I finished while I was on blogging hiatus, and that
actually led me to add a book that I had nearly given up on.
That was only one way in which the reading did not
go according to plan. I had initially selected a list where I was sure the
library had them all, and I was wrong. Then I was scrambling to find any book
that I could. If you notice that my Amazon wish list suddenly has several
titles with Native American themes, they are all books that the library system
does not currently have. If you would like to give me some, I won't really need
them until November, but I don't turn down books.
In the process of searching I found that I could get
a free electronic copy of the book that I nearly gave up on. Having it downloaded
is one reason I was able to decide to stick with it. Anyway, I read in roughly
reverse historical order, and I will review them in the reverse of that,
starting with the last one read.
The Myth of Hiawatha and other oral
legends, mythologic and allegoric, of the North American Indians, by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, 1856.
I wanted to know more about the historical Hiawatha,
and looking in a folklore book to start didn't bother me, but the foreword was so
condescending that I was getting really angry with the book. I decided it would
probably get better once it got into the actual stories, which was fairly true,
but then he conflated Manbozho (a trickster character, but not Coyote) with
Hiawatha, apparently copying someone else's error, and the condescension crept
out in other places.
Learning later that, after his half-Ojibwa wife Jane
Johnston died, Schoolcraft married a woman who wrote pro-slavery fiction and
became estranged from his children with Jane, well, it made a lot of sense.
Cannot recommend.
Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story
of America's Road to Empire through Indian Territory, by Paul VanDevelder,
2009.
This was pretty good. It gives the legal history of
the policies that ended up being used in Indian treaties, which sometimes is
very dry, and the history of specific treaties and land grabs. There are
heartbreaking stories, with one especially literal one, when a man who worked
tirelessly for his tribe at heavy personal cost was killed when "his heart
just unzipped" (those were his son's words), but there is also a glimmer
of hope. There are times when judges say "no", and law is upheld.
One of the most interesting things I learned in this
book is that the Louisiana Purchase was for waterway rights and rights to make treaties with the Indians,
not for the land itself. That's kind of important. The other point it really
brought home is that whenever anyone talks a lot about states' rights and
federal overreach, they want to do something horrible. They seem to have enough
authority on their own for anything that isn't grossly wrong.
Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir
by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII, by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila, 2011.
This was a great book. There is an easy flow to the
reading, it gives the settings well, and you learn a lot. It totally makes
sense to read it for Native American history, but WWII history buffs should
love it. I have already blogged about this book a couple of times. Links are at
the bottom to avoid redundancy, but I want to make the point that there was a
lot of food for thought here.
Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the
Rise of the American Indian Movement, by Dennis Banks and
Richard Erdoes, 2004.
This was also pretty good. Some of that is in
comparing it to Russell Means' autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread,
because there is so much more clarity here. That may be partly due to this book
being much shorter, but also Banks does a better job of providing context and
keeping things moving along. There is the big picture of AIM, but also trivia
that is interesting, like Marlon Brando's support and the role Banks played in
trying to get Patty Hearst released.
That makes two really good books and one pretty good
book available through the library system, and one kind of horrible one with
information that could surely be found elsewhere and better, but at least I
didn't have to pay for it or worry about getting it back on time.
And also lots of thoughts. Some of them here:
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