Reading Native American Women: Critical/Creative Representations

by Joanne Barker (Contribution by), Gloria Bird (Contribution by), Victoria Bomberry (Contribution by), Mary C. Churchill (Contribution by), Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Contribution by)

Overview

This new collection reveals the vitality of the intellectual and creative work of Native women today. The authors examine the avenues that Native American women have chosen for creative, cultural, and political expressions, and discuss the points of convergence between Native American feminisms and other feminisms. Individual contributors articulate their positions around issues such as identity, community, sovereignty, culture, and representation. This engaging volume crystallizes the myriad realities that inform the authors' intellectual work, and clarifies the sources of inspiration for their roles as individuals and indigenous intellectuals, reaffirming their paramount commitment to their communities and Nations. It will be of great value to Native writers as well as instructors and students in Native American studies, women's studies, anthropology, cultural studies, literature, and writing and composition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759103726
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/07/2005
Series:	Contemporary Native American Communities , #15
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.58(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Inés Hernández-Avila is a professor and former chair of the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California-Davis. She is also Director of the Chicana/Latina Research Center at UCD; a member of the National Caucus of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers; and a member of the Advisory Council for Public Programming at the National Museum of the American Indian. She has twice been a Ford Foundation/National Research Council Fellow.

Table of Contents

1 "Remember" 2 Introduction 3 CHAPTER 1: Telling Stories to the Seventh Generation: Resisting the Assimilationist Narrative of Stiya 5 CHAPTER 2: Blood, Rebellion, and Motherhood in the Political Imagination of Indigenous People 5 CHAPTER 3: Personalizing Methodology: Narratives of Imprisoned Native Women 6 CHAPTER 4: Rape and the War Against Native Women 7 CHAPTER 5: The Big Pipe Case 8 CHAPTER 6: Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text: Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony 9 CHAPTER 7: Native InFormation 10 CHAPTER 8: Photographic Memoirs of an Aboriginal Savant: Living on Occupied Land 11 CHAPTER 9: The Storyteller's Escape: Sovereignty and Worldview 13 CHAPTER 10: Relocations Upon Relocations: Home, Language, and Native Women Writing 14 CHAPTER 11: The Trick Is Going Home: Secular Spiritualism in Native American Women's Literature 15 CHAPTER 12: Dildos, Hummingbirds and Driving Her Crazy: Searching for American Indian Women's Love Poetry and Erotica 15 CHAPTER 13: Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking About Their Religious and Political Perspectives 16 CHAPTER 14: Out of Bounds: Indigenous Knowing and the Study of Religion 17 Credits 18 About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

It seems to me that being an American Indian woman makes one a feminist. That is, if a commitment to strength, both of body and spirit, to self-reliance, and to a sense of identity outside the male world (albeit always within one's Indian community) makes one a feminist—and I think it does—then Indian woman and feminist are synonyms. Reading Native American Women is a collection that powerfully makes my point. Kudos to Inés Hernández-Avila and the women who speak with as strong a voice as ever.

Paula Gunn Allen

Inés Hernández-Avila brings together an amazing group of Native women intellectuals who give voice to the varied expressions of Native women's lives. These scholars, writers, and artists offer personal histories, deep reflection, and scholarly research on the political struggles of Native women throughout the Americas. The juxtaposition of different forms of expression provides an embodied, intellectual experience that is both painful and inspirational.

Michelene E. Pesantubbee

This is an excellent anthology: it is well conceived, imaginatively combines creative work with critical analysis, and contains a number of powerful Native women's voices. While there are many anthologies devoted to the creative work of American Indian women, there are few that feature critical work. The individual essays are all very strong, offering a wide range of perspectives, issues and cultural traditions. Reading Native American Women will fill a long-standing gap, and its critical essays as well as its poetry, memoir and fiction will provide an invaluable resource for those seeking responsible and insightful knowledge about Native women.

Laura Donaldson