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This treasury of literature by Native American authors allows students to listen to the voices from America's first and oldest literature. More than fifty tribes from the U.S. and Canada are represented, giving readers opportunities to explore the diversity of authors' experiences through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including the oral tradition. Two maps provide geographical context for the readings, one showing tribal locations and the other showing the Trail of Tears. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wonderful
This book is absolutely wonderful for those who are persuing intrests in Native American Literature. It is a great source of knowledge and understanding. It goes along through all of the struggles and stereotypes that have been placed on Native Americans since we invaded their territory.. I HIGHLEY RECOMMEND

ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL
I first began reading thie book for a NAtive American Literature class, but have found that this books offers great stories that will help you learn and understand many of the struggles of the Indian culture. It goes through the stereotypes and dramas that they had and are still going through. I recommend this book to anyone studying Native Americans. ... Read more

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This is one of a series of brief anthologies designed for ethnic, multicultural and American literature courses. The series aims to introduce undergraduates to the rich but often neglected literary contributions of established and newer ethnic writers to American literature. Each text is organized chronlogically by genre and represents a wide range of literature. An introduction provides an historical overview and a celebration of the diversity within each ethnic group. It also addresses the general literary concerns students are likely to encounter in their readings. A seperate thematic table of contents provides the tutor with more flexibility in the classroom. All four anthologies include three bibliographies which suggest novels for further reading; aid students in their research and recommend films that would enhance the studies. Ishmael Reed, the general editor, is founder of the American Book Awards. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Native American Literature: A Good Selection
This important anthology makes available a range of Native American writings from the early nineteenth century to the present.Genres covered include fiction, poetry, auotobiography, and drama, making this text a finechoice for introduction to literature classes as well as for coursesfocused specifically on Native American literature.Luther Standing Bear'sautobiographical account of his time at the Carlisle school for Indians isa particularly interesting selection for its historical perspective on thepush for "Indians" to assimilate via white modes of education. Vizenor's introduction provides a useful historical framework as well. Some of the selections are relatively well-known in the field of NativeAmerican literary studies, while others (including Vizenor's own drama) donot appear in other anthologies I've seen.Overall, this anthologyrepresents a fine if somewhat idiosyncratic representation of the broaddiversity of Native American literary voices. ... Read more

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This anthology includes some of the best works of Native American Literature — with a good representation of major authors, geographic dispersion, gender balance, and a variety of genres. Its illustrative and popular material promote a deeper appreciation of different themes and approaches. Complete works that have become classics in the field, combined with ones from the modern era, make this collection rich in historical and theoretical context. Selections of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama, include works by Paula Gunn Allen, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Carter Revard, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie, Kimberly Blaeser, Peter Blue Cloud, Louise Erdrich, Scott N. Momaday, Simon Ortiz, and many more. An effective introduction to Native American Literature for readers interested in this area of writing.

Customer Reviews (1)

Nothing But The Truth
This is an excellent anthology of Native American Literature.I will use it for my Native American Studies courses! ... Read more

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Following the structure of other titles in the Continuum Introductions to Literary Genres series, Native American Literatures includes: A broad definition of the genre and its essential elements. A timeline of developments within the genre. Critical concerns to bear in mind while reading in the genre. Detailed readings of a range of widely taught texts. In-depth analysis of major themes and issues. Signposts for further study within the genre. A summary of the most important criticism in the field. A glossary of terms. An annotated, critical reading list. This book offers students, writers, and serious fans a window into some of the most popular topics, styles and periods in this subject. Authors studied in Native American Literatures include: N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, James Welch, Linda Hogan, Gerald Vizenor, Sherman Alexie, Louis Owens, Thomas King, Michael Dorris, Simon Ortiz, Cater Revard and Daine Glancy ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A particularly wise fortune cookie...
To the previous responder...Mircea Eliade, immanent philosopher of anthropology, stated in his book The Myth of Eternal Return that, with regards to "archaic man," "our concern has been to draw the attention of the philosopher, and of the cultivated man in general, to certain spiritual positions that, although they have been transcended in various regions of the globe, are instructive for our knowledge of man and for man's history itself"(xxv). Dr. Lundquist is introducing, in perspicuous language, a postmodern approach to Native American literatures, revealing how pervading, spurious colonialist and reductive attitudes have long kept people of rich spiritual, mythic, and cultural heritage muted and in the dark. Touching on semiotics, Levinasian ethics, Native Christian discourse, anthropology, and deconstruction (among other approaches) Lundquist adroitly shows how Western metaphors of progress, radical individualism, as well as binary attitudes towards America's indigenous peoples not only contravene the truth but also injure our nation and deprives us of other metaphors that could heal various wounds. As Eliade asserts, looking to the past, i.e. Native American history both past and present, we can find new ways of connecting ourselves to our environment both geographical, political, and social.

Through introducing various terms like ecopsycology, original trauma, ontogenetic crippling, and other important terms Lundquist guides the neophyte through some of the more influential books, providing new paradigms and foundational insight through which to approach them.

Dr. Lundquist had a focus on Native American studies in her PhD and spent significant time among various tribes. In UT, where she teaches and resides, she is respected in local tribes and regularly teaches classes on Native American Literature. I have taken several university courses from her, including Native American Lit where I was introduced to this book, and can assert from first-hand experience her expansive familiarity as well as intellectual mastery of material both modern and archaic. I highly recommend this book to people interested in critical theory, Native American lit and ethnographic studies. The book also provides a rich bibliography that can be used as an excellent guide towards further study.

This book will not only challenge your western paradigms but also give you a strong theoretical foundation from which to approach Native American studies.

Excellent Introduction to Native American Literature
That Dr. Lundquist is a most skillful teacher and careful scholar is evident throughout her work. Here, she serves as a welcoming guide for the student interested in approaching multi-cultural studies generally and Native American literature specifically. She avoids the pitfall of overgeneralizing about a diverse body of literature. Instead, she has devised a cultural bridge for the literary student that celebrates the diversity of Native literature and puts it in an accessible context for both the scholar and the casual student.Dr. Lundquist is a pioneer in the nascent genre of Native American literary criticsm, and this book deserves a place in the library of any student interested in the indigenous literature of the Americas.

Stating the obvious
While this book may provide decent preliminary overview for someone who knows nothing about Native American literature, it lacks any original incite and critical depth.
One of it's crucial claims states that one should "Read Native American Literature open to the possibility that you might find yourself rethinking your view of the world" (29).
I could have gotten the same message from a fortune cookie.This is definitely not literary criticism.
Coming from someone who has spent significant graduate research on Native American literature, I recommend that you do not waste your time reading this so-called "critical work." ... Read more

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This Companion provides an informative and wide-ranging overview of a relatively new field of literary-cultural studies: literature of many genres in English by American Indians from the 1770s to the present day. In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts--Native and non-Native; American, British and European scholars--it includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural and historical events. ... Read more

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Glencoe's new collection of ethnic anthologies gives students access to a wealth of literature written by some of the best classic authors and the finest contemporary voices. Each anthology, organized thematically into five relevant themes, combines literature and art as powerful expressions of the group's cultural story. Glencoe Native American Literature features the works of writers like William Least Heat-Moon, Leslie Marmon Silko, Michael Dorris, N. Scott Momaday, and many more!

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The Handbook of Native American Literatureis a unique, comprehensive, and authoritative guide to the oral and written literatures of Native Americans.It lays the perfect foundation for understanding the works of Native American writers.
Divided into three major sections, Native American Oral Literatures, The Historical Emergence of Native American Writing, and A Native American Renaissance: 1967 to the Present, it includes 22 lengthy essays, written by scholars of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures. The book features reports on the oral traditions of various tribes and topics such as the relation of the Bible, dreams, oratory, humor, autobiography, and federal land policies to Native American literature. Eight additional essays coverteaching Native American literature, new fiction, new theater, and other important topics, and there are bio-critical essays on more than 40 writers ranging from William Apes (who in the early 19th century denounced white society's treatment of his people) to contemporary poet Ray Young Bear.
Packed with information that was once scattered and scarce, the Handbook of Native American Literature -a valuable one-volume resource-is sure to appeal to everyone interested in Native American history, culture, and literature.
Previously published in cloth as The Dictionary of Native American Literature ... Read more

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In this book Weaver looks at Native American literature in order to reflect on Native American values and spirituality. In 500 years of contact and colonization Christianity has been unable to displace traditional religious beliefs and practice, Weaver notes, and even among Indians who consider themselves Christian, traditional ways are often still important and honored. Many practice syncretism and religious dimophism, religious pluralism that often produces communal tensions and misunderstandings that undermine the work of community organization. Weaver argues, however, that Native American literature speaks across these divisions and he offers a broad reading of several centuries of literature to develop the idea of "communitism"--a nexus of communal and communitarian values that is the bedrock of Native spirituality. His detailed analysis of a diverse set of writings--biographies, tribal histories, novels, plays, etc.--sheds fascinating light on an important and neglected aspect of American literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Some Basic Truths
Jace Weaver's contribution to Native American Literary criticism ismonumental.The introduction to So That The People Might Live is not onlyinformative but also pushes, explores, and expands upon what scholarlyinformation is currently available regarding Native American writers andtheir literary contributions.Mr. Weaver speaks about some basic truthsregarding Native American communities and these communities' connections toa Native American author's writing.Essentially he says "I amWe"--A native person's sense of identity and/or responsibility towardwriting, anything, is wrapped up in that persons individual as well ascommunal identity.Althoughan author may be writing as an individuals/he is always aware of his/her greater identity.

The chapters thatfollow Mr. Weaver's introduction rehash some familiar ground but hisinformation and diligent research is apparant and is, to a great extent,relevent as well as illuminating.All in all this book is definately worththe read and the buy for those who are serious about Native AmericanLiterature. ... Read more

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High school and college teachers interested in offering units or courses on Native American literature have often had to carve out new teaching strategies because ready resources and guides are scarce. In _Reading Native American Literature: A Teacher’s Guide_, Bruce A. Goebel offers innovative and practical suggestions about how to introduce students to a range of Native American works.

Grounded in the idea that studying tribal cultures will enable students to gain deeper insights into Native literatures, each chapter helps teachers recognize what students need to know and then provides them with supporting materials and activities that will lead them to more informed interpretations of the literature. After considering ways in which a study of Native American literature addresses gaps in standard American history textbooks, Goebel discusses the complexity that lies in the language of race.

In the following chapters, he offers in-depth study of specific texts, including early Native American poetry, James Welch’s _Fools Crow_, Leslie Marmon Silko’s _Ceremony_, and Sherman Alexie’s _The Business of Fancydancing_. Reproducible copies of traditional, tribally specific poems and stories are linked to the larger texts being studied.

In addition to a brief annotated bibliography of resources for teaching Native American literature, the chapters also contain histories, a glossary, and teaching activities. ... Read more

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The 1780s and 1790s were a critical era for communities of color in the new United States of America. Even Thomas Jefferson observed that in the aftermath of the American Revolution, "the spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust." This book explores the means by which the very first Black and Indian authors rose up to transform their communities and the course of American literary history. It argues that the origins of modern African-American and American Indian literatures emerged at the revolutionary crossroads of religion and racial formation as early Black and Indian authors reinvented American evangelicalism and created new postslavery communities, new categories of racial identification, and new literary traditions.

While shedding fresh light on the pioneering figures of African-American and Native American cultural history--including Samson Occom, Prince Hall, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and John Marrant--this work also explores a powerful set of little-known Black and Indian sermons, narratives, journals, and hymns. Chronicling the early American communities of color from the separatist Christian Indian settlement in upstate New York to the first African Lodge of Freemasons in Boston, it shows how eighteenth-century Black and Indian writers forever shaped the American experience of race and religion. American Lazarus offers a bold new vision of a foundational moment in American literature. It reveals the depth of early Black and Indian intellectual history and reassesses the political, literary, and cultural powers of religion in America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Book in Literature and Religion
American Lazarus is the story of how African American and Native American writers forged new tools to re-create their identities. In spite of slavery and subjugation, men like Samson Occom, John Marrant, Richard Allen, and Prince Hall endeavored to raise their people from civic death. This book is powerful. It is beautifully written; it sheds new light on traditions of resistance in American letters; and it shows that the theme of Lazarus (the biblical story where Jesus raises his friend from the dead) was an overarching conception for peoples of color just as the Exodus story was. Incredible history; amazing literary analysis. American Lazarus is a triumph.

An incredible story
My minister mentioned this book in a recent sermon. As a Christian living in the 21st Century, I realize that there is so much that I can take for granted. The trials and tribulations and triumphs that people like Samson Occom and John Marrant went through were inspiring to say the least. I had no idea that one of America's first hymnals was compiled by a Native American, nor did I discover until reading this book how much American Christianity is so entwined in Black and Indian struggles. I learned so much from this book. I'm not a reader of literature, but now I want to find out more about these people. I can say that it's made me a better Christian. I'm so grateful to these American saints. Thank you, Joanna Brooks, for opening my eyes.

Intellectual work and discovery at its best
With AMERICAN LAZARUS, Brooks recovers, or might I say, revives either long-forgotten or oft-misunderstood religious writings by eighteenth-century African Americans and Native Americans.And the story she tells through their works is as relevant in the 21st century as it was during theirs: God takes sides, and God's side is with the poor, the enslaved, the colonized.And these writers, like Brooks, ask: which side are you on?AMERICAN LAZARUS shows us the debt we owe to these innovative ancestors of color--politically, culturally, spiritually.And for that, we are indebted to Brooks as well. ... Read more

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An exploration of the literature, history, and culture of people of mixed African American and Native American descent, When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote is the first book to theorize an African-Native American literary tradition. In examining this overlooked tradition, the book prompts a reconsideration of interracial relations in American history and literature. Jonathan Brennan, in a sweeping historical and analytical introduction to this collection of essays, surveys several centuries of literature in the context of the historical and cultural exchange and development of distinct African-Native American traditions. Positing a new African-Native American literary theory, he illuminates the roles subjectivity, situational identities, and strategic discourse play in defining African-Native American literatures. Brennan provides a thorough background to the literary tradition and a valuable overview to topics discussed in the essays. He examines African-Native American political and historical texts, travel narratives, and the Mardi Gras Indian tradition, suggesting that this evolving oral tradition parallels the development of numerous Black Indian literary traditions in the United States and Latin America.

The diverse essays cover a range of literatures from African-Native American mythology among the Seminoles and mixed folktales among the Cherokee to autobiography, fiction, poetry, and captivity narratives. Contributors discuss, among other topics, the Brer Rabbit tales, shifting identities in African-Native American communities, the "creolization" of African American and Native American mythologies and religions, and Mardi Gras Indian performance. Also considered are Alice Walker's development of an African-Native American identity in her fiction and essays and African-Native American subjectivity in the works of Toni Morrison and Sherman Alexie. ... Read more

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Speak Like Singing focuses on select Native American writers showcasing the distinct voices and tribal diversities of living Indians. Through the pan-tribal medium of English, a second language for some and now a mother tongue for most, many of these Native writers begin as poets and go on to write novels. Pulitzer novelist and Kiowa poet N. Scott Momaday says, "I believe that a good many Indian writers rely upon a kind of poetic expression out of necessity, a necessary homage to the native tradition."

"Scholar, novelist, and essayist Ken Lincoln blends his fierce cultural commitments and propulsive, lyrical prose in page after page of this passionate yet reference-rich book, persuading us that native dream songs, ritual liturgies, trickster narratives, and modern novels deserve to sit at every table of American literature."--Peter Nabokov, author of Native American Testimony and Where Lightning Strikes

"Lincoln is that rarity among literary critics, a paragon of empathy and generosity; he immerses himself, he rejoices in it. The proof lies in the burn and torsion of his prose that heartens his intelligence and extraordinary learning."--Cal Bedient, author of Eight Contemporary Poets

American Indian authors included:
Sherman Alexie
Sherwin Bitsui
Louise Erdrich
Joy Harjo
Linda Hogan
N. Scott Momaday
Greg Sarris
Leslie Silko
Luci Tapahonso
James Welch ... Read more

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In an original, widely researched, and accessibly written book, Robert Dale Parker helps redefine the study of Native American literature by focusing on issues of gender and literary form. Among the writers Parker highlights are Thomas King, John Joseph Mathews, D'Arcy McNickle, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Ray A. Young Bear, some of whom have previously received little scholarly attention.

Parker proposes a new history of Native American literature by reinterpreting its concerns with poetry, orality, and Indian notions of authority. He also addresses representations of Indian masculinity, uncovering Native literature's recurring fascination with restless young men who have nothing to do, or who suspect or feel pressured to believe that they have nothing to do.

The Invention of Native American Literature reads Native writing through a wide variety of shifting historical contexts. In its commitment to historicizing Native writing and identity, Parker's work parallels developments in scholarship on other minority literatures and is sure to provoke controversy. ... Read more

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A definitive anthology of Native American literatures draws on the work of more than two hundred tribes across the United States and Canada and provides vivid, accurate translations of texts within their proper historical and cultural contexts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An Interesting Read
I read many of the stories in this book for a college course and I found them to be rather interesting and thoughtful. Many of the tales are difficult to understand at times, but that usually comes with the oral stories provided by Native Americans. I would definitely recommend this collection of stories to anyone who is particularly curious in Native American legend.

The very best!
Not much need to be said, simply the best collection of indian oral literature I found, and I looked anywhere and everywhere!

Fantastic
Readers interested in the traditional stories, myths, folktales, and other cultural expressions of American Indians would be hard pressed to find a better anthology than this excellent book.Swann edited together stories from a wide range of regions within North America.He included terrific introductions by excellent researchers and authors.These introductions present sufficient background information to learn about the storytelling traditions, and the commentary helps readers understand and appreciate the texts.There is also an extensive bibliography that includes hundreds of additional sources for learning more about the stories, storytellers, authors, and societies that are represented in the book.The stories, themselves, are magnificent.Some are fairly accessible to readers with little knowledge of American Indian history and culture.Other narratives are more esoteric, and they must be read and reread with great patience.As readers develop ways to read these stories, the wonder of the tradition lights up ways to think about the verbal artistry of America's first peoples.

A magnificent collection of Native North American literature
"Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America," edited by Brian Swann, is an amazing volume. Approximately 800 pages long, this anthology brings together materials from all over the continent. Cultures included range from the Yupik of Alaska to the Zuni of New Mexico to the Iroquois of southern Ontario--more than 30 different peoples in all.

Each selection is preceded by its own separate introduction which discusses such topics as the culture and language of the people who produced the text, the specific storytellers, and translation issues.

The material in the anthology includes creation myths, animal tales, trickster stories, songs, and stories of birth, death, and transformation. Some of the most remarkable selections include the Wolverine tales of the Innu, which are masterpieces of bawdy humor, and the Yupik tale of "The Boy Who Went to Live with the Seals," a magical story of human/animal relations. I highly recommend "Coming to Light."

Absolutely wonderful
I really found this book to be an endless source of delight, because it not only features the incredibly diverse multitudes of narratives from individual Native American nations, but it because as a whole it reallychallenges the assumptions that have been handed down to us byimperialists. This is a truly amazing collection by what must be abrilliant scholar. ... Read more

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Native American Literature crosses divides between public and private cultures, ethnicities and experience. In this volume, Joseph Coulombe argues that Native American writers use diverse narrative strategies to engage with readers and are ‘writing for connection’ with both Native and non-Native audiences.

Beginning with a historical overview of Native American literature, this book presents focused readings of key texts including:

• N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn

• Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony

• Gerald Vizenor’s Bearheart

• James Welch’s Fool’s Crow

• Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

• Linda Hogan’s Power.

Suggesting new ways towards a sensitive engagement with tribal cultures, this book provides not only a comprehensive introduction to Native American literature but also a critical framework through which it may be read.

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From warrior women to female deities who control the cycleof life, female characters in Native American literatureexhibit a social and spiritual empowerment that is quitedifferent from the average Pocahontas we are used to seeing in mainstream literature. This work argues that a tribalconstruct of gender relations, where the relationship between male and female roles is complementary rather thanhierarchical, accounts for the existence of these empowered

female characters in Native American literature. Focusing onthe work of four of the twentieth century's most famous Native American authors, Zitkala-Sa, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie, Hollrah suggests that it is important to evaluate Native American literary femalecharacters in a cultural paradigm that is less Euro-Americanand more compatible to the complementarity of NativeAmerican culture. ... Read more

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With Feminist Readings of Native American Literature, Kathleen Donovan takes an important first step in examining how studies in these two fields inform and influence one another. Focusing on the works of N. Scott Momaday, Joy Harjo, Paula Gunn Allen, and others, Donovan analyzes the texts of these well-known writers, weaving a supporting web of feminist criticism throughout. Drawing on the related fields of ethnography, ethnopoetics, eco-feminism, and post-colonialism, Feminist Readings of Native American Literature offers the first systematic study of the intersection between two dynamic arenas in literary studies today. ... Read more