In the books available to Patricia Riley as a child, Native Americans
were almost always depicted as exotic, cultural artifacts from the past,
the stereotypical "Vanishing Americans, " sometimes noble, but always
backward savages on their way out, and soon to be no more. It was only
later in life that she discovered that the experience of growing up
Native American has produced some of the most moving and powerful works
of fiction and nonfiction ever written. Now, for the first time ever,
these writings about childhood have been collected in an anthology that
makes connections across history - while speaking to the enormous
diversity of lives that make up Native America today. Selections range
from recollections of first buffalo hunts to a story of a rebel girl in
the 1960s, from remembrances of the mandatory boarding schools in the
early part of the century to tales of modern suburban alienation. Here
are short stories, excerpts from novels, and autobiographical sketches,
from Canada and the United States, by the best-loved names in Native
American writing. And here, too, are funny and haunting stories from
provocative new and lesser-known voices. A collection of pain, love,
youthful passion, mischief, anger, betrayal, and healing, Growing Up
Native American is essential reading for anyone interested in the
experiences of Native American people. Including selections from
acclaimed works by some of the most accomplished prose stylists and
story-tellers writing today it is an excellent introduction to one of
the world's great literatures.
