Bronitsky, Gordon

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UCLAAmerican Indian Culture and Research Journal TitleHasinai: A Traditional History of the Caddo Confederacy. By Vynola Beaver Newkumet and Howard L. Meredith.Permalinkhttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/1mb6d367JournalAmerican Indian Culture and Research Journal , 13(1)ISSN0161-6463AuthorBronitsky, GordonPublication Date1989DOI10.17953Copyright InformationThis work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, availalbe at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital LibraryUniversity of California106 AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE AND RESEARCH JOURNAL scholars to pay more attention to Indian languages in their re- search. Trosper discusses the relationship of economic theory to Indian and non-Indian behavior. Finally, Brightman argues that the study of religious change in native societies provides a more accurate picture of Indian experiences. Nearly all the references cited in the nine essays are post 1983 -writings on lndian history since the publication of Swagerty’s book. However, there are some references, particularly in the es- says in part two, to works published before 1983 because some of the authors used these works to prove their arguments. A few dissertations are also listed, especially in areas of new scholarship. New Directions in American Zndian History is an important and useful research tool for students of American Indian history. It is one of those books that needs to be added to a serious re- searcher’s personal library. Raymond Wilson Fort Hays State University Hasinai: A Traditional History of the Caddo Confederacy. By Vynola Beaver Newkumet and Howard L. Meredith. College Sta- tion, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1989. $16.95 Paper. A poster popular in Indian Country says, “The Drum is the Heartbeat.” The traditional history of the Caddo Indians is re- created in a cycle of dances that fill one night, from the drum dance to the turkey dance. Husinai uses the framework of these dances to present the history and lifeways of the Caddo, empha- sizing their cultural continuity from the prehistoric past to the present. The primary author, the late Vynola Newkumet, was an active member of the Caddo Tribe and was associated with the Hasinai Cultural Center in Caddo County, Oklahoma. A key theme is the continuing territorial residence of the Caddo. Most tribes under European and American dominion underwent several relocations, entering into exile from their aboriginal ter- ritories. The Caddo continued to occupy parts of their aborigi- nal domain, although progressively diminished under Spanish, French, Mexican and American rule. Even today, the Caddo of Reviews 107 Oklahoma live on the western margins of their original territory in the alluvial bottomlands of the Red River valley. The dances of the Caddo are the framework for interweaving written history, Caddo oral history, and discussions of Caddo ori- gins, hunting, material culture, domestic and international pol- itics, language and the contemporary scene. The authors begin with a discussion of what is currently known about Caddo ar- cheology, a welcome change from many other tribal histories, which begin with the earliest reports from European explorers and settlers. Newkumet and Meredith present a well-rounded synthesis of Caddo origins, and the End Notes are an excellent introduction to the archeological and early historical literature. The authors show their interest in the Caddo people as a liv- ing, evolving people in a number of ways. Chapter 7, the Stir- rup Dance, focuses on Caddo religioin, the ways in which it has changed, and the meaning it holds for Caddo people today. As times have changed, some Caddo have sought new meanings for the world around them in other religions such as the Ghost Dance, the Native American Church, and Christianity. Here too, the authors present this quest in a Caddo framework, examin- ing the ways in which these new religions have responded to the needs of the people, becoming integrated into the Caddo way of life, or fading from the scene. It is the discussion of the contemporary scene that sets this book apart from many tribal histories, which all too often end around 1900, leaving their subjects forever mired in the ethno- graphic present. Tribal sovereignty and self-sufficiency continue to be a goal for the Caddo, as they are for most Native peoples today. Toward this end, the Caddo have sought to develop small industry and a variety of independent corporate enterprises. A major problem has been the conflict between the elective po- sition of tribal chairperson and the hereditary male position of tribal leader, a conflict that became a crisis for the Caddo with the election of their first female tribal chairperson in 1983. This conflict has been exacerbated by differences in roles between the two positions, with the tribal chairperson serving as an interme- diary for the tribe to the United States government and the tribal leader acting as a mediator whose duty is to see that all factions have a voice in tribal decision-making. The discussion of the reso- lution of the conflict is another step away from the museum-case 108 AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE AND RESEARCH JOURNAL presentation of the ethnographic present, for it shows the ways in which Caddo tradition and religion continue to inform con- temporary life and shape the future in a complex interweave of old and new. Gordon B ron it s ky Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe Sous le signe de l’ours. Mythes et temporalit4 chez les Ojibwa septentrionaux. By Emmanuel DCsveaux. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme’, 1988.318 pages, color illus., index. No price available. The bear, from the depths of his hibernating cave to the heights of his constellation in the skies, is one of the animals that has spe- cial mythic sisruficance for the Ojibway of Big Trout Lake in Can- ada’s subarctic. Vaguely anthropomorphic in form, cyclical in lifestyle, the bear symbolizes in his bumbling way the super- natural and temporal forces that mold the lives of these people, and their not always effective attempts at coping with them. In attempting to rationalize this multi-faceted struggle in the terms of their own lives, these Ojibway have created a structure which anthropologist DCsveaux sees as ”an angle-stone of the great sys- tem of American myths” (page 15). The architecture of that mythic system is both sophisticated and complex, and nowhere is this more evident than at Big Trout Lake. Isolation and a simple technology have not entailed sim- ple myths; quite the contrary, one of the things the myths reflects is the web of highly developed techniques and skills that have made it possible for that technology to support organized social life in a demanding environment. As DCsveaux sees it, the local tales of Big Trout Lake, in dealing with these factors in their var- iety of aspects, both contribute to, and reinforce, the essential unity of all Amerindian myths in the Americas. It is an inter- weaving of the part with the whole that is mutually enriching. DCsveaux frankly acknowledges that this is pure LCvi-Strauss; fortunately, he does not allow his admiration for the master to stifle his own interpretations. 

Hasinai: A Traditional History of the Caddo Confederacy. By Vynola Beaver Newkumet and Howard L. Meredith.

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