I requested this book when I was in my Longmire phase this summer. I thought Native American stories, that sounds great. Unfortunately the stories was not what I had in mind to read. I'm sure the right reader will love these stories. Me? To many of the stories did I have to force myself to read and some I just skimmed through. Reading a book that feels like you have to, that you lack the joy to read, that reminds me too much of school. I'm not saying that every story was bad. There was some that was interesting. especially when the story brough up the discrimination towards Native Americans. But all in all, not a book for me.

 

But if you like contemporary short stories written by Native Americans then this book is probably something you will like.

 

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

 

 

Short documentary about Mary Wilcox, the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, a Native language in California. She's been working on a dictionary for the past seven years, and worked to record the parables and myths of her people. A huge number of Native American languages are critically endangered. This makes me feel just morose. I love my bastard English, and love the way it's alive enough for pedants to complain about how it's changing. Kids dropping their gs or using texting abbreviations would be a problem the Wukchumni would be happy to have.

This was a great short story anthology but I have a problem with the term 'contemporary'.  This is most likely a personal thing, but when I hear the word 'contemporary' in conjunction with literature, I don't envision it including authors from the 19th century, or the first half of the 20th century.  

 

My favorites were Crow's Sun by Duane Niatum, The Dog Pit by Eli Funaro, and War Dances by Sherman Alexie.  I highly recommend this book of short stories for anyone looking to read the works of Native American authors.  

 

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

"All religions tend to be conservative, because their sacred authority lies in the sanctity of the past... At the same time most religions remain open to the personal experiences of the spiritual world. The balance between faithfulness to tradition and openness to new experience is what constitutes the religious life."

I am so happy I've read this book. This is exactly the kind of book I was looking for: one that is informative, well-paced and objective. Oftentimes when reading about religions, it is easy to feel preached at. Many religion books portray said religion to be either absolutely horrible or without flaw. Most books in this realm have an agenda and that agenda involves putting down other beliefs. This book, however, did no such thing. Hultkrantz's only agenda was to inform the reader of Native American religions. And inform me, he did.

This is a fascinating trace through general Native American religions with a focus on two in particular: the Shoshoni - a hunting religion - and the Zuni - a horticultural religion. The author did a magnificent job of showing how both descended from a circumpolar hunting mindset, but branched off to become their own entities. The reader gets an in-depth view into the fluid religion of the Shoshoni and the complex religion of the Zuni and it is really a remarkable journey. I especially loved reading about how certain ceremonies have changed since the introduction of Catholicism and how they're still changing today, including new religions like Peyotism.

Hultkrantz is aware of his reader and never once tries to overwhelm you with too much information. Although this is a book centered around the religion of Native Americans, he also throws out some information on their culture and linguistics. I found this quote to be particularly fascinating:

"Some Indian languages lack terms for the past and the future; everything is resting in the present."

Hultkrantz presents the readers with the mythology of the religions focused on in this overview and then their ceremonies that either conflict with the mythology (like the Shoshoni) or use the mythology as justification for their ceremonies (like the Zuni). I really loved that he decided to single out two very different religions to focus on in this book to show the reader that through all of their differences, there is a lot of similarities as well.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in religion or anthropology.

There are some very good poems in this book. Some were better than others, but all were written from the heart. This is a good book of poetry.