Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest [Paperback]

Joan Kathryn O'Donnell (Editor), Bruce Bernstein (Introduction), Rina Swentzell (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001 | ISBN-10: 0890133875 | ISBN-13: 978-0890133873

This book -- companion to a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe -- is an inspirational collection of native thoughts on place, history, tradition and change. The voices represent Indian scholars, artists and writers from various south-western tribes speaking to themes of origin, cycles, community and survival.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joan K O'Donnell, Editor

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890133875
• ISBN-13: 978-0890133873
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,796,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Runs in the Cultures, March 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest (Paperback)

Patients in the hospital at Sells, Arizona, are away from what they're used to drink and eat. So they're served traditional foods. Respecting the traditional link to nature and people keeps up physical and spiritual strength. In contrast, in the 19th century, Zuni boys and girls were sent to Carlyle, Pennsylvania. They didn't feel part of a community or nature. They'd felt both in the southwest. They never made it back home. They died from loneliness.

In the southwest, life has always been about getting along with nature and people. One traditional way that southwestern cultures do this is through dance. Music sounds within the dancer. That energy joins the dancer to all creation. So the dancer becomes linked with human energy, such as ancestors and future generations.

The dancer also links to natural energy, such as rain clouds. This is why the Hopi rain dance brings rain. In fact, the Hopi say that their corn, grown unirrigated, and their way of life, in harmony with nature and people, will save the world. The Apache also got through war, reservation poverty, depression and censorship by drawing energy from community, nature, and prayers.

It should be no surprise, then, that a southwestern work of art has a link and use too. Pottery stands for the sacred earth bowl. Traditional designs keep the tie strong between past, present and future generations.

HERE, NOW, & ALWAYS comes out of an exhibition at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Along with artworks, such as beautifully useful basketry, pottery and weavings, there are also audios, videos and writings of southwesterners on ancestors, community, cycles of nature and people, and survival.

Southwesterners believe they didn't come from somewhere else. They've always been here first, right from the start, along the Colorado, Gila, Rio Grande, Salt and San Juan rivers. They'll also be the last. For example, the Hopi believe that the life of their people began at the Grand Canyon. That also will be their final spiritual home.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Le culture completement lie, January 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest (Paperback)

Les malades dans l'hopital de Sells, dans l'etat d'Arizona, prennent de la cuisine traditionnelle du sud-ouest. Se guerit-on lorsqu'on se sent lie avec le culture et la terre maternaux? En fait, les danses qui se font pendant la scheresse se servent de l'energie de la creation liee, depuis les danseurs, jusqu'aux ancestres, aux descendants et a l'univers entier. Les arts du sud-ouest, eux aussi, se font, pour lier le passe, le moment actuel et l'avenir du culture, du peuple et de l'univers. Ainsi sont-ils beaux et serviables, tels que de la poterie, du tissage, et de la vannerie. A vrai dire, les peaux-rouges se croient originaires des terres tout autour des rivieres Colorado, Gila, Rio Grande, Salt et San Juan, les destinations finales de tous leurs esprits lies aussi.