Sky Loom

`

Sky Loom

Native American Myth, Story, and Song

Edited and with an introduction by Brian Swann

Native Literatures of the Americas and Indigenous World Literatures Series

558 pages
5 illustrations

Paperback

November 2014

978-0-8032-4615-7

$40.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

November 2014

978-0-8032-7601-7

$40.00 Add to Cart

About the Book

Sky Loom offers a dazzling introduction to Native American myths, stories, and songs drawn from previous collections by acclaimed translator and poet Brian Swann. With a general introduction by Swann, Sky Loom is a stunning collection that provides a glimpse into the intricacies and beauties of story and myth, placing them in their cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts.

Each of the twenty-six selections is translated and introduced by a well-known expert on Native oral literatures and offers entry into the cultures and traditions of several different tribes and bands, including the Yupiit and the Tlingits of the polar North; the Coast Salish and the Kwakwaka’wakw of the Pacific Northwest; the Navajos, the Pimas, and the Yaquis of the Southwest; the Lakota Sioux and the Plains Crees of the Great Plains; the Ojibwes of the Great Lakes; the Naskapis and the Eastern Crees of the Hudson Bay area in Canada; and the Munsees of the Northeast. Sky Loom takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through literary traditions older than the “discovery” of the New World.

Author Bio

Brian Swann is a professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is the author and editor of many books, including Voices from Four Directions: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America (Nebraska, 2004), Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America (Nebraska, 2005), and Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America.

Praise

"The key to the value of this effort is Swann's refined taste for the field; he gives the reader the benefit of his experience. . . . [Sky Loom] will quickly prove its value to American Indian Studies programs, folkloristics, and ethnolinguistics."—Paul Apodaca, Western Folklore

"A lovely, readable, and fascinating collection."—G. D. Macdonald, CHOICE

"Because of the great diversity in approach and content, this text as a whole or selected chapters could serve as an excellent resource for folklore and linguistic undergraduate courses and graduate seminars."—Joe Uchihrehuh Stahlman, Journal of Folklore Research

Table of Contents

Introduction    
From Smoothing the Ground: Essays on Native American Oral Literature
Stone Boy: Persistent Hero (Lakota)    
Elaine Jahner
From On the Translation of Native American Literatures
Oolachan-Woman’s Robe: Fish, Blankets, Masks, and Meaning in Boas’s Kwakw’ala Texts (Kwakw’ala/Kwakiutl)    
Judith Berman
Narrative Styles in Dakota Texts (Lakota)    
Julian Rice
From Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America
The Boy Who Went to Live with the Seals (Yupik)    
Ann Fienup-Riordan and Marie Meade
The Girl Who Married the Bear (Tagish/Tlingit)    
Catharine McClellan, Maria Johns, and Dora Austin Wedge
John Sky’s “One They Gave Away” (Haida)    
Robert Bringhurst
The Sun’s Myth (Cathlamet Chinook)    
Dell Hymes
Coyote, Master of Death, True to Life (Kalapuya)    
Dell Hymes
Seal and Her Younger Brother Lived There (Clackamas Chinook)    
Dell Hymes
Poetry Songs of the Shoshone Ghost Dance (Wind River Shoshone)    
Judith Vander
Running the Deer (Yaqui)    
Larry Evers and Felipe S. Molina
Pima Oriole Songs (Pima)    
Donald Bahr and Vincent Joseph
Enemy Slayer’s Horse Song (Navajo)    
David P. McAllester
Two Stories from the Yana (Yana)    
Herbert W. Luthin
From Voices from Four Directions: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America
Raven Stories (Tlingit)    
Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer
He Became an Eagle (Western Apache)    
M. Eleanor Nevins and Thomas J. Nevins
The Flight of Dzilyi neeyáni (Navajo)    
Paul G. Zolbrod
Red Swan (Menominee)    
Monica Macaulay and Marianne Milligan
The Birth of Nenabozho (Ojibwe)    
Rand Valentine
Umâyichîs (Naskapi)    
Julie Brittain and Marguerite MacKenzie
From Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America
The Delaware Creation Story (Munsee)    
John Bierhorst
A Pair of Hero Stories (Eastern Cree)    
Susan M. Preston
Winter Stories (Meskwaki/Fox)    
Ives Goddard
Pine Root (Plains Cree)    
Stan Cuthand
Ghost Dance Songs (Arapaho)    
Jeffrey D. Anderson
From Salish Myths and Legends: One People’s Stories
Star Husband: Two Brothers’ Versions of a Traditional Skokomish-Twana Story (Skokomish-Twana)    
William W. Elmendorf and Steven M. Egesdal
Source Acknowledgments    
Contributors   

Also of Interest