A professor of American Indian literature describes the ethical dilemma she faces when teaching "Ceremony," a novel built around spiritual beliefs and activities at Laguna Pueblo. Her pedagogical duty to provide students with the most complete coherent information possible conflicts directly with respect for the secrecy surrounding…

Seemingly chaotic to Western eyes, John Lame Deer's autobiography has a meaningful structure based on Lakota numerology and oral tradition. The book explores conflicts between White and Indian conceptions of identity and property, and sees itself as an instrument in the apocalyptic triumph of Indian spirituality over White greed. (SV)

Relates the Pueblo myth of the Water Jar Boy. Examines a petroglyph created during the period 1350-1680 at the long deserted La Cienaga Pueblo, and interprets this petroglyph in terms of metaphors used in the Pueblo myth. Contains 18 references. (SV)

Describes how the use of Native American novels in the junior high English-as-a-Second-Language classroom allowed students to study themselves indirectly and write about their lives. (SR)

"Shell Shaker" (2001) by LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) is a novel that gives students an opportunity to learn that the history and culture of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma are alive today. Winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 2002, the novel deals with two parallel stories that converge in the present, one about the eighteenth…

In Osage writer Carter Revard's short story, "Report to the Nation: Claiming Europe," the narrator claims much of England, France, Spain, Italy, and Greece for the Osage Nation. After asserting his claim, the narrator questions whether or not the French actually understood that their country therefore belonged to the Osage Nation. When…

Historically, among American Indians, the respect for the power of language has been expressed through the oral tradition: stories, myths, folklore, poetry, and song. As life experience has changed for American Indians, they continue to value these stories, recording tribal oral tradition as well as personal biography and life history. The status…

This paper attempts to reconcile the notion of a planetary future with shamanism, presenting the theme that any planetary future will be severely diminished unless shamanic experiences and outcomes are considered in the understanding of education. Methodology was based on participant observation conducted at a medicine lodge at Bengal Mountain,…

This document presents a bibliography of works dealing with the modern Maya. The titles listed are intended to complement the many academic studies devoted to the present day Maya. The document is divided into four sections: (1) personal histories, (2) dream analyses, (3) folktales, and (4) pictorial works. Each section is further divided between…

This teaching guide provides background information and pedagogical approaches to N. Scott Momaday's "The Way to Rainy Mountain." The first section provides information on: the various editions; other works by Momaday; reference works; background studies of biography, culture and American Indian literary genres; critical studies; and…

Following his own advice that elders of the tribe share their knowledge so that "the way of the Indians would come back to the children of today," Pete Beaverhead (1899-1975) tells of the traditions of respect and honor surrounding the eagle feather in a booklet illustrated with black and white drawings. The eagle is an Indian symbol of…

The Makah coloring book tells the story of how the raven twice tricked the crow and her hungry children out of a meal. The captions tell the story in English with some Makah words inserted in the text. The book contains a Makah-English glossary of 11 words. (SB)

Written for the students at Heart Butte School on the Blackfeet Reservation, the booklet tells a story about Old Sun, a Blackfeet medicine man, and how terribly unkind the country of the far north can be. Old Sun had a dream of a bear with long, soft fur and white as snow. He was advised by his secret helper to get the bear's skin for a sacrifice…

Canadian Indians have long been represented by stereotypes presented by non-native writers. Only recently have Indians begun to create their own literature and re-examine historic sources of native speech and tales. This paper traces early European views of the bloodthirsty native and the noble savage, but contrasts them with recorded comments of…

This paper analyzes religious, psychological, artistic, and environmental elements in one Naskapi myth, and provides a means of understanding the world of the Montagnais and Naskapi hunting tribes of the Labrador Peninsula. In "Ayas'i's Son," the (unnamed) hero is falsely accused of rape by his father's youngest wife. The son is exiled…