From School Library Journal
Grade 5 Up?This noted author and poet presents a history of the treatment afforded America's original inhabitants as seen through the eyes of American Indians, from the first European settlements to the current day. The chapters are arranged to loosely correspond with the seven generations and the changes in attitudes and responses between the native and non-native populations. The narrative is enhanced and explicated by numerous poems, songs, speeches, and writings of Native Americans from each era. The beauty of the language is on display, as well as the strength of the words and the power of the emotions, as differences between the cultures in interpretation and approaches to life, the land, and one's own people are discussed. Compelling monochrome illustrations begin each chapter, and evoke a sense of history and mysticism; they represent combined images of the modern and the ancient, artifact and nature, humans and their art and words. The text is meticulously documented and supplemented with dates, tribal affiliations, and both the English and Native language names for many of the people quoted. An intriguing and useful, as well as poetic, addition to all collections.?Darcy Schild, Schwegler Elementary School, Lawrence, KS
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
This scholarly history provides a starting place for learning about the impact on Native Americans of the arrival of Europeans and other settlers. It is not one protracted oral history, as the title implies; in fact, neither the scope nor the organization of the book is clear from the book's title. Instead, Bruchac (Bowman's Store, p. 1453, etc.) generously quotes from speeches, letters, journals, reports, and other sources documenting the arrival of and welcome extended to settlers in America; a description of how native people viewed land (not as something to own but something to share); the greed and dominance of the settlers; and the resistance to this brutality by the Native Americans. Included are treaties, reservations, Indian rights, and the activism of the last decades. The writing is clear, but the breadth of the book, encompassing many tribes and a collapsed history, from the first white settlers' arrival to the present, won't allow the book to stand alone for this age group. Bruchac recommends only two books for further reading, there is no map, and the list of speakers is woefully lacking in information--e.g., the century in which a speaker lived is not always included. The volume shows passion; detailed notes on the sources for the many excerpts are quite helpful and make interesting reading in their own right. For use in conjunction with other, more rooted texts. (b&w illustrations, not seen, notes) (Nonfiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
