Native American Books

Seven Arrows

Hyemeyohsts Storm

List Price: $21.95 By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $2.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beautiful, Lyrical, Poetical Song of The People & The Shield 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This beautiful book is beyond the beyond in it's flowing rhythm of deep perception and wise assessment of a multitude of reality levels and views. We all perceive reality at what ever level or experience we have been absorbed in, the trick is to get beyond any constraints that might blind us to the bigger view that encompasses all existence. Yes, a tall order indeed, but doable as Storm demonstrates through his song of the medicine shields.

Walking with Storm on this beautiful trail called "Seven Arrows", will open up grand vistas of a larger reality. All points of the reality compass are here to be seen, felt and absorbed.

Storm so eloquently shows us how quietly listening and observing reality from as many points of view and directions as possible will deliver a vast array of those tiny puzzle pieces that when combined, make up the whole picture. Freeing oneself from dogmatic, less-than-clear strictures whether they be caused by one's religious, socio-economic, political, or family upbringing, will allow a clear view even from a new, never experienced vantage point. Walk in your brother or sister's shoes for a mile before judging their reality; see the world through the wide view of the eagle- the macro; see the world from the view of a little mouse who only sees fine details- the micro world- it is all right here to see the many points of reality for a more inclusive view of the world around us.

Hyemeyohsts Storm has put together in this one beautiful book what a thousand other worldly wise people have attempted and that is a way or path to seeing, feeling and embracing other realities that are all part of the one, singular reality that demonstrates the interconnectedness of all life.

Tales of the chaos caused by the intrusion of the Euros and their land/resource grabbing ways makes for some sad commentary on culture clash, especially when one comes to see here what beautiful lifestyles The People had and their willingness to share their wisdom.

This is somewhat in contrast to the other interspersed through the book, lyrical journeys through the eyes of various animals that demonstrate the many levels of perception, but it all blends into a complete whole.

The prose of this book travel between poetic, lyrical, song-like. The descriptive line drawings and colorful medicine wheels conceived by Storm and Karen Harris and painted by her along with the many photographs of The People, animals and landscapes, make this book a treat to the senses all on their own.

I thank you Hyemeyohsts Storm, your family, and all those who helped put this beautiful book together!

More on Hyemeyohsts Storm's works can be seen at his website: hyemeyohstsstorm.com

Editorial Review:

A heartbreaking story of victory, defeat, and of a spiritual search in a profane world, this is the story of Night Bear and his people. It is the tale of the land they cherish and the lives they hold sacred, lived until the enemy can no longer be stopped, and the dead have few left to weep for them.

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, Twenty-First Century Edition

John G. Neihardt

List Price: $14.95 By: Bison Books Amazon Marketplace: 99 new & used starting at $0.92

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Named one of the ten best spiritual books of the twentieth century by Philip Zaleski of HarperSanFrancisco, Black Elk Speaks is the acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading the Lakotas' homeland, decimating buffalo herds and threatening to extinguish the Lakotas' way of life. Black Elk and other Lakotas fought back, a dogged resistance that resulted in a remarkable victory at the Little Bighorn and an unspeakable tragedy at Wounded Knee.

Beautifully told by the celebrated poet and writer John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks offers much more than a life story. Black Elk's profound and arresting religious visions of the unity of humanity and the world around him have transformed his account into a venerated spiritual classic. Whether appreciated as a collaborative autobiography, a history of a Native American nation, or an enduring spiritual testament for all humankind, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable.



This special edition features all three prefaces to Black Elk Speaks that John G. Neihardt wrote at different points in his life, a map of Black Elk's world, a reset text, a listing of Lakota words newly translated and reproduced using the latest orthographic standards, and color paintings by Lakota artist Standing Bear that have not been widely available for decades.

The Morning the Sun Went Down

Darryl Babe Wilson

List Price: $13.95 By: Heyday Books Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $0.94

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Kirkus Reviews (2/15/98) 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

from "Kirkus Reviews" (starred review): A slim, modest, and altogether extraordinary memoir of rural Native American life. Wilson, a poet and scholar from the Achumawe and Atsugewi tribes of northeastern California, came into adolescence in the mid-1950s, when his people had all but disappeared through assimilation or extermination. Blame for part of that disappearance he lays squarely at the door of whites; but, he adds, "the neglect of our Elders to teach us our traditions was equally damaging." His own parents did their best to teach Wilson and his siblings something of the old ways: how to hunt deer, how to tame rattlesnakes, how to listen for mountain lions, lessons that he imparts to his readers with precision and grace- and not a little humor. But when his mother and younger brother were killed in a collision with a logging truck, Wilson was sent off to live with white foster parents among unfriendly neighbors (he remembers, touchingly, one young girl "who did not accuse me with her eyes or attitude," principally "because we were not enemies"). Whe it appeared that his foster parents wanted to strip away his Indian identity, Wilson rebelled, for which he was sent off to a boarding school where the young California Indian charges were locked in their rooms at nights and punished by day for minor infractions. Wilson recounts these horros matter-of-factly but doesn't dwell on them; instead, he celebrates a teacher who sagely corrected his compositions, encouraged him to improve himself, and urged him to become a writer. Readers have reason to be grateful to that teacher as well. Wilson is a careful and compassionate obeserver of his life and those of other young Indians, and his book is a fine addition to the growing library of Native American autobiography.

Editorial Review:

Born into the Achumawi and Atusgewi tribes (often called the Pit River Nation) of northeastern California, Darryl Babe Wilson's early years were spent with his parents and eight brothers and sisters, in a world still rich in Indian tradition, feeling, and language. Through this compelling autobiography, we experience both the beauty of the Indian world and the deep tragedies of his young life, and celebrate his triumphant journey to adulthood. Wilson has blended Native American myths with stories of youthful innocence and experience to produce a richly textured, lyrical, and unforgettable memoir.

The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams

Nasdijj, Nasdijj

List Price: $13.00 By: Mariner Books Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The language and form of this searing book are as powerful as the life experience that inspired them. In a series of essays that cohere into a spiritual autobiography, the author writes prose that's deceptively simple yet rich in metaphor. An wild horse living in the parking lot of a Navajo school becomes a symbol for living creatures' intrinsic wildness, tamed only at a terrible cost. "We are all runaway horses" is one constant refrain, as is the reminder "you are your history." The author's history is painful: born in 1950 the son of an alcoholic Native American woman and a white cowboy father who "would sell my mom to other migrant men for five dollars," Nasdijj grew up a "mongrel" and an outcast, contending with his violent father's demons while his mother beguiled them with Indian stories. Living on a reservation, never fully accepted because of his white skin, he adopted a baby boy with fetal alcohol syndrome who died at age 6. The book's most beautiful passages meditate on Tommy Nothing Fancy's short life and express his father's love. Nasdijj has been homeless, he has taught Indian children on a reservation, he has retraced with a historian friend the dreadful forced march to Bosque Redondo, where the Navajo and their culture were nearly exterminated. These and many other ordeals are related in the agonizingly lucid words of someone who has turned to writing as a lifeline. This remarkable memoir has its share of bitterness and anger, but Nasdijj transcends both in his acceptance of the world that made him and in the knowledge that "the reservation runs like blood through a river of my dreams." --Wendy Smith

Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means

Russell Means, Marvin J. Wolf

List Price: $26.95 By: St Martins Pr Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $0.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Like only Russwll Means can tell. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must read for anyone who wishes to know the true struggles of our native peoples today. This book covers it all and thumbs up.

Good book on Russell Means 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a thorough and long book by Russell Means about his life as an American Indian. He has a lot of hatred toward the white race, which is understandable, but it makes his book hard to read at times because his hatred comes through the pages. He is also obviously biased at points, but that is to be expected because it is an autobiography. However, this man has been through a lot and has done a lot for AIM (american indian movement) so this is a good read to find out about that. If you can get past the hatred in this book, it's worth the read.

Learning about Indian History 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is fascinating. Russell Means explains clearly and patiently his personal history and weaves the sorry, racist history of Indigenous people found by "the white man" who perpetrated genocide, stole their land and broke every single treaty ever made by the American government. One treaty was broken the same day it was made. Anyone interested in learning what really happened and continues to happen in this country would do well to read this book.

Editorial Review:

The provocative autobiography of the Native American activist, leader of the takeover of Wounded Knee in 1973, recounts his struggle for Indian self-determination, his periods in prison, and his spiritual awakening. National ad/promo. Tour.

Lightningbolt

Hyemeyohsts Storm

List Price: $30.00 By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $19.35

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

More than a tale - a beginning 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This is a book about more than the guru-guided personal search for self-understanding of a half-breed, more than a remarkably profound exposé of the life-philosophy (not religion) of the native american peoples. More even than a confirmation of the inner validity of other ancient systems of thought and knowledge to be found in other parts of the world, for example in Scandinavia. This book is exactly what it claims to be: the revelation of A WAY, an approach to life and the problems of identity, balance and peace, second to none, and applicable to everyone, where ever in the world they may live, and whatever religious and cultural tradition they may formally adhere to. Something that if widely spread, and attended to in the right way, might just ... just ... (to coin a heavily misused, but in this context really appropriate phrase)"save the world". In other words, not without subversive, but highly life-enhancing social and political connotations. My advice: Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. And then practice, as best ye may. Good luck, and may the Spirit give you strength in the quest for yourSELF.

Editorial Review:

Now, in this gripping spiritual autobiography that begins where SEVEN ARROWS ends, Hyemeyohsts Storm chronicles his own life and how it has been enriched by the power and sophistication of a discipline that reaches back tens of thousands of years to the Mayans and beyond. A rich blend of spiritual adventure, lyrical beauty, profound wisdom, and love, LIGHTNINGBOLT renews our understanding of the true intelligence of our Sacred Mother Earth, and teaches that without healing of the Self there can be no healing of the world.

Thunder's Grace: Walking the Road of Visions With My Lakota Grandmother

Mary Elizabeth Thunder

Amazon Price: $16.95 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 1 to 4 weeks By: Station Hill Press Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $9.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The tale of a Native elder, by her adoptive daughter.

Abandoned by her mother when she was three years old, Mary Elizabeth Thunder survived abuse, a broken marriage, and a heart attack to become one of the most highly esteemed leaders in the Native American movement -- healer, visionary, teacher, and chosen successor in a native tradition. Her story is also the true tale of a remarkable elder, Grandma Grace Spotted Eagle, who adopted her and guided her to spiritual awakening as a messenger. At once harrowing and uplifting, this memoir takes us from her early life and experiences with the legendary elders Chief Leonard Crow Dog, Wallace Black Elk, and Rolling Thunder, through a near-death experience that utterly transformed her, to nine remarkable years spent traveling America by van, culminating in her inclusion in the Sun Dance, one of the world's oldest and most venerable initiation ceremonies. Intimate, painfully honest, essentially and overwhelmingly spiritual, this is a book about a woman's quest for meaning amid two cultures and a compelling account of the visionary underpinnings of Native American life.

Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A Navajo Woman's Journey

Emily Benedek

List Price: $19.95 By: University of Oklahoma Press Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $2.80

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

vivid, fascinating, well researched 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The story of Ella and her struggle with illness and how it intersects with her spiritual and cultural world is at once fascinating and very sad. To read Benedek's account is to travel by literary horseback deep in the rez, and meet the residents of a different world, one which is changing, one which is struggling to hold onto traditional ways at the same time. I recommend this book to anyone with interest in native people, anyone interested in cultural perspectives on illness. And anyone else! Benedek is academic and personal, she takes you there.

Excellent on Two Levels 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I found Beyond the Four Corners of the World to be an excellent piece of work on two levels. On the surface it's a biography; one woman's journey away from - then back to - her roots and her homeland. On a deeper level, it's a rare glimpse into the religion, culture and lifestyle on the Navajo reservation. Upon completion of this book, I felt that I had gained insight not only into the mind and heart of Ella Bedonie, but also into the beliefs and values of the Navajo People.

Editorial Review:

With 8 pages of photographs

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas (50th Anniversary Edition) (50th Anniversary Edition)

Mari Sandoz

List Price: $14.95 By: Bison Books Amazon Marketplace: 74 new & used starting at $0.38

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Authenticated Portrait 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Little is known about Crazy Horse in comparison to other legendary chiefs, warriors and heroes due to the quiet-spoken and solitude-seeking nature he possessed. Indeed, Crazy Horse was considered "strange" due to standing true to his ideals and who he really was, instead of the conventional ways of others no matter how traditional. Born of lighter hair and skin, young Curly stood out as different from the beginning of his days. Most humble and purely strong and good-hearted, Crazy Horse grew to be the truest and most brilliant leader of the Lakotas. Self-sacrificing even to the bitter end, Crazy Horse earned his place of honor as a hero to be respected.

Combining interview information of Eleanor Hinman with survivors who knew Crazy Horse, with Mari Sandoz's meticulous research, gives "Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of The Oglalas" clout in accuracy of detail and fact in the day and time of Crazy Horse. I very highly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

Crazy Horse, the military leader of the Oglala Sioux whose personal power and social nonconformity set him off as "strange," fought in many famous battles, including the one at the Little Bighorn. He held out boldly against the government's efforts to confine the Sioux on reservations. Finally, in the spring of 1877 he surrendered, one of the last important chiefs to do so, only to meet a violent death. Mari Sandoz, the noted author of Cheyenne Autumn and Old Jules, both available as Bison Books, has captured the spirit of Crazy Horse with a strength and nobility befitting his heroism.

American Indian Ballerinas

Lili Cockerille Livingston

List Price: $34.95 By: University of Oklahoma Press Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $4.30

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fascinating 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book gives a very nice over-view of the four American Indian Ballerinas, tracing their careers and rise to stardom in a parallel fashion. You get a sense of where each dancer was in her training and her performance years with respect for the others. The easy going style paints a clear and accurate picture that dancers and non-dancers alike can enjoy.

Editorial Review:

American Indian Ballerinas includes authorized mini biographies of ballerinas Rosella Hightower, Yvonne Chouteau, Maria Tallchief (who recently published her autobiography), and her sister Marjorie Tallchief. All four dancers share a common ethnicity (Native American) and state of origin (Oklahoma), and all came to prominence at the roughly the same time, the 1940s-1960s--though the four had markedly different temperaments. Without working too hard to compare them, the book shows how their common heritage of dance and spirituality suffused their respective artistic careers.