Touching the Fire - Softcover

Welsch, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449908690 ISBN 13: 9780449908693

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1993

Synopsis

"A remarkable collection. The book is engrossing, wonderful, and belongs to anyone who cares about our unwritten American history."

JIM HARRISON

When the Europeans invaded this continent, they took land and water, but ignored what may be the greatest riches of all: the dazzling wealth of Native American spiritual and psychological wisdom. Now, adopted Omaha tribesman Roger Welsch, a.k.a. Bull Buffalo Chief brings a new collection of stories about an imaginary midwestern tribe, the Turtle Creek Nehawkas, the way they are, the way they were. Bright with the flame of traditional Native American wisdom, TOUCHING THE FIRE will bring new warmth and awareness into the heart and life of all who read it.

About this title

About the Author

Roger Welsch, the well-known folklorist and essayist for CBS’s Sunday Morning, is an adopted member of the Omaha Indian tribe.

From Kirkus Reviews

Folklorist, widely published and broadcast essayist Welsch-- who was adopted into the Omaha Tribe in 1967--reveals much love and knowledge of Plains Indian people and their spiritual life, but skilled fiction writing still eludes him in his 16th book and second collection (It's Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It from Here, 1990). The first of the seven linked stories takes place in the year 2001, when members of the invented Nehawka tribe outwit a racist museum director and retrieve their sacred Sky Bundle. The stories move backwards in time until the historic origin of the bundle, the symbolic objects it contains, and the sometimes otherworldly events they commemorate are all revealed. By the end, the logic-oriented reader is led to appreciate that cultural fragments strewn through the text may seem irrational taken out of context but, in fact, are meaningful and make sense. The opening pieces, concerned with contemporary political issues, are more problematic: characters rarely transcend stereotype, and affirmative endings seem forced-- as when a violent racist ex-drug-dealer turned bounty-hunter tracks down two young Indians who've jumped bail after an arrest for distributing sacramental peyote; exposure to their innate nobility and religious conviction transforms him; he helps them beat the rap, marries the young woman, and throws in his lot with the Nehawka. Welsch opens with a passionately partisan and moving essay about the religious persecution of Native American peoples; the stories themselves, while well-intentioned and offering interesting detail, remain heavy-handed and unconvincing. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0449908690
• ISBN 13: 9780449908693
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270