By using verse form and visual clues indicating pauses, intonations, and gestures, anthropologist Rodney Frey permits readers to hear the oral literature of narrators from the Coeur d’Alene, Crow, Klikitat, Kootenai, Nez Perce, Sanpoil, and Wasco people today in Washington, northern Idaho, and Montana. He places each of the twenty-three narratives in its larger cultural, literary, and expressive context, making this anthology an important resource both for American Indian people and for non-Native scholars and general readers. A glossary and a lesson-plan appendix facilitate the book’s use in both secondary and college-level courses.
