Earthmaker

Collects ancient Native American tales relating joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, and plans and misadventures of tribes from the Arctic, the Northwest coast, the Southwest, and elsewhere in North America

Although the subtitle of this volume from Miller ( Shamanic Odyssey: The Lushootseed Journey to the Land of the Dead ) promises tribal stories, in fact it contains very little of the kind. The problem derives from the author's peculiar choice to blend tribal traditions and tales. Thus the etiological story of clan origin about an Indian princess who marries a bear combines Tsimshian and Tlingit tales; Miller's version of the Windigo, the evil cannibalistic enemy of Native peoples, is an amalgam of Cree and Ojibway stories; and the story of the Sun's warlike twins and their life on earth with an elderly couple is a blend of Zuni and Acoma myths. This homogenizing of tradition renders the volume useless to the serious student and will confuse casual readers who will believe that they are getting legitimate tribal stories. Told here in a stilted style, intended by the author to approximate oral tradition, all of the tales represented are available in better versions in other collections. Miller's introduction is a good discussion of Natives of different regions and what their life was like before European contact. Once again, however, a broad-brush, generalizing approach undercuts his intentions.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Miller has assembled an amusing collection of creation myths from various native North American tribes and presents them as a chronicle of the earth's formation, the shaping of animals, and the adjustments made to this world so that it would be fit for human inhabitants. His storytelling style is first-rate, and the text works well for oral presentation, portraying considerable wisdom, humor, and compassion. Short prologues to the four main sections do much to ground the reader in the space and time for the stories. Miller's lengthy introduction, however, could have withstood more vigorous editing. He attempts to do too much with it and ends up with an unsatisfyingly superficial anthropology. The richness of the stories does more than make up for this. Recommended for both the novice and for the more experienced reader of native tales.
- Debbie Bogen schutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.