Customer Reviews

American Indian Stories (Myths and Legends)

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Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) collected her autobiographical narratives from the Atlantic Monthly (1900-1902), and some fictional folktales, in this 1921 book. Obscure and out of print for decades, it was rediscovered in the 1970s and in 1985 was issued in this facsimile of the first edition, with a helpful forward by Dexter Fisher. It's tempting to call Zitkala-Sa the Native American Zora Neale Hurston, but Zitkala-Sa is too original to be seen as a version of anyone else. The story of her upbringing, and the deceptive luring of her to a missionary-sponsored school in the east, where she found herself held down as her hair was cut (a scene that reads with the intensity of a rape), is riveting and heartrending. Although bitter about her experiences, she achieved a full education in English, expertise on the violin (she performed in Paris), and finally the presidency of the National Council of American Indians, which successfully promoted a law making Native Americans citizens of the United States. The book as a whole reflects her empowerment, but also speaks eloquently in a conquering culture's language of what it is to have no power over your destiny or selfhood. Her integration of several competing selves led her to write this, in "The Great Spirit": "The racial lines, which once were bitterly real, now serve nothing more than marking out a living mosaic of human beings." I for one feel richer for having read this book, and knowing the story of an American hero in her own words. Very highly recommended to all.

I have never read any Native American literature before but, I had to read these stories for a Literature class and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

I would recommend this reading to anyone who is somewhat interested in the history of Native America or who is interest in great story telling. The stories are so visual and Zitkala Sa takes the reader through her childhood memories with passion, emotion, depth and sincerity. Her stories shed light on what happened in that era for those who aren't as familiar with the history of Native Americans. Her experience compels us as humans to take a closer look at our actions and strive to preserve the beauty and differences of all cultures not just of the Native American. Zitkala Sa emerges from her tragic experiences and her loss of culture and spirit to become one of the most notable Native American Activists fighting for the rights of her people and stressing the importance cultural preservation.

All these short stories are beautiful and moving.

Wonderful book; fascinating stories; important for women and men. Especially important for the significance of minority women writers.

Zitkala-Sa was a remarkable woman, especially for her time because she was a woman and an Indian and her writings had to penetrate the white press, and white prejudice. She was acceptionally talented as an orator, a musician and a story teller. She was an Ihanktonwan (Yankton Sioux)) who was born in 1876, the same year as the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Her early years were during the transitional period, before much of the bureaucratic brutality of the U S Indian service took control of the Sioux. She vividly brought to life early childhood memories and her innocence and along with it her search and her relections of all living things to find the Devine in all of life. With this also came extended families who shared their worldly goods. Such a life was not perfect because warfare with other tribes was also a part of life. Their way of life did lack the corruption of the big Corporations, and the poisonous corruption of people who are out for themselves, and just wanted to make it to the top at others expense. These two factors made for a way of life that dispossessed the weak, those born near the bottom of society, and, also, whoever else was there for the taking. I have never liked Christianiy, but not because of Jesus' teachings. Because people can be terrible, who are out for themselves alone, and yet be saved because they accept Jesus personally. People who are good and not Christian, whether or not they have heard of Christianity are damned.(I am getting away from this book, but the American Indians were mainly not Christian for a long time, and Zitkala-Sa was not a Cristian).

The Indians were not perfect, they did fight wars against other tribes, which Zitkala-Sa described in her more mature stories, after her boarding school stories. In one of her childhood stories, she described how she wanted to go to the White run Indian boarding school, probably because she was curious and she wanted to learn to read and write, but the story was not so explicit, but it is why she is known to us today.

Her boarding school memories were vivid also, including her ongoing revolt against extreme regimentation, usually in a personal way. She expressed that the strict, by the order way of life took her away from her vital nature experiences, so important to her. By the time she became a teacher she was rejecting the White people's way of life, as she experienced it, and after just a couple of years at the most, she resigned her postion.

These autobiographical stories are followed by ones about her heritage, and involved the lives of other people. They were fictional. Two stories that impressed me most follow: first is a short one 'A Dream of Her Grandfather', which is miraculous and beautiful, and occured in a dream. The night I read it I was so influenced that I had a dream that had a story in it. The other is about other people, and is called 'The Widespread Enigma of the Blue Star Woman'. It has two main characters, Blue Star Woman and Chief High Flier. The story is ironic, but it is also the tale of theft and betrayal of alloment by agents of the U S Bureau of Indian Affairs. One other thing that would be valuable to know about is the Allotment Act of 1887, or the Dawes Act (It is not described by this good book). The book ends with a valuable speech she must have given about the corruprion and complete lack of accountability of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It includes an investigation, 1912-13, that demonstrates this. The report was ordered, but was put under 'lock and key' of the Civil Service Commission without being presented to Congress, published, or put into the Library of Congress, where students may examine it. She also speaks for Indian citizenship (and the vote), shich was finally passed in 1924. As individual Indians, but also the defeated tribes, Indians were wards of the State (the Federal Government) and had no legal rights that could be enforced..

In a small but critical way, Zitkala-Sa was lucky to have gone to a boarding school when it was just being formed. According to Joseph Bruchac, 'Our Stories Remember' Lieutenant Richard Pratt, the first Superintendent of Boarding Schools may have believed in 'kill the Indian, and save the man', and that Indians should have no say in education, but he also developed a respect for minorities (including Indians). New bureaucrats such as Estelle Reed, who became Superintendent in 1898, believed Indians were racially inferior. At best they should be laborers or servants in the house.

I am very glad I read Zitkala-Sa. Her writings open up big door to real worlds, worthwhile worlds that I believe can benefit us all.

On the negative side, I just found a book of Zitkala-Sa's that has a much more complete collection of her works, the Penguin edition. I intend to buy the Penguin edition, to read some more of her writings. However, anyone who buys and reads this edition has a book to cherish, and it also includes a very worthwhile forward by Susan Rose Dominguez.

I have never read any Native American literature before but, I had to read these stories for a Literature class and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

I would recommend this reading to anyone who is somewhat interested in the history of Native America or who is interest in great story telling. The stories are so visual and Zitkala Sa takes the reader through her childhood memories with passion, emotion, depth and sincerity. Her stories shed light on what happened in that era for those who aren't as familiar with the history of Native Americans. Her experience compels us as humans to take a closer look at our actions and strive to preserve the beauty and differences of all cultures not just of the Native American. Zitkala Sa emerges from her tragic experiences and her loss of culture and spirit to become one of the most notable Native American Activists fighting for the rights of her people and stressing the importance cultural preservation.

All these short stories are beautiful and moving.