Synopses & Reviews
A gravestone, a mention in local archives, stories still handed down around Oyster Bay: the outline of a woman begins to emerge and with her the world she inhabited, so rich in tradition, so shaken by violent change. Katie Kettle Gale was born into a Salish community in Puget Sound in the 1850s, just as settlers were migrating into what would become Washington State. With her people forced out of their accustomed hunting and fishing grounds into ill-provisioned island camps and reservations, Katie Gale sought her fortune in Oyster Bay. In that early outpost of multiculturalismand#8212;where Native Americans and immigrants from the eastern United States, Europe, and Asia vied for economic, social, political, and legal powerand#8212;a woman like Gale could make her way.
As LLyn De Danaan mines the historical record, we begin to see Gale, a strong-willed Native woman whoand#160;cofounded a successful oyster business, then wrested it away from her Euro-American husband, a man with whom she raised children and who ultimately made her life unbearable. Steeped in sadnessand#8212;with a lost home and a broken marriage, children dying in their teens, and tuberculosis claiming her at forty-threeand#8212;Katie Galeand#8217;s story is also one of remarkable pluck, a tale of hard work and ingenuity, gritty initiative and bad luck that is, ultimately, essentially American.
Review
and#8220;The remarkable Dewey Beard was a man who seemed to live foreverand#8212;old enough to have fought at the Little Bighorn in 1876, its last survivor when he finally died in 1955. What the old-time Lakota were like, and what they lived through in those seventy years, is the subject of Philip Burnhamand#8217;s original, bracing, touching, surprising, and vigorously written book. Take note; this is something we have never seen before: a serious, and sometimes funny, and often dramatic, and always interesting account of a Lakota life after the buffalo were gone. Thatand#8217;s where the story usually stops. Burnham lets Beard tell us what happened next.and#8221;and#8212;Tom Powers, author of The Killing of Crazy Horse
Review
and#8220;By scouring the archives and conducting personal interviews, Philip Burnham has helped clarify the historical record, teasing out new information and dispelling lingering myths. Song of Dewey Beard is a thoroughly researched, well-written, and engaging book.and#8221;and#8212;Akim Reinhardt, author of Ruling Pine Ridge: Oglala Lakota Politics from the IRA to Wounded Knee
Review
"This book operates just like a totem poleand#8212;each essay is a face and each face has many meanings, and together, they combine to tell a tale." and#8212;Portland Book Review
Review
"This engaging volume provides a historical record to encourage Native artists and brings the work of a respected Salish carver to the attention of a broader audience."and#8212;Bob Edmonds, McCormick Messenger
Review
"A must read for anyone who wants to understand totem poles using a Lummi perspective.""and#8212;N. J. Parezo, CHOICE
Review
"This volume is an act of resurrection, well worth the contemporary reader's immersion in another life and time."and#8212;Annie Dawid, High Country News
Review
and#8220;Katie Galeand#8217;s story is unique in its scale; few accounts of the nineteenth-century Northwest focus on the life of a single Native woman and her family. LLyn De Danaanand#8217;s writing is big history made deeply human, offering insights not just into Native American history but also into the arrival of industrial capitalism on Puget Sound, the politics of statehood and race in Washington, and the profound transformation of local landscapes.and#8221;and#8212;Coll Thrush, author of Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place
Review
and#8220;I have followed LLyn De Danaanand#8217;s writing path for years now. She is talented and bold, and this new book puts her firmly where she belongsand#8212;at the heart of the American voice. Good stuff, highly recommended.and#8221;and#8212;Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Deviland#8217;s Highway and Into the Beautiful North
Review
andquot;Aand#160;thoughtful documentation of one woman's struggle to maintain her ancestral homeland.andquot;andmdash;Booklist
Review
and#8220;With great insight and sensitivity, Dawn Marsh has pieced together Hannah Freemanand#8217;s story. All who have ever wondered what happened to Pennsylvaniaand#8217;s Native people should read this book.and#8221;and#8212;Nancy Shoemaker, author of A Strange Likeness: Becoming Red and White in Eighteenth-Century North America
Review
and#8220;Using the closely examined life of a single eighteenth-century Native American woman, Dawn Marsh convincingly challenges Pennsylvaniaand#8217;s claim to a more just and humane treatment of its indigenous peoples, persuasively contending that Native Americans adopted complex strategies to preserve their cultural heritage, and explores the significance of the continuing mythology of and#8216;Indian Hannahand#8217; Freemanand#8212;all in a good read.and#8221;and#8212;Melton McLaurin, author of Celia, A Slave
Review
andquot;Using a genuine relationship with Beardandrsquo;s relatives and intertwining their own personal stories into the narrative, Burnham underscores the legacy left them by this man who just lived life as best as he knew how.andquot;andmdash;Nancy S. Gillis, Nebraska History
Synopsis
Kristofics memoir is an honest portrait of growing up onand growing to lovethe Reservation. The text reveals the complexity of modern life on the Navajo Reservation, a world where Anglo and Navajo coexisted in a tenuous truce.
Synopsis
Just before starting second grade, Jim Kristofic moved from Pittsburgh across the country to Ganado, Arizona, when his mother took a job at a hospital on the Navajo Reservation.
Navajos Wear Nikes reveals the complexity of modern life on the Navajo Reservation, a world where Anglo and Navajo coexisted in a tenuous truce. After the births of his Navajo half-siblings, Jim and his family moved off the Reservation to an Arizona border town where they struggled to readapt to an Anglo world that no longer felt like home.
With tales of gangs and skinwalkers, an Indian Boy Scout troop, a fanatical Sunday school teacher, and the author's own experience of sincere friendships that lead to ho?zho? (beautiful harmony), Kristofic's memoir is an honest portrait of growing up on--and growing to love--the Reservation.
Synopsis
With tales of gangs and skinwalkers, an Indian Boy Scout troop, a fanatical Sunday school teacher, and the author's own experience of sincere friendships that lead to ho?zho? (beautiful harmony), Kristofic's memoir is an honest portrait of growing up on--and growing to love--the Reservation.
Synopsis
The great Native American warriors and their resistance to the U.S. government in the war against the Plains Indians is a well-known chapter in the story of the American West. In the aftermath of the great resistance, as the Indian nations recovered from war, many figures loomed heroic, yet their stories are mostly unknown. This long-overdue biography of Dewey Beard (ca. 1862and#8211;1955), a Lakota who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn and survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, chronicles a remarkable life that can be traced through major historical events from the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century.
Beard was not only a witness to two major battles against the Lakota; he also traveled with William and#8220;Buffalo Billand#8221; Codyand#8217;s Wild West show, worked as a Hollywood Indian, and witnessed the grand transformation of the Black Hills into a tourism mecca. Beard spent most of his later life fighting to reclaim his homeland and acting as and#8220;old Dewey Beard,and#8221; a living relic of the and#8220;old Westand#8221; for the tourists.
With a keen eye for detail and a true storytellerand#8217;s talent, Philip Burnham presents the man behind the legend of Dewey Beard and shows how the life of the last survivor of Little Bighorn provides a glimpse into the survival of Indigenous America.
Synopsis
Joseph Hillaire (Lummi, 1894and#8211;1967) is recognized as one of the great Coast Salish artists, carvers, and tradition-bearers of the twentieth century. In
A Totem Pole History, his daughter Pauline Hillaire, Scand#228;llaand#8211;Of the Killer Whale (b. 1929), who is herself a well-known cultural historian and conservator, tells the story of her fatherand#8217;s life and the traditional and contemporary Lummi narratives that influenced his work.
A Totem Pole History contains seventy-six photographs, including Joeand#8217;s most significant totem poles, many of which Pauline watched him carve. She conveys with great insight the stories, teachings, and history expressed by her fatherand#8217;s totem poles. Eight contributors provide essays on Coast Salish art and carving, adding to the authorand#8217;s portrayal of Joeand#8217;s philosophy of art in Salish life, particularly in the context of twentieth century intercultural relations.
This engaging volume provides an historical record to encourage Native artists and brings the work of a respected Salish carver to the attention of a broader audience.
Synopsis
On July 28, 1797, an elderly Lenape woman stood before the newly appointed almsman of Pennsylvaniaand#8217;s Chester County and delivered a brief account of her life. In a sad irony, Hannah Freeman was establishing her residencyand#8212;a claim that paved the way for her removal to the poorhouse. Ultimately, however, it meant the final removal from the ancestral land she had so tenaciously maintained. Thus was William Pennand#8217;s and#8220;peaceable kingdomand#8221; preserved.and#160;
A Lenape among the Quakers reconstructs Hannah Freemanand#8217;s history, traveling from the days of her grandmothers before European settlement to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The story that emerges is one of persistence and resilience, as and#8220;Indian Hannahand#8221; negotiates life with the Quaker neighbors who employ her, entrust their children to her, seek out her healing skills, and, when she is weakened by sickness and age, care for her. And yet these are the same neighbors whose families have dispossessed hers. Fascinating in its own right, Hannah Freemanand#8217;s life is also remarkable for its unique view of a Native American woman in a colonial community during a time of dramatic transformation and upheaval. In particular it expands our understanding of colonial history and the Native experience that history often renders silent.
Synopsis
Beard was not only a witness to two major battles against the Lakota; he also traveled with William and#8220;Buffalo Billand#8221; Codyand#8217;s Wild West show, worked as a Hollywood Indian, and witnessed the grand transformation of the Black Hills into a tourism mecca. Beard spent most of his later life fighting to reclaim his homeland and acting as and#8220;old Dewey Beard,and#8221; a living relic of the and#8220;old Westand#8221; for the tourists.
About the Author
Pauline Hillaire, Scand#228;llaand#8211;Of the Killer Whale, is a Lummi cultural historian, author, genealogist, artist, teacher, and conservator of Straits Salish knowledge and culture. She is the recipient of the 2013 Bess Lomax Hawes NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award. Gregory P. Fields is a professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He is the author of Religious Therapeutics.