The Wisdom of the Native Americans
from New World Library
Walking With Grandfather: The Wisdom of Lakota Elders
by Joseph M., III Marshall
from Sounds True
Since the tide of interest created by Black Elk Speaks over 70 years ago, Native American lineage holders have been cautious about sharing their spiritual truths to the reading public 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, readers 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: • "The Way of Wolves"—important lessons about parenting • "The Shadow Man"—a story on war and the warrior within us all • "Follow Me"—reflections on leaders and leadership • "The Wisdom Within"—the passage of truly becoming an elder—plus many more stories found both in the book and in the author's own words on the accompanying audio CD.
"We believe that life's gift to us is wisdom," explains Joseph M. Marshall, "and that it is the one gift that must be given back." Join this master of traditional storytelling as he takes us through the rich oral history of the Lakota—and shows us how we can rediscover the invaluable wisdom of our elders.
Tony Hillerman's Navajoland: Hideouts, Haunts, and Havens in the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mysteries
by Laurance Linford
from University of Utah Press
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
by Jack Weatherford
from Ballantine Books
"As entertaining as it is thoughtful....Few contemporary writers have Weatherford's talent for making the deep sweep of history seem vital and immediate."
THE WASHINGTON POST
After 500 years, the world's huge debt to the wisdom of the Indians of the Americas has finally been explored in all its vivid drama by anthropologist Jack Weatherford. He traces the crucial contributions made by the Indians to our federal system of government, our democratic institutions, modern medicine, agriculture, architecture, and ecology, and in this astonishing, ground-breaking book takes a giant step toward recovering a true American history.
Hobomok and Other Writings on Indians (American Women Writers Series)
by Lydia Maria Francis Child
from Rutgers University Press
The Translation of Dr. Apelles (Vintage Contemporaries)
by David Treuer
from Vintage
Dr. Apelles, a translator of ancient texts, has made an unsettling discovery: a manuscript that has languished for years, written in a language that only he speaks. Moving back and forth between the scholar and his text, from a lone man in a labyrinthine archive to a pair of beautiful young Indian lovers in an unspoiled and snowy woodland, David Treuer weaves together two love stories. Enthralling and suspenseful, The Translation of Dr. Apelles dares to redefine the Native American novel.
Native American Fiction: A User's Manual
by David Treuer
from Graywolf Press
This book has been written with the narrow conviction that if Native American literature is worth thinking about at all, it is worth thinking about as literature. The vast majority of thought that has been poured out onto Native American literature has puddled, for the most part, on how the texts are positioned in relation to history or culture.
Rather than create a comprehensive cultural and historical genealogy for Native American literature, David Treuer investigates a selection of the most important Native American novels and, with a novelist’s eye and a critic’s mind, examines the intricate process of understanding literature on its own terms.
Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual is speculative, witty, engaging, and written for the inquisitive reader. These essays—on Sherman Alexie, Forrest Carter, James Fenimore Cooper, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, and James Welch—are rallying cries for the need to read literature as literature and, ultimately, reassert the importance and primacy of the word.
The Surrounded (A Zia Book)
by D'Arcy McNickle
from University of New Mexico Press
As The Surrounded opens, Archilde Le�n has just returned from the big city to his father�s ranch on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. The story that unfolds captures the intense and varied conflict that already characterized reservation life in 1936, when this remarkable novel was first published.
Educated at a federal Indian boarding school, Archilde is torn not only between white and Indian cultures but also between love for his Spanish father and his Indian mother, who in her old age is rejecting white culture and religion to return to the ways of her people. Archilde�s young contemporaries, meanwhile, are succumbing to the destructive influence of reservation life, growing increasingly uprooted, dissolute, and hopeless. Although Archilde plans to leave the reservation after a brief visit, his entanglements delay his departure until he faces destruction by the white man�s law.
In an early review of The Surrounded, Oliver La Farge praised it as �simple, clear, direct, devoid of affectations, and fast-moving.� He included it in his �small list of creditable modern novels using the first Americans as theme.� Several decades later, long out of print but not forgotten, The Surrounded is still considered one of the best works of fiction by or about Native Americans.
Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya : The Great Classic of Central American Spirituality, Translated fromthe Original Maya Text
by Allen J. Christenson
from University of Oklahoma Press
The Popol Vuh is the most important example of Maya literature to have survived the Spanish conquest. It is also one of the world's great creation accounts, comparable to the beauty and power of Genesis.
Illustrated with more than eighty drawings, photographs, and maps, Allen J. Christenson's authoritative version brings out the richness and elegance of this sublime work of literature, comparable to such epic masterpieces as the Ramayana and Mahabharata of India or the Iliad and Odyssey of Greece.
Tao of Nature: Earthway's Wisdom of Daily Living from Grandmother Earth
by Mary Summer Rain
from Atria
Everywhere we turn, nature is trying to bestow her gifts upon us whether we're ready to receive them or not. Here spiritual philosopher and naturalist Mary Summer Rain shows us how to open our eyes to see, how to open our ears to hear, and how to cultivate a perceptive mind and a sensitive heart so that we may gain access to the sacred knowledge of living right. We need to look beyond the awesome sunsets and beneath the splendid blanket of snow to where the true gifts lie, hidden, waiting for our minds to unwrap them and revel in their wisdom.
The jewels in Tao of Nature are invaluable gifts to readers ready to open themselves up to the wonder of Grandmother Earth. Once again, Mary Summer Rain has interwoven her observations as a naturalist with spiritual philosophy to share with the world the lessons of nature's beauty and power.
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