Authors, C-G

Forrest Carter

Forrest Carter.
The Education of Little Tree. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.
Call Number: PS 3553 .A777 Z464 1986 c.2

This charming memoir is ostensibly about Carter’s childhood in the Tennessee mountains with his Cherokee grandparents. His publisher reported that he was "Storyteller in Council to the Cherokee Nations," and that "he uses the council storytelling method of the Indian in passing on the history of his people."

Many years after the publication of his "memoir," it was discovered that Carter was not a Cherokee, but a white man from Alabama who had once been a propagandist for George Wallace. This revelation raised the question of "authenticity"in Native American literature: whose experience as a Native American is authentic enough to bestow the proper "authority?"

Memoir or fiction, The Education of Little Tree raises serious and difficult questions, but it stands as a much-read book, which has been taken by many as strongly promoting a healthy sensitivity to, and respect for, Native American traditions and perspectives.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

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Chrystos

Chrystos, 1946- .
Fire Power. Vancouver, British Columbia: Peter Gang Publishers, 1995.
First Edition.
Call Number: (SPL) PS 3553 .H773 F57 1995

Chrystos grew up in the political upheaval of San Francisco in the 1960s with a white mother and Menominee father. Her work is influenced by both her father’s Menominee stories and Beat poetry. After years of living on the street, Chrystos began to write and travel widely on the poetry-reading circuit.

She says of her poetry, "to be a writer is to stand outside your culture, to reflect on it. And when you’re Indian and already an outsider, it’s sort of like being on Mars."

Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

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Robert J. Conley

Robert J. Conley, 1940- .
The Witch of Goingsnake and Other Stories. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.
Foreword by Wilma Mankiller.
Call Number: PS 3553 .O494 W5 1988
General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Robert J. Conley, 1940- .
The War Trail North. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
Call Number: (SPL) PS 3553 .O494 W28 1995
Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

A prolific author of Cherokee descent, Robert Conley lives in Talequah, Oklahoma. His oeuvre is vast: he has several paperback originals, at least one mystery, a number of hardcovers in the Western genre, a series of historical novels of Indian life, short story collections, and more. A highly praised writer in several fields, he is a two-time winner of the prestigious Spur Award. The War Trail North is his seventh novel in a series about his own Cherokee heritage.

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Jesse J. Cornplanter

Jesse J. Cornplanter.
Legends of the Longhouse, told to Sah-Nee-Weh, The White Sister.
Port Washington, New York: I. J. Friedman, 1963.
Call Number: E 99 .S3 C76 1963

Originally published in 1938, this retelling of ancient Seneca legends by a modern Indian writer is also illustrated by the author. It is told in the form of letters from Cornplanter to Sah-Nee-Weh, The White Sister.

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Vine Deloria

Vine Deloria, 1933- .
Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact. New York: Scribner, 1995.
Signed by the Author.
Call Number: (SPL) E 98 .F6 D35 1995

This book is by renowned essayist and activist Vine Deloria, perhaps the most significant voice of this generation regarding the presentation and analysis of contemporary Indian affairs; their history, shape, and meaning. There are few voices, Indian or otherwise, that have as full a command of Indian history and experience, and few other voices are imbued with Deloria’s authority and honesty in addressing these difficult issues.

Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

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Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich, 1954- .
Baptism of Desire. New York: Harper and Row, 1989.
Call Number: PS 3555 .R42 B3 1989

Louise Erdrich is of Chippewa heritage. Her first book was a collection of poems, Jacklight, published in softcover. According to a letter she wrote shortly after publication, the book was declined by 19 publishers before Holt Rinehart Winston decided to give it a chance, together with her first novel, Love Medicine. Later the same year, Holt published Love Medicine, and the critical acclaim was instantaneous and unanimous. Erdrich has become one of the most commercially successful literary authors writing in America today. Erdrich’s commercial success has helped pave the way for the publication of other Native American woman writers, such as Linda Hogan and Joy Harjo. Like the best of Native American writing, Erdrich’s work is infused with a rich sense of myth derived from American Indian traditions, even as it uses the Western forms of poetry and the novel to contain and shape the images. Her writing is at once profound and accessible, and epitomizes the cross-fertilization of cultures that the finest of Native American writing accomplishes.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

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Diane Glancy

Diane Glancy.
The West Pole. Wood Engravings by William A. Myers. [Minneapolis]: Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, 1994.
Signed by the Author.
Call Number: (SPL) PS 3557 .L294 W47 1994

Diane Glancy, an Oklahoma Cherokee, writes prose, poetry, and drama which is often autobiographical. Her work shows the inseparability of indian identity from her perception of the modern world around her. The prose of The West Pole is experimental and poetic, with short, highly descriptive sentences.

This book is the seventh in the Winter book series from the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts. Designed and printed by Inge Bruggeman in an edition of 200 copies on Frankfurt paper with Goudy Old Style type. Bound by Campbell-Logan Bindery using handmade walnut stained cover papers by Bridget O’Malley.

Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

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