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50books_pocI'm counting these as one entry, because I read them together; RWood at the MobileRead forums has nicely combined them to a single ebook. (They're available separately in several places online; many public domain books are.) I first ran across her article, Why I Am A Pagan at Wowio.com, a free ebook site that used to let you download books. (Now you can read their entire collection online, but most of them have to be paid for to download. They are, however, DRM-free PDFs, so I'll probably be looking at more of them.)
I think of this as a book in two parts: Old Indian Legends, a collection of fairytale-like stories, the kind told to children to teach them ethics and bits of how the world works, and American Indian Stories, biographical excerpts from her life which occasionally mention the stories. The LRF-formatted book I read is less than 300 pages on my Reader--about the length of the average Harlequin Romance, probably about 60,000 words total. Combined, they're short enough to easily consider as one book.
Old Indian Legends begins with the story, "Iktomi and the Ducks."
One of the stories talks about the creation of the first Dakota brave--from a "piece of blood" that fell to the ground after a battle. That caught my attention; I don't know if "piece of blood" was an odd translation of a Dakota term, or an idiom of the time that's lost its meaning. (A blood-rich organ? A clot? Blood that's soaked into the earth until it's semi-solid?) There were a few other bits of phrasing that I had to stop and think about (e.g. "wolf" and "coyote" are used pretty much interchangeably), but that was the most startling to me.
Going directly from the Legends into the Stories worked well--it came across as, "here's what I learned in childhood listening to my people, and then here's what happened to me when I left my home to visit the white people." At the age of 8, she was convinced to go to a white school for Indians far from home; her mother begged her to stay, but she was enticed by promises of apples (a rare treat for her) and glowing descriptions of what it would be like. I was amazed by the lack of bitter tone in her stories, as she described the lies, the casual indifference and sometimes outright cruelty that she and other Indian children were subjected to, the growing destruction of their culture. (Several of the teachers had no consideration that the children didn't speak English, and punished them for breaking rules they didn't know existed.)
I expected her to be writing from outrage and anguish, and while those were both present, I got the impression that she had decided not to let them control her life. There were moments of rage, moments of extreme sorrow, moments of bitterness and regret (many of each)--but although she recounted those emotions, she didn't dwell on them. She worked to keep the focus on "the (mis)treatment of Indians by white men & their government," rather than "my particular tale of sorrows."
It was fascinating to discover the origins of some of the common stereotypes about Native Americans--the books mention teepees and wigwams and the "iron horse" (train) that took her to white man's school, and the warriors are called "braves," and the Indians greet each other with "How." I find myself wanting to know if the Dakota and related tribes were the template for the stereotypical Indians of westerns and early cartoons.
This book, or these books (depending on how you want to think of them) are available as free downloads from MobileRead's forums, in BBeB/LRF format (which is what I read), in Mobipocket PRC format, and in eBookwise IMP format. The first two are readable with more than one kind of free software; I believe Calibre will open them both.
I think of this as a book in two parts: Old Indian Legends, a collection of fairytale-like stories, the kind told to children to teach them ethics and bits of how the world works, and American Indian Stories, biographical excerpts from her life which occasionally mention the stories. The LRF-formatted book I read is less than 300 pages on my Reader--about the length of the average Harlequin Romance, probably about 60,000 words total. Combined, they're short enough to easily consider as one book.
Old Indian Legends begins with the story, "Iktomi and the Ducks."
Iktomi is a spider fairy. He wears brown deerskin leggins with long soft fringes on either side, and tiny beaded moccasins on his feet. His long black hair is parted in the middle and wrapped with red, red bands. Each round braid hangs over a small brown ear and falls forward over his shoulders.She had me at "spider fairy." Iktomi is a trickster, and is vain, shallow, arrogant, selfish, stupid, and downright mean... and the stories show him, over and over, getting his just rewards for such attitudes. A few of the stories only mention him in passing, but most of them focus around his antics, and his utter failure to have a happy, enriching life as a result.
He even paints his funny face with red and yellow, and draws big black rings around his eyes. He wears a deerskin jacket, with bright colored beads sewed tightly on it. Iktomi dresses like a real Dakota brave. In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him--if ever dress is part of man or fairy.
One of the stories talks about the creation of the first Dakota brave--from a "piece of blood" that fell to the ground after a battle. That caught my attention; I don't know if "piece of blood" was an odd translation of a Dakota term, or an idiom of the time that's lost its meaning. (A blood-rich organ? A clot? Blood that's soaked into the earth until it's semi-solid?) There were a few other bits of phrasing that I had to stop and think about (e.g. "wolf" and "coyote" are used pretty much interchangeably), but that was the most startling to me.
Going directly from the Legends into the Stories worked well--it came across as, "here's what I learned in childhood listening to my people, and then here's what happened to me when I left my home to visit the white people." At the age of 8, she was convinced to go to a white school for Indians far from home; her mother begged her to stay, but she was enticed by promises of apples (a rare treat for her) and glowing descriptions of what it would be like. I was amazed by the lack of bitter tone in her stories, as she described the lies, the casual indifference and sometimes outright cruelty that she and other Indian children were subjected to, the growing destruction of their culture. (Several of the teachers had no consideration that the children didn't speak English, and punished them for breaking rules they didn't know existed.)
I expected her to be writing from outrage and anguish, and while those were both present, I got the impression that she had decided not to let them control her life. There were moments of rage, moments of extreme sorrow, moments of bitterness and regret (many of each)--but although she recounted those emotions, she didn't dwell on them. She worked to keep the focus on "the (mis)treatment of Indians by white men & their government," rather than "my particular tale of sorrows."
It was fascinating to discover the origins of some of the common stereotypes about Native Americans--the books mention teepees and wigwams and the "iron horse" (train) that took her to white man's school, and the warriors are called "braves," and the Indians greet each other with "How." I find myself wanting to know if the Dakota and related tribes were the template for the stereotypical Indians of westerns and early cartoons.
This book, or these books (depending on how you want to think of them) are available as free downloads from MobileRead's forums, in BBeB/LRF format (which is what I read), in Mobipocket PRC format, and in eBookwise IMP format. The first two are readable with more than one kind of free software; I believe Calibre will open them both.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 06:34 pm (UTC):: I find myself wanting to know if the Dakota and related tribes were the template for the stereotypical Indians of westerns and early cartoons. ::
Yes. The Indian stereotype is a Plains Indian: the classic cigar-store Indian is an example, as is the Mutual of Omaha logo. The stereotype of all Indians being Plains Indians is older than western movies -- I have the impression it was popularized by Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (which featured many famous Plains Indians as performers, as well as doing re-enactments of the battle of Little Big Horn).
(BTW, totem poles, which get mashed into the stereotype from time to time, are not Plains -- they're northern Pacific coast.)
Oyate's review of Brother Eagle, Sister Sky is a contemporary example of the ubiquity of that stereotype. The book purports to be version of Sealth's famous speech, "Who Can Sell the Air?" Sealth was Suquamish, which is a Puget Sound tribe, and is the man Seattle was named after. This is the only known photo of him. And yet the author used a painting of this photo for the cover of the book: Two Moons of the Cheyenne in his Plains regalia. When called on it, the author/illustrator protested that she had gone to great lengths to make the illustrations authentic, having used actual Sioux to sit as her models.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 07:44 pm (UTC)I suppose I'd put them in the same mental category that I learned "bible stories" in--important for kids to learn; enjoyable for adults to consider and discuss. The versions she tells have the simple vocabulary and details that are necessary to capture children's attention, and lack the nuances that adult stories can have.
I did find myself wondering if this was because
1) They are intended to be children's stories, or these particular versions are retold as "what we teach children,"
2) They were written as "memories from childhood," and included a child's perspective,
3) Her English was simplistic (I don't believe this; she won awards for oratory in college, during a time of extreme prejudice against her race),
4) As translations moving from the Dakota language to English, the subtle extra meanings in the original were lost for lack of parallel idioms in English.
I have no trouble believing they are adult stories, being told from the perspective of someone who mainly learned them as a small child and didn't have the opportunity to hear them with an adult perspective. Or even just relayed with as much of the feeling as she could remember from her youth, if they were part of her adult life.
Re: photos--Ah. Yes. I see the similarities. Sealth must've been wearing his beads under his shirt, and left his headpiece off that day. Besides, "Sioux" and "Suquamish" are obviously very similar words, both starting with "S" and having vowels in them and all that. And aren't all non-white inhabitants of a given continent the same?
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