California Through Native Eyes by Most California histories begin with the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the late eighteenth century and conveniently skip to the Gold Rush of 1849. Noticeably absent from these stories are the perspectives and experiences of the people who lived on the land long before European settlers arrived. Historian William Bauer seeks to correct that oversight through an innovative approach that tells California history strictly through Native perspectives. Using oral histories of Concow, Pomo, and Paiute workers, taken as part of a New Deal federal works project, Bauer reveals how Native peoples have experienced and interpreted the history of the land we now call California. Combining these oral histories with creation myths and other oral traditions, he demonstrates the importance of sacred landscapes and animals and other nonhuman actors to the formation of place and identity. He also examines tribal stories of ancestors who prophesied the coming of white settlers and uses their recollections of the California Indian Wars to push back against popular narratives that seek to downplay Native resistance. The result both challenges the ?California story? and enriches it with new voices and important points of view, serving as a model for understanding Native historical perspectives in other regions.
Chasing Dichos Through Chimayó by The poetic proverbs known to nuevomexicanos as dichos are particular to their places of origin. In these reflections on the dichos of the Chimayó Valley in northern New Mexico native son Don J. Usner has written a memoir that is also a valuable source of information on the rich language and culture of the region. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that Usner, who is also known for his photographic work, took of the people and places that he writes about, this book is a one-of-a-kind introduction to the real New Mexico. Usner has known Chimayó since he was a boy visiting his grandmother and the other village elders, who taught him genealogies going back to family origins in Spain. The Spanish he learned there was embedded in dichos and cuentos. This book is the result of Usner's research into these memorable sayings, and it preserves a language and a culture on the verge on dissolution. It is a gateway into a uniquely New Mexican way of life.
Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars' Club by Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars' Club paints a vivid, fascinating portrait of a community deeply grounded in tradition and dynamically engaged in the present. A collection of forty interwoven stories, conversations, and teachings about Western Cherokee life, beliefs, and the art of storytelling, the book orchestrates a multilayered conversation between a group of honored Cherokee elders, storytellers, and knowledge-keepers and the communities their stories touch. Collaborating with Hastings Shade, Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess, and Woody Hansen, Cherokee scholar Christopher B. Teuton has assembled the first collection of traditional and contemporary Western Cherokee stories published in over forty years. Not simply a compilation, Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars' Club explores the art of Cherokee storytelling, or as it is known in the Cherokee language, gagoga (gah-goh-ga), literally translated as "he or she is lying." The book reveals how the members of the Liars' Club understand the power and purposes of oral traditional stories and how these stories articulate Cherokee tradition, or "teachings," which the storytellers claim are fundamental to a construction of Cherokee selfhood and cultural belonging. Four of the stories are presented in both English and Cherokee.
George Sword's Warrior Narratives by Published through the Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The general focus in Lakota oral literary research has been on content rather than process within oral traditions. In this groundbreaking study of the characteristics of Lakota oral style, Delphine Red Shirt shows how its composition and structure are reflected in the work of George Sword, who composed 245 pages of text in the Lakota language using the English alphabet. What emerges in Sword's Lakota narratives are the formulaic patterns inherent in the Lakota language that are used to tell the narratives, as well as recurring themes and story patterns. Red Shirt's primary conclusion is that this cadence originates from a distinctly Lakota oral tradition. Red Shirt analyzes historical documents and original texts in Lakota to answer the question: How is Lakota literature defined? Her pioneering work uncovers the epistemological basis of this literature, which can provide material for literary studies, anthropological and traditional linguistics, and translation studies. Her analysis of Sword's texts discloses tools that can be used to determine whether the origin of any given narrative in Lakota tradition is oral, thereby opening avenues for further research. 
Living with Stories by In essays about communities as varied as Alaskan Native, East Indian, Palestinian, Mexican, and African American, oral historians, folklorists, and anthropologists look at how traditional and historical oral narratives live through re-tellings, gaining meaning and significance in repeated performances, from varying contexts, through cultural and historical knowing, and due to tellers' consciousness of their audiences.
Oral Literature in Africa by 'This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images, and an updated bibliography, as well as original chapters on poetry, prose,'drum language' and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa.'
Otuzo twOvaherero by Otuzo twOvaherero provides valuable information on Ovaherero patriclans and records folklore and praise poems in Otjiherero. Previously, these did not exist in written form. The book attempts to preserve these oral traditions before they disappear. It aims to restore pride to the Ovaherero, particularly in patrilineages that were displaced by the Ovaherero-German war of 1904-1907.
Reading the Voice by "This is a book about poetry: about its sacred underpinnings, its broad presence in everyday life, and its necessity to the human community. Reading the Voice examines poetry's abiding importance among Native Americans from ancient times to the present. It also seeks connections between an ancient tribal way of making and diffusing poetry and more recent print-oriented or electronic means." "Drawing on years of experience with Seneca and Navajo singers and storytellers, Paul Zoibrod offers an introductory framework for appreciating what can be called America's first literature and for reevaluating the Western literary heritage. He states, "I consider this work a tentative first step in reconciling mainstream America with the deep poetic roots of an unwritten aboriginal past, and perhaps even with the deeper European roots of its own poetic traditions." To do so effectively, however, readers must first reexamine assumptions about what poetry and literature really are." "Those who come to Native American "literature" in print must do so conscious of the dynamic sounds of speech and song by "reading the voice," instead of merely looking at a silent sheet of paper full of alphabetical symbols. By doing otherwise we stand to miss much that is essential to the verbal art of indigenous peoples whom print cultures approach from an alien perspective."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Rebel Poet by This eagerly anticipated follow-up to the breakout memoir How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century delves more deeply into the themes of family, community, grief, and the struggle to make a place in the world when your very identity is considered suspect. In Rebel Poet: More Stories from a 21st Century Indian, author Louis Clark examines the effects of his mother's alcoholism and his young sister's death, offers an intimate recounting of the backlash he faced as an Indian on the job, and celebrates the hard-fought sense of home he and his wife have created. Rebel Poet continues the author's tradition of seamlessly mixing poetry and prose, and is at turns darker and more nuanced than its predecessor.
The Sacred Oral Tradition of the Havasupai by Early in the twentieth century, Leslie Spier and Erna Gunther, graduate students trained by anthropologist Franz Boas, hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to learn about Havasupai culture. In the process, they asked two Havasupai leaders and elders for every story they could remember. These were translated by native speakers and transcribed by Spier and, later, Gunther. Yet for unknown reasons Spier never published the whole collection of forty-eight stories, one of the earliest, most complete translations of an entire Native American oral tradition. Passed from Spier to anthropologist and Havasupai scholar Dr. Robert C. Euler, the stories, published here for the first time in book form with the permission of the Havasupai Tribal Council, are a cultural library and a cultural treasure that reflect an ancient Yuman-language mythological tradition. Publication restores them to the People (Pai/Pa/Pah) from whom they arose. In addition to the forty-eight stories, the volume includes essays on the cultural prehistory of the Grand Canyon and the cultural life of the Havasupai, as well as an overview of Havasupai history, leadership, and language, and an introduction to scientific thought on sacred story and mythology.
Stories from the Heart by Winner, Distinguished Literary Achievement Award, Governor's Humanities Award in Exemplary Community Achievement given by the Missouri Humanities Council, 2010 All along the river, from the front porches of Hannibal to the neighborhoods of St. Louis to the cotton fields of the Bootheel and west to Kansas City, stories are being told. This collection of family stories and traditional tales brings to print down-home stories about all walks of African American life. Passed down from grandparents and great-grandparents, they have been lovingly gathered by Gladys Caines Coggswell as she visited Missouri communities and participated in storytelling events over the last two decades. These stories bring to life characters with uncommon courage, strength, will, and wit as they offer insight into African American experiences throughout the state's history. Often profound, always entertaining, some of these stories hark back to times barely remembered. Many tell of ordinary folks who achieved victories in the face of overwhelming odds. They range from recollections of KKK activities--recalling a Klan leader who owned property on which a black family lived as "the man who was always so nice to us"--to remembered differences between country and city schools and black schoolchildren introduced to Dick and Jane and Little Black Sambo. Stories from the Bootheel shed light on family life, sharecropping, and the mechanization of cotton culture, which in one instance led to a massive migration of rats as the first mechanical cotton pickers came in. As memorable as the stories are the people who tell them, such as the author's own "Uncle Pete" reporting on a duck epidemic or Evelyn Pulliam of Kennett telling of her resourceful neighbors in North Lilburn. Loretta Washington remembers sitting on her little wooden stool beside her great-grandmother's rocking chair on the front porch in Wardell, mesmerized by stories--and the time when rocking chair and little wooden stool were moved inside and the stories stopped. Marlene Rhodes writes of her mother's hero, Odie, St. Louis "Entrepreneur and English gentleman." Whether sharing previously unknown stories from St. Louis or betraying the secret of "Why Dogs Chase Cats," this book is a rich repository of African American life. And if some of these tales seem unusual, the people remembering them will be the first to tell you: that's the way it was. Coggswell preserves them for posterity and along with them an important slice of Missouri history.
African-American Folktales by This collection illuminates the unbroken chain of the black oral tradition which is alive in America. The Youngs, who are storytellers and teachers, have assembled an anthology that bears out both the richness and variety of a cultural heritage that has crossed the Atlantic, survived the ignominy of slavery, and triumphed over the ignorance of racism and bigotry. In his introduction, Dr. Rex Ellis underscores the multicultural opportunity this collection offers: They are stories that continue to ....
The Broken Spears 2007 Revised Edition by In this updated edition of the classic THE BROKEN SPEARS, Leon-Portilla has included accounts from native Aztec descendants across the centuries. Those texts bear witness to the extraordinary vitality of an oral tradition that preserves the viewpoints of the vanquished instead of the victors.
Grandmothers of the Light by This extraordinary collection of goddess stories from Native American civilizations across the continent, Paula Gunn Allen shares myths that have guided female shamans toward an understanding of the sacred for centuries.
The Journey of Crazy Horse by Drawing on vivid oral histories, Joseph M. Marshall's intimate biography introduces a never-before-seen portrait of Crazy Horse and his Lakota community Most of the world remembers Crazy Horse as a peerless warrior who brought the U.S. Army to its knees at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But to his fellow Lakota Indians, he was a dutiful son and humble fighting man who--with valor, spirit, respect, and unparalleled leadership--fought for his people's land, livelihood, and honor. In this fascinating biography, Joseph M. Marshall, himself a Lakota Indian, creates a vibrant portrait of the man, his times, and his legacy. Thanks to firsthand research and his culture's rich oral tradition (rarely shared outside the Native American community), Marshall reveals many aspects of Crazy Horse's life, including details of the powerful vision that convinced him of his duty to help preserve the Lakota homeland--a vision that changed the course of Crazy Horse's life and spurred him confidently into battle time and time again. The Journey of Crazy Horse is the true story of how one man's fight for his people's survival roused his true genius as a strategist, commander, and trusted leader. And it is an unforgettable portrayal of a revered human being and a profound celebration of a culture, a community, and an enduring way of life. "Those wishing to understand Crazy Horse as the Lakota know him won't find a better accout than Marshall's." -San Francisco Chronicle
Living Tradition of Yupik Mask by Published in conjunction with an exhibit organized by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art and the Coastal-Yukon Mayors' Association. For the Yup'ik of southwestern Alaska, masked dancing has long been a focal point of ceremonial activity. Two hundred color plates and 100 b&w photo illustrate his
Our Stories Remember by An illuminating look at Native origins and lifeways, a treasure for all who value Native wisdom and the stories that keep it alive.
Red Earth, White Lies by Vine Deloria, Jr., leading Native American scholar and author of the best-selling God is Red, addresses the conflict between mainstream scientific theory about our world and the ancestral worldview of Native Americans. Claiming that science has created a largely fictional scenario for American Indians in prehistoric North America, Deloria offers an alternative view of the continent's history as seen through the eyes and memories of Native Americans. Further, he warns future generations of scientists not to repeat the ethnocentric omissions and fallacies of the past by dismissing Native oral tradition as mere legends.
Serafina's Stories by New Mexico's master storyteller creates a southwestern version of the Arabian Nights in this fable set in seventeenth-century Santa Fe. In January 1680 a dozen Pueblo Indians are charged with conspiring to incite a revolution against the colonial government. When the prisoners are brought before the Governor, one of them is revealed as a young woman. Educated by the friars in her pueblo's mission church, Serafina speaks beautiful Spanish and surprises the Governor with her fearlessness and intelligence. The two strike a bargain. She will entertain the Governor by telling him a story. If he likes her story, he will free one of the prisoners. Like Scheherezade, who prevented her royal husband from killing her by telling him stories, Serafina keeps the Governor so entertained with her versions of Nuevo Mexicano cuentos that he spares the lives of all her fellow prisoners. Some of the stories Serafina tells will have a familiar ring to them, for they came from Europe and were New Mexicanized by the Spanish colonists. Some have Pueblo Indian plots and characters--and it is this blending of the two cultures that is Anaya's true subject.
Storyteller by A classic work of Native American literature by the bestselling author of Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko's groundbreaking book Storyteller, first published in 1981, blends original short stories and poetry influenced by the traditional oral tales that she heard growing up on the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico with autobiographical passages, folktales, family memories, and photographs. As she mixes traditional and Western literary genres, Silko examines themes of memory, alienation, power, and identity; communicates Native American notions regarding time, nature, and spirituality; and explores how stories and storytelling shape people and communities. Storyteller illustrates how one can frame collective cultural identity in contemporary literary forms, as well as illuminates the importance of myth, oral tradition, and ritual in Silko's own work. This edition includes a new introduction by Silko and previously unpublished photographs.
The Stranger and the Red Rooster by One day in a small California barrio, a scary-looking stranger with an ugly scar on his face arrives. Silence falls on the streets. Normally raucous children stop playing, and their fearful mothers quickly beckon them inside. Everyone peeks out of windows and doors to watch the stranger walk down Main Street. Later in the week, the stranger again appears in town. And a few days later, on a pleasant Sunday morning, the man shows his frightening face yet again. But this time, he's not alone. Cradled in the stranger's arms is a big, red rooster with a yellow ribbon tied around its neck. When the rooster sets off after a bug with the stranger hanging on to the ribbon like a cowboy who had lassoed a wild bull, the townspeople are finally able to look past the long, ugly scar on the stranger's face. Echoing the oral tradition common to so many Latinos, acclaimed author Victor Villasenor shares with young readers one of his father's favorite stories. With vibrant illustrations by Jose Jara, this will soon become the favorite of many children aged 3 to 7.
Smoke Signals Story of the journey of two Coeur d'Alene Indian boys from Idaho to Arizona. Victor is the stoic, handsome son of an alcoholic father who has abandoned his family. Thomas is a gregarious, goofy young man orphaned as an infant by a fire which Victor's father accidentally started while drunk. Thomas is a storyteller who makes every effort to connect with the people around him; Victor, in contrast, uses his quiet demeanor to gain strength and confidence. When Victor's estranged father dies in Arizona the two young men embark on a journey to recover his ashes.
Contemporary Native American authors. Betty Louise Bell Dr. Bell (Cherokee) is a professor at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Intriguing topics covered in her interviews include “An Indian with a pen,” the “The lost generation”, and the power of oral storytelling and its relationship to Native American writing.
Last Manaschi: The Kyrgyz of Central Asia The Last Manaschi is a portrait of Qaba Atabekov, the man who is regarded as the last great representative of the Manas Epos. This oral tradition tells the story of the Kyrgyz nomads in Central Asia. The Manas is a monumental work of 500,000 lines (the longest epic in the world). It tells the story of the heroic struggle of the Kyrgyz people led by Manas and later by his son Semetei and grandson Seitek. In addition to stories about the battle against hostile tribes, the epic also includes a wealth of information about their everyday life. The narrators, the Manaschi, passed the stories down from generation to generation. Not only were they esteemed for their knowledge, but also for their dramatic delivery. These verses are the treasures of the collective memory of the Kyrgyz.
African American lives A compelling combination of storytelling and science, this series uses genealogy, oral histories, family stories and DNA to trace roots of several accomplished African Americans down through American history and back to Africa.
Sip'ohi : el lugar del manduré Gustavo Salvatierra returns to his hometown, Sipo’hi, in the Impenetrable Chaqueño (the impenetrable forest in the north of Argentina), with the aim of listening and collecting stories of wichí culture, transmitted orally from generation to generation. The Culture is alive in language, in the faces and in the singular mood of wichí men and women. Salvatierra must find a way to show that, but what he doesn’t know is that he will have to overcome some resistance from his community.
N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear When N. Scott Momaday won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, it marked one of the first major acknowledgments of Native American literature and culture. Now, Momaday’s words come to life in this biography of a celebrated Native American storyteller.
Lands of Legends Today exists ethnic minorities whose daily lives continue to bear witness to contemporary myths: these legends are their faith, and the animals, their gods. From the Indonesian horsemen of Sumba Island to the wild elephant tamers of the Vietnamese forest, this collection reveals the most wondrous of beliefs which unite man and animal in the spectacular, thousand-year old fulfillment of a magical destiny.
Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae Those Who Came Before tells the story of a young Hawaiian 'ukulele virtuoso's journey of musical self-discovery and how it turned into a 50-year pursuit of Hawaiian cultural and musical traditions. The documentary pays tribute to the music of Hawaiians whose gifts of knowledge helped guide Eddie Kamae. His pursuit led him to some of the most respected gatekeepers of the Hawaiian Renaissance: the great author and translator Mary Kawena Pukui, the 'Songwriter of Waipi'o' Sam Li'a, 'Aloha Chant' author Pilahi Paki, and Hawaiian cultural resource Lilia 'Mama' Hale. One by one, they entrusted him with key pieces of Hawaii's musical heritage – inspiring him to understand, perform, and pass that heritage on to the children of Hawai'i. Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae, is the 10th documentary from Eddie and Myrna Kamae's celebrated and multiple award- winning Hawaiian Legacy Series.
Gurrumul Celebrated by audiences at home and abroad, Indigenous artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was one of the most important and acclaimed voices to ever come out of Australia. Blind from birth, he found purpose and meaning through songs and music inspired by his community and country on Elcho Island in far North East Arnhem Land. Living a traditional Yolngu life, his breakthrough album 'Gurrumul' brought him to a crossroads as audiences and artists around the world began to embrace his music.
Keepers of the Flame: The Legacy of Three Hawaiian Women This is the story of three extraordinary Hawaiian women who helped revive Hawaiian culture when it was perilously close to being lost. It was a time when the monarchy had been overthrown, the Hawaiian language banned from public places and schools, and the Hawaiian heartbeat of hula forced underground. Mary Kawena Pukui, ‘lolani Luahine and Edith Kanaka’ole combined commitment to Hawaiian history with art and aloha, to reignite the flame of tradition. Each planted seeds of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. Kawena as a history and language expert, teacher and author, ‘lolani as a chanter, cultural icon and ‘high priestess of hula’ and Edith as a songwriter, teacher and founder of the traditional school of hula, Halau O Kekuhi. The lives of these three great women are described through heartfelt interviews with people who knew and were influenced by them, along with wonderful archival footage collected throughout the years.