Describes major functions of Iroquois storytelling, including entertainment, taking the listener out of the present moment, and informal education of children. Discusses the attributes and roles of contemporary Iroquois storytellers. (SV)

David Treuer's debut novel, "Little" (1995), is set on a Minnesota reservation, centering around a dilapidated housing tract that its small community of residents call "Poverty." Aptly named both for the condition and background of the housing, this name is the first pointer to the type of multifaceted reading that the novel…

Leslie Marmon Silko physically locates the climax of the novel, Ceremony at Canoncito, southeast of the Jackpile Uranium Mine, and so metaphorically correlates this site with witchery. The novel is ultimately the story of Tayo, and how he must restore harmony between the land and his people.

In this essay, the author begins by acknowledging the necessity of teaching Native American and other indigenous literatures both alongside and independent of Western texts. Instructors should teach these works by listening to the Native authors' worldviews and literary traditions. However, when instructors try to teach Native literatures…

This ancient Cherokee story details an encounter the Indians had with a strange beast after they misused nature thereby learning to respect the Creator. (RTS)

Presenting a brief biographical profile of D'Arcy McNickle, this article is written as a tribute to McNickle and his contributions to the emergence of American Indian literature. (JC)

The different ways in which two American Indian poets, Paula Gunn Allen and Joy Harjo, realize the fusion of the individual, the Southwest landscape, and a sensibility about the nature of existence in a realm called "mythic space" is clarified by showing how each approaches the concept of the moon. (SB)

One of the first Native American authors, Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian, began writing in the 18th century. His writings included an ethnographic essay on the Montauk Tribe, an autobiographical sketch of his educational experiences and missionary activities, and his first publication, "Sermon at the Execution of Moses Paul." (ERB)

Because editors generally clarify the collaborative process used to produce "as-told-to" autobiographies of Native American people in the introductory section, an understanding of the handling of the issues which usually appear in introductions can be helpful to understanding Native American bi-autobiographies. (CM)

The American Indian oral tradition is presented in this article on the Omaha tribe's Rabbit Dance. (RTS)

This article presents the Abenaki version of their "discovery of the earth" and the origin of their one god, Katahdin. (RTS)

Examines apparent aberrations in the visual structure of the story-poems in Leslie Silko's "Ceremony." Suggests that the poems' texts act as skeletons for a series of illustrations that reflect the texts' content and provide the final ingredient necessary for "Ceremony" to become a ceremony--the invisible spirit helpers. (SV)

Presents a modern retelling of a St:lo (Coast Salish) legend about the origin of a tribal treasure, the wondrous Sxwaixwe mask. Discusses the legend's origins, the process of transforming essentially oral sources into an accessible contemporary form, and the educational value of storytelling. Contains 13 references. (SV)

Describes the Flint Youth Theatre's presentation of Saphira Linden's "Tribe," which was sponsored by A World of Difference, a prejudice awareness and reduction organization. Describes the project's treatment of the North American Indian theme, the involvement of Flint, Michigan's North American Indian community, and the process of…

William Apess is among a number of Native intellectuals from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to whom scholars have paid increasing attention over the past decade and more. Apess was raised in the crucible of Native New England, had been abused in various ways in it, and spent his adulthood giving voice to those who experienced the…