The early history of North America is the history of the native peoples who first inhabited the vast continent. Numerous Indian tribes and tribal confederations with rich, diverse cultures and long historical memories lived on the land; their daily lives, languages, religious practices, medicine, art, literature —indeed the essence of existence—all were inextricably tied to the land.
The Portable North American Indian Reader is an anthology of writing by and about Native Americans that was compiled, according to editor Frederick W. Turner III, “to introduce the general... reader to the traditions and historical realities of the North American Indian.”
The selections start at the beginning of Indian time with a sampling of myths and tales from various groups including Penobscot, Iroquois, Cherokee, Sioux, Navaho, Hopi, Tlingit, and others.
The second section offers poetry, songs, and oratory from a score of tribes and confederations, and the third part contains selections from accounts of contact and interaction between the natives and the explorers and new settlers of the land.
Finally, there is a long, fascinating selection of works by American writers—both Native Americans and those who came after—that presents different views of the American Indian image. These range from the poetry of Philip Freneau to the prose of Herman Melville and Francis Parkman and excerpts from Thomas Berger’s novel, Little Big Man. Native Americans represented in this section include Luther Standing Bear, Vine Deloria, Jr., James Welch, and N. Scott Momady, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, House Made of Dawn.
This volume opens with an illuminating introduction, which, along with an editor’s note preceding each section, forms a fascinating, if brief, background history against which the selections can be read. There is also an extensive bibliography with suggestions for further reading. Together these make an invaluable book for all those interested in American history and in the history and culture of Native Americans.
FREDERICK W. TURNER III, is a former professor of English and folklore at the University of Massachusetts and the editor of a biography of Geronimo, published in 1970.