Required Reading Prior to the Workshop
The following books are to be read prior to the workshop to prepare participants for discussion during the workshop. Mark highlights you want to discuss, and bring these books with you for reference during the workshop. All titles are available online from BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com
I Am A Man: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice
In 1877, Chief Standing Bear’s Ponca Indian tribe was forcibly removed from their Nebraska homeland and marched to what was then known as Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). This book describes the desire by Standing Bear to return to Nebraska to bury his only son in the traditional homeland of the Ponca. I Am a Man examines the complex relationship between the United States government and the small, peaceful tribe and the story of hope, of a people still among us today, painstakingly preserving a cultural identity that had sustained them for centuries before their encounter with Western expansion. Author Joe Starita spent four years researching this book, published in 2009. Starita will join the workshop on Wednesday. ISBN: 0-312-60638-9
The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture
A classic insight into the life and culture of the Pawnee people is provided by anthropologist Gene Weltfish. Readers will be led through a typical year in the life of the Pawnee: kinship lines, customs, ceremonies, beliefs, and hard work. This book is based on conversations Weltfish had with native Pawnee in the middle of the 20th century. Weltfish learned the Pawnee language in order to be able to communicate more accurately and to learn more authentically about the Pawnee. Reprints are available of the book.
ISBN: 0-8032-5871-2
An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians
Historical geographer Dr. David Wishart tells the story of the Indians’ loss of their lands and traditional lifestyles over the course of the nineteenth century in what is now Nebraska. Working from primary sources, using many maps and graphs, Wishart conveys the spatial, ecological, and human repercussions of dispossession. An Unspeakable Sadness won the J. B. Jackson Prize for the best scholarly book in North American Geography with appeal to a popular audience in 1995. This book was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Wishart will join the workshop Thursday evening to discuss the book with workshop participants. ISBN: 0-8032-9795-5
Dance Lodges of the Omaha People: Building from Memory
After the Omaha Nation was officially granted its reservation land in northeastern Nebraska in 1854, Omaha culture kept alive in the dance lodges. Drawing on the oral histories of forty Omaha elders collected in 1992, Dance Lodges of the Omaha People provides insights into how these dance lodges served as “camouflage and bastions of cultural maintenance in a time of intense social, political, and spiritual strain… Within the lodges, the Omaha people could be themselves, honor their heroes, sing their songs and speak their language.” Dr. Awakuni-Swetland will join the workshop on Wednesday to discuss his book and to tell about his efforts through the National Endowment for the Humanities to preserve the Omaha and Ponca languages.
ISBN: 0-8032-1757-9
Note: This book is available in paperback from BarnesandNoble.com