Frederick Matthew Wiseman

This book is a little different in that it meanders through the seasons, liberally sprinkling the narrative with the native language, adding stories and anecdotes along the way. It's a great book to curl up with and just lose yourself in a different place for a few hours or as long as you can get away. There are illustrations, photos, and stories about the struggle for tribal recognition that continues until this day. Included are the histories of institutionalized racism and the genocide that continued well into the 20th century. The Abenaki have set out to reclaim their culture, their history and their language in much the way that the Scots have renewed their efforts to reclaim theirs. It's not a story, not exactly a scholarly dissertation, and not fiction. Whatever it is, I enjoyed the journey… (més)

Regretfully I've stopped reading [The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation] - the reason being that while I understand and to some degree sympathize with what the author has in mind, namely, writing the history of his people in a manner and style that is appropriate for the way his people view history, through story as well as fact, it isn't going to work for me. Not because it isn't a worthy attempt, but because the two threads are insufficiently separated and the work reads, well, eccentrically and crankily. I will probably keep the book around, at least for awhile, as I live in Western Abenaki country and am deeply interested, more than interested for, where I live (western slopes of the Green Mountains), I feel surrounded by those who lived here before me, almost to feeling spoken to when I walk through the woods and pass by particular places which seem to be asking me to notice them and remember who was here before.

Can't rate as I did not complete.… (més)