2 comments about Te Ata: Chickasaw Storyteller, American Treasure.

1. This book was an outstanding read! I had never heard of Te Ata before, and knew very little about Chickasaws. I heard about this book from several of my colleagues and I was captivated by it. Richard Green does an exceptional job writing of the life of an american princess!



2. Richard Green has captured the spirit of independence and the Native American in this fabulous collection of pages from Te Ata's diary and notes from her husband Clyde Fisher.

4 comments about Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees (American Indian Lives).

1. Sugden's third book on the Shawnee tribe (Tecumseh's Last Stand and Tecumseh: A Life being the other two) is a competent piece of historical writing, but is, in my view, the weakest of the three. Sugden does a fairly good job of debunking the belief that Blue Jacket was a white man, presenting a variety of materials to counter the dubious evidence usually cited by those who support this contention. While diehard believers will not be convinced, Sugden will likely influence those who do not cling to this old (and widely accepted) tale.
   
   As for the bulk of the book, Sugden does a fair job of collecting the bits and pieces of Blue Jacket's history and weaving them into a readable narrative. The difficulty he (or anyone in the future who wishes to explore Blue Jacket's life) faces is that there is too little material available to produce a thorough biography of this Shawnee. Compared to other Shawnees of the same time frame such as Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa (the Prophet), or even Black Hoof, there is little in the historical record about Blue Jacket, certainly when one is attempting to write a full-length biography.

   Perhaps if Sugden had published this as an article (or series thereof) or incorporated Blue Jacket's story within the framework of a larger tribal or regional history, the holes in Blue Jacket's history would be less gaping. However, the lack of source material forces Sugden to draw conclusions and make some speculations based on suspect evidence and assumptions. For example, little is known about Blue Jacket before the American Revolution. Sugden uses the few sources available from the American colonial period, but is forced to fill in holes with generalizations about what is known about the Shawnee and their neighbors. This weakens the biography because Blue Jacket the individual is often lost in these generalities.

   On the positive side, Sugden presents, to this point, the most complete biography of Blue Jacket. The only other widely available biography is Allan Eckert's: Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees, which, while more vibrant and perhaps better written, is subject to broad speculation by the author, fosters the highly suspect Swearingen (captive white) connection, and is more literature than history. Therefore, Sugden's book is currently the best if one wishes to learn about the historical Blue Jacket. In all fairness to the author, I am not convinced that a better book on the subject is achieveable, which is a shame because Blue Jacket may never achieve the historical status of contemporaries such as Tecumseh or Little Turtle; a place he richly deserves.




2. It tried to like this book, but I couldn't. This guy is just not a very good writer. He takes a very exciting period of history and makes it not so exciting. He is good at presenting facts (though some are a little shaky), but not so good at writing a story based on the facts. There are better writers dealing with this time period.



3. Blue Jacket is an exciting authoritative biography of a Shawnee war chief of great military, diplomatic, strategic and political achievements. Compared with other Native American leaders such as Red Cloud, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, Blue Jacket, or Waweyapiersenwaw is portrayed as a Shawnee patriot and defender of his tribe's Ohio River territory.Unafraid to utilize white and mixed blood connections(he married two wives of white or mixed Native American/white blood), Blue Jacket provided inspiration and a role model for the famous Tecumseh in his later years. Covering an estimated lifespan from 1743 to 1808, the biography details a fully human portrait of Blue Jacket with fine details drawn from a variety of close sources.

   Many examples of Blue Jacket's skill and astuteness are given. The precarious position of the Shawnees, between the British, the French, and enemy tribes is well documented. A reputation for handling disagreements among allies also is characteristic of Blue Jacket. Respected by Native Americans and Europeans alike, Blue Jacket's conduct throughout his life was characterized by a balance of abilities, traditional religion, warring and hunting skills, and also an ability to prosper from the additions of white culture. An example of an attempt to analyze Blue Jacket's political support of Tecumseh and the Prophet is quoted: "And so in the early days of the movement of Tecumseh and the Prophet, Blue Jacket illustrated its capacity to attract differently minded men and women, people who saw advantages in one way or another.Blue Jacket probably saw the sense in much of what the Prophet said, but we cannot suppose that these arguments were sufficient inducements for the most sophisticated of all Shawnees. We can, however, only guess at his motives. We know he was ambitious; he always had been. We know, too, that he was isolated, living apart from the center of Shawnee affairs in Ohio and seldom attending their tribal council. The most likely explanation of his interest in the Prophet is that he saw in him a way to recover influence and power. It was his final attempt to challenge the supremacy of Black Hoof and other old Meckoche rivals (pp. 241-242)."

   The history of the Shawnee and other Native American tribes in the East is riddled with blood and lost ground. However, this biography of Blue Jacket testifies to a man who straddled cultures and achieved a level of both success and bitterness. Most interesting of all is the legacy of blood that he fathered, traced in meticulous detail by authentic sources by author Sugden. Although it may suffer from the loss of a Native American voice, Blue Jacket presents a piecing together of a lost portrait, powerful and sure. It provides a missing piece of history. "Today, most people's perception of American Indian armed resistance, itself only part of a complicated history, is extremely limited. It is the warriors of another age who are remembered - men of the later nineteenth century, whose fame has benefited from the growth of the popular press, the cinema, and improved communications. Yet Blue Jacket's followers accounted for more American enemies in serious battle than the forces of Cochise, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Geronimo put together, and his vision of intertribal unity was much keener and more sophisticated. Of course, we are all products of our own times, but when the long roll of Indian notables is called, surely the name of Waweyapiersenwaw, or Blue Jacket, deserves to find its place. (pp.263-64)."

   Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer




4. To my knowledge this is only the third Shawnee that anyone has written a book about, Tecumseh and the Prophet being the other two. An interesting time period, but I found myself yawning thru this rendition of it. Perhaps there was just too little data for the author to work with. After reading the book, Blue Jacket still seems a shadowy figure, a block of wood, a carved face on a totem pole. The author gets an A+ for research for all I know, but I wish he had found something in this story that had some charm, some mystery, or some semblence of personality.

No comments about Completing the Circle (North American Indian Prose Award).

1 comments about Voice of the Old Wolf: Lucullus Virgil McWhorter and the Nez Perce Indians.

1. If you've ever read Yellow Wolf and Hear Me, My Chiefs! then you must read this book. It's the not always glamorous behind the scenes of just how the books came to be. I had perhaps three very minor criticisms while reading the book but must say that Evans did a fantastic job. Long live Yellow Wolf, Peo Peo and the non-treaty Nez Perce. You have my eternal respect!

5 comments about Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo.

1. Poor Minik, captured by white traders and brought to Manhattan to be a freak! It was the age of freaks, when everyone who was different was first taken away from their home, and then put on display. Minik found out that his beloved father had been stuffed and mounted for all to jeer at the New York Museum of Natural History.
   
   Author Harper has been through the files of the Museum and what he has come up with will convince even people who love the Museum, that reparations are in order. Eskimo people are not the only ones outraged at the long ago disposition of native relics. It is still worthy of outrage. What puzzles me is actor Kevin Spacey's interest in this affair. His preface to the book is well-written, not that I believe he actually put pen to paper to write it up, but clearly he has an emotional investment in this material and, from what I understand, he is planning to play Minik himself once his duties as Lex Luthor are finished in the new Superman movie. But why not let a native actor play the part? My in-laws who know Kenn Harper by reputation, and who have seen him speak in public, say that Spacey is part Inuit and hgas had a long interest in Peary's expeditions.
   
   Peary himself emerges from Harper's well-researched book as a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand he showed true courage in surmounting obstacles and sub zero temperatures. On the other hand he was not particular gifted in solving human personnel difficulties, and seems to have grown impatient if his will was crossed by others (or by the hand of God). We have all known men like Peary--impetuous, self-assured, and gifted. But few of us have known the crushing tragedy of Minik of Qaanaaq, of Greenland's icy shores.



2. This book is a must-read. The reader must come into it ready to make his or her own conclusions about the material, though, as it is written to persuade a certain viewpoint. With no other viewpoints offered to compare this one to, it is difficult to say for certain if this one is correct. The story is one that anyone interested in humanity, globalization, anthropology or just an interesting story should read.



3. Kenn Harper's Give Me My Father's Body is undeniably and superbly researched; easily the book's crowning achievement. Occasionally though, I was annoyed with the "what if" scenarios. At least twice in the book Harper says what would have happened if things had gone another way. In one instance, the book describes Minik's plan to return to the Greenland and to lead a group of Inuit to the North Pole. He hoped to attain international honour for his people. Harper made the declaration that even had Minik tried, there was no way that he would have been successful. He further added that Minik's desire to prove the superiority of his race was an ethnocentric idea no doubt learned from the white people of New York, that the Greenland Inuit would balk at such ideas and that, with nothing to gain but glory for their people, they would surely refuse to help Minik. Even if Harper's learned ethnocentrism theory is correct, Harper has no way of ever knowing what Minik could have accomplished had he tried. If Minik had learned such ideas from white people, who's to say the Greenland Inuit wouldn't in turn learn such ideas from Minik? The point is, no one knows what would have happened and it is futile to guess (even for the well-informed). Also, the edition of the book that I have, has included discussion questions at the end for readers groups. These are very laughable. To paraphrase a typical question, "Kenn Harper lives among the people that he writes about and is therefore the greatest historian and writer to ever write about Northern peoples. Discuss how his portrayal of Eskimos is the most accurate description ever to be put on paper." But despite the embarrassing readers club guide at the end and the occasional subjective statement from Harper, the book is eye-opening about the victims of science and was a pleasurable read.



4. Kenn Harper has managed to bring together an amazing story through detailed research. Minik, the Polar Eskimo child, was brought to the US by Robert Peary and essentially placed on display. The story of his disconnected life is full of pathos and sorrow. Yet Harper weaves the story with life.

   Peary's behaviors were simply egotistic and reprehensible. He treated the Eskimos as his property. He placed their lives in harms' way by bringing them to a culture and location that assaulted their senses and immune systems. Minik was the price paid for that deed.

   I did get bogged down in names from time to time, especially as Harper recounted the financial misdealings of Wallace, who had taken responsibility for Minik. But overall, the story is entertaining and enlightening. It speaks to the ethnocentrism of Peary's generation and to the isolation of the Polar Eskimos. It took me a long time to read and absorb this book but it was rewarding in the end... to see and feel a culture so far away.




5. Storyline is very intriguing, but the writing is a bit droll. It is also longer than necessary.

No comments about Haa Kusteeyi, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories (Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, Vol 3).

5 comments about Sacajawea : Her True Story.

1. I've been enchanted with Sacajawea for forty years, all my adult life. I am now enchanted with Rich Haney's book SACAJAWEA: Her True Story, which I think is the definitive book regarding the very important questions of when she died and where she is buried. Most people, it seems, agree with me and with Mr. Haney's conclusions that she died in 1884 and is buried on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and that is was another Shoshoni, Otter Woman, that died in 1812 in South Dakota...[T]he very first two sentences of Mr. Haney's book, the Prologue, states very plainly: "This in not an attempt to tell Sacajawea's story in chronological order, because the basic facts have been enumerated many times across two centuries. Rather, I endeavor to elaborate on the reasons many white historians erroneously maintain that she died in 1812 at Fort Manuel in South Dakota, although her Shoshoni people rightfully claim she died in 1884 on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, her final resting place." With that defining parameter, Mr. Haney successfully separates his book from all other Sacajawea books, most of which have merely added to the mystery as to when Sacajawea died and where she is buried. Mr. Haney, better than any other Sacajawea biographer, clears up that mystery by starkly corroborating the Oral/Traditional History of the Shoshones with a plethora of documentation from the white world, including the testimony of people such as the U. S. Government's investigator, Dr. Charles Eastman; John Roberts, the preacher who knew her and buried her; Mormons who interacted closely with the Shoshones; and a bevy of white people who lived and/or worked on the Wind River Reservation during the years Sacajawea lived and died there. At the same time, Mr. Haney minutely points out how and why many white historians, including Stephen Ambrose, mistook Otter Woman's death at Fort Manuel in 1812 as being the death of Sacajawea. To pull this off, Mr. Haney, as he outlined in the Prologue, reviewed various accounts of Sacajawea's life, explaining where those accounts were similar and where they differed and then discussing the nuances before proving that, essentially, the Shoshones themselves have been totally correct in unwaveringly mandating Sacajawea's life and death. The "repetitive" style, complete with an astute explanation of how the nuances agreed or disagreed with the Shoshones, is exactly what convinced me that Sacajawea's own people indeed know exactly when she died -- April 9th, 1884 -- and exactly where she is buried, on the Wind River Reservation. ...Mr. Haney vividly explains the cultures of the Plains Indians -- which included repeated raids by rival tribes to raid Shoshoni villages for the express purpose of capturing Shoshoni girls... Mr. Haney's version of Sacajawea's reaction to being captured precisely parallels the views of the Plains Indians, as he documents. ...I've read the book three times and ...discovered... only beautifully written, markedly lucid sentences. By contrast, any "editor" would find Anonymous's sentences replete with "rough grammar" and misspelled words. Anonymous, for example, spells "when" as "whan." Also, Anonymous obviously doesn't know much about Sacajawea. He/she, for example, confuses "Fort Mandan" with Fort Manuel concerning where Otter Woman died. Well, Mr. Haney obviously does know more than a little bit about Sacajawea, including when she died and where she is buried. I believe...Mr. Haney's refreshing and insightful biography of America's most memorialized female. ...I am not Anonymous in Jacksonville, Florida.



2. While the premise of Rich Haney's book "Sacajawea" is interesting - he is concerned with proving that she died in 1884 on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and not in 1812 at Fort Mandan in South Dakota - this entire book of 128 pages could and should be condensed into an essay of much shorter length. The material is unbelievably badly organized and repetitive; one never knows where one is in the chronology of events, either the author's or Sacajawea's. A good editor would hopefully have made sense out of this chaos, done away with some of the jargon that seems so out of place (such as saying that Sacajawea "was not too bent out of shape whan a rival tribe mauled her village and took her captive" or "Ken Burns and Steven Ambrose consented to be interviewed only so the 'news' networks or the 'news'papers would pimp both their new projects") and straightened out the rough grammar. Mr. Haney is obviously an amateur historian with a cause, and I congratulate him for his loyalty to and admiration of his Indian subject. However, I wish I hadn't had to spend four hours reading what should have taken me one.



3. The Sunday, August 13th, 2000, Denver Post had a review of SACAJAWEA: Her True Story by its Nonfiction Editor Sandra Dallas. Ms. Dallas wrote: "Every now and then, a book comes along that challenges historical 'fact' and does it well enough to make you wonder. Did Butch Cassidy die in Bolivia, or did he wind up as a dentist in Seattle? Was Billy the Kid really shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett, or did he die an old man in a little town in New Mexico? Now comes Rich Haney who claims in SACAJAWEA: Her True Story that the Lewis and Clark guide did not die at Fort Manuel in 1812, as most historians claim, but married an Indian named Jirk Meat, lived until 1884 and is buried on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Haney makes a compelling case, citing a number of Indian sources. The 'Snake squaw' (as she was described) who died in 1812 was indeed the wife of Charbonneau, Sacajawea's husband. But he had several wives. The dead woman was Otter Woman, another wife, Haney says. That makes sense. A one-time Virginia television sportscaster, Haney is passionate about his subject. He has a credible argument...



4. The Year 2000 Golden Dollar Coin rekindled my interest in Sacajawea and in discussing it with a friend I was informed of Rich Haney's new book entitled SACAJAWEA: Her True Story. I exerted some effort to secure a copy and I now prize it like no other. Beautifully written and superbly documented, I believe it is a vastly important book that, to my satisfaction, delineates 1884 and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming as the time and place of Sacajawea's death, and the time and place of her burial. I had been skeptical of claims by noted historians such as Steven Ambrose and Ken Burns that Sacajawea died in 1812 in South Dakota, and Rich Haney does the best job of challening that fallacy. And whether Sacajawea died in 1812 or in 1884, and where she is buried, is, I think vastly important. After all, she was already by far the most memorialized female in American history, even prior to the Year 2000 Golden Dollar Coin that will forever bear her image. This little book is a treasure for both Sacajawea and history buffs, like me.



5. SACAJAWEA: Her True Story is a brilliant, thought-provoking biography of Sacajawea, America's most memorialized female. The sheer tenderness of the author's affection for his subject contrasts sharply with his rebukes of her perceived antagonists -- including her adopted state of Wyoming for not embracing her properly and noted historians such as Steven Ambrose for claiming she died in 1812 in South Dakota. The author's documentation that Sacajawea died in 1884 and is buried in Wyoming seems quite convincing, pending better documentation than Ambrose and others have provided regarding the 1812 South Dakota theory. The fact that the U. S. Government, which funded an investigation, and her own Shoshoni people agree with Mr. Haney is also quite persuasive, as is the fact that the only Sacajawea tombstone, listing her death as April 9th, 1884, is on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. I'd like to see that grave, unless Ambrose can convince me that it's not there or that it's inaccurate. Simply awesome!

No comments about Tell Me, Grandmother: Traditions, Stories, And Cultures Of Arapaho People (Women's West).

2 comments about Indian Boyhood.

1. This is a most excellent book because it is "AUTHENTIC" and not one that speaks of prejudice and the horrors of the Native American experience; instead, it allows you to catch a glimpse of what is now lost, a world of beauty and wonder. I highly recommend it to anyone: young or old; red, white, brown, or yellow -- a book that should be preserved and revered.



2. This book is a great compilation of the story of a young Indianboy who grows up to learn the traditions of his family. It was veryinformative and a great read. It would also be beneficial for people intereted in Native American history or just those wanting to read a good novel.

1 comments about Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance.

1. From the close of the 19th century, when the first pre-Renaissance writers began to be published for the dominating white readers, to the Depression era that marked the demise of the movement, Cary D. Wintz analyzes the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance as the attempt of black writers to come to terms with the social issues of the 1920s-1930s through their writing.

   Being his approach both literary and social, he does not neglect the different positions of politics and philosophers, highlighting the non-unanimity of views on the goals the participants should aim at and the ensuing strains arising from within the movement.

   Wintz sublty depicts an intertwining net of relationships: black community and its literature, black artists and their target, black protégés and white patrons, black authors and white publishing houses, emphasising that it was this sheer interplay between the black intelligentsia and the white community that kept alive the vitality of the movement, despite the inevitable disagreements among the participants. Notwithstanding the fact that the Harlem Renaissance was led by a "loose coalition" of intellectuals, Wintz detects its "uniqueness" and bound in the "shared undertaking" of those same intellectuals who became aware of creating a "revolution in American literature".

   Wintz's particular ability is of investigating the Harlem Renaissance in all its nuances, including in his portrayal both the remote rise of the movement, with the analysis of the impact on the white-dominated scene of major black writers such as Chestnutt and Dunbar, the reasons of its fall and its effects on the following generations of writers, besides the accurate report of the hey-day of the movement.

   Special attention must be drawn on the sources consulted by the critic. As a matter of fact, most of the correspondence exchanged among the participants is scattered all over the United States, kept in several Libraries, Centers and Collections. Therefore, the consultations of such sources underline a work of precision and refinement and an attempt of restoring the live voices of the Renaissance makers.

   As a student and researcher on the topic of the Harlem Renaissance, I found this book exceptionally useful, detailed and clear. The author's style is straight-to-the-point and pragmatic. He wisely avoids any overlapping digression to the main subject matter and makes the reader understand his outlooks with clear images. I warmly recommend this text to any reader who feels like enriching his / her knowledge about this enlighting phase of American literature!