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All my sins are relatives / W.S. Penn.
Author
Penn, W. S., 1949-
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
Description
257 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Availability
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Forrestal Annex - A
E99.N5 P467 1995
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Details
Subject(s)
Nez Percé Indians
—
Biography
[Browse]
Nez Percé Indians
—
Social conditions
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Penn, W. S. 1949-
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Indigenous Studies
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Library of Congress genre(s)
Biographies
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Summary note
The customary cant about being an American Indian goes like this: Indians must live in wide open spaces; they must define their spirituality by chant, dance, and drum; they must pass down their traditions with reverent care; and they must offer tourists Indian art and Indian experiences to take home. On one side of commercial Indianness there is sloppy sentimentality, and on the other, speechless hatred. But what of those born between, like W.S. Penn, with an Anglo parent demanding that Indianness be abandoned and an Indian parent clinging to all that can be held? What of those who grew up in the cities? Can they express more than confusion, frustration, and rage? Are there alternatives to assimilation, submission, or revolt? In All My Sins Are Relatives Penn finds in his own family three generations trying to come to terms with their differences and with their Indianness. Within its pages, Penn describes learning the depths of his love for his grandfather, to whom he dedicated this book. "As arrogant as youth can be, I was often too busy silently grading his grammar to pay real attention and see what he was giving me." Among the gifts was an awareness of what a story could tell, what it could conceal, and what it could never tell. His grandfather inhabited a different sense of time, and it was a long while before Penn lived there, too. When he did, he was back again with a story, working out how Indian writers wrote poetry and prose. In the work of other Indian writers and in his own Penn found that, although white and Indian cultures cannot mingle, they can be bridged. All My Sins Are Relatives is a bridge.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-257).
Contents
This close, coyote
Dreaming
Uprooted in Eeikish Pah
Pitching tense
Scylla or the true spelling of mourning
The jacks of Charybdis
Respect for Wendy Rose
Live doubts and whipping cream
Of bloody punctuation
So much water, underground.
Show 7 more Contents items
ISBN
080323709X ((alk. paper))
9780803237094 ((alk. paper))
0803287380 ((pbk.))
9780803287389 ((pbk.))
SuDoc no.
U5001 T502 -1995
LCCN
94036937
OCLC
31376451
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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Broadax and bayonet : the role of the United States Army in the development of the northwest, 1815-1860 / by Francis Paul Prucha ; introduction by Edward M. Coffman.
id
9910106933506421
All my sins are relatives / W.S. Penn.
id
SCSB-12216568