by Jim Vandergriff
Knox College
Galesburg, IL

Always A People is a beautiful book. Its good-looking hardcover and its first-rate illustrations make it obvious that the book is intended to be a coffee table reference. The illustrations are commissioned oil-paintings, by Evelyn Ritter, of the members of the woodland nations represented in this book. The book is printed on a heavy, high-quality paper that will withstand much use. Even the dust jacket is beautiful, and my copy came with a postcard of the dust jacket.

The bulk of the book is made up of oral history interviews with the various individuals, who were chosen by their nations or tribes to be interviewed. The interviews were done by several different people, including Lynwood Montell and Rita Kohn, within a set of protocols drawn up by the editors and representatives of the Woodland Nations. Thus, The narratives contain a similar core of material, including that individual’s life history and a history of the individual’s Nation.

It would be tedious to list all the groups covered in the book. Suffice it to say that the 40 individuals interviewed for this work constitute a good representation of the Woodland Nations.

Some things stood out for me; most vividly, the native people’s concern for the preservation of their languages. In history after history, the people spoke of the current efforts among the Nations to keep their languages alive, or, in some cases, to reconstruct it. Perhaps the most poignant statement is Lawrence Snake’s: "When you lose your language identity, you lose that little thing that separates you from the rest." (224) Nearly all of the interviews talked about the government’s efforts to stamp out native languages. As I read, I couldn’t help but think of the current nationwide anti-bilingual movements, the efforts to replace native language maintenance programs in public schools with English-only programs reminiscent of those old, failed boarding school travesties. Santayana said that those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. I can’t help but despair.

I was also struck by the interviewees’ awareness of the absolute dependence of culture on language. Many of the voices tell us that to destroy the language is also to destroy the religion, the philosophy, the whole culture. The stories, the songs, the prayers are just not the same when they’re translated into English, a concept that is no surprise to linguists, anthropologists, and folklorists, but seems to be real news to politicians and other policy-makers. Either that or there is malevolent purpose underlying interactions between whites and native Americans, an intent to destroy native culture by first destroying the languages. I had hoped we were beyond that, but perhaps not.

The third point that struck me is the oft repeated statement that not all indians are the same, that the tribes are truly different nations. Lora Siders says, "And I explain to them, ‘You look at the continent of Europe. You’ve got France, and you’ve got Spain, Portugal, Holland, Italy,’ And I said, ‘that covers less area than what we do. That’s how different the Indians are.’" (196)

One of the problems I frequently encounter as I try to prepare new teachers is exactly this -- teachers who want to "do a unit on Native Americans" and then reduce the whole richness of the concept to a "one-size-fits-all" of construction paper war bonnets and tipis. Non-indians need to understand that Native American groups, while they share some qualities, can differ as much, at least, as do Scandinavian Europeans from Slavic Europeans.

So, Always A People is a must read for every politician, every government functionary, every school teacher, and every voting citizen in the U. S. and Canada. It’s a beautiful book that evokes both anger and sadness, as well as admiration -- anger at the abuses the Woodland people have endured, sadness that the abuses continue, and admiration for people who have endured despite White America. I strongly recommend it to everyone.