3 comments about Sarah Winnemucca (American Indian Lives).

1. A simply told tale of the complex life of a complex woman -- I did not find it dry or academic at all. I cannot judge the quality of the research, as I am not familiar with Winnemucca's life, but the biography appears both frank and well-rounded. I enjoyed the way in which the author wove contemporary sources and Paiute folklore into her story. It's not an especially sophisticated book (for good or for ill) but it is not without complexity. Nineteenth century U.S. cultural and political constraints are clearly illustrated, along with Sarah's personal life and the tribulations facing the Paiutes & other Native Americans of that era. I think it would be of interest to anyone interested in 19th century women, Native Americans, or the frontier.



2. Zanjani's writing is academic and somewhat dry. The historical research has not advanced much since Gae Whitney Canfield's "Sarah Winnemucca of the Northern Paiutes" but Zanjani does incorporate new theoretical approaches to interpreting Sarah's own memoir and place in history. The bibliography then, is useful for scholars, but the the prose is further bogged down with unresolved (and unresolvable) intellectual issues best left to academics. Try Canfield's well researched and easily readable prose instead.



3. a piece of historical treasure, how often do you see a book written by an indian woman from the 1800's? it is a must own for anyone remotely interested in indians, or american history.

No comments about The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird.

No comments about The Worlds of P'Otsunu: Geronima Cruz Montoya of San Juan Pueblo.

5 comments about Spirit Moves: The Story of Six Generations of Native Women.

1. I never thought I would ever find such a book that I would ever not put down..This book kept me involved like I never been involved before. I loved this book from beginning to end. Also the artwork from Ms. Boyd's mother Silversong is just breathtaking to me. I laughed and cried and cried some more. I have owned my copy for 3 years now. I also have read this book 4 times since I have owned it. This book is part of my favorite possessions and will cherish it forever. Also when my daughters are old enough I will read it to them or have them read it themselves for the simple fact is the strength, pain, love, and sense of woman and family in this book are just absolutely breathtaking. I really recommend this book to anyone with a heart and the heart of a woman...I like to thank Ms. Boyd for writing her family's story. I never will forget it and although this may not be my family story, I will pass this onto my girls and onto their girls so they can see that women can have the strength to go through anything and that love conquers all and that the SPIRIT MOVES through all of us.....



2. This book is a clear work of literature where the reality of growing up Indian in 6 Generations is laid out before the world. It is a hard life but one where the women make a difference in the lives of their children and grandchildren. Their choices were often made for them until the past 2 generations. It is a powerful and moving story the should be read by all.



3. This book does have an epic quality about it... Also, it is the type of book that calls to and connects with the spiritual side of all of us regardless of our individual culture, race or gender. Ms. Boyd's gift is bringing a beautiful narrative quality to the experiences shared by her Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother as well as her own. As the challenges and hardships are recounted it seems incredible that the harshness experienced was so recent, relatively speaking. In a time before domestic-violence laws (as recently as 20 - 30 years ago) options were few and overcoming such oppressive treatment seemed to be as much an act of faith as of will. This is a story that's important to all, not just to these lovely Lawson women.



4. I am buying several copies to distribute to the women in my life. This is the best book I have ever read and I just happened upon it. It has changed my life, I am a better person for reading it. I love it, cant say enough about it, Loree Byrd is so talented, I would read anything by her.



5. Loree Boyd has done more than merely written a great book. She has demonstrated the pride, strength and respect so characteristic of Metis/Native people in Canada. As a Metis/Ojibway person myself, I found this story, based on Loree's family history, to be moving and inspirational. I laughed, I cried, and I smiled thoughout reading this book. Loree's personal story extends beyond the words of this book; touching the lives of many Metis and Native families throughout Canada. Knowing and recognizing the similarities of my own Metis/Native family history made reading "Spirit Moves" all the more bittersweat. This book should be read in every household in Canada- Metis, Native, and white! Mii-gwetch Loree for your courage, your pride and your story! In Spirit, James Fortier

5 comments about The Falcon (Classic, Nature, Penguin).

1. In 1789 when he was a nine year-old boy, his mother already dead, John Tanner's family settled upon a Kentucky farm where the Big Miami and Ohio rivers meet. Shortly thereafter, this piece of "Dark and Bloody Ground" was visited by a Shawnee war party. Two Indians seized young Tanner and forcibly marched him north toward modern day Toledo, then up to Detroit. The child was taken further north to live with his captive family, made to work and bear burdens, purposely starved, frequently beaten, and at one point tomahawked for having fallen asleep in exhaustion. Two years of this cruel treatment was relieved when the boy was purchased in Mackinac by an old Ottawa woman, Net-no-kwa. This formidable human being was the leader of her band and with her John Tanner, now called Shaw-shaw-wa ne-ba-se (the Falcon), would roam throughout what would become northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Western Ontario and Manitoba, living primarily among Net-no-kwa's Ojibwa friends and relations. For the next thirty years he would hunt, trap, trade, marry and live entirely as an Indian, forgetting the English language and white man ways - though Tanner continued to face resentment and violence long into adulthood because of his white origin. These resentments and other intrigues eventually led Tanner to attempt a return to the States and a reunion with surviving family members, soon finding himself ill-suited to the white man's life and returning to the northern wilderness. He apparently related his life's story to a learned man among the Sault Sainte Marie traders shortly before disappearing again in 1846 amidst charges of murder (afterward disproved). The date and whereabouts of his death are unknown.
   
   There are times when the narrative seems a relentless tale of brutality, privation and wrenching heartbreak, as Tanner and his band struggle for daily sustenance, suffer against wretched cold and hunger, fall to previously unknown illnesses and grievous injuries, and murder each other in drunken brawls and blood feuds. And then suddenly appear passages as stunning for the elegant and graceful simplicity in which they're related as for the events depicted. An extended passage (if I may) illustrates the point: "Pe-shau-ba, upon whom the death of his friend Waw-so had made some impression, was soon taken violently ill. He was conscious that his end was approaching, and very frequently told us he should not live long. One day he said to me, "I remember before I came to live in this world, I was with the Great Spirit above. And I often looked down, and saw men upon the earth. I saw many good and desirable things, and among others, a beautiful woman, and as I looked day after day at the woman he said to me, `Pe-shau-ba, do you love the woman you are so often looking at?' I told him I did. Then he said to me, `Go down and spend a few winters on earth. You cannot stay long, and you must remember to be always kind and good to my children whom you see below.' So I came down, but I have never forgotten what was said to me. I have always stood in the smoke between the two bands when my people fought with their enemies. I have not struck my friends in their lodges. I have disregarded the foolishness of young men who would have offended me, but have always been ready and willing to lead our brave men against the Sioux. I have always gone into battle painted black, as I now am, and I now hear the same voice that talked to me before I came to this world: it tells me I can remain no longer. To you, my brother, I have been a protector, and you will be sorry when I leave you; but be not like a woman, you will soon follow in my path." He then put on the new clothes I had given him to wear below, walked out of the lodge, looked at the sun, the sky, the lake, and the distant hills; then come in, and lay down composedly in his place in the lodge, and in a few minutes ceased to breathe."
   
   Other rewarding passages include Tanner's encounter with the ghosts of two dead brothers at a riverside encampment; an illness so debilitating that a despairing Tanner attempts to end his life; and intrigue and violence during a river-borne effort to bring two of his children out of Indian country. Many of the troubles visited upon Tanner and his band are caused by his adoptive brother Wa-me-gon-a-biew, a cowardly but quarrelsome man, vindictive, unpredictable and capable of great violence. His nearly every appearance in the narrative is villainous.
   
   Published many times, most recently by Penguin Classics, "The Falcon" transcends because it is not merely an "Indian captivity narrative", but a remarkable portrait of 1790s - 1830s Indian life and culture. We are very fortunate that it has survived.



2. The Falcon is a story of Native American life in the late 18th and early 19th century, as experienced by a white man, John Tanner. Tanner was captured by the Shawnee at an early age and eventually adopted into the Ojibwa Nation of Western Ontario, Eastern Manitoba and Northern Michigan. After years of life with the Ojibway, he attempted unsuccessfully to return to his white relatives in Kentucky. Forget Natty Bumppo of Last of the Mohicans, John Dunbar of Dances With Wolves, Jack Crabb of Little Big Man, or A Man Called Horse; This is the real thing. This is a bleak grim tale of survival totally devoid of any romanticism or objectivity.
   
   The life of Tanner and his adoptive people, the Ojibway, was one long struggle to survive in an inhospitable wilderness where death from starvation, disease, mishap or murder was constantly at hand. I have read countless stories of native life, but never one which presented the overwhelming harshness of the hunter/gatherer lifestyle as vividly as this book.
   
   The narrative is uncompromisingly grim, yet compelling beyond any work of fiction. The Native people are not the Noble Savage or the Fiendish Redskin of stereotype. They are shown as brave and resourceful, or lazy and given to drink, by turns. In short, they are shown as real human people.
   
   From a modern perspective, the survival capabilities of these people are nothing short of incredible. I am in awe of the sheer will to live that compelled them to carry on throughout lives so devoid of anything we of today would call comfort.
   
   John Tanner was not famous in the history of the frontier. Neither was he a fictional hero like the characters I previously mentioned, but the story of his excruciatingly difficult life as a man of two worlds, yet fully at home in neither, is one of the most amazing stories of the early days of North America that I have ever read.
   
   One small complaint: The introduction was written by Louise Erdrich, and she refers to the book as a much-read, cherished family touchstone, but, in citing an incident in the text, she is completely mistaken. I am referring to the incident where Tanner returns to his lodge and finds it destroyed by fire. The actual event in the book is nothing like what Erdrich describes. She claims that Tanner cast one of his children out to die in the cold as punishment for burning the lodge. However, the child was actually his adoptive sibling, and she did not die as Erdrich said, but is mentioned several more times in the narrative, up until her marriage. A small point, but she should have re-read the book before writing the introduction. I'm sure Tanner himself wouldn't have liked what Erdrich wrote one bit.



3. "The Falcon" is the autobiography of Shaw-Shaw-Wa Be-Na-Se or John Tanner, a White Indian captured by the Shawnee along the Ohio River in 1789 and later sold to an Ojibwa family in northern Michigan. He went on to live a long and fascinating life among the Indians of the Old Northwest working as a trapper for the Hudson Bay Company and serving as the interpreter at the trading post at Sault St. Marie. He spent some time searching out his white family in Kentucky before returning to Michigan to be with his Indian children, forever spurning the white way of life. He went on to write this narrative in 1830 shortly before becoming a murder suspect and disappearing into the north woods forever.

   Tanner's narrative is truly amazing for it's matter-of-fact style and the wealth of information it contains on every facet of Indian life in the late 18th and early 19th century including hunting, family life, Indian-white relations, foodways, views on war and murder, even attitudes toward sexual orientation. Tanner tells a story from the point of view of a man who has lived a hard life but is determined to live it as well as he is able. He makes no romantic notions about the Indians nor does he have sentimental longings for his white family. Unlike other famous captivity narratives like those of Mary Rowlandson, James Smith, or Oliver Spencer, this story is of the unredeemed captive who willingly chooses to embrace the neo-lithic lifestyle and the hardships that such a life entails, but makes no regrets of his life choices.

   The historical and ethnographical information contained here alone makes it worthwhile reading, but the pure human content the author puts into this work makes it truly great.




4. The Falcon, by John Tanner, is simply one of the most incredible
   books I have ever read, and must be considered a classic.
   It was utterly enthralling. I found myself wondering how he
   ever wrote the book, since it is very well written, but he had
   little knowledge of English until later life. Found out on the
   web that back in Sault Ste Marie, he narrated his life to a doctor, who wrote it all down, and later published it.



5. This is an unsentimental account of a hunting-gathering life. Even with guns and metal knives, the Falcon faced starvation so frequently that it seemed practically routine. One of the saddest sentences is a simple, somewhat relieved declarative about a fever sweeping the area: "Only one of my children died."

   The writing is intense, and builds slowly. Tanner is anything but dramatic, but the events of his life command respect. This is a book that no author could have created artficially: its power is natural.

   Nonetheless, I would have liked to learn something about where, when, and by whom the book was written. I suspect my Penguin paperback may be missing something. Page 228 refers me to a note at the end of the volume, but it is not there.

   Generally, I do not care for Introductions. However, the Introduction by Louise Erdrich is worth reading carefully, before and after reading the narrative.

5 comments about Crazy Horse (Penguin Lives).

1. While musing over what to write for a review of this atrocious attempt at literature, one of my students said, "just say it sucked." IT SUCKED!



2. As he states in this volume, it's less a biography than a testament to the impact Crazy Horse had on his own people during and after his life and what he means to Americans today. Illusive yes, but Crazy Horse is a symbol of all that could've been for natives of the plains. He was an Indian who never capitulated, who never gave up on his way of life or on his dreams and those dreams, both figurative and actual, guided him through life and into the walk with the spirits. What does this man mean to us all? He's more than a simple representation. He's an embodiment to self-determination. He's an example of charity and caring of a leader who placed his own people ahead of all else.
   
   Unlike Geronimo, who spent time in prison and then ended up selling autographed photos of himself for a dollar apiece to the very white people he'd sworn to kill, Crazy Horse avoided contact with Whites until his last days and never accepted their systems or their ideas of justice. He only came to the reservation because his people were starving. He only talked to the Fort's doctor because his wife had tuberculosis. He never allowed his photograph to be taken and wasn't known for talking much.
   
   He took his responsibilities very seriously as a shirt wearer and did everything he could to provide for the poor of his tribe despite preferring to be alone and preferring the open prairie to population centers.
   
   I can't help but draw parallels between another mythical figure after reading this tightly told tale. Jesus was said to express great concern for the poor and Crazy Horse was told in a vision that this was his mission in life. Jesus was a symbol for his people of a spiritual life outside the realm of Rome. Crazy Horse was a symbol of a way of life on the plains, free to pursue the Sioux ceremonies and religious observation. Jesus was killed through the betrayal of a friend and stabbed in the side by a Roman spear while hanging from a cross. Crazy Horse was restrained by his friend, the tribal policeman Little Big Man, when he was bayoneted by a soldier. In death, both Christ and Crazy Horse are rallying points for more than just their own people, but for people everywhere.
   
   CV Rick



3. Larry McMurtry (Telegraph Days, Lonesome Dove) brings his clean and concise writing style to this brief but illuminating life of Crazy Horse.
   
   This compact little biography is one of the Penguin Lives series that features what Penguin Books web site describes as an "innovative series of biographies pairing celebrated writers with famous individuals who have shaped our thinking." The series is worth looking into for its other biographies of Churchill by John Keegan, Buddha by Karen Armstrong, and Saint Augustine by Garry Wills among others.
   
   In the case of Crazy Horse not a heck of lot is really known about the man. As McMurtry points out, most of what we know about Crazy Horse and most Indians derives from their contact with whites and Crazy Horse generally avoided whites to the fullest extent possible. He was a brave warrior, a leader of his people at times, but not truly a chief, a loner, an iconoclast within a tribe of iconoclasts.
   
   Crazy Horse is an iconic figure who captures the imagination. His life of some 35 or so years spanned the rapid transformation of the West from the free days of the nomadic Plains tribes and limitless buffalo herds to the confinement of those peoples on poor reservations and the destruction of the herds. Crazy Horse never really yielded to the whites unlike nearly all other Indian leaders, not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things because no strategy was going to change the ultimate outcome. Crazy Horse declined to go to Washington, resisted any restraints, refused to attend the parleys with the whites.
   
   He did ultimately sacrifice his own freedom when he brought his 900 or so followers after the brutal winter of 1876-1877 - just months after the twin victories over Crook at Rosebud and Custer at Little Bighorn. Crazy Horse was killed, probably by the bayonet of a white soldier as he resisted his final arrest. His death was a blessing as the whites planned to ship him to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, a tiny prison atoll in Florida.
   
   Unlike other popular authors, notably Stephen Ambrose, McMurtry resists the temptation to let his imagination roam too freely and sticks mostly to the known facts and reasonable deductions to be drawn from them. Those facts however immutably established Crazy Horse as perhaps the single most romantic and heroic figure of the great American Western epic. He lived free, defeated Custer, the great white romantic figure, and then died young "in the last moments when the Sioux could think of themselves as free. By an accident of fate, the man and the way of life died together...he came to be the symbol of Sioux freedom, Sioux courage, and Sioux dignity." (Page 17, hardcover edition)
   
   Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in the American West.



4. I don't generally go for books on tape,but decided to give this a try. I was exceptionally pleased with it. I guess just about anyone who has read anything of the West covering the period from the 1830's to the end of the century;knows something about Crazy Horse. There are so many references and they vary so much,one has difficulty in trying to separate fact from legend.
   Mc Murtry puts on his historian hat for this one and tries ,and I might add very suscessfully,to sort it all out. To attempt such a thing,could result in a very long book with reams of details and references;but McMurtry has managed to avoid that;and comes up with a concise,easy to follow book that covers the whole Western Indian experience centered around one of the most prominent Indian leaders at the time.On top of that he builds into it references of other books where the "story" may differ;and where there is differences or actual unknown details;he addresses them. He also refrains from "making up" details and introducing them;which would do nothing but add to the confusion.
   When you finish this book ,you will be left with the impression that you now know the story about as well as one can possibly know it,particularly at this stage of the game.



5. Crazy Horse has been one of my American heroes ever since I read about him in "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" by Dee Brown back in the 1970's. When I discovered that Larry McMurtry, a favorite author of mine, had written a biography of Crazy Horse, the book immediately made the top of my TBR list! And glad I am that I did immerse myself in this brief but rich biography. As usual, McMurtry does not disappoint - nor does his subject.
   
   Despite extensive writings about the great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, there is actually a dearth of hard facts about his life. The man was born around 1840, at a time when the nomadic way of life of the Plains Indians was dying....or to be more accurate, at a time when the traditional way of life was stomped out though the US government's broken promises, lies, ineptitude, and the sheer number of US soldiers with rifles and their seemingly never-ending supply of ammunition. Manifest Destiny was very much a reality and it could not be fulfilled while nomadic tribes roamed the Great Plains hunting buffalo, "impeding progress," the westward march of settlers, the building of the railroads.
   
   What kind of written historical record would there be of a man who lived the life of a Sioux warrior, "raiding and hunting on the central plains?" He rarely had contact with whites until the end of his life. And what translations exist are appalling.
   
   Worm, his father was an Oglala healer; his mother was thought to be the sister of Spotted Tail, the Brule leader. From the first, Crazy Horse, called Curly as a boy, marched to the beat of his own drum. He was a loner and although he lived in the traditional way, he was not interested in the usual rituals of purification, like the sundance rite. "He took his manhood as a given and proved it in battle at an early age."
   
   He went on a journey as a young man, to seek a vision. Never orthodox in his beliefs or behavior, Curly did not purify himself in the ancient ways nor did he speak with a holy man, such as his own father, before making the trip. The vision or dream he achieved on this quest, and the interpretation, were to prove very significant throughout his life. There are enough consistent reports about this episode to prove its authenticity.
   
   The author takes the known facts about the period, as well as material garnered from documented interviews with Native Americans and whites who knew Crazy Horse, and recreates here a vivid portrait of the warrior, the human being who cared first and foremost for his people - for the very young, the sick and elderly - the man of such moral authority that he sparked deadly jealousy amongst some of his own men. "Among a broken people an unbroken man can only rarely be tolerated." Crazy Horse "became a too-painful reminder of what the people as a whole had once been."
   
   McMurtry, also paints a clear and accurate picture of the place, the times, the large Native American councils, of the Ghost Dance, the battles, the parlays, the betrayals. He recounts a much reported conversation Crazy Horse, near the end of his life, had with his old friend He Dog. General George Cook wanted all the Sioux at Red Creek "to move across the creek, nearer to White Butte, so he would have them handy for a big council. He Dog thought it might be best to do as he was told." Crazy Horse did not want to make the move for his own reasons. He Dog, concerned about what the move might mean for their friendship asked Crazy Horse if "such a move on his part would mean they were enemies now. Crazy Horse laughed, perhaps for the last time; then he reminded He Dog that he was not speaking to a white man. Whites were the only ones, he said, who made rules for other people. Camp where you please."
   
   Larry Mc Murtry invites the reader to camp where we please amid the recountings and recollections of the life of the legend who was Crazy Horse. This is a brief but beautifully written story of a life...and of a death. It is also a tribute to a great man.
   
   Apparently Penguin has published a series of brief biographies called "Penguin Lives." James Atlas, the editor, plans for six volumes a year from "celebrated writers on famous individuals who have shaped our thinking." The list includes the Buddha, St. Augustine, Joan of Arc, Dante, Mozart, Jane Austen, Dickens and Chekhov. Unfortunately I only see two women on his list. I sincerely hope this grave omission is corrected.
   JANA

No comments about The Encyclopedia Of Native American Biography.

5 comments about Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership.

1. This thin book is surprisingly rich in detail. It is well written and does a very good job of separating legend from fact. It also acknowledges the situations where very little, or nothing, is accurately known about Tecumseh.



2. I read this book for a college Ohio History class. I hadn't had any previous knowledge about Tecumseh other than he was an Indian leader. Overall it was a very interesting book. Some may run into some problems if they do not fully understand the history of the War of 1812 in Ohio. Some of the battle descriptions go into detail. There is a chapter in the book that describes some of the Shawnee cultures and customs that I found very interesting.
   All said, this is a very good biography of a very respected Indian leader.



3. This book is a textbook companion of the author's biography of Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa or the Prophet. R. David Edmunds is known for both his combination of ethnographic material, oral tradition, and traditional historical research with good storytelling. His unique contribution is highlighting the importance of the religious message of revitalization to Indian resistance in the Old Northwest. This book is a good introduction to Indian experiences in the Old Northwest during the Revolutionary and Early Republic Periods. Those really interested in this title may want to continue their reading with "The Shawnee Prophet" by the same author, "A Spirited Resistance" by Gregory Dowd, and "The Middle Ground" by Richard White.



4. Tecumseh was a powerful warrior and a powerful man. He led his people in what he thought was right, yet he did not stand for the massacre of those who took his people's land. This book gets that message through, but it is tedious. It reads like a high school textbook (and that is not a compliment).



5. This book is a good overall view of the life of Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief. Also mentioned are his brother, the Prophet, and important historical events of the time. A good resource for those interested in the subject, a little dry for an everyday read.

1 comments about Son of Two Bloods (North American Indian Prose Award).

1. Says the University of Nebraska Press:

   When Vince Mendoza began to write his life story, he turned to his memory of visiting the deathbed of his great-grandmother, a Creek Indian who embodied the history and dauntless will of her people. The memory inspired both sorrow and boundless pride.

   Son of Two Bloods, Mendoza's vibrant and candid account of his life, is full of such grief and rejoicing. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1947, Mendoza was the child of a Creek mother and a Mexican father. In this book he vividly portrays his Mexican and Indian relatives and his confusing, often painful, childhood interactions with the dominant white society. He left childhood behind when he was sent to Vietnam. There he found hatred, terror, and camraderie in equal measures.

   On returning from Vietnam Mendoza faced a professional, economic, and personal struggles but found consolidation in love, family, and friendship. His moving account of his first wife's courageous, losing battle with cancer ends with renewal as Mendoza remarries and decides to explore his past, and his people, in writing. "Endure, then weep," he writes at last, "endure, and be rewarded, endure and rejoice, endure and learn."

   Son of Two Bloods is his first book

1 comments about Yellowsnake: Son of Prophecy.

1. This book is so filled with adventure and intrigue that you just can't put it down. Jake Conrad is superb in his weaving the life of this remarkable character, Yellowsnake, from his life on a reservation to the jungles of Vietnam. Yellowsnake was taught well in the ways of his great Commanche herritage and went on to be a super Warrior for the battles of Vietnam, His physical strength and abilities, keen mind and his will to get the job done with whatever it takes, make him a true super hero. He finds a place in the mighty Suprstitions Mtns. of Arizona to rest his body and soul and to wait for yet another call from the C.I.A. Yellowsnake was truly one of the best tools the U.S. had.

   This book would make a super movie, think of the many sequels! I would hope Conrad will give us more of this wonderfuly exciting character.