Native American Heritage Month 2013

I'm late, as usual, and there are some things about that which I will cover over the next two days. Today I just want to go over the books.

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women, edited by Paula Gunn Allen

There were sections that were really beautiful and others that were less so, which is not too surprising for an anthology. What the editor was trying to do was balance related themes among traditional and contemporary stories, so that was interesting to see. I started to think differently about Coyote, and that was strengthened by the next book.

She's Tricky Like Coyote: Annie Miner Peterson, an Oregon Coast Indian Woman by Lionel Youst

Peterson worked with a college professor on preserving two languages and the folklore, so while the book is mainly her biography, it also include one long story she dictated that was about the line of Tricksters, of which Coyote was only one. Reading these two books so close together was very helpful.

Los Versos del Capitan by Pablo Neruda

I have previously tried to include something from Latin America, and having recently decided to include poetry, this seemed like a natural fit. Reading it didn't feel right, though. I'm not sure if that's because it was not "Indian" enough, or if I should have been reading the poems in English instead of Spanish so that I could be more analytical.  (My Spanish is decent, but it has its limits.) I don't regret reading it, but I ended up needing something else.

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

This book is highly recommended. It switches back and forth among the different participants, but is easily followed, with good background information and a feeling of humanity, which is too often in short supply.

The Business of Fancydancing by Sherman Alexie

Since I still needed poetry, and I had recently read an article on this, it seemed like the way to go. It is not solely poetry, because some of it has more of a prose form, though even those pieces often are kind of non-linear and function rather like poetry.

Scalped, Vol 1: Indian Country by Jason Aaron

I kind of hated this. It's not that it's not well done, but there is so much ugliness that it feels like an assault. Lots of language, lots of violence, and deeply flawed characters.

The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

This covers a lot of the same ground as Philbrick's book, but is not nearly as fluid. There is a lot of repetition that drags the storytelling down. It did give me great sympathy for Crazy Horse, and as my reading of it overlapped with Alexie's work, which frequently refers to a Crazy Horse spirit, the reading did work together.

I'm not sure what I will read this November (I really think I can start on time this year). However, I do have three books that I want to do for pre-reading.

1493 by Charles Mann was on the list for this year, and then I realized that I was kind of overdoing it, especially when I had other things to work on. I need to get through some stuff, and then I will read it before November.

Also, while I was reading She's Tricky Like Coyote, it referred to Annie's husband working in the lumber camps, and though he was white, apparently a lot of the tribe members would take seasonal jobs there. I then remembered seeing the play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest during my first reading month, and being surprised at how much it was about Chief Bromden, because from just hearing about it, it seems to be all McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. So, I will need to read that book and Sometimes A Great Notion. I went to University of Oregon, I know a few Pranksters children; I'm way overdue for reading some Kesey. Those will be background, not part of the reading, but it could be helpful background.