Customer Reviews

American Indian Literature: An Anthology

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Velie has put together a fine anthology of all different genres of Native American literature. My one qualm is that in the first edition, published in '79 (I believe), a good many of the "poems" were represented by the work of Frances Densmore: transcribed into western musical notation, along with the original language lyrics, and with a glossary of the native words provided at the bottom of the page. In the revised edition, Densmore's transcriptions are replaced with simple translations presenting the poems as purely literary works. What's lost is the strong sense of these works as songs-- performances, communal play--and the necessity for the reader to get intimately involved in the work by using the glossary to translate the song for him or herself. The new edition's translations also give no clue about the nonsense syllables the singer often slips in between the syllables of a native word--a kind of Indian doo-wop or hey-nonny-nonny.