Native American Rhetoric ed. by Lawrence W. Gross

Abstract

Reviewed by: Native American Rhetoric ed. by Lawrence W. Gross Danielle Donelson Lawrence W. Gross, ed., Native American Rhetoric. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2021. 304 pp. Hardcover, $74.90. Lawrence W. Gross articulates the need for this collection through contextualizing previous scholarship about Native American rhetoric. Extant research focuses on rhetorical strategies of survivance, or the combination of survival and resistance, which arose from ongoing settler colonialism. However, Native American rhetoric (including knowledge, meaning-making, cultural traditions and values, spirituality, morality, and philosophy) is not solely a reaction to colonization. Cultural epistemicide, ecocide, genocide, and ongoing settler colonial violence may be integral to understanding Native American rhetoric, yet neglecting the vast richness of the ancestral wisdom of those who have always lived on Turtle Island is problematic. While many of the chapters do acknowledge colonial violence to address past and present settler colonialism, the colonizers’ narrative is not the focus here. Instead, authors articulate Native Americans’ bond with their ancestral and cultural values. Indeed, the text affirms and validates Native American rhetoric as cultural practice, foregrounding the ways Indigenous tribes employ their own sacred knowledges, make meaning, preserve their cultural values, and wield rhetorical sovereignty. Gross frames the discussion for a western audience, stressing that “within Native American cultures, rhetoric seems to play an entirely different role, one that seeks harmony, consensus and unity” in comparison to western rhetorical models (7). True to his promise, contributing writers guide readers through various examples of Native Americans’ use of rhetoric. Underscoring this new cultural lens, he explains that Native American rhetoric aims to “maintain social cohesion and good relations that ultimately give Native American rhetoric its power” (7). This value is apparent when we learn from Philip K. Arnold that, for the Haudenosaunee, “decisions must be achieved by complete agreement, and as such, achieving the unity of minds is critical for the success of any gathering” (30). Arnold also showcases Gross’s [End Page 433] initial claim that the role of listening itself represents an art and cultural understanding within Native American rhetoric (2). Gross expands upon this concept in his own chapter detailing an Anishinaabe approach to listening, explaining its requirements of engagement, silence, consideration, and understanding from the listener. Many chapters reveal a deep reverence for animals as more-than-human relations. Persuading rattlesnakes to retreat, understanding Coyotean rhetoric, advocating for salmon’s sovereignty: these narratives show Native Americans applying their traditional Indigenous knowledge to advocate for all their relations. Other pieces explore riddling in Koyukon, bookending in Navajo speeches, and digression as revelatory of Anishinaabe morality and spirituality. In each, the author directs western readers to understand how Native American values ought to be framed to arrive at a greater appreciation of their rhetoric. Authors provide concrete examples of Native American tribes honoring interconnection in the nature of the world as they act as stewards of the land, despite the constant threat of ecocides rising from settler colonial violence. Most poignantly, the anthology responds to elder Inés Talamantez’s call to address the shortsighted bias rampant in anthropology. She protests disciplines’ limited understanding of Native American rhetoric, situated as they are in colonial rhetoric and ethnocentric bias. Thus, Native American Rhetoric answers her charge that “it is time for scholars to determine why these biased assumptions [and the past and present ethnocentric bias to study and interpret other cultures using one’s own values] have been allowed to remain pervasive” (143). Offering their own cultural approaches, these authors not only respond to this mandate but also present cultural perspectives so we all may better understand the wealth that is Native American rhetoric. This edited collection is sobering, as it reminds readers that settlers continue to recolonize knowledges belonging to Indigenous groups. This violence makes survival harder, as the need for advocacy on behalf of Native Americans, especially for nature and more-than-human beings (animal relations), only grows. However, it is a most important read, as it demonstrates how Native Americans [End Page 434] have inhabited Turtle Island for centuries and that they always have possessed vastly rich knowledges. It is high time that settlers listened to them about their culture and their land on their...