No comments about As Long as the Rivers Flow.

1 comments about ARCTIC MEMORIES: Living with the Inuit (Travel Writing).

1. For over thirty years, Canadian photojournalist Fred Bruemmer has lived with and photographed the Arctic peoples of North America, and in this book he draws on his numerous experiences to fashion poignant and moving memoir of his life in the North and the many people who he has met. This is a book that for someone like myself, who has a limited understanding of this region, will give them new understanding and deeper insight into its past and the lives of the peoples who have inhabited it for countless generations.

5 comments about Stolen Life: Journey Of A Cree Woman.

1. I chose this book to read for a review assignment, and I must say, I'm glad I chose it. It is the life-story of a woman, the hardships she had to face throughout her life, as seen through her eyes. The book also shows how the judicial system, which we often view as having distinct boundaries, and as having the final hand in society, cannot ultimately be seen as such. While others may view Yvonne Johnson as a "cold-blooded criminal" and her subsequent novel as a "commercial enterprise", it is rather that this book is simply a means for her to have her voice heard, in a world that has silenced her for so long. We all want to have our voices heard, we all want to find our strengths. This book is how she found hers.



2. It's a shame when we put our criminals up on pedestals like this, especially with a murder so cold-blooded and senseless. That anyone can profit financially from such a heinous crime is deplorable and tells us something significant about our culture.
   
   As to the questions of injustice, it's not pointed out very often that Ms.Johnson was not the only native involved in this crime. Her co-conspirators were also native, as was the victim Leonard Charles Skwarok. Where then can we point the finger of racism?
   
   I personally did not find this book very poetic at all. Its narrative is uselessly disjointed, its grammar is often clumsy, and its poetic devices nearly non-existent. While Ms.Johnson writes most of the book in first person, the crucial chapters detailing the murder are written in third person. Is this because Ms.Johnson can't clearly remember what happened that night because she was drunk at the time, or because she wishes to detach herself from the incident, and have us see her more as an observer than as a participant? In any case, it's a clever device designed to separate the criminal from the crime. I for one don't buy it.



3. I just finished the book about Yvonne and her hardships. I read it in Norwegian, but that did not diminish the affect it had on me. It's unbelievable what some people have to go through, without anyone doing something about it. And then actually surviving it all, amazing!
   She said it herself in the book that people who have been through hard experiences easier can understand what others have to struggle with. And being as she is a Medicine Woman it is in her blood to try and help, wherever possible.
   It is also a startling report on how the Natives are still treated in both America and Canada. One can only hope that books like this can help open at least a few peoples eyes...



4. I have actually just begun to read the book as I became interested in this particular book very recently -- my family grew up in the same neighborhood as Yvonne Johnson and I felt compelled to read the book. I recall certain incidents from childhood such as her father on the front porch lining up all the children &(drunk) screaming "Indians on the Warpath" and one time grabbing my own sister off her bike, throwing her down (mistaking her for Yvonne) and then having to apologize profusely (he was drunk that time also)to my family. I recall her oldest brother dying while in the county jail, how my mother had him at times mow our lawns & we recalled how sad that time was, how the youngest, Perry, looked like a female with the long flowing hair (he had the lightest coloring), the girls Karen, Sharon, Kathy, Yvonne, how the Mother drove truck--the hard-scrabble life they led--I am sure it took a tremendous amount of courage to write this book, I recalled how she struggled with her speech, etc and how people could be mean to her.



5. Tansi,

   I come from a small reserve in northern Manitoba. What I read in "Journey of a Cree Woman" was unbelievable. I cannot believe how many hardships this woman had to go through, and yet she still continues on. This book really opened my eyes as to what other women go through . This book touched my heart and many times I got shivers down my back. This book is an awesome book, that I recommend especially for women. There are many good things I could say about this book, but there is a limit. I commend Rudy on his awesome work and continuied support with Yvonne. I commend Yvonne for sharing her story with us as it is not easy to tell a story that is nothing but the truth!

1 comments about Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits.

1. This is not a biography of the humble young Mohawk woman whose courage, holiness, faith, and purity earned her (as thousands who know and love her truly believe) that place in Heaven. This book, in the author's own paraphrased words, is meant to "bring Tekakwitha down from heaven." (And it is part of a gloomy trend to do just that - to as much as one can to bring one's subject down.) And, thankfully, despite over two hundred pages of trying, he has not succeeded in dragging her down.
   
   There are people who were primarily historic figures and those whose lives are mainly of religious significance. Blessed Kateri (or Catherine, as the author prefers to call her) Tekakwitha was very clearly the latter. But this book approaches her from the former point of view, making her a postmortem pawn in the Jesuit's missionary work among the natives in Canada. The mystical and the supernatural (from a religious view) are ignored. The author seems even unwillingly to use the title of "Blessed" in reference to her.
   
   At one point, the author even seems - in a very subtle way - to imply the Kateri and her closest friend (Marie-Therese Tegaiaguenta)were lovers. If, as he writes, there is "no reason to think they were lovers," why mention it at all? What does it serve?
   
   The author dwells on each and any discrepancy in the original accounts by the two missionaries who knew Kateri during the last years of her life. (Even the Bible - in all its various popular translations - has its discrepancies.) Any story of any person, any account of any event is bound to have differences when told by two different witnesses. That alone is not enough reason to discount the differences.
   
   His grim portrait of Kateri in no way accounts for the great numbers of people (not only Native Americans, but from around the world) who have a profound love for this holy young woman.
   I can speak from my own experiences and observations that she has had a great impact even on people who knew little or nothing of her.
   
   Historians may find this book of interest, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   On a personal level, I have been studying the life of Blessed Kateri for a number of years. My personal collection includes nearly a hundred works of literature on her. These range from reprints of the original biographies by Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholonec to fluffy, sentimentalized (to the point of being quite ridiculous) books for young readers.
   
   I am also the creator of the web site mentioned on page 241 of this new book. I work for and look forward to the day when she is finally declared a saint.
   
   I pre-ordered this book many months ago and read it with an open mind as I am always eager for new details on her life. For me, it was a dull read (the narrative flow seems uneven) with left me unimpressed (not with Catherine Tekakwitha) and with a very unpleasant taste.
   
   Historians, cultural anthropologists, and the politically correct may find something of interest in this dry and dreary book, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   (I gave it one star because there is no lesser option and, well, my site was mentioned in the Notes to Chapter 9. I suppose I owe it something.)

No comments about Jesuit Missionaries to North America: Spiritual Writings And Biographical Sketches.

1 comments about Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr and Other Writings.

1. Award-winning author and cultural critic Susan Crean gathers previously unpublished writings from Emily Carr's journals, notebooks, and epistles, as well as 42,000 words from Carr's previously published journals for inclusion into Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals Of Emily Carr And Other Writings. An absorbing and eclectic collection of discourse, the entries range from Carr's father's no-nonsense rendition of the facts of life, to the complete text of Carr's 1913 "Lecture on Totems" concerning Native imagery and Native people, Opposite Contraries is highly recommended -- especially for students of the life and work of Emily Carr, who although best known as an extraordinary painter, was also the author of seven quite popular and critically praised books.

1 comments about The Old Man Told Us.

1. Well oreganized and easy to read. Being of micmac heritage, I was able to really enjoy the old stories and visit the old places and hear the old voices. Excellant research efforts by authors. This is one of those books I plan on passing along to my kids! Lionel Little Eagle 3/1/99

No comments about Tom Longboat (The Canadians).

No comments about Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955.

No comments about The The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab: Text and Context.