Synopses & Reviews
The imagined ghosts of Native Americans have been an important element of colonial fantasy in North America ever since European settlements were established in the seventeenth century. Native burial grounds and Native ghosts have long played a role in both regional and local folklore and in the national literature of the United States and Canada, as settlers struggled to create a new identity for themselves that melded their European heritage with their new, North American frontier surroundings. In this interdisciplinary volume, Colleen E. Boyd and Coll Thrush bring together scholars from a variety of fields to discuss this North American fascination with and#8220;the phantom Native American.and#8221;and#160;
and#160;Phantom Past, Indigenous Presence explores the importance of ancestral spirits and historic places in Indigenous and settler communities as they relate to territory and historyand#8212;in particular cultural, political, social, historical, and environmental contexts. From examinations of how individuals reacted to historical cases of and#8220;hauntings,and#8221; to how Native phantoms have functioned in the literature of North Americans, to interdisciplinary studies of how such beliefs and narratives allowed European settlers and Indigenous people to make sense of the legacies of colonialism and conquest, these essays show how the past and the present are intertwined through these stories.
Review
Praise for some of Brian Swannand#8217;s books on Native American literatures:
and#8220;Splendid. . . . Blending deep respect with critical acumenand#8221;and#8212;Chicago Tribune
and#8220;An extraordinary book.and#8221;and#8212;Los Angeles Times
and#8220;A rich compilation. . . . Educational and enlighteningand#8221;and#8212;Library Journal
and#8220;Would that all collections of Native American myths were this fine. . . . Highly recommended. All readers, all levels.and#8221;and#8212;Choice
Review
“Swann has put together a collection of Native songs that were nearly lost. . . . There is a great range and variety here, and a common ground: open forms, organic rhythms, and a tendency to incantation and rich imagery. The matter is of the land and living, of links with the past and hopes for the future. Swanns volume will give many good reasons to sing."—Library Journal
Review
“An important addition to the library of Native American autobiography and a valuable contribution to literary scholarship.”—World Literature Today
Review
“I do not know of any book quite like this one. Not only does it gather eighteen eloquent autobiographical essays in one place—a rarity in itself—but they are the life stories of some very significant Native American writers. The combination is unique. . . . On many levels, then, this is a book both enlightening and necessary.”—Washington Post Book World
Review
“Rings with an urgency and honesty that promises to go far in setting the record straight about Native American experience in non-Indian dominated America.”—Bloomsbury Review
Review
“Like the cultures from which its many contributors come, this is a protean book—diverse, rich, and revealing at every turn. . . . For those who have yet to come into the literature of contemporary Native American writers, these inclusions offer a taste of what greater richness lies beyond.”—Western Historical Quarterly
Review
"This is an excellent collection of essays with a common foundation of recent scholarship and shared geographic and temporal limitations."—S.J. Blackstone, Choice
Review
andquot;A lovely, readable, and fascinating collection.andquot;andmdash;G. D. Macdonald, CHOICE
Synopsis
Sky Loom offers a dazzling introduction to Native American myths, stories, and songs drawn from previous collections by acclaimed translator and poet Brian Swann. With a general introduction by Swann, Sky Loom is a stunning collection that provides a glimpse into the intricacies and beauties of story and myth, placing them in their cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts.
Each of the twenty-six selections is translated and introduced by a well-known expert on Native oral literatures and offers entry into the cultures and traditions of several different tribes and bands, including the Yupiit and the Tlingits of the polar North; the Coast Salish and the Kwakwakaandrsquo;wakw of the Pacific Northwest; the Navajos, the Pimas, and the Yaquis of the Southwest; the Lakota Sioux and the Plains Crees of the Great Plains; the Ojibwes of the Great Lakes; the Naskapis and the Eastern Crees of the Hudson Bay area in Canada; and the Munsees of the Northeast. Sky Loom takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through literary traditions older than the andldquo;discoveryandrdquo; of the New World.
Synopsis
With Wearing the Morning Star, Brian Swann presents a collection of more than one hundred Native American songs that celebrate the rich and vibrant oral traditions of the Indigenous peoples of North America. These are songs of the earth and the sky, songs of mourning and of love, parts of ceremonies and rites and rituals. Some have familiar themes; others illuminate the complexities and differences of the Native cultures. The collection includes songs of derision and threat, ribald songs, hunting chants, and a song sung by an Inuit about the first airplane he ever saw. Swann has provided an authoritative introduction and notes for each selection that place the songs in their cultural contexts. He has reworked the original translations where appropriate to allow the modern reader to appreciate and enjoy these remarkable works and provides a new preface for this Bison Books edition.
Synopsis
I Tell You Now is an anthology of autobiographical accounts by eighteen notable Native writers of different ages, tribes, and areas. This second edition features a new introduction by the editors and updated biographical sketches for each writer.
Synopsis
Since Europeans first encountered Native Americans, problems relating to language and text translation have been an issue. Translators needed to create the tools for translation, such as dictionaries, still a difficult undertaking today. Although the fact that many Native languages do not share even the same structures or classes of words as European languages has always made translation difficult, translating cultural values and perceptions into the idiom of another culture renders the process even more difficult.and#160;In Born in the Blood, noted translator and writer Brian Swann gathers some of the foremost scholars in the field of Native American translation to address the many and varied problems and concerns surrounding the process of translating Native American languages and texts. The essays in this collection address such important questions as, what should be translated? how should it be translated? who should do translation? and even, should the translation of Native literature be done at all? This volume also includes translations of songs and stories.
Synopsis
Long before the Boston Tea Party, where colonists staged a revolutionary act by masquerading as Indians, people looked to Native Americans for the symbols, imagery, and acts that showed what it meant to be “American.” And for just as long, observers have largely overlooked the role that Native peoples themselves played in creating and enacting the Indian performances appropriated by European Americans. It is precisely this neglected notion of Native Americans “playing Indian” that
Native Acts explores. These essays—by historians, literary critics, anthropologists, and folklorists—provide the first broadly based chronicle of the performance of “Indianness” by Natives in North America from the seventeenth through the early nineteenth century.
The authors careful and imaginative analysis of historical documents and performative traditions reveals an intricate history of intercultural exchange. In sum, Native Acts challenges any simple understanding of cultural “authenticity” even as it celebrates the dynamic role of performance in the American Indian pursuit of self-determination. In this collection, Indian peoples emerge as active, vocal, embodied participants in cultural encounters whose performance powerfully shaped the course of early American history.
About the Author
Brian Swann is a professor of English at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. His many publications include Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America and Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems, both available in Bison Books editions.and#160;Contributors: John Bierhorst, Julie Brittain, Lynn Burley, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, William M. Clements, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Richard L. Dauenhauer, Carrie Dyck, Marcia Haag, Kate Hennessy, Bill Jancewitz, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, David Kozak, Robert M. Leavitt, David I. Lopez, Marguerite MacKenzie, Patrick Moore, Richard J. Preston, Amber Ridington, Jillian Ridington, Robin Ridington, Blair A. Rudes, Brian Swann, Laurence C. Thompson, M. Terry Thompson, Frederick White, and Peter M. Whiteley.