Books
American Indian literature moving in new directions

By Derrick Henry
The Associated Press

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He closes his book and takes a deep breath. He scans his audience, searching for understanding and acceptance and is immediately greeted with warm, enthusiastic applause. People begin to cluster about him, eager to talk, eager to learn more about Native Americans.

Things weren't always this way for Ortiz, who grew up during a time when he had to fight just to be able to speak in his own language. Now, his poems, written in both English and Pueblo, allow him to keep his culture alive.

On the Web For more information, see the following Web sites: • Native Writers' Circle of the Americas • American Indian Community House • National Museum of the American Indian •The Greenfield Review Press • Worldcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers

"It's a form of resistance," Ortiz says after his reading at the American Indian Community House in downtown Manhattan. "If there was not a body of literature, then Native people would be invisible. Sometimes the term 'Indian' is an abstract idea. But when we express ideas in literature, then we have a valid body of expression that's totally ours."

Ortiz and hundreds of other American Indian writers have spent the past three decades trying to establish a body of literature to keep their tribes visible.

Contributions vary widely

Some contribute to small community newsletters and others publish in academic journals; some have works on best-seller lists. They write about poverty and government policies that long ignored Indians and even tried to eradicate them. They write about their rich heritages and ways in which Americans Indians manage to keep a strong connection to their cultures.

The membership list of the Native Writers Circle of the Americas gives some idea of how many Indian writers there are: at least 588.

That's a big leap from about 20 years ago, says Carol Bruchac, managing editor of The Greenfield Review Press in Greenfield Center, N.Y. Bruchac, who has been with the press for over 20 years, says when the company first started the North American Native Authors Catalog, it was a sheet of folded paper with about 100 titles from about 35 authors. These days, the catalog lists about 400 titles from more than 250 authors.

However, Bruchac's listing is incomplete because, in the late 1990s, as the number of American Indian writers soared, her press began specializing in writers from the Northeast. University presses now serve a large part of the market. Larger houses, such as Grove-Atlantic and Simon & Schuster, have published writers such as Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko.

A long process

Having a face — and a voice — in the publishing world was slow coming.

Ortiz and other American Indian writers tell of childhoods in which they were pressured to speak only English at school: Ridicule and social isolation awaited youngsters who dared to utter even "good morning, teacher" or "thank you" in Pueblo. Such pressures were inspired by earlier government policies to destroy American Indian cultures by assimilating tribal youth.

Writer Geary Hobson, a Cherokee and Quapaw writer who grew up in Arkansas, says that when he was in elementary school, teachers often pressured him and other American Indian students to speak English only. Other kids made fun of those who spoke their own languages, he says.

"We were put in the back of the room because the teacher didn't know what to do with us," says Hobson, 62. "The teachers would kind of imply that we were backward."

Stories about similar experiences are included in "Growing Up Native American: An Anthology," edited by Patricia Riley. The book includes writings by 22 authors from the 19th and 20th centuries. Some recall a hostile educational system that included military-style methods.

Still, many mastered English, began telling their stories and eventually started what is known as the Native American Renaissance in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Authors on the move

One writer to emerge from that time was N. Scott Momaday, whose "House Made of Dawn," about an urban dweller who struggles to recall his traditional upbringing, won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize. Another, Marmon Silko, blended ancient rituals with contemporary American Indian struggles in her 1977 novel, "Ceremony." Other authors included Paula Gunn Allen, Linda Hogan, Joy Harjo and James Welch. In 1981, Hobson and others at the University of New Mexico helped publish "The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature."

Hobson, who edited "Remembered Earth" and later founded the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, says the Native American Renaissance helped Indian writers realize they had peers, and therefore a literary presence.

"In 1968, most of us didn't know who the other Indian writers were. When 'House Made of Dawn' came along ... that kind of opened up things," Hobson says. "I thought, 'Hey this is really great. Indians are finally being recognized.' I still feel that way 35 years later."

Hobson, who wrote the 1999 novel "Last of the Ofos," says that Indian literature over the past 30 years has gone in different directions but has retained its original tone as writers take their works to new levels.

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