Tribal Heritage Research Articles

Again the Far Morning: New and Selected Poems by N. Scott Momaday (review)

Reviewed by: Again the Far Morning: New and Selected Poems by N. Scott Momaday Matthias Schubnell N. Scott Momaday, Again the Far Morning: New and Selected Poems. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2011. 136 pp. $29.95. This collection brings together selections from Momaday’s Angle of Geese (1974), The Gourd Dancer (1976), In the Presence of the Sun (1992), and In the Bear’s House (1999), providing a survey of his most important previously published poems in the first half of the book and showcasing new poems in the second. Thematically the poems encompass meditations on Momaday’s ancestral and tribal heritage, reflections on the mystery and wonder of nature, memories of his extensive travels, evocations of the tragic nature of Indian/white relations, and reflections on the art of painting. In the prose poem “The Threads of Odyssey” Momaday concludes with these two lines: “Migration. It is a word that lies in my brain like a leaf. It rustles and turns, and it spins, like a weaver’s wheel, the threads of odyssey” (72). It is no wonder, then, that in Again the Far Morning Momaday spins the threads of his own odyssey through his personal and ancestral past, remembering George Poolaw, whose voice gave him his Kiowa name, in “To You Who Named Me,” and Keahdinekeah, his great-grandmother, whose hands’ soft touch he imagines in “Keahdinekeah, Her Hands.” He also travels back to “the homes of [his] spirit,” his father’s family’s homestead near Rainy Mountain, in “The Threads of Odyssey,” one of the new poems, and in another, “The Old Cemetery,” he returns to the place and presence of his Kiowa ancestors that he described in “Rainy Mountain Cemetery,” one of his early signature poems. Other poems trace Momaday’s travels around the globe, from Munich to Moscow, from Brittany to Britain, from Umbria to Novosibirsk. And in another sort of migration he takes the reader to places that are haunted by the tragic consequences of colonialism: Wounded Knee Creek, in “December 29, 1890” and “Of the Ghost Dance”; Palo Duro Canyon, in “Blood Memory,” where the Kiowas were captured, and “Fort Sill,” where they subsequently endured incarceration; and Kiowa Boarding School, Anadarko, in “The Kiowa No-Face Doll,” and Carlisle Indian School, in “The Stones at Carlisle,” both monuments to the forced assimilation of Native Americans that ended in so much confusion, suffering, and death. Momaday’s commitment to conserving America’s wild places [End Page 306] and his concern for a sustainable planet are evident in many poems collected here. In poem after poem he exhorts the reader to marvel at the beauty of creation, to cherish it, wonder about it: “Surely that is worth dying for,” he exclaims in “The Threads of Odyssey,” “to see clearly the wonders of the wilderness and oceans and mountains, that is to earn one’s death” (71). In “Summer Song” and “Arctic Sketch Pad” Momaday draws landscapes of the Great Plains and the Far North with great economy of language, with minimalist strokes of a draftsman’s pencil, creating images that linger in the mind. In another set of poems Momaday reflects on humanity’s earliest artistic expressions, recorded on rocks and in caves. His fascination with these cradles of art is palpable in “The Artists of Altamira,” describing a Paleolithic cave in Spain famous for its pictographs, and in “We Have Seen the Animals,” where Momaday wonders about the artists of Lascaux: “Whose hand has traced these living lines?” (lines 6–8). In “The Galleries” he wonders about the ancient muralists: “Do you sense them there, the ones / Who invented art” (1–2). Turning to modern art in “Sternenwandler—After a Painting by Emil Nolde,” he pays tribute to the German expressionist whose painting The Wanderer among the Stars already figures prominently in Momaday’s novel The Ancient Child. Unfortunately, this review would not be complete without pointing to numerous editorial errors in the attribution of Momaday’s poems to the four collections in which he originally published them. The first four poems attributed to In the Presence of the Sun, “The Gourd Dancer,” “The Stalker,” “Long Shadows at Dulce,” and “Crows in...

Assessing the Language Proficiency of Tribal Heritage Language Learners: Issues and Concerns for American Indian Pueblo Languages

Among American Indian Pueblo tribes, community-based language revitalisation initiatives have been established in response to a growing language shift towards English. This has been most prominent among school age children, prompting some tribes to extend tribal language programmes into local public schools. For centuries, the transmission of Pueblo Indian languages has depended solely on oral language traditions. This continues to be the foundation for tribal language initiatives with the primary goal being that of maintaining language and culture. The socio-cultural aspects of language use in family and community provide the context for language instruction in these programmes. Several of these programmes, recently established in schools, receive supplemental funding provided through state bilingual education funds. However, this has also ushered in new requirements for assessing the native language proficiency of students participating in these programmes, thereby creating new challenges for Pueblo communities who have focused their efforts on oral language maintenance. One issue this has raised concerns the purpose for language proficiency assessments and how such practices differ with respect to tribal goals for language instruction. This paper describes several of these issues from the perspective of Pueblo language communities and the potential social impact of language assessment practices on tribal language programmes.

Assessing the Language Proficiency of Tribal Heritage Language Learners: Issues and Concerns for American Indian Pueblo Languages

Among American Indian Pueblo tribes, community-based language revitalisation initiatives have been established in response to a growing language shift towards English. This has been most prominent among school age children, prompting some tribes to extend tribal language programmes into local public schools. For centuries, the transmission of Pueblo Indian languages has depended solely on oral language traditions. This continues to be the foundation for tribal language initiatives with the primary goal being that of maintaining language and culture. The socio-cultural aspects of language use in family and community provide the context for language instruction in these programmes. Several of these programmes, recently established in schools, receive supplemental funding provided through state bilingual education funds. However, this has also ushered in new requirements for assessing the native language proficiency of students participating in these programmes, thereby creating new challenges for Pueblo communities who have focused their efforts on oral language maintenance. One issue this has raised concerns the purpose for language proficiency assessments and how such practices differ with respect to tribal goals for language instruction. This paper describes several of these issues from the perspective of Pueblo language communities and the potential social impact of language assessment practices on tribal language programmes.

OHS Exhibits: Tears and Rain: One Artist's View from Sea Level

OHS EXHIBITS Tears and Rain One Artist's ViewfromSea Level byRebecca J. Dobkins RICK BARTOW'SWORK AFFIRMS thepower of close observation and the interconnectedness of humanity with all forms of life.Accepting his invita tion to seemore carefully and to feel connections more deeply brings us a greater understanding of thisplace we now call Oregon. Bartow's source of sight isgrounded in close observation of his surroundings on the Oregon coast and inunderstanding thatwhich isnot immediately obvious: the pres ence of thepast, the impact of change, the stories that lurkwithin every crea ture and corner. Bartow's work isprovocative, insis tent,and engaging. For some, the mul tiple layersof significance inhis images maybe ambiguous or hard to read. But careful looking rewards viewers, who are invited to recognize their place in the network of human-animal kin relations thatBartow reveals. Bartow's embrace of aesthetic traditions across time and place leaves open an invita tion for the viewer tomeet his work at various intersections. He draws on his Native heritage but defies simple categorization as a "Native American artist." In addition tomany contem porary indigenous artists, he counts as influences European artists who work expressionistically with human and animal forms andwho explore the fantastic and the emotional, including Marc Chagall (Russian, 1887-1985), Francis Bacon (British, 1909-1992), Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916), and Horst Janssen (German, 1929 1995)- Ultimately, however, Bartow's work has its genesis in the land and lightof his home place. Bartow was born in Newport, Oregon, in 1946.His family has been in Oregon nearly a hundred years. In 1911,his grandfather JohnBartow walked over threehundred miles from McKinleyville, California, to Lincoln City. The Bartow family eventually settled in South Beach, Oregon, and homesteaded a plot of land near a slough along Idaho Point Road. John Bartow was ofWiyot tribal heritage, though formany years the Bartow family believed him to be Yurok, a neighboring tribe in northwest ? 2oo6 Oregon Historical Society Dobkins, Tears and Rain 445 JB|^B||^p Rick Bartow, Guardian, 2003,pastel, mixed media. 10"x 4"x 4" (Courtesy ofFroelick Gallery,Portland, OR) ern California. Such misidentifica tion is not uncommon in families with Indian heritage, because of the complex history of displacement and relocation of Native communi ties. John Bartow and his family developed bonds with the local Indian community at the Siletz Reservation, itselfmade up of di verse tribalgroups from western and southern Oregon and northwest ernCalifornia. Rick still nurtures those bonds. JohnBartow and his wife Jessiehad six chil dren, including Rick's father Richard, who married a non-Indian neighbor, Mabel Nel son. When Rick was just fiveyears old, his father Richard died, and Rich ard's twin Bob played an important role as mentor and surviving link to Rick's paternal lineage and Native heri tage. Rick's uncle was closely connected to the land, and shared with him observations of? and conversations with ? creatures in the slough and near the shorewhere theBartow family lived. Rick and his family (son Booker, daughter Lilly, and wife Karla Malcolm) stillcall that land home. Hawk, eagle, elk, and deer teem around thenearby Yaquina Bay mudflats, even as encroaching development displaces them, pushing them closer to the Bartow front door. 446 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Rick Bartow, Seeking the Medicine, 2005,wood, 25" X26" x 16" (Courtesy of FroelickGallery,Portland, OR) Inmany ways, Bartow's childhood and earlyyouth in Newport were much like that of any other small-town kid, particularly afterhis mother married Andrew Mekemson, who Bartow con siders a beloved second father. From an early age, he had been drawn to art, and that tendency was encouraged by his parents and paternal aunt. In high school, he began playing the guitar and bongos, discovering the music that remains an important part of his life as an accomplished blues musi cian. He made important connections with art instructors by going towhat isnow Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, to take aworkshop with JosephMagnani and winning an art competition that brought him to the attention ofHal Chambers. At the time, Chambers was chair of the art department atWestern Oregon State College (nowWestern Oregon Uni versity) in Monmouth, where Bartow eventually enrolled...

Communicating Respectfully With American Indian and Alaska Natives: Lessons from the California Health Interview Survey

Background. California is home to the largest number of American Indians in the United States, including large numbers of residents who are from tribes outside of the state, in addition to Alaska Natives. In 2000 to 2001, the California Health Interview Survey randomly surveyed, by telephone, approximately 54,122 households throughout the state, focusing on public health and access to health care. Methods. American Indian and Alaska Native cultural competency training materials were developed for the data collection interviewers. Unique cultural and linguistic issues identified were (1) reservation dialect English, (2) the long pause, (3) slow speaking, (4) "walking on words," and (5) a brief review of the importance of collecting tribal heritage information. Conclusions. Since the successful implementation of the competency training, several researchers, practitioners, state agencies, and others have requested and implemented the training materials in their work. In this article, we review the training materials. We hope that these few tips will help others have successful experiences communicating respectfully with American Indian and Alaska Natives.

Racial Hegemony in America: The Struggle for identity Among the Black Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southern United States

The notion of race was introduced to the Americas at the time of colonization. For the Black Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes, racism has led to the rejection of their tribal heritage from both tribal and United States governments. The Black Indians are of both African and Native American ancestry with a history born in America and rich with resistance against colonial power. Blood quantum, the governmental requisite for tribal membership, is but one of the many laws put in place to govern Native American tribes. This introduces the question: Why, in a Nation that claims "freedom for all," does there continue to be groups of people whose identities are not recognized? Why are descendants of both Native American and African ancestors ineligible for education scholarships, land allotments, gaming and fishing rights and other tribal allowances? In 1965 African-Americans were marching on Washington to demand their rights as American citizens. Today, Black Indians are marching on Washington from Indian Territory in Oklahoma to demand their rights. As a people who represent the continuing struggle for American freedom, the case of the Black Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes demonstrates how hegemony introduced the hypodescent rule or "one drop of blood" rule by the United States, laid the foundation for systemic effects of the racial hierarchy within the tribes. As this is an issue that may be further explored, future research might include a comparative study of other unrecognized groups that have been affected by colonialism, incorporating archival research, research of material culture and oral histories.

Indian painters of the Southwest: the deep remembering

The book profiles ten outstanding painters representing seven different Pueblo Indian groups and the Navajo Nation who participated in a recent convocation at the Indian Arts Research Center at the School of American Research. While some artists have chosen to depict traditional scenes and symbols and others have chosen to create modern works influenced by Euro-American painting, all draw on the deep remembering of tribal heritage and personal experience and a heightened awareness of the artist's role in more than one modern world.

Preservation as Perpetuation

I am a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of the Flathead Nation, in northwestern Montana. We are one of the tribes that have assumed the State Historic Preservation Office authority for our Reservation, under the 1992 amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act. The theme of this session, Native Spaces-Public Places, is at the center of the issue of preservation and is at the heart of the challenge to First Nations to protect and perpetuate their cultural survival. As you know, the First Nations of this continent did not have a written history in book form, as did the non-Indian peoples who came here. Our history is written within our unique and specific cultural landscapes. These places hold the memories of our ancestors, speak to us in the present, and are crucial to our survival, as Indian people, into the future. Large portions of our cultural landscapes are located in aboriginal territory, that is, land ceded to the U.S. government under treaties or executive orders. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes ceded 22 million acres to the government; it retained 1.2 million acres, which is the present Flathead Reservation. Thus cultural sites, intrinsic to our people and cared for by our people for millennia, were no longer considered ours but belonged to the federal government. Our sites lay within national park and national forest boundaries, under Army Corps of Engineers dams and reservoirs, and in other federal landholdings. When it comes to the protection and management of these cultural sites and landscapes, the federal agencies and the tribes often disagree. The National Historic Preservation Act is one of the main federal laws used when a federal undertaking may affect a cultural site eligible to the National Register of Historic Places. Criterion "D" of the National Register Significance Criteria recognizes a site as eligible based on scientific information value, usually in the field of archaeology. We always say "D" stands for "digging." This is the crux of the issue for the CSKT. In our culture's view, deliberately disrupting the natural cycle of life and its decay is not acceptable. Since the inception of [End Page 18] cultural resource management laws, Criterion D has been the primary focus of public land managers when dealing with tribal heritage sites. On the Flathead Reservation avoidance is the emphasized mode of management for cultural resources. In aboriginal territory if our cultural site impedes the implementation of a federal undertaking, this resource is often considered expendable by the federal agency. The site will be dug to determine eligibility under Criterion D and dug again to "scientifically" mitigate its destruction. The digging policy of the archaeologists in our Aboriginal Territory pursuant to NHPA Section 106 has caused much cultural anguish for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The NHPA 1992 amendments gave the tribes the opportunity to incorporate tribal values into the process followed in complying with the law. It has been a tremendous challenge for those of us at the CSKT Preservation Department to take this law, which was developed outside our cultural construct, and critically study and analyze it through our culture's lenses. The cultural anguish has motivated us to create a culturally compatible Section 106 process that meets the law's requirements of evaluation and eligibility and has eased our cultural and personal anxiety. In the field of ethnography, for too long we have watched the extraction of our traditional knowledge from our elders - knowledge used not to benefit our people but to launch a professional career or create a "professional expert" on our tribal lifeways. These careers have been built on the shoulders of our elders, the true Ph.D.s of our culture. We at the CSKT Preservation Department are infusing our values, our Cultural Truths, into the process of complying with the law in an effort to evaluate and preserve our landscape and, more...

China under Jurchen Rule: Essays on Chin Intellectual and Cultural History (review)

Reviews 547© 1997 by University ofHawai'i Press Hoyt Cleveland Tillman and Stephen H. West, editors. China under Jurchen Rule: Essays on Chin Intellectual and Cultural History. Foreword by Herbert Franke. SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany: State University ofNew York Press, 1995. xxi, 385 pp. Hardcover $59.50, isbn 0-7914-2273-9. Paperback $17.95, ISBN 0-7914-2274-7. As "a pioneering work" that encourages further research on the Chin period (1115-1234) (p. 19), this volume is certainly a welcome contribution to the ongoing study of China's conquest dynasties. The Foreword by Herbert Franke and the Introduction by the two editors highlight its "outstanding achievement" (p. xxi), not only in examining a period between the Sung and the Yuan, but also in placing "the culture of the Chin era in Chinese cultural history" (p. 19). A corrective to the old notion that the cultural life of the Chin was "barbarous," a "void," or an "unproductive transitional phase" (pp. xx-xxi), this is even more ofan achievement considering the scarcity of Chin sources, a fact that owes mainly to the destruction and general disruption of civil culture as a result ofwarfare between the forces ofthe Chin and the Sung and die Mongols, and the disempowerment of the Chin literati. Throughout the volume, Chin culture is discussed in terms of two kinds of cultural relations. The first kind, between the Jurchens and their Chinese contemporaries , is examined in terms of the sinicization ofthe Jurchens along with "elements ofJurchen tribal organization and lifestyle," which, throughout the century ofJurchen dominance in North China, helped the Chin to maintain "a mixed system ofrelatively pluralistic and polyethnic character" (p. 24). Second, a discussion ofJurchen-Khitan and Jurchen-Mongol relations and a briefcomparison of the Chin with the Manchu Ch'ing address the issue ofmutual influence ofpreceding and subsequent dynasties. Efforts are made to integrate the Chin into the Chinese society and culture with which it coexisted, to evaluate the conquest dynasty in the context ofmainstream Chinese history, to recognize the legitimacy of a nonHan dynasty, and to make use of scanty primary source materials to construct a cultural history of a people for whom (as with many other non-Han peoples) a written historical record in their own language is incomplete. All ofthese discussions , although specific to Chin culture, offer valuable general theories and methodological approaches to the study ofall of China's conquest dynasties. Well-organized, the volume's three essays in part 1 survey the cultural and institutional history ofthe Chin in the context of Chinese history overall; three essays in part 2 examine the Chin religion and Confucian thought, and four essays in part 3 discuss literature and art in relation to sociopolitical and cultural developments. 548 China Review International: Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 1997 In chapter 1, Hoyt Tillman traces the evolution of the Chin away from Jurchen tribal practices and toward Chinese imperial institutions. Claiming that "Jurchen interaction with Chinese institutions is indicative of their attitudes and policies toward Chinese culture, and institutional changes are often more concrete and better documented than cultural interaction" (p. 23), Tillman uses the institutions of the Jurchens to study their cultural history. Moving away from the T'ang political culture, which the Liao had inherited, the Chin made a shift "in cultural judgement to adopt Sung models" (p. 38), and there were further significant institutional differences arising largely from the Chin tribal heritage. As for the Mongols, Tillman found, the Chin dealt with them "in much the same way that Chinese regimes had brought steppe tribes into the Chinese political order as vassals" (p. 24). In chapter 2, James Liu introduces a new explanation for the rise of neoConfucianism in the Southern Sung in context of the alien invasion. He declares that "invaders from the northern borderlands had never set their eyes on the Yangtze until the Jurchen," who became, in the early twelfth century, "the first steppe or pastoral-nomadic nationality in Chinese history to cross the Yangtze" (p. 39). The Jurchen confrontation with the Southern Sung "had long-range effects on the Southern Sung government." The most important was the rise of "neo" Confucianism. The...

Surviving What Haunts You: The Art of Invisibility in Ceremony, the Ghost Writer, and Beloved

Americans are often trapped by desire to tout their particular cultural identity as a prized possession, while at same time stripping it of much of its substance. This devaluation of a cultural history is only possible if ethnic identity is something that can be hidden away, made invisible. Yet for some, social and political consequences of being Asian or Hispanic or Black are not symbolic for most part, or voluntary. They are real and often hurtful (Waters 156). Because of this strain, cultural allegiance becomes a loaded issue for many non-whites. With an acknowledgment of a particular cultural heritage comes a delineation, an enforcement of individuation which is finally at odds with desire for homogeneity and acceptance that might be called one of basic American myths. Werner Sollors argues that conflicts between and consent in American Literature...tell us much about creation of an American culture out of diverse pre-American (6), but I would argue that there are writers who take this conflict one step further. Feeling trapped by their descent (as Sollors would put it) and unable to forge a contract or a basis for consent, they find themselves not only in conflict, but at war. These writers must struggle with their pasts as with their demons. Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, and Leslie Marmon Silko are members of ethnic groups whose history has been one of repression, if not genocide. These three have marked out a battleground between visible and invisible worlds and offered up their own version of recreation, a reanimated ghost. In Beloved, The Ghost Writer, and Ceremony, journey to selfhood is described through use of physical rendering of dead into life. Though African American, Native American, and Jewish-American identities are distinct, evolving from shtetl life or from a rich African or Native American tribal heritage, Morrison, Silko, and Roth have chosen a markedly similar way of making peace with their dead. For each of them, choice to enlarge upon and engage directly with spirit has something to do with one thing these three American ethnic groups share: members of these groups often bear scars of survivorship. To be an American is to lay claim to one of most deceptive of promises. The mythology of indicates a land of endless prosperity and equality. This version of new world posits as superhero, offering in larger frame a repetition of truth and justice as the 'American' way. Yet an analysis of African American, Native American, or even Jewish-American history must call into question this concept of a pacific and tolerant America. With resurgence of hate groups like Klan, that lump all non-whites, including Jews, together into a stew of unacceptable and intolerable interlopers, it seems natural to readdress this fundamental deception that is at basis of any clear definition of what America is. Yet, even while deconstructing myth of parity, it is impossible for those who see themselves as outcasts or victims to completely separate from promise that they would like to expose and eviscerate. America, like any superheroic creation, still tempts its citizens to believe in possibility of regeneration. The vision of a truly New World, where past and present are able to coexist amiably, haunts these writers. They, like suburban whites in Mary C. Waters's study, would like an ethnicity which would allow to express your individuality in a way that does not make you stand out as in any way different from all other kinds of people (150). And yet, punishment, steamroller effect of history, as well as racial antagonisms that exist all too palpably in present day, make it impossible for writers who are members of these ethnic groups to achieve this symbiotic and symbolic type of acceptance. The melting pot theory tantalizes and antagonizes them, but belief that in even magic is possible and that this is a land of endless promise and possibility where one can reinvent, can remake, self holds key to act of prestidigitation that each one of these writers uses to meld visible and invisible worlds together. …

N. Scott Momaday: A Man of Words

the cultural tradition of the Kiowa people. In doing so, he has struck a responsive chord among the other diverse peoples of North America. He is a collector of the ancient traditions that circulated orally among the Kiowa people and others of the American Southwest. With him begins a literary tradition of those prose narratives which previously had circulated almost exclusively within specific tribal contexts. This process is one in which a great literary work, House Made of Dawn, issued at a stroke. Such a collecting and refashioning of old material cannot be ascribed to the initiative of Momaday alone. The time and place are ripe for it. Indeed, what is most important is that the presuppositions for this collecting and refashioning are present in the ancient tribal traditions themselves. The majority of these old narratives are etiologies. Their purpose is to explain some facts in tribal heritage, about a place or in the spiritual tradition. Previously the validity of these traditions and the interest in them have been

More on Male and Female Speech in (Acoma and Laguna) Keresan

Previous articleNext article No AccessNotes and ReviewsMore on Male and Female Speech in (Acoma and Laguna) KeresanChristine P. Sims, and Hilaire ValiquetteChristine P. Sims Search for more articles by this author , and Hilaire Valiquette Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 56, Number 1Jan., 1990 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/466144 Views: 5Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1990 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Christine Sims Assessing the Language Proficiency of Tribal Heritage Language Learners: Issues and Concerns for American Indian Pueblo Languages, Current Issues in Language Planning 9, no.33 (Dec 2008): 327–343.https://doi.org/10.1080/14664200802139588

Virginia Hamilton's Symbolic Presentation of the Afro-American Sensibility

Virginia Hamilton's Symbolic Presentation of the Afro-American Sensibility by David L Russell Virginia Hamilton Is most vexing when, in the midst of meticulously-detailed realistic description, she introduces elements which sorely try her readers' credulity. Take, for instance, the marvelous solar system created by Mr. Pool for Junior Brown in a forgotten basement room of the school, or the Intrusion of the ghost of Brother Rush into Tree's otherwise uneventful life. Not all critics gradously accept these fanciful turns of plot. David Rees, for one, complains of the ghost's presence in Sweet Whispers. Brother Rush: "The use of the supernatural seems like a cheap short cut to give Tree knowledge: the author should have found a more convindng way of imparting information . . ." (182). On the other hand, Rees applauds M. C. Hlogins. the Great (176), even though that woik contains material nearly as fanciful. Paul Heins has remarked that Hamilton herself "is not sure whether she is a realst; actually, she often feels that she is a symbolist. One might call her an Inventor" (347). Hamilton has, perhaps, invented her own kind of fiction, which is especially suited to her penetration of the Afro-American character and to her exploration of the Afro-American experience. Hamilton's books are-as is so much of adolescent fictionstories of survival, of people learning to get along in the world. Her fiction is not so much a vehide of social protest, as is that of so many black writers, but rather it Is the impassioned portrayal of individuals in the process of getting along ki the world. Through her use of symbolism, this process unfolds as an almost mythic enactment of the Afro-American wHI and means for survival. In M. C. Higgins. the Great (1974), Hamilton effectively created a symbolic presentation of her concept of the Afro-American sensibility, in which survival is achieved through the hero's coming to terms with two fundamental precepts: realizing the importance of his cultural heritage, which informs him that he has something worth preserving; and understanding the importance of the sense of community, which assures him that his plight is not a singular one and success depends upon individuals striving together. Through these two precepts, the hero acknowledges the will to survive, imparted by the past and the means to survive provided by the communal spirit of the present. He thus becomes capable of initiating positive action and inspiring others to join him ki that action to face the future. In Hamilton's vision of the Afro-American sensibility, the hero is ennobled through acknowledging his past and through accepting the communal spirit (significantly not through undertaking an Individual heroic effort). Consequently, human existence is given meaning finely by dedsive and deliberate action. To find the sources of this vision, we may benefit from what Janice E. Hale has said of African culture: "Two guiding prindples characterize the African ethos: survival of the tribes and the oneness of being. A deep sense of family or kinship characterizes African social reality" (48). Hamilton's characters typically find their identity to be inextricably tied to that of their family. The African tradition is ki sharp contrast to Western culture which has generally elevated individualism over the bonds of family. The Afro-American emphasis on these ties was certainly fostered by the more recent historical experience of slavery, which frequently deprived blacks of any meaningful family structure, making family perhaps more fervently craved ki the Afro-American cultural tradition. By extension, as the family heritage is crucial, so is the tribal heritage, or one's roots ki general. Among the most important steps a social group must take to establish its Identity is the celebration of its history, the glorification of its origins. For the Individual, this means grasping an understanding of the motivations and desires of one's ancestors. In a similar vein, the sense of community is frequently stronger ki the black culture than ki the white. This may result from a natural tendency for members of an oppressed or minority group to bind together, as wel as from the African sense of "oneness of being" which denies the extremes of Western...

Memory as Medicine: The Power of Recollection in "Ceremony"

Throughout most of Ceremony Tayo struggles not to remember. As the novel unfolds, the protagonist is suspended in a dream-like state, at the mercy of his memories. He is being rolled and over again like debris caught in a flood (p. 5). An invisible force propels him towards despair, lunacy, and paralysis. In a desperate effort to forget certain traumatic experiences which continue to shape his life, Tayo almost succumbs to the death urge. Gradually, though, his memories become more positive and cease manipulating him. Once he is open to new perceptions, the curative process begins. Tayo manages to survive intact. The novel then becomes a working out of Tayo's control of his memory and of his corresponding growth into wholeness, for gaining power over the memories is tantamount to gathering strength within himself. In the narrative, memory is presented as both a threatening force and as a dynamic, constructive force which possesses power to remove debilitating behavior and revitalize old ceremonies. Since memory is a repository for the cultural traditions of a given people, the act of recollection benefits not only individual beings but the collective as well. Memory insures the preservation of tribal heritage. By coming to terms with his memory, Tayo assumes responsibility for the quality of his own life and for the old ways. Thus, memories heal Tayo as they make the whole Laguna experience cohere.

Value Themes of the Native American Tribalistic Movement Among the South Dakota Sioux

In 1967 and the years following, many Sioux were beginning to question that assimilation into various social strata of Anglo American society was inevitable, and there was a tendency toward identification with the Sioux "tribal heritage." This tribalistic movement, the local expression of a general movement among Native Americans in Canada and the United States, appears to be having a profound effect on the values of the Sioux. It represents a cultural trend that could slow down or halt indefinitely certain aspects of the assimilation process and bring about the Native American dream of maintaining some kind of permanent, separate tribal existence within Anglo American society. This paper attempts to single out some of the major value themes and goals of the movement as these have been expressed by the Sioux, primarily young leaders of the movement.