272 Western American Literature an Indian reservation, the Montana frontier, and a big city. Although some critics have tended to viewMcNickle’s literary works as dark and tragic, others have affirmed his contribution to expanding and facilitating communications between the Indian and non-Indianworlds. These stories, however, mayserve to expand his reputation among critics, particularly in his writings concerning romanticism and the Montana frontier, such as “The Hawk is Hungry,” “New comers,” and “Man’s Work.” His treatment of city life and travelers in “Six Beautiful in Paris” and “Let the War Be Fought” is steeped with poignant ironies. Given McNickle’s role as “grandfather”of modern American Indian literature, these stories of frontier and city are particularly important in ac knowledging the unique character and ability of this author. McNickle, how ever, remains the master ofdepicting reservation life. The stories “Hard Riding” and “Meat for God” are particularly effective and evocative, manifesting a traditional Native American world view and sense of community. And in “En roulant ma boule, roulant . . . ” and “In the Alien Corn,” there are themes reminiscent of The Surrounded (1936). In bringing together the published and unpublished shortstories ofD’Arcy McNickle in The Hawk is Hungry, Birgit Hans has produced an immensely valuable contribution to American Indian literary studies. Scholars and stu dents alike will benefit significantly from this collection, provided they are willing and able to comprehend McNickle’s masterful uses of mythic allegory and poignant irony. While Hans haswritten averyserviceable introduction, her textual notes suffer from over-editing. In her original M.A. thesis from which this work derives, there are significant textual discussions concerning the mul tiple versions of these stories retained in the McNickle Collection at the NewberryLibrary. In the interest ofscholarship, itisa pitythat this materialwas omitted. Nonetheless, itisapleasure to have these masterful stories available for pedagogy, scholarship, and, not the least, entertainment. JAYHANSFORD C. VEST Arizona State University West American Indians’Kitchen-Table Stories. ByKeith Cunningham. (Little Rock: Au gust House Publishers, 1992. 248 pages, $25.95/$14.95.) White WolfWoman and OtherNative American Transformational Myths. By Teresa Pijoan. (Litde Rock: August House Publishers, 1992. 169 pages, $17.95/$8.95.) Keith Cunningham’sbook provides a fascinatingintrospection into the life and traditions of several tribes, particularly the Zuni and the Navajo Indians, through the stories they tell. Cunningham and his wife Kathy traveled to the Southwestto conduct interviews aspart ofanAmerican Indian research project. Accompanied bya translator, they met differentpersonalities ofthe manytribes they visited, and each time sought to hear their stories. They were mostly Reviews 273 interested in stories about Zuni medicine, witchcraft, contemporary legends, and Navajo humor. This collection isparticularlyappealing since the stories gathered were told during informal meetings and the author is reporting these conversations verbatim. The intended omission of editing creates a sense of spontaneity that gives the reader the impression of actually listening to the storyteller. In fact, Cunningham underlines that the emphasis of his work is less on the stories themselves than on the storytellers, their personalities, and the candid com mentary they offer about the culture they belong to. The introduction to the collection is a very useful survey of the most important researchers oforal narratives since the fifteenth century. Also useful are the forty-four pages of notes that give additional information about the storytellers and the stories they told. Teresa Pijoan, born in Española, NewMexico, grewup in SanJuan Pueblo. After listening for years to the storytellers in the Pueblo, she in turn became a storyholder. Pijoan insists on this title, which expresses her beliefin the impor tance ofpreserving the American Indian heritage and the crucial role played by the persons who have received the stories from the elders and who must continue the tradition. The collection is arranged in four groups of stories about snakes, wolves, bears, and other animals; all narrate one type or another of transformation from human to animal; and all advocate respect for the animal, tolerance, and the search for inner beauty. In this collection, too, the author takes care to provide the reader with extensive notes that explain the source of each story and describe her meetings with the storytellers. Unlike American Indians’Kitchen-Table Stories, Pijoan’s...