Fiction. Published in 1992, well before Sherman Alexie became well-known as the screenwriter for the film SMOKE SIGNALS, THE BUSINESS OF FANCYDANCING has now been turned into a film with none other than Alexie himself in his directorial debut. The screenplay for the movie, which recently won the Audience Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, is loosly adapted from this book. Many film-goers will want to visit or revisit the elegaic poems and stories that set the tone for the film itself. In an age when many 'Native American' writers publish books that prove their ignorance of the real Indian world, Sherman Alexie paints painfully honest visions of our beautiful and brutal lives--Adrian C. Louis.

    Columbus is often a child's first lesson about encounters between different cultures and races. The murky legend of a brave adventurer tells children whose version of history to accept, and whose to ignore. It says nothing about the brutality of the European invasion of North America.We need to listen to a wider range of voices. We need to hear from those whose lands and rights were taken away by those who "discovered" them. Their stories, too often suppressed, tell of 500 years of courageous struggle, and the lasting wisdom of native peoples. Understanding what really happened to them in 1492 is key to understanding why people suffer the same injustices today.More than 80 essays, poems, interviews, historical vignettes, and lesson plans reevaluate the myth of Columbus and issues of indigenous rights. Rethinking Columbus is packed with useful teaching ideas for kindergarten through college.

    As we read the wisdom of these peoples, it is possible to feel a reconnection with our land and ourselves. This beautiful collection of the best of Native American wisdom features the thoughts of Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Black Elk, Ohiyesa, and many others on Native American ways of living, learning, and dying. Taken from orations, recorded observations of life and social affairs, and other first-person testimonies, this book selects a wide range of Native American wisdom and distills it to its essence in short, digestible quotes that are meaningful and timeless -- perhaps even more timely now than when they were written.

    It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning. It tells how Europeans and Indians met, regarding each other as alien, as other, as virtually nonhuman, and how between 1650 and 1815 they constructed a common, mutually comprehensible world in the region around the Great Lakes that the French called pays d'en haut. Here the older worlds of the Algonquians and of various Europeans overlapped, and their mixture created new systems of meaning and of exchange. Finally, the book tells of the breakdown of accommodation and common meanings and the re-creation of the Indians as alien and exotic

    Writng with blazing honesty she tells of her hard-won knowledge of many of the world's spiritual and healing traditions, while hold the Sacred Hoop of Natie Amreicanwisdom. This magnificent teacher becomes for us a new embodiment of White Buffalo Woman."Jean HoustonAuthor of THE SEARCH FOR THE BELOVEDBUFFALO WOMAN COMES SINGING explores fascinating uses of traditions like the Medicine Wheel; healing through ritual action; dreamtime; and the moon lodge -- the woman's place of retreat and visioning. These powerful personal tools integrate ancient wisdom with contemporary experience, as Buffalo Woman calls each spiritual warrior to her own true place in the dance of life.

    

    The book relates the story of creation, of the four worlds (ages) through which the earth has passed and the three worlds yet to come. Past are the worlds of Love (when the love of the creating Great Mystery was poured on the earth), Ice (perhaps some racial memory of the Ice Age), Water (when whites came to Turtle Island, the primeval land mass of Indian myth) and Separation (recalling not only humanity's divorce from creation but also continental drift). Now is the dawning of the World of Illumination, from which we will pass through the World of Prophecy to the World of Completion, when all of creation will be reunited as one. With its emphasis on interdependence and the equality of all parts of creation, the book's heart is in the right place, and parts of it reflect the genuine oral tradition of the IroquoisSeneca are an Iroquos tribe per Jace . However, laden with New Age jargon and often impenetrable, this work ultimately will leave even sympathetic readers pondering its sincerity. — Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

    A comprehensive account of the history and construction of these unique hunting tools.

    He believed that all life on earth, and the earth itself, is sacred. A moving and compelling plea for an end to man's destruction of nature.

    Many today claim to be healers and spiritual teachers, but Medicine Grizzlybear Lake definitely is both. In this work he explains how a person is called by higher powers to be a medicine man or woman and describes the trials and tests of a candidate. Lake gives a colorful picture of Native American shamanism and discusses ceremonies such as the vision quest and sweat lodge.

    

    This provocative and superbly written book gives a true assessment of Columbus's legacy while taking the first steps toward its redemption. Even as he draws a direct line between the atrocities of Spanish conquistadors and the ongoing pillage of our lands and waters, Barry Lopez challenges us to adopt an ethic that will make further depredations impossible. The Rediscovery of North America is a ringingly persuasive call for us, at long last, to make this country our home.

    As this first book-length biography of Missouri's most prominent nineteenth-century African-American political figure argues, Turner possessed a deep and abiding faith in America. The Civil War, he believed, had purged the land of its sins and allowed the country to realize what had always been its promise: the creation of a social and political environment in which merit, not race or any other accident of birth, mattered. Those beliefs led Turner to become a fierce advocate of black political and civil rights.Born a slave, Turner gained his freedom when he was four years old and received his education in clandestine St. Louis schools. After briefly attending Oberlin College in Ohio, he worked as a porter in Missouri before becoming an aide to a Union officer at the advent of the Civil War. A self-taught lawyer, Turner served as secretary of the Missouri Equal Rights League from 1865 to 1867, traveling the state first as a spokesman for black suffrage and then as a representative of the State Superintendent of Education. Turner's work earned him a statewide reputation, and he wielded power far out of proportion to Missouri's relatively small black population.In 1871, as a reward for Republican party service, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Turner Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia. Turner returned to America in the late 1870s and quickly joined a relief effort aimed at helping black refugees fleeing the Redeemed South. Subsequently, he aided former slaves of the Cherokee Nation in their attempt to secure full tribal rights, including a share of federal funds paid for land cessions. Nonetheless, Turner never regained the prominence he had enjoyed during Reconstruction, and, in the end, the promise of America failed Turner and African-Americans in general.This fascinating and well-researched biography provides an insightful portrayal of James Milton Turner's public life. Anyone with interest in nineteenth-century American history, African-American history, or Missouri history is sure to find this study of great importance.

    Hedren, Western Historical Quarterly "[Gray] has applied rigorous analysis as no previous historian has done to these oft-analyzed events. His detailed time-motion study of the movements of the various participants frankly boggles the mind of this reviewer. No one will be able to write of this battle again without reckoning with Gray"-Thomas W. Dunlay, Journal of American History "Gray challenges many time honored beliefs about the battle. Perhaps most significantly, he brings in as much as possible the testimony of the Indian witnesses, especially that of the young scout Curley, which generations of historians have dismissed for contradictions that Gray convincingly demonstrates were caused not by Curley but by the assumptions made by his questioners . . . The contrasts in [this] book. . . restate the basic components of what still attracts the imagination to the Little Bighorn."-Los Angeles Times Book Review "Gray's analysis, by and large, is impressively drawn; it is an immensely logical reconstruction that should stand the test of time. As a contribution to Custer and Indian wars literature, it is indeed masterful."-Jerome A. Greene, New Mexico Historical Review John S. Gray was a distinguished historian whose books included the acclaimed Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876. Custer's Last Campaign is the winner of the Western Writers of American Spur award and the Little Bighorn Associates John M. Carroll Literary Award.

    Each

    Addressing problems of objectivity and authenticity, Sabine MacCormack reconstructs how Andean religion was understood by the Spanish in light of seventeenth-century European theological and philosophical movements, and by Andean writers trying to find in it antecedents to their new Christian faith.

    For children of all ages.

    Mayan art and architecture were the inspiration for the spectacular cut-paper artwork.

    Living among the Indians as one of them, she was resigned to marrying a brave she did not love... until fate played an unexpected band and Ross Bennett came looking for her. Part Apache himself, the hired gunman had gladly undertaken the well-financed rescue mission, never guessing the beautiful young woman he'd find would steal his heart. Ross's deepest passions were stirred in the arms of Caroline; but in this rugged land of deception and danger, life itself was a risk and love was as unpredictable as Rapture Untamed...

    Retells a variety of Native American legends featuring Coyote in the time before the coming of humans, including Coyote Gets His Powers and Coyote and Spider Woman.

    This Inner Space was experienced by shamans and the 'Wise Ones' of all cultures and traditions who could bring to the surface of consciousness knowledge that could then be applied to improve the quality of individual lives. Today, the opportunity exists for us all to experience the reality of transcending distance and time, find new understanding, and discover the inspiration and guidance to meet all of life's challenges.Shamanic Experience, packaged together with its unique shamanic drumming CD, can enable you to:-- awaken and develop your inner senses & resources-- access other levels of awareness and retrieve information that is relevant to all areas of your life -- discover that the power of every living thing, including yourself, lies within

    Real-life stories of First Nations people in Canadian cities rely on individual voices and words to convey a sense of the difficulty, diversity, joy, and pride in being a contemporary urban Native.

    By Elizabeth Renfro. The Shasta Indians dwelled in relative peace with their neighbors for untold generations until the miners and settlers arrived and utterly disrupted their way of life. Under the shadow of sacred Mount Shasta, or Wyeka, the unique Shastan culture had flourished. Origins, community life, subsistence activities, ceremonies, marriage, birth and death are carefully explained.