Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature 1900-1970 by Paula Gunn Allen

Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature 1900-1970 Reviews

• 
  Ronald Wise

  This is the first of a two-volume collection of works by Native American authors, which editor Paula Gunn Allen refers to as the "reservation" era in Native American thought. Though this era began with the arrival of white men in America, published materials from this period are not available until around he beginning of the 20th century.
  
  The primary theme of this period is the noble attempt by a people to stay true to their teachings as their culture is systematically dismantled by religious and government policy, and haphazardly attacked by individual invaders. There is scant reference to the gruesome actions or the politics and policies of the time, but instead the focus is on individuals struggling to survive both physically and emotionally as the world they knew changed drastically.
  
  The most poignant stories in this collection address the impossible dilemma imposed on these individuals - that they would not be accepted as legitimate members of American society unless they gave up their old ways, but even if they did that they could only be, at best, recognized as second-class citizens. This is most evident in the stories regarding the children hauled off to boarding schools who later returned to find themselves alienated from their own homes and people, and thereby left with nothing.
  
  I read the more hopeful second volume, Song of the Turtle, first and would recommend that they be read in the proper order. The second volume is a good antidote to the first.
  
• 
  Flower

  found on my bookshelf