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For example, it is said that she was embued with supernatural powers, given to her by the gods. She would lift her arms to the sky and place her palms against the wind, and through the heat she felt in her open hands, she could detect the direction and distance of her enemies. Whether true or not, she did ride into battle alongside Geronimo in the Apache wars, and fought bitterly and savagely until she was captured along with her people, packed into railroad cars, and sent to imprisonment in the east, where she spent her last days.
Now, her great-great niece has captured her life’s story in a book of the same name. Trudy Ann Parker wrote Aunt Sarah: Woman of the Dawnland (1994, Dawnland Publications) not from written records, but from a legacy of spoken lore handed down at kitchen tables, beside campfires, and at the knees of several generations of relations.
Parker’s book does a lot more than tell Aunt Sarah’s story – it gives voice to a people long silent. In most educations, American history begins with the arrival of Europeans to New England, Parker says. “I wanted to offer a piece of New England history that hasn’t been told. History has not included the stories of the native people, who lived here in great numbers and are still here. History has been written around these people.”
In this ambitious biography of an international cultural icon, Blair Stonechild seeks to bring together the many facets of a remarkable life, and to develop a sense of the woman behind it all. In doing so, Stonechild also traces some of the tumultuous history of the Cree people, and offers a fascinating, and challenging, view into the impoverished Saskatchewan reserve where Sainte-Marie was born, and an exploration of the story and context of a Native culture which Buffy continues to inspire today.
“I became what the Crows call káalisbaapite—a ‘grandmother’s grandchild.’ That means that I was always with my Grandma, and I learned from her. I learned how to do things in the old ways.”—Alma Hogan Snell
Grandmother's Grandchild is the remarkable story of Alma Hogan Snell (1923–2008), a Crow woman brought up by her grandmother, the famous medicine woman Pretty Shield. Snell grew up during the 1920s and 1930s, part of the second generation of Crows to be born into reservation life. Like many of her contemporaries, she experienced poverty, personal hardships, and prejudice and left home to attend federal Indian schools.
What makes Snell's story particularly engaging is her exceptional storytelling style. She is frank and passionate, and these qualities yield a memoir unlike those of most Native women. The complex reservation world of Crow women—harsh yet joyous, impoverished yet rich in meaning—unfolds for readers. Snell's experiences range from the forging of an unforgettable bond between grandchild and grandmother to the flowering of an extraordinary love story that has lasted more than five decades.
Chipeta outlived Ouray by almost half a century. During part of this time she was ignored, forgotten, and cheated by the whites, although immediately after Ouray's death she was courted by many suitors and men wrote poetry about her. In her old age the whites honored her on many special occasions. Although she could not have children of her own, she "adopted" many orphaned Utes. Perhaps her greatest legacy was that through all that happened to her she did not become embittered and remained a humble, caring, loving person. Chipeta was a special individual who we would all do well to emulate.
A MacArthur "genius" grant funded the beginnings of her second novel, Almanac of the Dead. This epic retelling of the 500-year history of the Americas took her ten years to complete. She intended her most recent book, Gardens in the Dunes, a historical novel of the Victorian era, as a reward for her readers who survived the fury of Almanac of the Dead.
Silko grants interviews rarely, but the sixteen included here are generously wide-ranging and deeply honest. They reflect her heritage of storytelling and give vivid accounts of her life experiences, her creative processes, and her forthright political views. As she speaks, she spins out descriptions of the living oral traditions, the communal relationships, and the desert landscape that are the sources of her inspiration.
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