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The Turquoise Ledge
By Leslie Marmon Silko. 2010
The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman
By Alison Dundy, Davi Kopenawa, Bruce Albert, translated by Nicholas Elliott. 2013
"The Falling Sky" is a remarkable first-person account of the life story and cosmo-ecological thought of Davi Kopenawa, shaman and…
spokesman for the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon. Representing a people whose very existence is in jeopardy, Davi Kopenawa paints an unforgettable picture of Yanomami culture, past and present, in the heart of the rainforest--a world where ancient indigenous knowledge and shamanic traditions cope with the global geopolitics of an insatiable natural resources extraction industry. In richly evocative language, Kopenawa recounts his initiation and experience as a shaman, as well as his first encounters with outsiders: government officials, missionaries, road workers, cattle ranchers, and gold prospectors. He vividly describes the ensuing cultural repression, environmental devastation, and deaths resulting from epidemics and violence. To counter these threats, Davi Kopenawa became a global ambassador for his endangered people. "The Falling Sky" follows him from his native village in the Northern Amazon to Brazilian cities and finally on transatlantic flights bound for European and American capitals. These travels constitute a shamanic critique of Western industrial society, whose endless material greed, mass violence, and ecological blindness contrast sharply with Yanomami cultural values. Bruce Albert, a close friend since the 1970s, superbly captures Kopenawas intense, poetic voice. This collaborative work provides a unique reading experience that is at the same time a coming-of-age story, a historical account, and a shamanic philosophy, but most of all an impassioned plea to respect native rights and preserve the Amazon rainforest.The Complete Sol Worth
By Larry Gross, Jay Ruby. 2013
One of the central figures in the development of the study of visual communication, Sol Worth (1922-1977) was a filmmaker…
and painter before he turned to academic pursuits. He began with the question of how film could be understood and studied as medium of communication, and from there, he moved on to larger and more profound questions about the nature of visual media in general and the role that visual images play in shaping and constructing reality. He is perhaps best known for the "Navajo Film Project" that he conducted with anthropologist John Adair in which they gave 16mm cameras to Navajo residents of the Pine Springs, Arizona reservation in order to explore how people who had never made or used movies would do so for the first time. How would their movies reflect their own culture and their ways of seeing and telling about their experiences? The book, Through Navajo Eyes, included here, became enormously influential in the fields of anthropology, communication and cinema studies, among others. In The Complete Sol Worth, editors Larry Gross and Jay Ruby collect all of Sol Worth's published writings, as well as some unpublished writings, extensive photo essays, and articles about Worth's work. Sol Worth's work remains relevant and influential in visual communication and anthropology, and the e-book format enables an accessible collection of the entirety of his contributions. Readers can also access Teaterri, a video documentary that Worth produced which is part of a permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. We hope this collection will introduce new readers to Sol Worth's contribution to bettering our understanding of visual communication, culture, and life.One of the central figures in the development of the study of visual communication, Sol Worth (1922-1977) was a filmmaker and painter before he turned to academic pursuits. He began with the question of how film could be understood and studied as medium of communication, and from there, he moved on to larger and more profound questions about the nature of visual media in general and the role that visual images play in shaping and constructing reality. He is perhaps best known for the "Navajo Film Project" that he conducted with anthropologist John Adair in which they gave 16mm cameras to Navajo residents of the Pine Springs, Arizona reservation in order to explore how people who had never made or used movies would do so for the first time. How would their movies reflect their own culture and their ways of seeing and telling about their experiences? The book, Through Navajo Eyes, included here, became enormously influential in the fields of anthropology, communication and cinema studies, among others.A Man Most Driven: Captain John Smith, Pocahontas And The Founding Of America
By Peter Firstbrook. 2014
Named a Best Book of 2014 by The Providence Journal "A nuanced account of the English captain saved by Pocahontas…
reveals an astonishingly complicated personality. Former BBC producer Firstbrook finds in the roguish, quarrelsome, fearless adventurer Capt. John Smith a sterling example of the tenacious early-American character. . . . Exciting historical tales with romantic overtones. " - Kirkus Reviews Everyone knows the story of Pocahontas and how she saved John Smith. And were it not for Smith’s leadership, the Jamestown Colony would surely have failed. Yet Smith was a far more ambitious explorer and soldier of fortune than these tales suggest--and a far more ambitious self-promoter, too, so reputed for his truculence that the pilgrims of the Mayflower snubbed him when he offered them his services, though his 1614 map of New England (which he named) made him the unrivaled expert on America. Now, in the first major biography of Smith in decades, award-winning BBC filmmaker and author Peter Firstbrook traces the adventurer’s astonishing exploits across three continents, testing Smith’s claimed biography against the historical and geographical reality on the ground. A Man Most Driven delivers an enlightening dissection of this mythology-making man and the invention of America.Living by Stories
By Harry Robinson, Wendy Wickwire. 2005
Living by Stories includes a number of classic stories set in the "mythological age" about the trickster/transformer, Coyote, and his…
efforts to rid the world of bad people - spatla or "monsters," but this volume also presents historical narratives set in the more recent past, which involve the arrival of new quasi-monsters - "SHAmas" (Whites).The Making of a Healer
By Russell Foureagles. 2014
Once Oneida healer Russell FourEagles (Atuneyute Keya) went to see his friend Bob, whom doctors had declared incurably paralyzed following…
a stroke. Within minutes of FourEagles' attention, Bob was kicking the covers off the bed. "You should write a book!" Bob later encouraged. And here it is. FourEagles' grandparents escaped the reservation-school education that obliterated Native American culture, preserving the healing abilities that can be traced in an unbroken lineage back two hundred grandmothers. In The Making of a Healer, he openly shares his knowledge in an effort to keep the old wisdom and practices from being forgotten. Recounting sacred Oneida myths and cosmology, he describes the healing powers of the Fire Ceremony, energy exchange, and humor; discusses natural remedies; and explains how he healed himself from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Vietnam War.Buckskin and Broadcloth: A Celebration of E. Pauline Johnson — Tekahionwake, 1861-1913
By Sheila M.F. Johnston. 1997
This is the first generously illustrated biography of the Mohawk poet-performer E. Pauline Johnson-Tekahionwake. The author has created an exciting…
volume of anecdotes, letters and poetry, and illustrated it with period photographs and new illustrations by the Six Nations artist, Raymond R. Skye. While the story of Pauline Johnson has been told before, it has never been given the intimacy that this book provides. Tracing her ancestry, moving on to explore her extraordinary stage career, and finally shedding light on Pauline Johnson’s last years in Vancouver, Sheila M.F. Johnston has breathed new life into the compelling story of one of Canada’s brightest literary and stage stars. This book contains over forty poems that are not part of Pauline Johnson’s classic collection of poems, Flint and Feather. The "uncollected" poems have been culled from archives, libraries and out-of-print books. They shed light on the development of the poet, and enlighten and enrich her life story. Buckskin & Broadcloth is truly a celebration of the life of a Canadian hero – one whose legacy to Canadian literature and Canadian theatre is unparalleled.Crazy Brave: A Memoir
By Joy Harjo. 2012
"Compressed . . . lyrical . . . unflinching . . . raw. . . . Harjo is a magician…
and a master of the English language."--Jonah Raskin, San Francisco Chronicle In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. She attended an Indian arts boarding school, where she nourished an appreciation for painting, music, and poetry; gave birth while still a teenager; and struggled on her own as a single mother, eventually finding her poetic voice. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice. Harjo's tale of a hardscrabble youth, young adulthood, and transformation into an award-winning poet and musician is haunting, unique, and visionary.A Metaphoric Mind: Selected Writings of Joseph Couture
By Virginia Mcgowan, Ruth Couture. 2013
Dr. Joseph Couture (1930–2007), known affectionately as "Dr. Joe," stood at the centre of some of the greatest political, social,…
and intellectual struggles of Aboriginal peoples in contemporary Canada. A profound thinker and writer, as well as a gifted orator, he easily walked two paths, as a respected Elder and traditional healer and as an educational psychologist, one of the first Aboriginal people in Canada to receive a PhD. His work challenged and transformed long-held views of Canada's Indigenous peoples, and his vision and leadership gave direction to many of the current fields of Aboriginal scholarship. His influence extended into numerous areas—education, addictions and mental health treatment, community development, restorative justice, and federal correctional programming for Aboriginal peoples. With a foreword by Lewis Cardinal, A Metaphoric Mind brings together for the first time key works selected from among Dr. Joe's writings, published and unpublished. Spanning nearly thirty years, the essays invite us to share in his transformative legacy through a series of encounters, with Aboriginal spirituality and ancestral ways of knowing, with Elders and their teachings, with education and its role in politicization, self-determination, and social change, and with the restorative process and the meaning of Native healing.Moose to Moccasins: The Story of Ka Kita Wa Pa No Kwe
By Madeline Katt Theriault. 2006
Having been born in a tent on Bear Island, Lake Temagami, in 1908, Madeline Katt Theriault could recall an earlier…
independent and traditional First Nations lifestyle. In this book, the late author proudly tells of her youth and coming of age by sharing her vivid memories and drawing on exceptional old family photographs. In her own words, she writes of a time long ago – a time that was difficult, but not without personal rewards. "Moose to Moccasins is a remarkable account by Madeline Theriault, or Ka Kita Wa Pa No Kwe (’Wise Day Woman’), who, in her own words, has lived ’in both cultures, Indian and white man’s.’ From her birth in the Temagami region in 1908, to her life in North Bay in the 1970s and 1980s, she takes the reader on a remarkable journey. We travel through the bush with her as a young girl. ’We killed animals only when needed and we could drink water anywhere. Our camp was always fresh; fresh balsam branches for our beds and floors in the camp. Such lively smells and the air was pure.’ We step back into another century, into another universe. There is a wealth of information in these pages about a people, and a way of life, about which most non-Natives know almost nothing." – Donald B. Smith, Professor of History, University of CalgarySimon Girty: Wilderness Warrior
By Edward Butts. 2011
During the American Revolution and the border conflicts that followed, Simon Girty’s name struck terror into the hearts of U.S.…
settlers in the Ohio Valley and the territory of Kentucky. Girty (1741-1818) had lived with the Natives most of his life. Scorned by his fellow white frontiersmen as an "Indian lover," Girty became an Indian agent for the British. He accompanied Native raids against Americans, spied deep into enemy territory, and was influential in convincing the tribes to fight for the British. The Americans declared Girty an outlaw. In U.S. history books he is a villain even worse than Benedict Arnold. Yet in Canada, Girty is regarded as a Loyalist hero, and a historic plaque marks the site of his homestead on the Ontario side of the Detroit River. In Native history, Girty stands out as one of the few white men who championed their cause against American expansion. But was he truly the "White Savage" of legend, or a hero whose story was twisted by his foes?Dr. Oronhyatekha: Security, Justice, and Equality
By Michelle A Hamilton, Keith Jamieson. 2016
2016 Ontario Historical Society Joseph Brant Award — Winner A man of two cultures in an era where his only…
choices were to be a trailblazer or get left by the wayside Dr. Oronhyatekha (“Burning Sky”), born in the Mohawk nation on the Six Nations of the Grand River territory in 1841, led an extraordinary life, rising to prominence in medicine, sports, politics, fraternalism, and business. He was one of the first Indigenous physicians in Canada, the first to attend Oxford University, a Grand River representative to the Prince of Wales during the 1860 royal tour, a Wimbledon rifle champion, the chairman of the Grand General Indian Council of Ontario, and Grand Templar of the International Order of Good Templars. He counted among his friends some of the most powerful people of the day, including John A. Macdonald and Theodore Roosevelt. He successfully challenged the racial criteria of the Independent Order of Foresters to become its first non-white member and ultimately its supreme chief ranger. At a time when First Nations peoples struggled under assimilative government policy and society’s racial assumptions, his achievements were remarkable. Oronhyatekha was raised among a people who espoused security, justice, and equality as their creed. He was also raised in a Victorian society guided by God, honour, and duty. He successfully interwove these messages throughout his life, and lived as a man of significant accomplishments in both worlds.Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow
By Brian D. Mcinnes, Waubgeshig Rice. 2016
Francis Pegahmagabow (1889–1952), a member of the Ojibwe nation, was born in Shawanaga, Ontario. Enlisting at the onset of the…
First World War, he became the most decorated Canadian Indigenous soldier for bravery and the most accomplished sniper in North American military history. After the war, Pegahmagabow settled in Wasauksing, Ontario. He served his community as both chief and councillor and belonged to the Brotherhood of Canadian Indians, an early national Indigenous political organization. Francis proudly served a term as Supreme Chief of the National Indian Government, retiring from office in 1950. Francis Pegahmagabow’s stories describe many parts of his life and are characterized by classic Ojibwe narrative. They reveal aspects of Francis’s Anishinaabe life and worldview. Interceding chapters by Brian McInnes provide valuable cultural, spiritual, linguistic, and historic insights that give a greater context and application for Francis’s words and world. Presented in their original Ojibwe as well as in English translation, the stories also reveal a rich and evocative relationship to the lands and waters of Georgian Bay. In "Sounding Thunder", Brian McInnes provides new perspective on Pegahmagabow and his experience through a unique synthesis of Ojibwe oral history, historical record, and Pegahmagabow family stories.A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder
By Ma-Nee Chacaby, Mary Louisa Plummer. 2016
A compelling, harrowing, but ultimately uplifting story of resilience and self-discovery. "A Two-Spirit Journey" is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of…
her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism, Chacaby’s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism. As a child, Chacaby learned spiritual and cultural traditions from her Cree grandmother and trapping, hunting, and bush survival skills from her Ojibwa stepfather. She also suffered physical and sexual abuse by different adults, and in her teen years became alcoholic herself. At twenty, Chacaby moved to Thunder Bay with her children to escape an abusive marriage. Abuse, compounded by racism, continued, but Chacaby found supports to help herself and others. Over the following decades, she achieved sobriety; trained and worked as an alcoholism counsellor; raised her children and fostered many others; learned to live with visual impairment; and came out as a lesbian. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in Thunder Bay. Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, humour, and resilience. Her memoir provides unprecedented insights into the challenges still faced by many Indigenous people.From the Tundra to the Trenches
By Thibault Martin, Eddy Weetaltuk, Isabelle St. Amand. 2016
“My name is Weetaltuk; Eddy Weetaltuk. My Eskimo tag name is E9-422.” So begins From the "Tundra to the Trenches."…
Weetaltuk means “innocent eyes” in Inuktitut, but to the Canadian government, he was known as E9-422: E for Eskimo, 9 for his community, 422 to identify Eddy. In 1951, Eddy decided to leave James Bay. Because Inuit weren’t allowed to leave the North, he changed his name and used this new identity to enlist in the Canadian Forces: Edward Weetaltuk, E9-422, became Eddy Vital, SC-17515, and headed off to fight in the Korean War. In 1967, after fifteen years in the Canadian Forces, Eddy returned home. He worked with Inuit youth struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and, in 1974, started writing his life’s story. This compelling memoir traces an Inuk’s experiences of world travel and military service. Looking back on his life, Weetaltuk wanted to show young Inuit that they can do and be what they choose. From the Tundra to the Trenches is the fourth book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or underappreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This new English edition of Eddy Weetaltuk’s memoir includes a foreword and appendix by Thibault Martin and an introduction by Isabelle St-Amand.Broken
By Lisa Jones. 2009
Writer Lisa Jones went to Wyoming for a four-day magazine assignment and came home four years later with a new…
life. At a dusty corral on the Wind River Indian Reservation, she met Stanford Addison, a Northern Arapaho who seemed to transform everything around him. He gentled horses rather than breaking them by force. It was said that he could heal people of everything from cancer to bipolar disorder. He did all this from a wheelchair; he had been a quadriplegic for more than twenty years. Intrigued, Lisa sat at Stanford's kitchen table and watched. She saw neighbors from the reservation and visitors from as far away as Holland bump up the dirt road to his battered modular home, seeking guidance and healing for what had broken in their lives. She followed him into the sweat lodge -- a framework of willow limbs covered with quilts -- where he used prayer and heat to shrink tumors and soothe agitated souls. Standing on his sun-blasted porch, pit bulls padding past her, she felt the vibration from thundering bands of Arabian horses that Stanford's young nephews brought to the ring to train. And she listened to his story. Stanford spent his teenage years busting broncs, seducing girls, and dealing drugs. At twenty, he left the house for another night of partying. By morning, a violent accident had robbed him of his physical prowess and left in its place unwelcome spiritual powers -- an exchange so shocking that Stanford spent several years trying to kill himself. But eventually he surrendered to his new life and mysterious gifts. Over the years Lisa was a frequent visitor to Stanford's place, the reservation and its people worked on her, exposing and healing the places where she, too, was broken. Brokenentwines her story with Stanford's, exploring powerful spirits, material poverty, spiritual wealth, friendship, violence, confusion, death, and above all else,"a love that comes before and after and above and below romantic love. "The Gang of Four: Four Leaders, Four Communities, One Friendship
By Bob Santos, Gary Iwamoto. 2015
Seattle's Gang of Four changed the face of the city in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s by bringing four ethnic…
groups together in battle against city powerbrokers over development, poverty, fishing rights, and gentrification. The four leaders learned quickly that working together provided greater results than working apart. This is the story of a powerful political alliance and lifelong friendships forged through sit-ins, protest rallies, and other acts of civil disobedience. "We got very good at occupying buildings," remarked one of the Gang.Bob Santos and Gary Iwamoto recall how a Native American, Asian American, African American, and Mexican American came together to fight for their neighborhoods and their people.Bob Santos has spent most of his life in the International District of Seattle. He grew up in the N.P. Hotel with his widowed father, Sammy Santos, a professional prizefighter. He was hired in 1972 to lead the International District Improvement Association (Inter*Im). During his tenure at Inter*Im, Santos organized property owners, businesses, residents, and activists from the Asian American community to preserve the neighborhood and build new housing.Gary Iwamoto is a regular contributing writer for the International Examiner, an Asian Pacific Islander community newspaper. He has written several plays, notably Miss Minidoka 1943, which was produced by the Northwest Asian American Theater. He and Bob Santos also wrote Humbows, Not Hot Dogs in 2002.Native Heart
By Gabriel Horn. 2003
Most lives are lived solely in the present. But some lives are also lived with a spiritual and historical connection…
to the past. These lives grant us a sense of hope for the future. Native Heart is the story of Gabriel Horn and his attempt to live a modern man's life that's true to the indigenous spirit of this land we call America. As a teacher in the American Indian Movement Survival Schools, and as a writer, activist, husband, and father, Horn presents a challenging and haunting perspective on our "new world" culture and values. Whether it's revealing a genocide Western historians choose to ignore, enabling Native American prisoners to pray with the pipe, or teaching his own Native children the lessons of nature and history, Horn stays true to his heart and to the vision that inspired his journey. His encounters with the "shadow people," his relationship to the Earth, and his quest for understanding and purpose within the "Great Holy Mystery" are retold in this intimate autobiographical novel.Seasons of Hope: Memoirs of Ontario’s First Aboriginal Lieutenant Governor
By James Bartleman. 2016
2016 Speaker's Book Award — Shortlisted A look back over Bartleman’s seventy years, from his childhood of poverty to becoming…
the Queen’s representative in Ontario. James Bartleman, Ontario’s first Native lieutenant governor, looks back over seventy years to his childhood and youth to describe how learning to read at any early age led him to dream dreams, empowering him to serve his country as an ambassador. In time, Bartleman’s exciting and fulfilling career as a Canadian diplomat took him to a dozen countries around the world, from Bangladesh to Cuba, and from Australia to South Africa. After a vicious beating in a hotel room robbery in South Africa, however, he was forced to come to terms with a deepening depression. In the end, Bartleman found new meaning in life when he became the Queen’s representative in Ontario and mobilized the public to support his initiatives championing books and education for Native children. Seasons of Hope is the extraordinary story of an extraordinary man, and of his constant journey to hope.The Yale Indian: The Education of Henry Roe Cloud
By Joel Pfister. 2009
Honored in his own time as one of the most prominent Indian public intellectuals, Henry Roe Cloud (c. 1884-1950) fought…
to open higher education to Indians. Joel Pfister's extensive archival research establishes the historical significance of key chapters in the Winnebago's remarkable life. Roe Cloud was the first Indian to receive undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale University, where he was elected to the prestigious and intellectual Elihu Club. Pfister compares Roe Cloud's experience to that of other "college Indians" and also to African Americans such as W. E. B. Du Bois. Roe Cloud helped launch the Society of American Indians, graduated from Auburn seminary, founded a preparatory school for Indians, and served as the first Indian superintendent of the Haskell Institute (forerunner of Haskell Indian Nations University). He also worked under John Collier at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he was a catalyst for the Indian New Deal. Roe Cloud's white-collar activism was entwined with the Progressive Era formation of an Indian professional and managerial class, a Native "talented tenth," whose members strategically used their contingent entry into arenas of white social, intellectual, and political power on behalf of Indians without such access. His Yale training provided a cross-cultural education in class-structured emotions and individuality. While at Yale, Roe Cloud was informally adopted by a white missionary couple. Through them he was schooled in upper-middle-class sentimentality and incentives. He also learned how interracial romance could jeopardize Indian acceptance into their class. Roe Cloud expanded the range of what modern Indians could aspire to and achieve.