits Wanbli Ho from the Sinte Gleska College Center in Rosebud, South Dakota. Although Wanbli Ho is by and for Native Americans, it does consider material from non-Indians treating Indian experience and issues. The number for Spring 1976 includes some splendid art work and poems such as this by Joseph Bruchac, "Legends."

                 Pierce to the blood,
                 a stone
                 dropped into a pond:
                 a moment of ripples
                 then, when you look again,
                 part of all
                 that was there before.

                 Sink into your bones,
                 knife driven into Earth

                 you never heard them before
                 yet they have become
                 a part of your heartbeat,
                 a message of more seasons
                 than there are words.

        A final item in this necessarily too selective introduction is The First Skin Around Me, containing poems by twenty-four contemporary poets, including Barney Bush, Joy Harjo, Duane Niatum, Simon Ortiz, for example, edited by James L. {9} White. This impressive collection was published by (and is available from) Dacotah Territory, P.O. Box 775, Moorhead, Minnesota. In future issues we will try to publicize other publications brought to our attention.

PERIODICALS
(with thanks to Joy Harjo, Gerald Hobson, Mark Vinz, and Barney Bush)

"A": A Journal of Contemporary Literature. "A" Press, c/o William Oandasan, Box 311, Laguna, New Mexico 87026. Native-American owned and directed.

Akwesasne Notes. Mohawk Nation. Rooseveltown, New York 13683. Monthly except Feb., Aug., and Nov., free but contributions (money, time, news) asked. Comprehensive newspaper filled with reprints from Indian and non-Indian press and including announcements and calendar--at least 48 pp.

Alcheringa. A journal of Ethno-Poetics, 600 West 163rd St. New York, N.Y. $6.00.

Anishaabe Giigidowen: A Bilingual Newsletter for Ojibwe and Potawatomi Second Language Teachers. 1976.... Contains stories, lessons, announcements, and bibliographies. Address: John Nichols, Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7B 5E1, Canada, or Earl Nyholm, Dept. of Modern Languages, Bemidji State University, Bemidji, Minnesota 56601.

The American Indian. American Indian Center, 3189 16th St., San Francisco, CA 94103. Monthly. $2.00 (includes misc. publications of Indian concern). Newspaper of Indian opinion, poetry, and reprints.

The Aroostook Indian. P.O. Box 223, Houlton, ME 04730. more contribution (free to Indian families in Aroostook Co.). Stenciled newsletter of county and state news with opinion, history, tales, recipes, poems and cartoons.

The Blue Cloud Quarterly. Benedictine Missionary Monks) Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin SD 57251. Quarterly, $1.00 a year. Beautifully designed little booklet with excellent pictorial material. One issue presents songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie with imaginatively chosen photographs from the Archives of the Smithsonian. Another, published poems {10} by students at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Publications. Distribution Div., Editorial and Publications Div., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560.
        Publishes numerous monographs relating to American Indian life and culture. "Applicants for publications are requested to state the grounds for their requests as the Institution is able to supply papers only as an aid to the researchers or studies in which applicants are especially interested." A complete listing of the bulletins can be found in the List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology with Index to Authors and Titles. Prices (for those who do not meet the qualifications to get the bulletins free) are found in the Monthly Catalog. The bulletins cover a variety of anthropological aspects of North, South, and Central American Indian tribes.

Chanta Anumpa (The Choctaw Times). Southeastern Indian

Antiquities Survey, Inc. 1725 Linden, Nashville, TN

37212. $5.00 year or Tribal Council, Route 7, Philadelphia,

Massachusetts.

The Indian. Route 3, Box 9, Rapid City, SD 57701. 12 pp. Monthly, $3.00 year. Valuable newspaper published by the American Indian Leadership Council. Very good roundup of Indian news. Picks up stories and statistics from the straight press as well as Indian thought and reaction. Interesting letter-essays and poems. The newspaper has many announcements of opportunity for Indians and of their achievements.

The Indian Historian. American Indian Historical Society, 1451 Masonic Ave., San Francisco, CA 94117. 40 pp. Quarterly, $5 year. If a library can afford only one publication on this list, it should be this one. Each issue features scholarly articles, which are by Indians, on subjects from pre-Columbian Indian technology to stereotypical treatment of Indians in public school textbooks. There are also stories and poems, as well as book reviews, a column on the arts, and bibliographies. The magazine has a handsome format with striking photo- {11} graphs and illustrations. Annual index in Winter issue.

La Confluencia: A Joural for Culture, Connections, Choices in Today's Southwest, co. ed. Patricia D'Andrea and Susan V. Dewitt. 1976--. Quarterly. $8.00 per year; $6.00 for students and teachers; back issues $2.50. Focus on Southwest: articles, essays, fiction, poetry, case studies, book reviews program notes and descriptions.

Latin American Indian Literatures ed. Juan Adolfo Vazquez and assoc. ed. Eduardo Lozano. 1977--. Semiannual: spring and fall. $5.00 per year; $10.00 for institutions; $2.00 for students; $20.00 and up for sponsors. Stresses bibliographical information. Planned are special numbers on some indigenous literatures as well as regular sections on review articles, books received, new books, special bibliographies, and short reviews. General information on Indian cultures in Latin America or the U.S. included, especially in the Southwest and California. Address: Dept. of Hispanic Languages and Literature, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.

Native American issue of New America: A Review. Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer and Fall, 1976). $2.00. Address: American Studies Dept., University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131.

New Mexico Magazine, published in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Has a poetry section which often publishes American Indian poets.

Puerto del Sol. A Southwestern literary magazine, often publishes American Indian literature. Address is: Puerto del Sol, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M.

Scree. Devoted to publishing American Indian poetry. Address: Duck Down Press, Box 2307, Missoula, MT 59801.

Sun Tracks: An American Indian Literary Magazine. 1971--. American Indian Student Club, Univ. of Arizona. Semiannual (fall and spring). $4.00 per year; back issues $2.00; $20.00 for sponsors. Spring 1976 issue contains an interview with N. Scott Momaday and the fall 1976 with Leslie Silko. Address: SUPO, Box 20788, Tucson, Arizona 85720.

Tawow. Cultural Development Division, Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. 400 Laurier West, Ottawa, 4, ON. Quarterly. $4.00. Attractive, professionally {12} laid out magazine publishing "articles ... in the language of the contributor"--articles on national Indian events, social problems and culture plus book excerpts and reviews, folk tales and artwork.

The Tribal Spokesman. Inter-tribal Council of California. 1518 L Street; Sacramento, CA 95814. Monthly. Free. Tabloid paper paying close attention to California Indians, by area, but including also national news, job opportunities, people and poetry, etc.

Wanbli Ho, published at Sinte Gleska College Center, Rosebud, S.D.

Wassaja. American Indian Historical Society. 1451 Masonic Ave., San Francisco, CA 94117. A very good American Indian newspaper on national current events. First issue Jan., 1973, with 50,000 subscribers.

Yardbird Reader. Literary magazine of minority literature which publishes American Indian literature. Address: Yardbird Publishing Incorporated, Box 2370, Station A, Berkeley, CA 94701.

ITEM: Charles E. Link, Jr. of East Texas State University has made available to us the results of a survey he conducted for the South Central English Association on "Teaching American Indian Literatures" in that area, which includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. Although responses to his questionnaire were not sufficient to be statistically representative, Link's sombre conclusions support the impressions of others who have surveyed the field. As to courses in Native American Literature, he remarks: "There was no general consensus about the rationale of such courses, no particular attempt being made to develop library resources specifically for such studies, and no sanguine expectation that such programs or courses would in the future find a place in the curriculum." Link found further that descriptions of courses offered "indicate some isolated efforts on the parts of a few aficionados to apply temporal salve to some minor contemporary sore-throated call for innovative curriculum; but there is little evidence to support a hope that there is a future abuilding even for these few innovators." And he observes: "Where we {13} do learn that a course or so is being offered, the apparent content might well be labeled `playschool,' and the disciplines required by advanced learning appear to be neglected."

Three essays cited by Lind should be better known: Wilcomb E. Washburn, "American Indian Studies: A Status Report," American Quarterly, August, 1974, pp. 263-274; Francis Paul Prucha, "An Awesome Proliferation of Writing About Indians," The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 23, 1976, pp. 19-20; Rupert Costo, "On Teaching Indian Culture," Wassaja, April, 1976, p. 5.

NEWBERRY NEWS: The Research Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities recently granted $717,723 for the continuation of the Center for the History of the American Indian of the Newberry Library from 1977 to 1980. The Center plans to continue its established activities, such as its fellowship program for scholars and tribal historians, and to develop new programs.
        Chairman's Fellowships are offered to Native Americans in three categories: to individuals who have not yet reached the doctoral level; to scholars or tribal historians who need to work at the Newberry but cannot commit themselves to a year in Chicago; and to train Native American librarians and archivists for tribal and cultural centers.
        There are three other fellowships for which Indian candidates are urged to apply: one Senior Fellowship for eleven months, or two fellowships for six months each, are available for established scholars (max. stipend $20,000); two Intermediate Fellowships for young scholars at the post-doctoral level, or who have virtually completed doctoral dissertations (designed for exceptionally promising young historians just beginning their careers, or for scholars in other disciplines or areas of specialization who wish to develop a new competence in American Indian history, with max. stipend $15,000); one pre-doctoral Fellowship for candidates who have completed all the requirements for the doctorate except the dissertation (max. stipend $7,500).
        For further information write the Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry.

{14}
TITLES IN NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURES FROM SELECTED UNIVERSITY PRESSES

-University of Nebraska Press:

The Sky Clears: Poetry of the American Indians. By A. Grove Day. Brings together more than 200 poems and lyrics from about forty North American tribes. 1964. xiv, 204 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-8032-5047-9) BB 142 $2.45.

Son of Old Man Hat: A Navaho Autobiography. By Left Handed. Recorded and edited by Walter Dyk. The life of a Navaho Indian from childhood to maturity, told with a simplicity as disarming as it is frank. Contains explicit sexual material. 1967. xiv, 378 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-8032-5054-1) BB 355 $ 2.75.

Blackfoot Lodge Tales: The Story of a Prairie People. By George Bird Grinnell. "Fascinating Indian lore, stories, fables and documented accounts of the Blackfoot Tribes as put down by a man ... who knew as much about Indians as any man alive."--Beverly Hills Times. 1962. xviii, 311 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-8032-5079-7) BB 129 $3.50.

By Cheyenne Campfires. By George Bird Grinnell. "A fine collection of the war stories, stories of mystery, hero myths, tales of creation, culture hero stories.... In all probability, most of these would have been lost forever if it were not for [Grinnell's] work." --Journal of the West. 1971. xxiv, 305 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-8032-5746-5) BB 541 $2.25.

Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales with Notes on the Origin, Customs and Character of the Pawnee People. By George Bird Grinnell. Collected by the famed ethnologist, these stories of Indians by Indians "are not just quaint relics of the past; they are a part of us all, a common heritage." --Maurice Frink. 1961. xiv, 417 pp. Cloth (ISBN 0-80320896-0) $14.95; paper (ISBN 0-8032-5080-0) BB 116, $3.95.

The Warrior Who Killed Custer: The Personal Narrative of

Chief Joseph White Bull. Translated and edited by James H. Howard. Fifty-five years after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, a Miniconjou participant drew and annotated a pictographic account of his exploits in which he claimed to have killed General Custer. Includes the original Dakota text and a written winter count. 1968, reissued 1976. xvii, 84 pp. Cloth (ISBN 0-8032-0080-3) $13.95.
{15}
Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer. Interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis. A detailed account of the legendary Battle of Little Big Horn as it was seen by a Cheyenne warrior who fought with the Sioux against Custer. Includes observations on Cheyenne daily life and tribal customs. 1962. xii, 389 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-8032-5124-6) BB 174, $2.45.

Saynday's People: The Kiowa Indians and the Stories They Told. Stories (whose central figure is Saynday, the Kiowa's mythological hero and trickster) and Indians on Horseback. which is both a history of the Kiowas and a vivid account of their way of life. 1963. xx, 223 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-803-2-5125-4) BB 174, $2.45.

My People the Sioux. By Luther Standing Bear. Edited by E. A. Brininstool. Introduction by Richard N. Ellis. The son of Chief Standing Bear "tells in simple language the moving story of his father and the great Sioux nation... with an insight into the trials of trying to live in a white man's world after theirs had been crushed." --Wyoming Library Roundup. 1975. xxii, 288 pp. Cloth (ISBN 0-8032-0875-X) $11.95; paper (ISBN 0-8032-5793-7) BB 578, $3.95.

Cheyenne Memories. By John Stands in Timber and Margot Liberty. A unique effort by an American Indian, in collaboration with an anthropologist, to collect and preserve his people's history. 1972. xiv, 330 pp. Paper (ISBN 0-8032-5751-1) BB 544, $3.25.

-University of Washington Press:

The Wolf and the Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska. Viola E. Garfield and Linn A. Forrest. "This story is a fascinating and valuable contribution to existing knowledge of these skilled and ancient people and is recommended as a truly authoritative, scientific, and artistic treatise."--Man. 1948, paper ed. 1961. 161 pp., illus. LC 49-8492. Paper only (0-295-73998-3) $5.95.

The Tsimshian Indians and Their Arts. Viola E. Garfield and Paul S. Wingert. "This summary of Tsimshian eulture alone is an important contribution ... the most systematic {16} analysis of Northwest Coast art styles to date"--American Anthropologist. 1951 (Formerly part of AESNP XVIII) Reissue 1966. AESNP. WP-l6, 1966. 108 pp., illus. bibliog. Paper only (0-295-74042-6) $2.95.

Indian Petroglyphs of the Pacific Northwest. Beth and Ray Hill. "This comprehensive survey contains more than 900 photographs and drawings of petroglyphs ... accompanied by notes. The text reflects extensive research into published and unpublished reports, and adds a handsome visual catalog to existing sources."--Museum News. 1975. 314 pp., illus., maps, bibliog. LC 74-78344. (0-29595412-4) $19.95.

Crooked Beak of Heaven: Masks and Other Ceremonial Art of the Northwest Coast. By Bill Holm. "Innovative in a way that is almost unique among American Indian art catalogues. Holm focuses on the dynamic role of art in Northwest coast ceremonialism, and the well-written text that accompanies every entry delineates the aesthetic, historic, social and ceremonial context of the items." --American Anthropologist. 1972. IAPN 3. 96 pp. Illus. LC 77-3963. Cloth (0-29-5-95172-9) $9.95(s); paper (0-295-95191-5) $4.95.

Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. Bill Holm. "This is a sensitive and judicious dissection of the fundamental principles of a superb decorative art." --American Anthropologist. 1965. Reissued in paper, 1970. Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum Monograph No. 1. 133 pp., illus., bibliog., index. LC 65-10818. Cloth (0-295-728553) $9.95(s), paper (0-295-95102-8), $5.95.

Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship and Aesthetics. Bill Holm and Bill Reid. "This volume, containing selections from the de Menil collection, is a special publication. The detailed discussion between two foremost authorities on art of the Northwest Coast, gives the reader a unique opportunity for insight into the art and cultural background of the objects in the collection."--Pacific Search. Published by the Institute for the Arts, Rice Univ., and distributed by the Univ. of Washington Press. 1976. 265 pp., 50 color plates, 138 black-and-photographs. LC 76-15041 (0-295-955331-7) $20.00.
{17}
Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska. By Dorothy Jean Ray. The first comprehensive description, analysis, and interpretation of all the arts and crafts or north Alaska, from the St. Michael area to the Alaska-Canada border. Over 300 photographs of objects discussed in the text, showing how designs, motifs, and materials are related to the Eskimos' way of life, religious beliefs, and environment. In preparation for spring, 1977.

Eskimo Masks: Art and Ceremony. By Dorothy Jean Ray. Photographs by Alfred A. Blaker. "Ray discusses the forms, meanings, and uses of masks in the context of nineteenth-century aboriginal Eskimo culture.... This book is unique... from it one may learn nearly all there is to know about traditional Alaskan Eskimo masks."--American Anthropologist. 1967. Paper ed., 1975. 272 pp., illus., 12 pp. in color, bibliog., index. LC 66-19570. Paper only (0-295-95353-5), $12.50

The Totem Poles of Skedans. By John Smyly and Carolyn Smyly. Twenty years of research have culminated in this unique portrayal of the magnificent totem poles of Skedans in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia. 1975. 119 pp. 120 illus., maps, bibliog., index. LC 73-84988. Cloth (0-295-95417-5) $14.95; paper (0-295-95418-3) $6.95.

Indian Artists at Work. By Ulli Steltzer. These photographic essays show Haida carvers at work, Haida basket weavers, Kwagutl blanket makers, Salish weavers and Cowichan knitters, and Carrie birch basket makers. In preparation. Spring, 1977.

Indian Artifacts of the Northwest Coast. Hilary Stewart. "A great book for people who plan to prowl the beaches of the NW coast, plan to visit museums with NW coast collections, or are seriously interested in studying the tools and implements of the NW coast culture.... The text is as clear as the drawings and together they tell what each (artifact) is how they were made and how they were used."--Alaska. 1975. 172 pp., illus. with over 1,000 line drawings, 48 photographs, map, glossary, bibliog., index. LC 73-84-986. Cloth (0-295-95419-1) $14.95(s); paper (0-295-95420-5) $6.95.
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-Yale University Press:

The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. Abridged edition. By Alvin M. Josephy Jr. "Josephy has traced, from the time of Lewis and Clark to the final conquest of the Nez Perce in 1877, the relations of a fairly small tribe with white migrants in the Pacific Northwest and their government.... A stunning case study in official racism."--American Historical Review. LC 73-151689, 704 pp. Cloth (ISBN 01494-5) $27.50; paper (ISBN 01488-0) $6.95.

Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian. Lew W. Simmons, editor, with a new Foreword by Robert V. Hine. "One of the most complete and one of the most readable of the autobiographies by men of primitive societies.... It is interesting and at the same time it is valuable as a social document."--The Annals. 460 pp. Cloth (ISBN 00949-6) $25.00; paper (ISBN 00227-0) $4.95.

The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. Robert M. Utley. "The principal theme of Utley's work concerns the resistance of the once powerful Sioux to the processes of civilization that, in their efforts at Americanization, tore at the very cultural roots of an old and well-organized people.... will be the standard reference for this phase of the Indian `problem' in the years ahead."-American Historical Review. Winner of the Buffalo Award. 314 pp. LC 63-7950. Cloth (ISBN 01003-6), $12.50; paper (ISBN 00245-9), $3.95.

NEWSLETTER
of the Association for Studies in American Indian Literatures
New Series,  Volume 1, No. 2 Supplement,  Fall 1977

Editor: Karl Kroeber, Columbia University
Bibliographer: LaVonne Ruoff, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
Editorial Ass't: Mary Frances Budzik

*

American Indian Prose and Poetry: We Wait in the Darkness, ed. by Gloria Levitas, Frank R. Vivelo, Jacqueline J. Vivelo. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1974. 325 pp. $3.25

        This anthology aims to do justice to most native culture areas of North American and to the full range of Indian literatures from the beginning to the present day. The longest section, "Before the Coming of the White Man" presents stories and poems from standard ethnological collections, the same sources being used principally for the second segment, "'After the White Man Came." The last section, "The Present," consists of under twenty pages of contemporary writing, mostly poetry. The introduction, stressing the diversity of Indian traditional literary accomplishments, concentrates on defining cultural areas. There are three bibliographies, one of general sources, another of works by American Indians, and a brief listing by name only of some American Indian periodicals.
        The final section is too short to be of much use, and there has been an inevitable tendency to choose brief rather than extended narratives from the earlier periods, but the editors have not done badly at selecting examples which without significant notation can give some idea of the variety of Indian cultures. And the editors deserve praise for having sought ethnographic {20} reliability. Through clear indication of sources and a minimum of falsely learned commentaries, this anthology should not mislead beginners too grossly.
        Lack of annotation is preferable to the kind of comment one finds in most such anthologies. In Astrov's The Winged Serpent, for example, after quoting incompletely a Chippewa song from Densmore, the editor observes: "This lovely Poem, composed of but a few words, though full of overtones and hints of things unsaid, bears such a strange resemblance to those exquisite little poems of classic Japanese literature that I cannot refrain from calling a reader's attention to this fact." (P. 181) What fact? To which kind of Japanese poem might this resemblance refer? One suspects some vague haiku, but all Japanese poetry is radically in style, content, and social purpose from American Indian poetry. Editors lacking literary edge and critical training do least harm to American Indian poetry. Editors lacking literary knowledge and critical training do least harm to American Indian literatures by silence.
        Unfortunately, as in so many anthologies, misleading features occur in this one even without bad annotating. On page 93 of American Indian Prose and Poetry a poem entitled "Yellow Butterflies" is given without indication of its tribal origin, though one can deduce it to be Hopi, with a citation to Nathalie Curtis' The Indian Book, p.304. The poem is actually taken from p. 484 of Curtis' book, where it is not titled "Yellow Butterflies" and where one finds a different text: the new editors have changed words in the first and last stanzas and altered the punctuation throughout. In a book claiming to show the literary merit of Indian poetry such disregard of minimal standards of literary editing is unfortunate.
        And of course what we are given here, as in all modern collections, are translations without originals or meaningful literary analyses. This is not an anthology of Indian literature but an anthology of selections from {21} reports by ethnographers and samples of writing by belletristic amateurs. The ethnographers did provide information on the cultural contexts and, whenever possible, original texts to accompany their literal translations. No such ideals here. I suppose it is now too much trouble to compile cultural/social information about the situations out of which Indian tales and poems emerged- but is it too much even to cite some of the careful musical analyses of Densmore, whose reports of Indian music are so consistently pillaged as examples of poems? Surely it should be possible to reproduce original texts so that a moderately intelligent reader can perceive where a translation drastically diverges from its original. And even a few linguistic notes would enable such a reader to arrive at some understanding of the literary art of the original. Collections of translations without critical analyses do not, despite their claims, celebrate traditional Indian literatures. Such collections debase the literatures by exploiting them, by standing in the way of serious critical understanding instead of facilitating it
        The harsh fact is that virtually all criticism of traditional American Indian literatures is kindergarten level. Worthwhile analyses of Indian literary works can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, and these are by linguists-folklorists-anthropologists, not literary scholars.. If ASAIL members are interested in more than contemporary writing in English by Indians, they must develop at least rudimentary standards of literary scholarship. A few ethnographic generalizations are no substitute for disciplined, informed critical understanding. At the risk of sounding as belligerent as John Paul Jones, ASAIL's current motto ought to be, "we haven't begun to criticize." Until we do, Native American literatures will with some justice be regarded by serious intellectuals as a playground for mountebanks.

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Polingaysi Qoyawayma (Elizabeth Q. White), No Turning Back: A Hopi Indian Woman's Struggle to Live in Two Worlds (as told to Vada P. Carlson) . Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1977 (1964). 180pp. $3.95

        No Turning Back is the autobiography of Polingaysi Qoyawayma (Elizabeth Q. White), who was persuaded to tell her story by non-Indian friends because they felt it was her duty to tell the world about her cultural background and her long struggle to "span the great and terrifying chasm" between the Hopi and the White worlds. The period of Polingaysi's life described in the book covers the period between the government's intensive efforts at the turn of the century to enforce acculturation through education and its later attempts to reverse the consequent destruction of Hopi culture.
        Born in 1892, Polingaysi remembers vividly the frantic efforts of Hopi mothers to hide their children from the whites and Navajo policemen who raided the Hopi villages to put the children in school. Although successfully hidden by her mother, Polingaysi became so lonely that she deliberately followed the children to school--a decision which began the long, painful process of separation from and eventual ramification with Hopi culture. The pain was both physical and psychological. Typical of the insensitivity of educators at the time was the use of corporal punishment on Hopi children, whose religion was based on the principle of non-violence, and the assignment of English names printed on cardboard hung round the necks of the children.
        However, Polingaysi's desire for education overcame her fears, and in 1906 she insisted on being permitted by her family to attend Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. Despite her terrible homesickness at the school, she nevertheless became so adapted to non-Indian life that when she returned home for her first visit in four years, she rejected her parent's Hopi ways. She then realized that she could never go back to living the old life or {23} enter a traditional Hopi marriage which as far as she was concerned, meant endless hard work and child-bearing. She became such a zealous Christian that she would have abolished Hopi religious symbols if she could.
        Later she attended Bethel Academy in Kansas and Los Angeles Bible Institute. In 1924, she accepted a position with a Hopi school in Hotevilla, first as a housekeeper and then as an elementary teacher. It was at this school that she found her true vocation as a teacher and developed her method of utilizing traditional Hopi beliefs and stories to teach basic skills of English, arithmetic, and nat-ural science. Her method, which received high praise from the Indian Service in 1927, was instituted over the opposition of Hopi parents, both at Hotevilla and later at other Hopi schools. That her achievements as a teacher continued to merit the praise of her colleagues is evidenced by her being asked in 1941 to demonstrate her method at a national convention of teachers in the Indian Service. Polingaysi taught Hopi children until her retirement in 1954, at which time she was presented with a bronze medal by the U.S. Department of Interior for her thirty-one years of teaching. After retirement, she turned her creative efforts to pottery and became a skilled and respected potter of traditional Hopi designs.
        Her achievements as a teacher and as an independent person were reached through considerable personal anguish. As Carlson puts it, Polingaysi's consuming desire was to "achieve a good life, independent of both white people and her own Hopi people, but esteemed by both". (p. 127). Throughout her life, Polingaysi endured bitter criticism by her people not only for her teaching method but especially for her white ways. Althoogh in her youth her own intolerance and desire to convert all the Hopi to White Christianity, customs and food undoubtedly sparked much of the criticism, it did not diminish as she herself became more tolerant and respectful of her heritage. Much of the book is concerned with her anguish over what she rejected from the past and how she came to value it again in the depths of her loneliness and despair.
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        The book is marred by a highly fictionalized method, complete with flashbacks, and an often melodramatic style exemplified by the following passage: "Suddenly, emotions overwhelming her, she flung herself face downward on the sand, clutching in anguish at the Mother Earth, as though she must, must have something good and sound and familiar to cling to" (p.154). Nevertheless, it is a valuable addition to the growing list of autobiographies of Indians and is especially significant as a record of the effects of acculturation on the first generation of reservation Indians. Although authors such as Charles Eastman and Luther Standing Bear have recorded its impact on their lives as Plains Indians, Polingaysi is one of the few to record that on the Pueblos. The book is also important for its description Of such historical events as the 1906 split between the Conservatives and Progressives in Old Oraibi., which led to the founding of New Oraibi and Hotevilla, and for its interpretations of various aspects of Hopi ceremonies, religious beliefs, and myths. It can be read with profit by young people and adults. Originally published in 1964, No Turning Back has been issued in paperback for the first time in 1977.

A. LaVonne Ruoff         
Univ. of Illinois at         
Chicago Circle              

The Zuni People. The Zunis: Self Portrayals. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1973 (1972). ppxii+ 245. HB$7.95 PB.$3.95

        The packaging of this book, if not its content, is very different from what it started out to be. When publication plans were first announced by the University of New Mexico Press, we were told of two books, divided according to subject matter, and the covers were to bear the name of C. Gregory Crampton of the Duke Indian Oral History Project at the University of Utah. In the single volume we {25} now have before us, nobody really takes clear responsibility for the book. The title and attribution of authorship that were dreamt up sometime after the pre-publication announcement make the claim that the book is a sort reflexive, collective act: it consists of "self-portrayals" and it is by "the Zuni People." 'The latter is an English phrase which Zunis themselves instantly recognize asa favorite of Robert Lewis, Governor of Zuni at the time of publication, who usually prefaced it with the first person singular pronoun. This usage rankled his opposition, especially when they reflected that he was the first Governor in Zuni history never to call a meeting of "his people", thus putting an end to participatory, town-meeting democracy. He was also the first Governor to draw a regular salary provided by the B.I.A.
        On the title page, Aivina Quam is mentioned as translator, though only three of the forty-six translations are specifically attributed to her (the others are not attributed at all). Only in the foreword, written by Floyd A. O'Neil of the University of Utah, do we learn, briefly, of the existence of Mr. Crampton, who is said to have "joined the tribe to support the translation of this material." Apparently the tape-recording of the stories had already begun by this time, funded by the O.E.O. We are told that "the recording and translation were managed" by Quincy Panteah, whose chief fame at Zuni, by the way, is as a policeman. Dave Warren, then head of the Research and Cultural Studies Development section of the B.I.A., is given credit for the money provided to Virginia Lewis, who was appointed by the Governor and Council "to review and edit . . . with an eye to publication." Mr. O'Neil then goes on to tell of his pleasure, as a representative of the Center for Studies of the American West and the Duke Project (both at Utah), in "working with the Governor, the Council, Mrs. Lewis, Mr. Panteah, and finally with the University of New Mexico Press." Among all those individuals whose names are {26} mentioned in the book, Mr. O'Neil comes closest to making a claim to responsibility for the book, and there is no further mention of the person to when the original press announcement gave sole billing.
        The introduction was written by Governor Lewis, and there we find him in full use of the words, "my Zuni people." His tone is benign and he gives an intriguing glimpse of Zuni ritual, which he depicts as taking place on Thanksgiving and Christmas. One would never know that a minority of Zunis are proudly non-Christian, and that their ceremonial calendar is their own, not ours.
        The book's photographs depict fourteen narrators; though only three out of forty-six narratives are actually credited, all of them to a man named Enote, who is not depicted. One need not think that all the others necessarily opted against being credited; the narrators I worked with in 1964-65 opted strongly in favor of being credited when given the choice. It is not as if there were no individual artistry in oral narrative; performers have their own styles and their own specialized knowledge, and some of them achieved village-wide reputations. But in this book the subtleties of individual style and many of the collective tricks of the Zuni storyteller's trade are masked by what must have been multiple levels of translation, editing and re-editing. Someone could do a whole dissertation on what has disappeared in the process, but I will only point to some of the more obvious problems.
        Zuni narrators have a penchant for long sentences, interlocking parallelism, and a liberal sprinkling of seldom-heard words; in the book at hand all this is transfomed into simple sentences in basic English. Further, one would never know that Zunis have their own terminology for genres (the groupings of narratives in the book seem to be the creation of an editorial hand), or that one of those genres, that of telapnaawe (roughly, "tales") is introduced and ended with formulaic sayings that carefully set it apart from other genres. Telapnaawe should only be told on winter evenings;.when this is bypassed, which it occasionally is, the narrator commonly {27} leaves off the formulas, as if to say, "This isn't official." That may be what happened in the present case, since the project was carried on during the day and since it ran through the summer; that is, it was carried out in accordance with a foreign rather than a Zuni sense of timing. 
        Most Zuni narratives run from half an hour to a full hour or more; a full translation in the format of the present book should run fifteen to thirty pages, not the five-page average actually displayed. The story of "The Beginning", which here runs just over eight pages (chap. 9), provides an example: Ruth Bunzel's version (47th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1932), pp. 584-602) would run thirty pages in the present format. Her version displays tremendous sophistication in its language and structure, but what comes through in the present version is simplified, even skeletal. In it we learn, for the first time in all the vast literature on the the Zuni (and it will certainly be news to the Zunis themselves), of the existence in Zuni religion of "the Great Spirit" so familiar in the Plains. This, judging by other versions of "The Beginning," is somebody's idea of Yatokka Tacchu which simply means Sun Father"; together with the Moon Mother and a number of other beings, the Sun Father is among the aawonaawillap'ona, "the ones who hold the roads," the makers and givers of light and life.
        At this point one thinks of Mr. O'Neil's words near the close of the foreword, where he assures us that "the project has taken great care to preserve the cultural integrity of the Zuni people as presented in this book." As with so many other oral history projects, whether among Indians or not, the results make it clear that the work was carried out as if the extensive methodological expertise of anthropology, linguistics (the Zuni words appearing in the book are almost unintelligible), folk- lore, and literary criticism did not exist. There are manifold and well-known ways of "taking great care," and these ways are what, if anything, a university might {28} have to offer a people willing to set about making a written record of their own traditions. We can judge Mr. O'Neil's knowledge of the subtleties of oral tradition by his remarkable claim that the present project "recorded the entire body of literature of the Zunis." Had federal and local bureaucracies been solely responsible for this project, we might not be surprised at the result finally presented, but the bureaucrats may be excused on the grounds that they did call in purported experts. It is harder to find excuses for the Center for Studies of American West at the University of Utah and for the University of New Mexico Press.
        The book received favorable reviews at the time of its original publication and has gone through a successful low-priced trade edition. Its boldly stated title and authorship have protected it from adverse criticism, given that a reviewer takes it for what it claims to be. What the book does have going for it is a certain homey, children's-book atmosphere, conveyed by the combination of simple English with a content that provides entertaining sunrises. The non-Indian reader, rather than being threatened with what is in fact a tradition of great complexity and worthy of the highest respect, a tradition that is not "primitive" relative to somebody else's sophistication, can keep the Zunis and their stories right where they are most comfortable; they are folksy, or, as Mr. O'Neil puts it, "colorful."
        There are some stories in this book that have never appeared before, particularly those of relatively recent events, but all in all it would take a scholar to sort out what is solid about the book and discard what is simply the result of error and distortion. The Zunis themselves could do this critical reading even better than a scholar, of course, but they customarily receive and discuss their information about traditional subjects in the Zuni language, which has never shown any signs of disappearing.
                                  Dennis Tedlock
                                  Boston University

{29}
McTaggart, Fred. Wolf That I Am: In Search of the Red Earth People. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,1976.

        As an Iowan and as a teacher of American Indian literature, I was aware of the Mesquakie Settlement near Tama. So too had I read some of the early records of Truman Michelson, Ben Jones, and several of the publications that resulted from Sol Tax's Fox Project. Knowing that many of the Mesquakie people were tired of being "studied," I approached McTaggart's book with skepticism. I need not have felt so apprehensive, for from the beginning of the book it is obvious that Fred McTaggart approached the oral materials with sensitivity and reverence. Through the stories he chronicles his own personal journey to awareness. The tales, centuries old, still performed their traditional function, still taught the uninitiated about himself and about life.
        Although Wolf That I Am cannot be called a "collection," it does present several tales and they are presented in the context in which the author learned them. Unlike Jerome Rothenberg or Dennis Tedlock, McTaggart does not dwell on intonations or dramatic quality of the literature. Instead he concentrates on the philosophical meanings and the teaching aspect of the stories. He learned with some difficulty to leave his tape recorder in the car and really listen as the stories were told to him. Then what he heard and learned was what had significance for him. It was not the printed versions of the early twentieth century that were important, but rather the oral versions told during the months of his frequent visits to the Mesquakie Settlement that became real to him. Often he discovered that the stories had not changed significantly from when they were recorded seventy years earlier. In an interview McTaggart discussed his attitude toward the stories:

What's beautiful about the stories is that every thing is there from the material to the philosophical. Whenever I talk about that story in class {30}(the story about trees, pp.46-48) I stress that. You learn the names of the trees and you learn the language; you learn behavior within a family because you are learning it from people you should respect. I try to point that out in the book too. If you don't learn anything else, you learn how to listen. There are times when it's inappropriate to ask questions or to ask the wrong type of questions. You learn the positioning of trees, the behavior of wolves and raccoons. Raccoons have a certain type of hand: they like to work with their fingers as the raccoon works with the dung balls in the story. The emphasis in the book came out on the philosophical because I was obsessed with it at the time. I didn't mean to emphasize the philosophical over the other aspects of the story. All of those things were there, and the philosophical part was there too. Any time you come to a story you can get something more out of it depending on where you are at the time. If you are dealing with a philosophical problem, the story could help you. If you wanted to learn about the trees, that's there too. That's what the real beauty is: the story involves all aspects of life.

        Reactions from the Mesquakie to McTaggart's book have reflected the existing political divisions on the Settlement. Most of the informants were generally pleased, although one woman laughingly commented that she didn't like the name he had given her because the name placed her in a different clan from her own. Some Mesquakie continue to feel that they are tired of outsiders coming in and disturbing the balance of their universe, and others are not aware of the book's existence. Such diversity is to be expected. The Mesquakie are a strong people with a common tradition and the stories reflect that strength and that communal history. But they are also individuals {31} who speak out when they are ready and do not hesitate to criticize each other or outsiders. It is to McTaggart's credit that the negative reactions have been few from the people whose stories he learned and shared with us. Although his title suggests that McTaggart went to the Mesquakie Settlement to find the People of the Red Earth, he shows us that it was himself he discovered, and we too can learn about ourselves by sharing his experiences.

Gretchen Bataille, Dept. of English        
Iowa State University                             

Leslie Marmon Silko. Ceremony (New York: Viking, 1977) pp. 262. $10.00

        Ceremony is an important creative work; to review the novel as if it were only of concern to students of Indian writing would be grossly unjust to its aesthetic excellence. Necessarily, the novel follows the general pattern of twentieth-century Indian fiction in centering attention upon an Indian soul disadvantaged, distorted, nearly destroyed by pressures from white American civilization. But Silko's story passes beyond the usual limits of the pattern. By an Indian and about Indians, Ceremony is recommended for anyone intrigued by the diverse subtleties of human behavior--and for anyone who appreciates superior
        Two aspects of the novel, however, specially merit the attention of those familiar with Indian literatures, past and present. Silko has said that the book "is essentially about the powers inherent in the process of storytelling." And it is true that her novel is not just a story, not just an interweaving of different kinds of stories, but an exploration of how the power of the story might be made to cope with dangers and complexities of the modern world. That Silko may not be completely successful in her {32} search matters less than the intelligence of her attempt to transform both traditional, oral narrative and novelistic narrative. Neither nostalgic nor experimental", Silko seeking a curative made of storytelling is more adventurous and original than most contemporary novelists or than pretentious poets claiming to have recovered lost secrets of oral performance.
        Exploration into essential story-power as a cure for despair (the "witchery" destroying her Indian characters) is inseparable from Silko's willingness to accept change and her unwillingness to retreat into an illusory "mythic" past. Possibly the most impressive character in Ceremony is Betonie, the medicine man who doesn't "act like a medicine man at all," but who "cures" the mind-shattered protagonist. His curing ceremony is not quite traditional, or, as he explains,

long ago when the people were given these ceremonies, the changing began, if only in the aging. of the yellow gourd rattle or the shrinking of the skin around the eagle's claw, if only in the different voices from generation to generation, singing chants. You see, in many ways the ceremonies have always been changing . . . after the white people came, elements in this world began to shift; and it became necessary to create new ceremonies . . . only this growth keeps the ceremonies strong. (p. 126)

        It is in fact true that most American Indian cultures have been amenable to change. Even the pueblos, which seem to epitomize fixed life, have shifted their locations in the course of time. The small size of Indian nations, their relatively democratic social structuring, and their undogmatic religiosity made them prize not so much changelessness as continuity. By centering the story on a protagonist of unusual openness of sensibility (also, of course, a terrible vulnerability), Silko succeeds in dram-{33}atizing profound "Indian" qualities. This success depends upon her readiness to admit dubieties and opacities, as in Tayo's confused responses to the war and its incomprehensibility to those who have never gone beyond Pueblo life. Silko's title tells us by the absence of article that it is not a, let alone the, ceremony which is needed to alleviate the degradations today afflicting American Indians. They are, after all, like Chinese, African, even Anglo-Americans: to be human is to need ceremony. This novel., in fact, reminds us of the paradox inherent in all fine literature--through the specific the universal is realized.
(A full-scale review of Ceremony will appear in a subsequent issue.)

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