A brief literary history of the creative work of American Indian women with sections from 12 representative
contemporary writers.
Publications
The list of selected staff publications may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.
That's What She Said: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry By Native American Women,
ed. Bloomington, Indiana, 1984.
"Grass Don't Grow On a Racetrack and Other Paradigms for Folklore and Feminism."
Introduction to Jane Young et al, eds. Folklife and Feminist Theory, University of Illinois Press, 1993 (appeared, January, 1994).
An attempt to characterize the central themes and issues of feminist theory produced by folklore scholars.
"Culturally-Based Science: The Value to Traditional People, Science and Folklore,"
in Venetia Newall, ed. Folklore in the Twentieth Century, London: Rowman and Littlefield: 204–212, 1981.
An essay which suggests the value, to scholars and traditional cultures, of folklorists’ and social scientists’ attentions to the scientific traditions of the cultures they study—particularly in areas such as medicine, botany, pharmaceutics, agriculture.
Native American Women: A Contextual Bibliography.
Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1984.
Comprehensive bibliography on Native North American women, with historical commentary.
"Mythologizing Pocahontas."
In Carol E. Robertson. Musical Repercussions of 1492: Encounters in Text and Performance. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
An examination of the representations and images—in American music—of Native American women.
"Indian Stereotypes."
Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife Handbook (October): 18–21, 1980.
"Red Earth People and Southeastern Basketry,"
in Linda Mowat, ed. Basketmakers: Meaning and Form in Native American Baskets. Oxford, England: Pitt Rivers Museum, 1992.
A look at the history and contemporary manifestations of basketry from Native Southeastern people.
"A Modest Proposal: The Museum of the Plains White Person,"
in Senator Robert Torricelli, Andrew Carroll, and Andrew Dubill, eds. In Our Own Words: Greatest Speeches of The American Century. Kodansha America, Inc., 1999.
A satirical reversal of the usual representation of Native Americans in museums.
"Traditional Cultures in a Technology-Based World."
Darshana: Sinhalese Journal of Culture. (Spring): 19–23. (in Sinhalese).
A proposal for constructing technological change using a culture-based approach.
"The Mickey Mouse Kachina."
American Art 1, no. 1 (1992).
An examination of an object from the collections of the National Museum of American Art, which suggests the possibilities for culture change and for humor and resistance in cntemporary Native/Hopi material culture.
"Magnolias Grown in Dirt,"
Southern Exposure, 1977; reprinted in J. Zandy. Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.
A much-cited essay on bawdy oral traditions among Southern women, with special reference to particular traditions in my own family.
"More Than Meets the Eye: Gertrude Kasebier’s ‘Indian’ Photographs,"
with Helena Wright, guest editor. The History of Photography Journal (Winter 2000).
Examines the “Indian” photographs by Gertrude Kasebier, in NMAH collections, and compares her work to the clichés of 19th century Native photography.
"The Pocahontas Perplex: Images of American Indian Women in American Culture,"
The Massachussetts Review. 16 (Autumn): 698–714; reprinted in E. DuBois and Ruiz. Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History. London: Routledge, Kegan and Paul, 1990; reprinted in S. Lobo and S. Talbot. Native American Voices: A Reader. New York: Longman, 1998.
A much-reprinted article used widely in collegiate curricula (Native Studies and Women’s Studies); deals with images and representations—visual, material, philosophical—of Native American women in American culture; the centrality of some of the representations (the Princess and the Squaw) to American popular culture and American identity.
"By The Waters of the Minnehaha: Music, Pageants and Princesses in the Indian Boarding Schools."
with John Troutman. In M. Archuleta, T. Lomawaima and B. Child. Away From Home: American Indian Boarding Schools. Phoenix, AZ: The Heard Museum, 1999.
Explores government and missionary attempts to assimilate Indians in boarding schools, and many of the student’s adaptive strategies for cultural preservation and resistance.
"Native American Food,"
in Kirlin, eds. Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
On Native foodways from all major cultural regions (Plains, Northwest Coast, Southeast, Northeast, Southwest) and on the death and rebirth of Native agriculture, subsistence, and food production. With recipes.
The British Museum Encyclopedia of Native North America,
with Melanie Fernandez. London, Bloomington, IN, Toronto, Canada: British Museum Press, 1999.
Up-to-date histories and cultures of first peoples (North America) from a native perspective; highly illustrated, with stories, poems, eye-witness, first person accounts from native peoples on events, issues, art, mythologies, gender roles, economics, contact, sovereignty, self-determination, land, environment. Uses artifacts from the collections at the British Museum and Smithsonian.
Pissing in the Snow And Other Ozark Folktales,
editing and "Introduction," by Vance Randolph. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976; ix–xxix; Avon Paper edition, 1977. In print, University of Illinois Press, 1999, in its 15th edition; in print and in its 20th edition, 2003.
A collection of heretofore-unpublished tales of the noted Ozark collector and folklorist, Vance Randolph, which I edited and brought to publication.
From Ritual to Retail: Pueblos, Tourism and the Fred Harvey Company.
Producer/Director. 17 minute documentary short video. Produced in association with the exhibition, Inventing the Southwest: The Fred Harvey Company and Native American Art, 1995, Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ.
A film which explores the impact of the Fred Harvey Company and early 20th century tourism on Native art and culture.
"American Indian Women: Diverse Leadership for Social Change"
in Albrecht and Brewer, eds. Bridges of Power: Women's Multicultural Alliances. Santa Cruz, Calif.: New Society Publishers, 1990; re-edited from “Culture and Gender in Indian America,” Sojourner: The Women's Forum 15 (September, 1989).
An essay which sets out some of the historical and cultural perameters of Native gender roles, cultural change, and political power in Native America.
"Vance Randolph's 'Unprintable' Tales."
Mid-South Folklore. 3, no.3 (1976).
An article on bringing Vance Randolph’s “bawdy” Ozark folktales to print.
Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women, 1995, and Heartbeat II, 1998.
Producer, with Howard Bass. CD/audiocassette recording. 79 minutes. Smithsonian Folkways.
A landmark sound recording in 2 volumes, of the music of contemporary American Indian women.
"American Indian Art in Oklahoma"
Oklahoma Today Special Issue on American Indian Art, (December, 1990).
"Kill the Indian and Save The Man: Indian Education in the United States."
Introduction to To Lead and To Serve: Indian Education at Hampton Institute, 1978–1923. an exhibition catalog. Charlottesville: Virginia Foundation on Humanities and Public Policy, 1989.
An introduction to an exhibition on Indian education at Hampton Institute with a brief history and analysis of US policy and practice in the education of Indians in the 19th and twentieth centuries.
"Traits of Indian Character: The 'Indian' Anecdote in American Vernacular Culture."
Southern Folklore Quarterly. 39 (September, 1976).
An article on a particular genre of oral tradition, the anecdote, and its appearance in oral tradition relative to images and representations of Indians.
Corn Is Who We Are: Pueblo Indian Food.
Co-Director (scripting, casting, artistic direction, edit) for film. 20 minute documentary short film. Produced by Alturas Films and Smithsonian Telecommunications. Winner, Silver Apple, National Educational Film Festival, 1994; English Spanish language versions.
A film that explores the centrality of corn to Pueblo culture, history and health and the death and rebirth of corn agriculture in Pueblo country.
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