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From: Tattercoat at aol.com <Tattercoat>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 17:45:53 EDT
I've been looking forward to the recommending part of this month's discussion and hope Debbie's fantastic lists won't stop others from sharing theirs. Having already posted several times, I'll try to keep mine short and mention a few that don't appear on her lists and haven't been named yet. As I'm doing this from memory, please forgive the lack of full citation.
GIVING THANKS, by Chief Jake Swamp (Mohawk). The text is based on a Mohawk prayer of thanksgiving for the world around us. The Indian illustrator works in contemporary Native American style. A wonderful teacher at the school I mentioned in an earlier post, uses this book at Thanksgiving to create a more inclusive and also more universal focus to the class discussion. She knows that Thanksgiving can be a very problematic time for Indian students.
GRANDMOTHER FIVE BASKETS, Lisa Larrabee. A contemporary Poarch Creek girl decides to learn basketry from an older woman of her tribe. The warmth of the family and a distinctly Native American attitude towards children and learning are distinctive features of this short book.
AYOKA AND THE TALKING LEAVES. This very easy to read historical novel is told from the viewpoint of the daughter of Sequoiah, the Cherokee linguist and leader who developed a written language for his people. The disruption of the family because of the Indian Removal is accurately depicted according to my Cherokee sources.
MORE THAN HALF, LESS THAN WHOLE, Kathleen and Michael Lacapa. Okay, this one has been mentioned. But it is so good (yes, even though it's big with message) somebody just has to bring it back into print. My bicultural students of ANY combo love this book because it speaks to their experience; they want more books in which characters live in bicultural families.
There are very few good books on California's native cultures. Here are some of my favorites.
NATIVE WAYS (Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA). This overview of culture and history is accurate, respectful and very accessible. Illustrated with historic and modern photos. Heyday's THE MORNING THE SUN WENT DOWN by Darryl Babe Wilson is an excellent YA memoir of growing up Indian in mid century.
Everything by Linda Yamane (Rumsien Ohlone) including the formerly mentioned WEAVING A CALIFORNIA TRADITION and two collections of traditional stories published by Oyate.
HOME TO MEDICINE MOUNTAIN, by Chioro Santiago. The California Indian illustrator of this jewel-toned picture book, Judith Lowry, tells the story of her grandfather's journey home from boarding school.
CALIFORNIA INDIANS AND THE GOLD RUSH, by Clifford Trafzer (Wyandot). (Sierra Oaks Publishing, 1370 Sierra Oaks Court, Newcastle CA 95658?91) From a teeny tiny press. This book, illustrated in part with the author's family photographs, shows CA Indian people in all kinds of relationships with miners and shows them adapting in a variety of ways to the influx of settlers. The book does not cover the genocide that follows, but it does show Indian people as fully human and complex, not merely victims or vanquished.
FIRE RACE, by Jonathan London, illustrated by Sylvia Long. In this traditional Karuk story, the animal people all cooperate to bring fire to a chilly world. The illustrations are lively and accurate to the natural world up here. The material culture is definately Yurok with only one amusing error--Coyote is wearing a woman's hat! Well, that's Coyote.
LONE WOMAN OF GHALA-HUT, by Rice Oliver, Santa Barabara Historical Museum. This booklet tells the true story of Juana Marie whose life inspired the historical novel ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O'Dell. Great for discussions of what historical fiction is and is not.
And last of all two books that are told from the viewpoint of white settler children living with Indian people:
THE BEADED MOCCASIN is an historical novel based on the experiences of Mary Campbell who was abducted by eastern woodlands Indian people and adapted to life among them. The characters are rich and complex and the process of cultural adaptation is explored realistically.
ADOPTED BY INDIANS, T. J. Mayfield (Heyday) is the oral account (told in the 1920s) of a boyhood spent among the Chinomne in the foothills of California in the 1840's before the Gold Rush. It is not novelistic in any way (and Indian individuals do not come to life) but as true oral history it is a fine primary source. Mayfield's own fear of speaking of his childhood says volumes about the nature of anti-Indian sentiment in California in the last 19th century.
Thanks to all for a stimulating month! May we all grow in understanding and in our ability to live with each other in respect and peace.
Carolyn Lehman
Received on Sat 30 Oct 1999 04:45:53 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 17:45:53 EDT
I've been looking forward to the recommending part of this month's discussion and hope Debbie's fantastic lists won't stop others from sharing theirs. Having already posted several times, I'll try to keep mine short and mention a few that don't appear on her lists and haven't been named yet. As I'm doing this from memory, please forgive the lack of full citation.
GIVING THANKS, by Chief Jake Swamp (Mohawk). The text is based on a Mohawk prayer of thanksgiving for the world around us. The Indian illustrator works in contemporary Native American style. A wonderful teacher at the school I mentioned in an earlier post, uses this book at Thanksgiving to create a more inclusive and also more universal focus to the class discussion. She knows that Thanksgiving can be a very problematic time for Indian students.
GRANDMOTHER FIVE BASKETS, Lisa Larrabee. A contemporary Poarch Creek girl decides to learn basketry from an older woman of her tribe. The warmth of the family and a distinctly Native American attitude towards children and learning are distinctive features of this short book.
AYOKA AND THE TALKING LEAVES. This very easy to read historical novel is told from the viewpoint of the daughter of Sequoiah, the Cherokee linguist and leader who developed a written language for his people. The disruption of the family because of the Indian Removal is accurately depicted according to my Cherokee sources.
MORE THAN HALF, LESS THAN WHOLE, Kathleen and Michael Lacapa. Okay, this one has been mentioned. But it is so good (yes, even though it's big with message) somebody just has to bring it back into print. My bicultural students of ANY combo love this book because it speaks to their experience; they want more books in which characters live in bicultural families.
There are very few good books on California's native cultures. Here are some of my favorites.
NATIVE WAYS (Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA). This overview of culture and history is accurate, respectful and very accessible. Illustrated with historic and modern photos. Heyday's THE MORNING THE SUN WENT DOWN by Darryl Babe Wilson is an excellent YA memoir of growing up Indian in mid century.
Everything by Linda Yamane (Rumsien Ohlone) including the formerly mentioned WEAVING A CALIFORNIA TRADITION and two collections of traditional stories published by Oyate.
HOME TO MEDICINE MOUNTAIN, by Chioro Santiago. The California Indian illustrator of this jewel-toned picture book, Judith Lowry, tells the story of her grandfather's journey home from boarding school.
CALIFORNIA INDIANS AND THE GOLD RUSH, by Clifford Trafzer (Wyandot). (Sierra Oaks Publishing, 1370 Sierra Oaks Court, Newcastle CA 95658?91) From a teeny tiny press. This book, illustrated in part with the author's family photographs, shows CA Indian people in all kinds of relationships with miners and shows them adapting in a variety of ways to the influx of settlers. The book does not cover the genocide that follows, but it does show Indian people as fully human and complex, not merely victims or vanquished.
FIRE RACE, by Jonathan London, illustrated by Sylvia Long. In this traditional Karuk story, the animal people all cooperate to bring fire to a chilly world. The illustrations are lively and accurate to the natural world up here. The material culture is definately Yurok with only one amusing error--Coyote is wearing a woman's hat! Well, that's Coyote.
LONE WOMAN OF GHALA-HUT, by Rice Oliver, Santa Barabara Historical Museum. This booklet tells the true story of Juana Marie whose life inspired the historical novel ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O'Dell. Great for discussions of what historical fiction is and is not.
And last of all two books that are told from the viewpoint of white settler children living with Indian people:
THE BEADED MOCCASIN is an historical novel based on the experiences of Mary Campbell who was abducted by eastern woodlands Indian people and adapted to life among them. The characters are rich and complex and the process of cultural adaptation is explored realistically.
ADOPTED BY INDIANS, T. J. Mayfield (Heyday) is the oral account (told in the 1920s) of a boyhood spent among the Chinomne in the foothills of California in the 1840's before the Gold Rush. It is not novelistic in any way (and Indian individuals do not come to life) but as true oral history it is a fine primary source. Mayfield's own fear of speaking of his childhood says volumes about the nature of anti-Indian sentiment in California in the last 19th century.
Thanks to all for a stimulating month! May we all grow in understanding and in our ability to live with each other in respect and peace.
Carolyn Lehman
Received on Sat 30 Oct 1999 04:45:53 PM CDT
