Native North America

With abundant photographs, more than 160 in color, Native North America illustrates tribal life, sacred arenas, spiritual traditions, and artifacts of the indigenous people of North America, from the Inuit of the Canadian north to the Navajo of the American southwest.

Beginning with a brief history of Native Americans, Larry Zimmerman and Brian Molyneaux explore individual culture areas, region by region. They discuss Native American spiritual observances, including personal and communal rituals, initiation rites, and curing ceremonies. Through descriptions of the powwow, rites of passage, plant rituals, oral storytelling, dreams, the ghost dance, and the drum, the authors provide a sensitive introduction to Native American spiritual traditions and examine issues that face Native Americans today.

Combining both historical and present-day perspectives, this book provides a far-ranging and richly illustrated account of the spiritual traditions of the indigenous peoples of North America, from the Inuit of the Canadian north to the Pueblo of the Arizona desert. At the heart of the book is a treatment of Native ritual and ceremony that illuminates the expression of the spiritual and the sacred in such forms as personal and communal ritual, initiation rites, and curing ceremonies. The final chapter examines the issues that are leading Native peoples into the twenty-first century. The reference section at the back of the book includes valuable supplementary information about languages, social organization, population trends, and land issues.

KLIATT

Libraries without Native American collections, looking for a popular overview of Native American history and culture, will be delighted to find this trade paperback on the market. Designed almost entirely in color and printed on heavy paper, the book is done in a style reminiscent of Time-Life theme sets. Often, the print appears on colored backgrounds, and the pages teem with short essays, paragraphs, informative captions, and colored pictures (historical photos are b/w). The authors begin by tracing the general history of Native Americans, noting the period of their arrival in North America, how they identified themselves, and where they settled. They recount the agonizing story of Indian displacement by Europeans and their settlement on reservations. The authors move on to matters symbolic, artistic, linguistic, and spiritual. A substantial portion of the book, titled "The Life of the Spirit," which describes religious beliefs, sacred objects, customs and rituals, will probably be of greatest interest to readers. The authors go on to talk about current life among the Indians, their artistic and cultural conventions, and their efforts to reclaim an identity that has been lost as they have become part of the modern world. There are essays on powwows, tourism, land issues, languages, population patterns, social organization, casinos, and the making of traditional crafts for sale. There is no effort to capture the voice of Indian persons, just to inform, but this the book does quite well. The University of Oklahoma Press should be congratulated on its efforts to make material about Native Americans available to such a wide audience. While this book is basically designed to inform thegeneral public, other books published recently encompass biography and personal and political histories. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1996, University of Oklahoma Press, 184p, illus, maps, bibliog, index, 21cm, $12.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Edna M. Boardman; Former Lib. Media Spec., Magic City Campus, Minot, ND January 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 1)

Larry J. Zimmerman is Chair of the American Indian and Native Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He is author of Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota and coeditor of Indians and Anthropologists: Vine Deloria, Jr. and the Critique of Anthropology and South Dakota Leaders.