No comments about Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America.

1 comments about American Indian Ballerinas.

1. This book gives a very nice over-view of the four American Indian Ballerinas, tracing their careers and rise to stardom in a parallel fashion. You get a sense of where each dancer was in her training and her performance years with respect for the others. The easy going style paints a clear and accurate picture that dancers and non-dancers alike can enjoy.

5 comments about Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America.

1. It isn't too common for me to start crying by the ending of a book. But this story brought me to tears. I really came to admire this reticent and dignified man, and the people who befriended him, and it saddens me to think of all the other people like Ishi who were mercilessly slaughtered. Ishi is really a representative of that hunted and slaughtered class, a class that existed right here on this California soil, and a slaughter which was perpetrated by people I thought I admired: the good old cowboy types.
   
   This is a story of epic character (Ishi's) and epic cruelty. Please do not misunderstand me: this is not a book which has any intent of guilt-tripping anyone. But it did take me by surprise, because you can talk about slavery all day long, or the Nazis, and I feel no relation, no nexus between myself and those crimes. But, here, I felt a little weird. The degenerate conduct is very close to home, literally and figuratively. I had cowboy guns and chaps as a kid, and I pretended to shoot Indians. And that is a really pathetic thing to pretend, because Ishi was an Indian, and I've learned he was just like you and me. He and his people were rational and empathetic. There had to have been a more humane way to co-exist.
   
   "The true ghastliness of these events is that they were carried out not by alien monsters but by people shockingly like you and me."--Karl Kroeber in the Foreword to the book written by his mother. That's exactly right. This book describes how Ishi's family and tribe was basically hunted down and exterminated right in front of his eyes as a child, in at least two major massacres and a few other lesser atrocious moments. It breaks your heart. I always thought the Indians scalped the settlers. In this book, it is the local sheriff and his gang of quasi-criminals that is scalping the Indians, including their children, in retaliation for a theft of some beans or the killing of a cow, or some other handy excuse. "No state in the Union surpassed the Golden State in systematically and shamelessly harassing, murdering, and stealing from its native inhabitants." Since I live in California, this strikes a painful chord as well. The data cited by Ms. Kroeber is compelling and I suspect unrefuted. The conduct she describes is well documented and uncontested. These Indian peoples were treated like vermin, just a little over a hundred years ago, right where your wine grapes are now growing, or nearby.
   
   I'm perhaps unduly emphasizing negative themes. I just learned of these events, or perhaps I should say I just finally comprehended them while reading the book. They struck me out of the blue. This education about nearby and recent enormous cruelties is just a part of the reading experience, however, and isolating these events does this fantastic story no favor, and I apologize. Rest assured, this is a life-altering book, and I've mentioned only the part which shocked me in a negative way.
   
   Ishi the man is a wonderful character, he is warmly introduced and developed here, and I can think of no character, real or fiction, which I came to care about more than Ishi. He was capable, strong, polite, free from bitterness, totally alone. His champions and protectors, Professors Kroeber and Waterman, and Dr. Popey, I came to admire and respect and envy. I loved the depictions of wild nature, and Ishi's ability to make handicrafts, a skill-set described in fabulous detail by Mrs. Kroeber. You may want to make an arrowhead or a bow based on her description. Ishi recommends Mountain Juniper for your bow-making, so heed his advice, he was master.
   
   The writing is first-rate. Mrs. Kroeber was herself a scientist, and her book takes an artful but methodical approach to the events--both tragic and hilarious-- it describes: the way of the Indians; the way of the Yana (Ishi's tribe); the experiences Ishi endured during his hard life in the wild; the discovery of Ishi; the revelations from Ishi; the "camping trip" with Ishi in his old home territory (and his anxiousness to return to the city: he learned to love beds, toilets, stoves, towels, and the other "clever" inventions of the white man); and Ishi's demise from tuberculosis.
   
   I am one of those people who marks up a book as I read it. My copy had virtually every page marked up by the end. This book is so thought-provoking and idea-rich on so many levels it will take me years to fully asimilate it.
   
   One of the newspaper reviewers is quoted on the cover: "A book every American ought to read." True. And, I suspect, every American will be deeply enriched and rewarded for the effort. But the ending is still sad, when you think of what Ishi endured and how little time he had in his hard, hard life to enjoy things. I kept imagining the things I would show Ishi if I had the chance: Disneyland; a Rolling Stones concert; a Benny Hill video, lasagna, a motorcycle ride.
   
   He only spoke about 600 English words by the end, but you will understand him very well. And, I'm confident, he will be someone you deeply respect.



2. Stunning. Only 100 years ago and the atrocities were numbing. Don't read this if you don't want to be ashamed of how our ancestors dismissed the rights, culture, and wisdom of native Americans. By the end of the book, I felt as though I was sitting with Ishi, quietly appreciating the abundance of nature and the solace of family and tribe. The book is fifty years old and some of the vocabulary and phrasing is quirky, but there is a reverence that is unmistakable.



3. ALL humans can benefit from reading this fact based book. ISHI was a real MAN, and his humbleness and genuine qualities are what young people should strive to match!



4. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the story of Ishi. However, the binding on the new paperback fell apart before I was half way through it.



5. This book is very enjoyable, informative, and enlightening. If you are interested in Native Americans, this is a must read. It truly describes the last "Wild Indian" that was brought into modern society. It explains both the natural heritage of Ishi along with the typical exploration of finding the last "Wild Indian". Truly, a story that had to be told

5 comments about Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story Of George Bent - Caught Between The Worlds Of The Indian And The White Man.

1. The day I heard this book was out, I bought it. The Bents were influential men in the Colorado, New Mexico region, but it is not because of who they were that I use the work influential, it was what they did and who they used to achieve social control. They worked with Kit Carson, Charles St. Vrain and were central to taking most of the Southwest from Mexico. For some of us this was not good and we live with those contradictions today. Read this book. Do not give it away or lend it out. You will not get it back. This text is about power and control, who had it and who did not. It adds to my own work dedicated to telling the truth from a minority perspective. Few know the William Bent children became Dog Soldiers and fought American colonization. These authors have done a great job and a great service to those of us dedicated to telling the truth. Look at my work on Hispanics, Chicanos and women The Feminization of Racism: Promoting World Peace in America and
   Researching Chicano Communities: Social-Historical, Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual Space



2. The true story of the mixed blood George Bent is far more exciting than most fiction novels. The authors do an outstanding job of giving George the credit and recognition he deserves. Clearly George Bent, Chyenne raised and white school educated, had a never ending challange fitting into either world. His trials and tribulations are vividly portrayed in this book.
   Review by Will Davis- Author of "Bell County Bushwhackers"



3. This is a brilliant study of George Bent, the son of William Bent and Owl Woman, a physical union of the American settler and the American Indian in the west during the 19th century. He was not necessarily a central figure but nevertheless is emblematic of an entire era. In a time when we have few sources and fewer books regarding the progeny of Indian-european unions, this serves as an important and fascinating book that looks into the two worlds and momentous events of Bent's life. He lived among those great men of the American west such as Buffulo Bill and Kit Carson as well as witnessed the destruction of the native-American way of life. As a dog soldier, or elite warrior, of the Cheyennes he saw the massacre of Black Kettle's people and the subsequent war between whites and Indians on the plains. He later lived to serve as translator to the slowly defeated tribes and ended his days as a teacher at an Indian school, witness to the passing of an era. This is a well written book that reads like fiction but serves as an important testimony. A fascinating story that anyone will enjoy but should truly be read by anyone who enjoys the American West in all its flavor.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



4. When I moved to Santa Fe in 1983, I became fascinated with the history of this area and all things related to the Santa Fe trail. David Lavender wrote a great book on Bent's Fort that has always been a favorite of mine. Bent's Fort is a "living museum" in south eastern Colorado that is really worth visiting. When my friend loaned me his copy of Halfbreed, I was so impressed with its insight and easy reading that I bought two copies and sent one to another friend to enjoy (he did). I've read it three times now and will enjoy it again. I was moved by the authors' sensitivity of a true unsung hero who tried his best to preserve his knowledge of the Cheyenne oral traditions before they were forever lost. I will one day soon travel to the village of Colony, Oklahoma and visit his grave sight to pay homage to a great man that through this book, I have come to know and honor. I recomend this book for all who are looking for a good book to read.



5. George Bent was truly one-of-a-kind. Born the son of a wealthy and prominent White trader and a beautiful Cheyenne woman in 1843, he was raised half-White and half-Cheyenne. He was educated in the White man's world and served in the Confederate Army, but became a Cheyenne warrior when his tribe went to war with the United States, participating in 27 war parties. He later worked as an interpreter and a broker -- not always a good one -- between the Whites and the Cheyennes. Perhaps his more important role came late in life when he served as an informant to the historians and ethnologists studying the Cheyennes. That they are among the best documented, most admired and studied of all Indian tribes is largely attributable to Bent.
   
   The authors have done an outstanding job in compiling the story of George Bent. This is a scholarly, well-researched, well-documented, book that is complex but reads easily and tells a fascinating tale of a man between two worlds and comfortable in neither. The characters of Western legend appear in the book: Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickock, George Custer, Phil Sheridan, and Buffalo Bill. Desperate forgotten battles between the Cheyennes and their White enemies are recalled and described. Perhaps the most interesting chapters of all describe the relationship between Bent and the scholars -- Hyde, Mooney, and Grinnell -- who used him as a resource to write their books. Bent had a burning interest in assuring that the story of the Cheyenne was recorded and remembered. He succeeded.
   
   "Halfbreed" is a sad book as it describes the destruction by disease and war and massacre of a people and of Bent's own efforts to survive in a world that collapses around him. I don't know of any other book that delves so deeply and movingly into the world of the halfbreed. Bent deserves the recognition this book accords him almost a century after his death on the Cheyenne Reservation in Oklahoma.
   
   Smallchief

5 comments about Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.

1. The book came and it was like new--maybe it was new. I thought it took a bit longer to get to me than usual, and, if so, it's no big deal



2. This is an amazing and detailed story - and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not read it - suffice it to say that 'discovering ones roots' is neither an easy nor a direct path to tread - the brave people who undertake this quest never cease to amaze me .......



3. I look through thousands of books a year as a reseller, but I read about 2 books a year. This one got my attention because I have a son who is 1/2 Navajo. His mother suffered the same sort of fate as Yvette. "voluntarily" seperated from brothers and sisters at the age of 5, sent to Utah, a mom she has not met, alcohol, violence etc etc etc . . .
   
   This book does a very good job of relating what rez life is really like, and gives a good insight into Navajo culture.
   
   I am a classically stoic, but I had tears in my eyes all the way through this book. I encourage anyone who is interested in the journey of the Navajo to spend some time on the reservation. Drive around, meet the people. Western culture has a lot to learn from this society.
   
   Read Ward Churchill's writings too, don't judge him by what the media has said about him.



4. Looking For Lost Bird:
   A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.
   Yvette Melanson with Claire Safron
   Bard Books. 233 pages. $22.00
   By Elliot Fein

   Looking For Lost Bird is a true story that is disturbing yet compelling. A Native American Navajo Indian woman gives birth on her reservation home in Arizona to twins, a girl and a boy. During their infancy, both children get sick. The mother takes the children to the nearest local hospital for a diagnosis.

   Hospital staff members instruct her that they will need to keep the two children over night for observations. When the mother returns the next day, the children are gone. The hospital has no record that they were ever admitted.

   The kidnapped infant children are each adopted in Florida by two different families. One of the families is a young Jewish couple that lives in a New York City suburb. Looking for Lost Bird is the story of the Navajo girl, Yvette Melanson, who is raised in that Jewish household.

   As an adult, Melanson discovers her Navajo origins and searches for her family roots. She finds her family (minus her mother, who died of a broken heart grieving for two lost children) still living on the Navajo reservation in which she was born. At the age of forty-three, Melanson decides first to visit her birth family in Arizona, then to move there permanently with her husband and two children.

   While adjusting to the reservation, Melanson learns and begins practicing the religion, culture, and way of life of her birth family. In this process, she abandons many of the Jewish cultural practices (but not necessarily Jewish values) in which she was raised.

   Melanson's Jewish parents (particularly her mother) provide a loving and caring environment for their daughter. In Yvette's recollection of how she was raised, their warts do surface, particularly the shortcomings of her father. After her mother becomes ill and eventually dies during her teen years, the father changes into a different, less appealing character.

   Melanson never reveals whether her Jewish parents knew about her Navajo origins. The reader is left to speculate whether the knowledge, if known by her Jewish parents that she was stolen from a Native American Indian family would have impacted their decision to adopt.

   What is surprising in the telling of this life story is the absence of any form of anti-Semitism by the author. When Melanson writes critically about her mother and father, she writes about them as individuals. She does not associate her criticism of them with Judaism as a faith tradition.

   On the reservation, when she begins taking on Native American Indian ways, Melanson naturally compares Navajo culture to Judaism. In this comparison, Melanson writes with respect, affection, and even admiration about the religious tradition in which she was raised.

   Melanson tells her life story (with the help of Claire Safron) with compassion, humor, and eloquence.

   I recently led a book club at my synagogue. A member of the club recommended that I read Looking for Lost Bird. After reading it, we immediately decided to include Looking for Lost Bird one of our featured selections. The book provides a great opportunity to learn about Navajo culture and to see how it compares to Judaism as a religious tradition. The book is also a true gift for adopted individuals, particularly native American Indians, seeking to uncover their past.

   Elliot Fein teaches Jewish Studies in the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine.




5. Like many of the readers I couldn't put the book down until I read it from cover to cover. While reading the story I found out these people were my extended family! I know everyone mentioned in the book. As a youngster I remember the crusade of Aunt Desbah, Uncle John and others in finding the twins who were stolen as babies. I wept at the end when Yvette participated in the holy Hozhoji ceremony to be reunited with her birth place, family, culture, and environment. Very moving!

   Aunt Betty, Yvette's biological mother lived a very brave life as she longed and searched everyday of her life wanting to be reunited with her twins. May God bless her soul.

1 comments about My Road to the Sundance: My Vision Continues.

1. 
   "Writing in a relaxed conversational prose, Twofeathers describes how, at urgings from the spirit world, he began to immerse himself in the yearly Sundance rituals held throughout the West. A modest and likeable narrator, Twofeathers avoids the self-righteous polemics sometimes found in this genre, and while the gorier sections are initially jolting, his aplomb in withstanding pain and coming back for more lends a certain normalcy to this ritual." KIRKUS REVIEWS
   
   "This potentially sensational material is beautifully conveyed, as Twofeathers describes carrying his infant daughter through the agony of one such dance. Unsparingly self-revealing, the book is somehow never confessional but instead the testament of a deeply spiritual man who has found salvation through suffering prayerfully for others." P. Monaghan, BOOKLIST
   
   "This book begins the understanding of what my people have always been about."
   Russell Means, actor, activist, author of Where White Men Fear to Tread
   
   "Manny Twofeathers illuminates an aspect of Native spirituality that has resurged over the past decade. In this moving and personal account, Twofeathers makes this spirituality understandable to people of all races and religious persuasions."
   Wabun Wind, author of The Medicine Wheel and Woman of the Dawn

2 comments about The Book of Elders: The Life Stories of Great American Indians.

1. Do not miss this book if you are interested in wisdom that one seldom, gets in any world that is not Indigenous. Indigenous wisdom gives us lessons for life lived from the heart and lived in tune with our Mother Earth, particularly from elders; be they natives of Turtle Island (North America), Australia, New Zealand, South America or the African continent.
   I loved this book and I love the wisdom imparted by the authors of each story. It is good to learn and it is best to learn from those who have lived long lives and learned their wisdom, not only from their own lives but also from the teachings of their ancestors.



2. This is a WONDERFUL collection of the real life stories of thirty elders from nineteen North American tribes. They are inspirations for us all. It has my HIGHEST recommendation--read this book, it will touch your heart and soul!

5 comments about Ohitika Woman.

1. Most history consists of the actions of royalty and people in power. We know the stories about the lives of the pharoahs but not of common laborers. Until now. This book documents the life, not of a chief, but of an ordinary Native American woman. We see how she lives, how she feels, how she thinks, and she is open in expressing her opinions on political issues as well as cultural and social issues.
   
   In addition to telling the accounts of her life, the author Mary Brave Bird opens up to allow the reader to see deep into her heart and innermost thoughts. She is very candid not only about her thoughts and feelings but about her actions as well. She does not try to hide her faults and describes her own infidelity and irresponsibility without excuses.
   
   While reading the book, one is tempted to judge her. But don't. She must be applauded for being so open and honest.
   
   At one point, she assigns blame to the white man for all the ailments of Indian society. Yet remarkably she knows that more handouts from the government or more government programs will not be the answer. The Indians themselves are the only ones who can lift themselves out of poverty, and she is honest in that her own decisions and her own behavior has prevented her and her children from living better lives.



2. This book is highly readable, but is not a beginning-to-end narrative, so those who pick up the book expecting a simple story will be disappointed.

   Yes, it is a book of activism, and there is some feminism. Reservation poverty is described in detail. Domestic abuse and alcoholism also appear here. Plus Sun Dance self-torture. Thankfully, many sweat lodge and cedaring-off descriptions dull down the affect of the more shocking parts of Mary Brave Bird's experiences.

   She falls prey to an alcoholic lifestyle inolving "party-ing" until you're either beat up or in jail. She eventually leaves her husband, Sioux medicine man Leonard Crow Dog, and treks across country (with 4 children), moving from women's shelter to homeless shelter, until they all spend a wild three years in Phoenix.

   Definitely, the alcoholism mars this narrative, and lowers Mary Brave Bird's credibility. Yes, there are a lot of references to the American Indian Movement's standoff at Wounded Knee. And there's a good chapter about native American traditions with regard to menstruation. And inspiration about fighting for the land.

   But I can't help wondering if the sort of hopeless drunken revelry portrayed here typifies ALL reservation Indians, and if so, aren't they in fact contributing to the end of their own culture..? Who's watching all those Indian kids while Mom's on a two day drunk?

   In other words, this is a disturbing book. It's good but scandalous reading.




3. I read Ohitika Woman a few months before I read Lakota Woman; this was the first Native autobiography I ever read. To respond to an earlier review, the book did reiterate things covered in Lakota Woman, but that is neccesary if people read this one first as I did. I spent some time on Rosebud as a volunteer teacher last summer and came to understand to some degree why Mary writes what she does about the rez.



4. "Ohitika Woman" is a true confession of a life most American Women have never lived. From Wounded Knee to Washington, from rags to riches, from love to heartbreak. Mary Brave Bird talks openly about her life as a proud Lakota woman, who defends the best interest of her people in the best ways she knows how. She talks honestly about life growing up on a poor Indian reservation, and proudly of her time with the American Indian Movement during the seige of Wonded Knee during the massive Red Movement of the 1970's. She is is a remarkably head-strong woman, and has lived her life this way even against incredible odds. What I enjoyed most was her enduring strength and the need to succeed and never give up. For this, she is a true winner, and a true success. A book for all Americans, "Ohitika Woman" has something to teach us all. As a Native Canadian, I greatly admire her overwhelming courage, strength and passion in fighting for what she believes in!



5. Mary Brave Bird tells the very compelling and dramatic story of her life, growing up as an American Indian woman. This is a life full of non-stop action, from Wounded Knee, to stand-offs in Washington, from rags to riches, from love, to heartbreak. This is a book for all Americans. As a Native Canadian, I understand her strength, her generosity, her courage, her pain. I am most impressed by her overwhelming fighting spirit, and her desperate and never-ending need to finish her work fighting for First Nations people across the continent. Derek Sinclair, aspiring writer

5 comments about A Place Beyond: Finding Home in Arctic Alaska.

1. This is a must-read for anyone planning to spend time in Alaska. Jans captures the norms, customs and ways of the people in the Northwest Arctic region. This was one of my very first books when contemplating moving to Alaska. And I recently re-read the books and realized exactly how much I had missed the first time through. It has been almost two years since returning to the Arctic and I cannot believe the everyday life he captures! Read this for all it is worth and extract all you can from his words.



2. My extremely low ranking is not for this book as a stand alone, its in comparison to his first, 'Last Light Breaking', which was a masterpiece. I would equate these two books with Tarantinos two films, 'Pulp Fiction' & 'Jackie Brown', the first also being a masterpiece, but the second leaving you wanting. Not that 'Jackie Brown' or 'A Place Beyond' are wastes of time, its just that compared to what came before, and the fact that they are basically the same subject matter, you expect that level of art and when you dont get it youre dissapointed as I was with this book.

   If youve already read 'Last Light', and still want a good book on the "Alaska Experience", im reading his latest now and let you know how it is when I finish.

   But if you havent read 'Last Light Breaking' and are looking for a book in this genre, waste no time in buying it, its truly an amazing book. ...




3. A Place Beyond didn't disappoint. Jans writing style isbeautiful, simple, and eloquent. There are few authors who can weavethe reader into the story. Through all of Jans adventures, I was right there with him riding shotgun. The most underated and under publicized book(s) about Alaska. A must read!



4. Nick Jans is an extremely gifted writer. I first read one of his essays in the Reader's Digest, and I was so impressed, I just had to read the rest of the book. His straightforward clarity, use of metaphor and intriguing observations make the Alaskan wilderness come to life. I personally would never want to live in Alaska, but I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing a bit of Alaska by reading this book.



5. Nick Jans has done what I did not think he could (would) do - dissapoint. Much of "A Place Beyond" is actually "Last Light Breaking". I was truly let down when I turned to a new chapter, only to discover that it wasn't new! I must say that his writing is superb - vivid, usually modest, captivating. If, however, I wanted a second helping of "Last Light Breaking", I could have simply grabbed my old copy. No matter how good his writing is, if he can't find the time to write enough essays for a new book, then why publish one?!

1 comments about Moments Rightly Placed: An Aleutian Memoir.

1. Ray Hudson's memories of Unalaska and its people form a beautiful portrait of a time and place. As a former resident of Unalaska, I highly recommend the book. Although the community can no longer be called a village, the Aleut roots described in Hudson's tale are still there. And his deeply evocative descriptions of the land--one of the most remote and beautiful in the world, I'm convinced--are wonderful. The descriptions of everything from fog to wildflowers to stormy nights are moving and accurate. A definite must to anyone traveling to the Aleutian Islands--and a terrific travelogue for the armchair traveler..