Native American Literature Overview
Like American literature itself, Native American literature has morphed from one form to another. In its beginnings, this literature consisted primarily of oral traditions that had been handed down from one generation to the next. Due to language barriers, these stories were recorded by primarily by European Americans and anthropologists and were subject to misinterpretation and cultural mistranslations. Treaty accounts and speeches reflect native displacement from their lands. After 1820, literature began to reflect the struggle to survive in the form of autobiography, but are still being recorded by outsiders. Chants and ghost songs, forms of religious and ceremonial observances are being recorded. Important works like Black Elk Speaks preserve aspects of tribal histories and a way of life that is dying. In 1968, N. Scott Momaday writes House Made of Dawn, staking claim to the Native American experience. Writing in his own voice, he ushers in an era of writers telling various stories that reflect their point of view. Native Americans begin taking control of their own literature, giving voice to their relevant historical, cultural and gendered experiences.
til 1820
Native American traditions were not recorded before the nineteenth century due to language differences and cultural misunderstandings. During this time, Native Americans began to collaborate with anthropologists and writers about their myths and traditions.
Creation stories, Trickster tales and oral tradition.
The Trickster is an archetype that often creates chaos, and can be either destructive or constructive. Usually male, he can change shape and often crosses boundaries. Sometimes crude and rude, he is considered a fool, although sometimes a wise one.
Native Americans: Contact and Conflict
Various speeches from Pontiac, Red Jacket to the Senate and Tecumseh.
1820-1865 (Norton Vol. B)
Native Americans: struggle and survival
Black Hawk from Autobiography
Cherokee memorials
1865-1914 (Norton Vol. C)
Native American Chants and Songs
“The Night Chant” – ceremonial Navajo chants
Chippewa songs that are an integral part of everyday life like “Song of the Crows” and more.
Ghost Dance Songs – songs and dances that accompanied the Ghost Dance Religion started by the visions of Wovoka.
Wovoka, a member of the Paiute tribe, he was privy to a vision where he saw God. He was told that the Indians would return to the old ways and that the Europeans would be integrated or somehow disappear. These dances began to spread throughout the tribes. Events led to the massacre at Wounded Knee. The Norton carries two versions of Wovoka’s teachings.
1914-1945 (Norton Vol. D)
Black Elk Speaks as told to John Neihardt
The Norton contains an excerpt of the vision of Black Elk when he was a 9 year old boy. John Neihardt was writing an epic poem and wanted to speak with Black Elk as a source of information. They agreed to do a book about Black Elk’s vision. Written as a literary piece, this Norton excerpt incorporates some text from The Six Grandfathers, a later translation of the words of Black Elk by Raymond DeMallie. Although not well received by the public in 1932, Black Elk Speaks was reissued in 1961 to coincide with the renewed interest in Native American religion. This work is an important piece of oral Lakota tradition during the transition to reservation life. Black Elk also dictated The Sacred Pipe by John Epes Brown in order to preserve the traditional ways of the Lakota.
1945 on (Norton Vol. E) Native Americans writing their own stories.
N. Scott Momaday
Raised with an education that fostered both his ancestry and the larger culture, Momaday is a professor of Literature. He won a Pulitzer Price for House Made of Dawn in 1968. He has published a variety of forms including poetry, prose fiction and history. Central to his writing is the idea of the land. The Norton covers part of The Way to Rainy Mountain, a historical and cultural journey of the Kiowa Indians.
Louise Erdrich
Love Medicine began as a short story and morphed into probably her best known book which focuses on the lives of two Chippewa families. She has also written short stories in the collection called Tales of Burning Love, neither of which is in the Norton. There is an excerpt from “Fleur,” a short story printed in Esquire magazine.
Leslie Marmon Silko
Although from mixed heritage, Silko writes about religious matters and the world of man. She is best known for her novel Ceremony about negative aspects of modern Indian life. The Nortoncontains an excerpt from Storyteller entitled “Lullaby,” p.2543.
Joy Harjo
Harjo is a poet, screenwriter and musician whose poems reflect ceremonial tradition and call “forth the powers of dream and memory” (3054). Some of her writings include collected poems entitled In Mad Love and War, which take on issues of conflict and reflect current tribal concerns and issues. “Call It Fear” and “White Bear” are some of her poems in the Norton.
Other prominent native writers include Vine Deloria who wrote Custer Died for Your Sins and Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Other prominent authors include Paula Gunn Allen, Linda Hogan and Sherman Alexie among many others.
Works Cited
Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Literature 1820-1865, Volumes A-E, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2003.