Best of
Native-Americans

2005

Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy


Kent Nerburn - 2005
    There, only forty miles from the Canadian border and freedom, Chief Joseph, convinced that the wounded and elders could go no farther, walked across the snowy battlefield, handed his rifle to the U.S. military commander who had been pursuing them, and spoke his now-famous words, "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."The story has been told many times, but never before in its entirety or with such narrative richness. Drawing on four years of research, interviews, and 20,000 miles of travel, Nerburn takes us beyond the surrender to the captives' unlikely welcome in Bismarck, North Dakota, their tragic eight-year exile in Indian Territory, and their ultimate return to the Northwest. Nerburn reveals the true, complex character of Joseph, showing how the man was transformed into a myth by a public hungry for an image of the noble Indian and how Joseph exploited the myth in order to achieve his single goal of returning his people to their homeland.Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce is far more than the story of a man and a people. It is a grand saga of a pivotal time in our nation's history. Its pages are alive with the presence of Lewis and Clark, General William Tecumseh Sherman, General George Armstrong Custer, and Sitting Bull. Its events brush against the California Gold Rush, the Civil War, the great western pioneer migration, and the building of the telegraph and the transcontinental railroad. Once you have read this groundbreaking work, you will never look at Chief Joseph, the American Indian, or our nation's westward journey in the same way again.

Tony Hillerman: The Leaphorn Chee Novels: Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time, Coyote Waits


Tony Hillerman - 2005
    This stunning collection includes the critically acclaimed novels Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time, and Coyote Waits, all of which have been adapted for PBS by producer Robert Redford. This is a must-have anthology from one of the great masters of suspense.In Skinwalkers, three shotgun blasts explode into the trailer of Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. Chee survives to join partner Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn in a frightening investigation that takes them into a dark world of ritual, witchcraft, and blood -- all tied to the elusive and evil "skinwalker." In A Thief of Time, a noted anthropologist vanishes at a moonlit Indian ruin where "thieves of time" ravage sacred ground for profit. When two corpses appear amid stolen goods and bones at an ancient burial site, Leaphorn and Chee must plunge into the past to unearth the astonishing truth behind a mystifying series of horrific murders.And in Coyote Waits, it wasn't the car fire that killed Navajo Tribal Policeman Delbert Nez -- a bullet did. Officer Jim Chee's good friend Del lies dead, and a whiskey-soaked Navajo shaman is found with the murder weapon. The old man is Ashie Pinto. He's quickly arrested for homicide and defended by a woman Chee could either love or loathe. But Pinto won't utter a word of confession or denial. Leaphorn and Chee must unravel a complex plot involving a historical find, a lost fortune, and the mythical Coyote, who is always waiting, and always hungry.

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources


M. Kat Anderson - 2005
    But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts.M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.

Walking with Grandfather: The Wisdom of Lakota Elders


Joseph M. Marshall III - 2005
    In Joe Marshall, we found that person, but the happy surprise was that we also found a poet, a storyteller, and an educator who led us through challenging terrain with great patience and wisdom." —Michael Wright, executive in charge of production, Into The WestNative American lineage holders have long been cautious about sharing their spiritual truths because the essence of this wisdom has been so often misunderstood. In Walking with Grandfather, authentic Lakota lineage holder and award-winning storyteller Joseph M. Marshall breaks this silence with the very best from a lifetime of lessons passed on to him by his grandfather. With him, you will gain access to the timeless teachings that until now remained largely unheard outside the culture of the Lakota people.Part of an unbroken series of narratives dating back countless centuries, this rare new transmission includes Marshall's rendition of legendary stories such as:"Follow Me"—why it is not authority but character, compassion, and experience that make a good leader• "The Way of Wolves"—surprising lessons about the meaning of family• "The Bow and the Arrow"—the intricate dynamics of spiritual partnership• "The Shadow Man"—how to honor the sacred warrior in all of us• "The Wisdom Within"—the passage of truly becoming an elder• Plus many more stories

Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming


Winona LaDuke - 2005
    For LaDuke, only the power to define what is sacred—and access it—will enable Native American communities to remember who they are and fashion their future.Using a wealth of Native American research and hundreds of interviews with indigenous scholars and activists, LaDuke examines the connections between sacred objects and the sacred bodies of her people—past, present and future—focusing more closely on the conditions under which traditional beliefs can best be practiced. Describing the plentiful gaps between mainstream and indigenous thinking, she probes the paradoxes that abound for the native people of the Americas. How, for instance, can the indigenous imperative to honor the Great Salt Mother be carried out when mining threatens not only access to Nevada’s Great Salt Lake but the health of the lake water itself? While Congress has belatedly moved to protect most Native American religious expression, it has failed to protect the places and natural resources integral to the ceremonies.Federal laws have achieved neither repatriation of Native remains nor protection of sacred sites, and may have even less power to confront the more insidious aspects of cultural theft, such as the parading of costumed mascots. But what of political marginalization? How can the government fund gene mapping while governmental neglect causes extreme poverty, thus blocking access to basic healthcare for most tribal members? Calling as ever on her lyrical sensibility and caustic wit, moving from the popular to the politic, from the sacred to the profane, LaDuke uses these essays not just to indict the current situation, but to point out a way forward for Native Americans and their allies.

Silver Feather


Cassie Edwards - 2005
    But her innocent hopes were shattered when Silver Feather's parents were ruthlessly murdered and he was forced to flee Dettro Manor to save his own life, taking with him the young girl's heart....More than ten years have passed since that fateful day, and Diana is now a woman living alone in a harsh world. Impoverished and desperate, she disguises herself as a man so she can work as a stagecoach driver. Diana doesn't think she can get much lower—until she receives the orders to go back to her childhood home and pick up several trunks filled with unknown cargo. And her luck keeps getting worse. She's ambushed on the road by an Indian and taken captive.An Indian who looks strangely familar... Silver Feather.

Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands


Lindsay G. Robertson - 2005
    At the heart of the decision for Johnson v. M'Intosh was a discovery doctrine that gave rights of ownership to the European sovereigns who discovered the land and converted the indigenous owners into tenants. Though its meaning and intention has been fiercely disputed, more than 175 years later, this doctrine remains the law of the land. In 1991, while investigating the discovery doctrine's historical origins Lindsay Robertson made a startling find; in the basement of a Pennsylvania furniture-maker, he discovered a trunk with the complete corporate records of the Illinois and Wabash Land Companies, the plaintiffs in Johnson v. M'Intosh. Conquest by Law provides, for the first time, the complete and troubling account of the European discovery of the Americas. This is a gripping tale of political collusion, detailing how a spurious claim gave rise to a doctrine--intended to be of limited application--which itself gave rise to a massive displacement of persons and the creation of a law that governs indigenous people and their lands to this day.

A Short History of Indians in Canada: Stories


Thomas King - 2005
    Winner of the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year and the Aboriginal Fiction Book of the Year--a collection of twenty short stories told in Thomas King's classic, wry, irreverent, and allegorical voice.

The Orphan Tsunami of 1700: Japanese Clues to a Parent Earthquake in North America


Brian F. Atwater - 2005
    Samurai, merchants, and villagers wrote of minor flooding and damage. Some noted having felt no earthquake; they wondered what had set off the waves but had no way of knowing that the tsunami was spawned during an earthquake along the coast of northwestern North America. This orphan tsunami would not be linked to its parent earthquake until the mid-twentieth century, through an extraordinary series of discoveries in both North America and Japan.The Orphan Tsunami of 1700, now in its second edition, tells this scientific detective story through its North American and Japanese clues. The story underpins many of today's precautions against earthquake and tsunami hazards in the Cascadia region of northwestern North America. The Japanese tsunami of March 2011 called attention to these hazards as a mirror image of the transpacific waves of January 1700.Hear Brian Atwater on NPR with Renee Montagne http: //www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php...Replaced by ISBN 9780295998084

Quiet Thunder: The Wisdom of Crazy Horse


Joseph M. Marshall III - 2005
    But beyond this singular event, who was this man? And what teaching did he offer to all peoples of every nation? On Quiet Thunder: The Wisdom of Crazy Horse, Lakota lineage holder Joseph Marshall III presents the first audio-learning program based entirely on the rich oral tradition of his people to share a vibrant portrait painted with the brush of reality rather than the distortion of legend. With him, you will meet a compassionate but purposeful man driven by the empowering vision of a Thunder Dreamer, one who walked the path of giving as opposed to gaining, honor instead of ego, and leadership through leading, not authority.To fully appreciate the lessons of Crazy Horse, teaches Marshall, we must first get to know the place he came from. With captivating detail, he transports you to a time when the Lakota lived the nomadic lifestyle of their grandparents' grandparents, and immerses you in the culture and value system of his ancestors.In narrative rarely heard outside the Lakota circle, Marshall relates how the youth called Light Hair (Crazy Horse's boyhood name), learned the virtues of a wica, or complete man, and trusted to provide for and protect his family and community; how the young Crazy Horse's selfless actions and skill beyond his years earned him the title of shirt wearer, one esteemed by the tribe but challenged to live a life beyond reproach; and the heroic story of Crazy Horse's later life, not only of his feats in battle, but of his true legacy, won through ceaseless commitment to preserve the way of life of his people, and the dignity of generations. Highlights: Crazy Horse's remarkable grace under pressure, and how to develop this quality yourselfSitting Bull, Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and other influential figures in the life of Crazy HorseHumility, compassion, and selflessness--three core values of the LakotasEight immersive sessions--six hours of teaching stories and insights from the rich oral tradition of the Lakotas, and much more

The Cherokee Nation: A History


Robert J. Conley - 2005
    The first history of the Cherokees to appear in over four decades, this is also the first to be endorsed by the tribe and the first to be written by a Cherokee. Robert Conley begins his survey with Cherokee origin myths and legends. He then explores their relations with neighboring Indian groups and European missionaries and settlers. He traces their forced migrations west, relates their participations on both sides of the Civil War and the wars of the twentieth century, and concludes with an examination of Cherokee life today. Conley provides analyses for general readers of all ages to learn the significance of tribal lore and Cherokee tribal law. Following the history is a listing of the Principal Chiefs of the Cherokees with a brief biography of each and separate listings of the chiefs of the Eastern Cherokees and the Western Cherokees. For those who want to know more about Cherokee heritage and history, Conley offers additional reading lists at the end of each chapter.

Native Roads: The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations


Fran Kosik - 2005
    It's informed, pragmatic, and refreshingly free of hype. The "Important Things to Know" chapter includes Navajo creation stories along with health precautions and how to buy a Navajo rug. From Four Corners National Monument to the Grand Canyon, Fran Kosik gives needed survival advice on motels, camping, restaurants (and gas stations, which aren't as plentiful as you may think), interspersed with scholarly archeological, geographical anthropological information, and sensitive attention to the people who still live there.

Navajoland


LeRoy DeJolie - 2005
    His photos and stories of the Navajo way of life are intertwined as surely as strands of a rope. The book is richly illustrated with full-color landscape photography and tells stories about the ancient ways and beliefs of the Navajo people. Noting that DeJolie focuses on a Holy Land, Tony Hillerman compares the Navajo Creation Story withte Bible's Book of Genesis.

Crazy Horse And Chief Red Cloud: Warrior Chiefs- Teton Oglalas


Ed McGaa - 2005
    Early writers did not speak the native language and hence could not interview in the native tongue nor did they seek any concepts or knowledge of the Sioux spirituality. Too many of these writers have errantly attempted to create a rivalry and animosity between the tow and hence downgraded and diluted the magnificent Sioux culture, its rich history and great leaders such a culture could produce.

Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier


Andrew K. Frank - 2005
    Called “Indian countrymen” at the time, these intermarried white men moved into their wives’ villages in what is now Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. By doing so, they obtained new homes, familial obligations, occupations, and identities. At the same time, however, they maintained many of their ties to white American society and as a result entered the historical record in large numbers. Creeks and Southerners studies the ways in which many children of these relationships lived both as Creek Indians and white Southerners. By carefully altering their physical appearances, choosing appropriate clothing, learning multiple languages, embracing maternal and paternal kinsmen and kinswomen, and balancing their loyalties, the children of intermarriages found ways to bridge what seemed to be an unbridgeable divide. Many became prominent Creek political leaders and warriors, played central roles in the lucrative deerskin trade, built inns and taverns to cater to the needs of European American travelers, frequently moved between colonial American and Native communities, and served both European American and Creek officials as interpreters, assistants, and travel escorts. The fortunes of these bicultural children reflect the changing nature of Creek-white relations, which became less flexible and increasingly contentious throughout the nineteenth century as both Creeks and Americans accepted a more rigid biological concept of race, forcing their bicultural children to choose between identities.

How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier


Stuart Banner - 2005
    This dramatic transformation has been understood in two very different ways - as a series of consensual transactions, but also as a process of violent conquest. Both views cannot be correct. How did Indians actually lose their land? Stuart Banner provides the first comprehensive answer. He argues that neither simple coercion nor simple consent reflects the complicated legal history of land transfers. Instead, time, place, and the balance of power between Indians and settlers decided the outcome of land struggles. As whites' power grew, they were able to establish the legal institutions and the rules by which land transactions would be made and enforced. This story of America's colonisation remains a story of power, but a more complex kind of power than historians have acknowledged. It is a story in which military force was less important than the power to shape the legal framework within which land would be owned. could believe they were buying land from the Indians the same way they bought land from one another. How the Indians Lost Their Land dramatically reveals how subtle changes in the law can determine the fate of a nation, and our understanding of the past.

Sandstone Spine: Seeking the Anasazi on the First Traverse of the Comb Ridge


David Roberts - 2005
    The Comb is an upthrust ridge of sandstone-virtually a mini-mountain range-that stretches almost unbroken for a hundred miles from just east of Kayenta, Arizona, to some ten miles west of Blanding, Utah. To hike the Comb is to run a gauntlet of up-and-down severities, with the precipice lurking on one hand, the fiendishly convoluted bedrock slab on the other-always at a sideways, ankle-wrenching pitch. There is not a single mile of established trail in the Comb's hundred-mile reach.The friends were David Roberts, writer, adventurer, famed mountaineer of decades past, at age 61 the graybeard of the bunch; Greg Child, renowned mountaineer and rock climber, age 47; and Vaughn Hadenfeldt, a wilderness guide intimately acquainted with the canyonlands, age 53. They came to the Comb not only for the physical challenge, but to seek out seldom-visited ruins and rock art of the mysterious Anasazi culture. Each brought his own emotions on the journey; the Comb Ridge would test their friendship in ways they had never before experienced.Searching for the stray arrowhead half-smothered in the sand or for the faint markings on a far sandstone boulder that betokened a little-known rock art panel, becomes a competitive sport for the three friends. Along the way, they ponder the mystery, bringing the accounts of early and modern explorers and archaeologists to bear: Who were the vanished Indians who built these inaccessible cliff dwellings and pueblos, often hidden from view? Of whom were they afraid and why? What caused them to suddenly abandon their settlements around 1300 AD? What meaning can be ascribed to their phantasmagoric rock art? What was their relationship to the Navajo, who were convinced the Anasazi had magical powers and could fly?

How Can One Sell the Air?: Chief Seattle's Vision


Eli Gifford - 2005
    But what did he really say? Here is the evolution of the speech from the one recorded by Dr. Henry Smith at the time it was delivered to two twentieth-century adaptations that made Chief Seattle famous. This expanded edition includes the history of the region at that time along with the culture of the Suquamish then and now. The text is enriched with rare photographs of nineteenth-century village life, many from the Suquamish Tribal archives.

Contemporary Coast Salish Art


Rebecca J. Blanchard - 2005
    The Coast Salish tribes have developed a culture that was and still is shared orally, steeped in the ritual and beauty of storytelling and mythology. Infused with centuries of sacred teaching, these accounts hold the secrets to the spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of tribal life. As a testament to their cultural resilience, increasing numbers of contemporary Coast Salish artists have embraced the new materials that "progress" has bestowed--glass, concrete, and steel - juxtaposing ancient images with modern materials.Contemporary Coast Salish Art presents the work of twenty artists, whose work ranges from traditional forms such as basketry and weaving to modern glass sculpture. The artists featured here - including Bruce Miller, Marvin Oliver, Shaun Peterson, and Susan Point, the progenitors of this movement--perpetuate and expand their ancestors' traditions through their lifelong commitment to visually interpret and rejoice in all the manifestations of their culture.

Savages within the Empire: Representations of American Indians in Eighteenth-Century Britain


Troy Bickham - 2005
    Few Britons noticed the gang's mistaken muddling of North American and Indian subcontinent geographies and cultures. Even fewer cared in an age in which "Indian" was a catch-all term applied to theatre characters, philosophies, and objects whose only common characteristic often was that they were not European. Yet just thirty years later, when the North American empire had entered center stage, Londoners bought Iroquois tomahawks at auctions; provincial newspapers debated Cherokee politics; women shopkeepers read aloud newspaper accounts of frontier battles as their husbands counted the takings; church congregations listened to the sermons of American Indian converts; families toured museum exhibits of American Indian artefacts; and Oxford dons wagered their bottles of port on the outcome of American wars. Focusing on the question, 'How did the British who remained in Britain perceive American Indians, and how did these perceptions reflect and affect British culture?', Savages within the Empire explores both how Britons engaged with the peripheries of their Atlantic empire without leaving home, and, equally important, how their forged understanding significantly affected the British and their rapidly expanding world.It draws from a wide range of evidence to consider an array of eighteenth-century contexts, including material culture, print culture, imperial government policy, the Church of England's missionary endeavours, the Scottish Enlightenment, and the public outcry over the use ofAmerican Indians as allies during the American War of Independence. By chronicling and exploring discussions and representations of American Indians in these contexts, Troy Bickham reveals the proliferation of empire-related subjects in eighteenth-century British culture as well as the prevailing pragmatism with which Britons approached them. "An excellent example of the new imperial history. Savages within the Empire admirably blends concern with the nature of colonialism and the importance of human agency with respect for the unpredictable unfolding of histories rooted in the specificity of particular places in particular times."--Andrew Cayton, The International History Review"An excellent example of the new imperial history. omantic Indians admirably blends concern with the nature of colonialism and the importance of human agency with respect for the unpredictable unfolding of histories rooted in the specificity of particular places in particular times."--Andrew Cayton, The International History Review