Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust [Paperback]

MariJo Moore (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2006

As you walk out of your front door tomorrow morning, look down. Look to your left and to your right. Touch the earth: the concrete, the sidewalk, or whatever surrounds you. Undoubtedly you will be touching the layered coverings of the remains of indigenous peoples. Not arrowheads, not broken pieces of pottery — but the very DNA of the first peoples of this continent. For five centuries — from Columbus's arrival in 1492 to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s, to the renewed assault in the 1970s — our continent's indigenous people endured the most massive and systematic act of genocide in the history of the world. In Eating Fire, Tasting Blood, twenty established and up-and-coming American Indian writers from disparate nations and tribes offer stirring reflections on the history of their people. This is not a collection of essays about Native Americans but rather a collection BY Native Americans — the story of native holocaust on a tribe-by-tribe level as told by those few who have been fortunate enough to survive. Included are original essays by Vine Deloria Jr., Paula Gunn Allen, Linda Hogan, and Eduardo Galeano.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the words of indigenous scholars, community activists, and artists, this unique collection of essays and poems presents the last 500 years of American history from the Indian viewpoint--not the "white-washed, academic-tainted, hypothetical . . . history" found in most textbooks. Paula Gunn Allen addresses the myth of the colonists coming to an empty continent, when in fact the acknowledged number of Native Americans at that time is 10 million and rising. Others elucidate the special problems confronted by indigenous women, from those who lost children to the smallpox brought by the initial waves of white settlers, to those marched to "removal reservations" in the 1830s, to incarcerated Native American women today who are denied the opportunity to practice their religious rites. Perhaps the most compelling essays are those chronicling the decimation of entire tribes, such as the Choctaws, dispossessed of their land through a series of 14 treaties, and the Powhatan and Monacan tribes of what is now Virginia. This substantial and meticulous collection supports all who are breaking the "great silence" surrounding the reality of American expansion. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"[A]t once eye-opening, brutally frank, and ultimately optimistic. Every reader will feel a call to action after finishing this informative volume."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (June 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560258381
• ISBN-13: 978-1560258384
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > History > Asia > Japan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just received the book, June 16, 2006

By 

Joel Waters (Pine Ridge, SD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust (Paperback)

I just receieved this book the other day and I must say I am very impressed by it. The introduction by Marijo Moore says it all--what this book is about. " To eat the fire of truth is to taste the blood of our existence." Such a beautiful line. Also in this book are great stories and testimonies by Charles Eastman, Steve Russell, Vine Deloria Jr, Joseph Dandurand, also a fabulous poem by Marijo Moore herself "Atop Polacca on First Mesa."
Also some great pieces by Susan Shown Harjo, Linda Hogan, and a slew of other amazing writers.
With a great title and great chapter titles this book is a great follow up to GENOCIDE OF THE MIND. This book should be read in classrooms all across the U.S. It is a burning reminder that the Indian voice is still not heard, but we will continue to start the fires, and make your blood boil.

JW

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important book, despite the hit-piece against Ward Churchill, March 10, 2007

By 

Preston C. Enright (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust (Paperback)

This book is important in many ways, as the other reviewers have described. I just wanted to mention that the article by David Seals titled "Nicaragua: What's Ward Churchill Got Against You?" was pretty pathetic. It included juvenile insults like calling Churchill "Lurch," which is the same crude name that right-wingers directed toward John Kerry.
No one knows all the details of Churchill's experiences in Nicaragua. But we can all learn many things from his books on FBI counter intelligence programs, the Native American holocaust, the horrible boarding schools Native kids were subjected to, current day ecocidal assaults from mining, timber and massive hydroelectric projects, and many other important topics.
Ward doesn't get it all right, Ward has "issues," - as we all do.
But Churchill has made many important contributions, including having the courage to speak some uncomfortable truths regarding the blowback of September 11.

Regarding the "scandal" over Ward's heritage, I'd just say even Europeans have tribal roots. Unlike Ward, most Europeans do not have a grandfather who is buried in a traditional Indian buriel ground (so, one could understand the roots of Ward's own assumptions about his ancestry). And unlike Ward, most of us have not spent countless hours writing, speaking and teaching about indigenous holocausts - past and present.
Seals' effort to degrade Churchill ultimately speaks more poorly of Seals himself.

In addition to this book, I'd recommend anything by Winona LaDuke and the DVD "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action" produced by the Katahdin Foundation.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE TRAIL STILL WALKED, September 14, 2006

By 

Donna Coomer "Between the Lines Reviews" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust (Paperback)

To tell the story, the real story, who better then the current generation of Native American writers. With Marijo Moore as a contributor and editor of Eating Fire, Tasting Blood she has gathered the essays and poems of her peers to tell us what we were never told in school.

With specific references to tribal nations like the Conoy, that are gone but not forgotten and accounts of massacres like Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, these writers bring us up to date and put forth the message that there was a holocaust here too, it just gets no recognition in books or on film.

This anthology hopes to change all of that. With the details brought front and center there is no turning away from what was covered up, taken and not returned, and is still being perpetrated on the survivors. To balance these accounts Moore has included tales of children going back home to learn where they came from, and poems that tantalize the mind and make the spirit soar.

The accomplishment of bringing the likes of Paula Gunn Allen, Vine Deloria, Jr., and Eduardo Galeano in one volume is to say the least, incredible. Read it and learn about the trail, still being walked today.