Author Topic: NAFPS Highly Recommends...  (Read 53262 times)

Offline Ric_Richardson

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #30 on: February 15, 2007, 05:47:51 am »
Tansi;

As many Metis people fled to places such as Turtle Mountain, following the Red River "Rebellion" in 1870, there became a vibrant Metis community there, which was Respected by, and showed Respect for, the First Nation people who were also there.  While some of them returned to Canada, following the amnesty, in 1871, many did not trust the Canadians and remained, where they still recognize their Metis Heritage.

Ric

Offline Tberri

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #31 on: March 07, 2007, 11:50:51 pm »
This may not be a place for a newbie to jump in but how about Farley Mowat?
 :)

Offline educatedindian

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #32 on: March 12, 2007, 12:55:31 pm »
MOwat doesn't seem like a good choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_Mowat
"The Toronto Star has written that Mowat's memoirs are at least partially fictional. In a 1968 interview with CBC Radio, Farley admitted that he doesn't let the facts get in the way of the truth (Canada Reads). Once, when Mowat said that he has spent two summers and a winter studying wolves, the Toronto Star wrote that Mowat had only spent 90 hours studying the wolves. This hurt Mowat's reputation badly.
An article in the May, 1996 issue of Saturday Night written by John Goddard lays out a somewhat more in-depth criticism of Farley's celebrated works, especially Never Cry Wolf. As a result of these kinds of persistent and recurring claims, it's difficult to say with authority whether some of Farley's books, billed by many as non-fiction, are just that."

http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/05/11/mowat/index1.html
"Wrote Goddard: "Documents recently made public at the National Archives of Canada, and papers that the author himself sold years ago to McMaster University, show that Mowat did not spend two years in the Keewatin District in 1947 and 1948 as the books say. He spent two summer field seasons in the district -- totaling less than six months -- and mostly in a more southern part of the district than he describes. He did not casually drop in alone but traveled on both occasions as a junior member of well-planned scientific expeditions. He did not once -- contrary to the impression he leaves -- see a starving Inuit person. He did not once set foot in an Inuit camp. As for the authenticity of his wolf story, he virtually abandoned his wolf-den observations after less than four weeks."

The article reported that residents of the Northwest Territories often refer to Farley Mowat by the derisive nickname "Hardly Know-it." After noting the claims of scrupulous authenticity Mowat made within the books themselves, Goddard described a very different Mowat attitude displayed in notes and conversation. "I never let the facts get in the way of the truth," Goddard claims Mowat told him. Goddard also came across Mowat's self-proclaimed motto in a catalog of the author's papers: "On occasions when the facts have particularly infuriated me, Fuck the Facts!"

....Critics pointed out that similar accusations had been made before, notably by Frank Banfield of the Canadian Wildlife Federation in a 1964 article published in the Canadian Field-Naturalist. Banfield compared Mowat's 1963 bestseller to another famous wolf tale: "Little Red Riding Hood." "I hope that readers of "Never Cry Wolf" will realize that both stories have about the same factual content," Banfield wrote.

Sure, sure, replied the FOFs (Friends of Farley). That's the secret of his charm. Wrote one correspondent to Saturday Night: "There is more truth in one of his outrageous exaggerations than in a shelf-load of pretentious twaddle." A news story quoted naturalist and author Stuart Houston: "Anyone who knows Farley knows that he has a difficult time understanding where truth ends and his imagination begins ... and we love him for it." Mowat must have been touched -- it was the kind of stirring endorsement that his heirs could use to dispute his will.

"The primary consideration for a writer is to entertain," Goddard quotes Mowat as saying. "Using entertainment you can then inform, you can propagandize, you can elucidate ... As far as I'm concerned 'People of the Deer' did nothing but good for individual people, the survivors ... Nobody was going to pay any attention to them unless their situation was dramatized, and I dramatized it."

The pro-Mowat camp succeeded in pointing out that Goddard's attack overreached on some charges and inappropriately downplayed very real problems the Inuit faced. But many of Goddard's claims, among them that Mowat demonized the federal government and significantly distorted the official attitude toward both wolves and Inuit, went unanswered. More fundamentally, Mowat's reputation as a nonfiction writer was compromised, perhaps permanently.

Permanently, like a life sentence for murder. Three years later, few traces of the 1996 Saturday Night shootout are evident. Online reviews and biographies rarely mention the controversy, which apparently went largely unnoticed outside of Canada anyway. In the end, John Goddard appears to have been Farley Mowat's very own Gennifer Flowers. Charges were made, much harrumphing ensued, the charges remained unchallenged and no harm was done. Onward and upward for Slick Farley.

But some readers, particularly historians, will not forget so easily. The University of Toronto's Michael Bliss called the fudging "utterly appalling," while the University of Alberta's Rod Macleod suggested that those who lie for a good cause ultimately do that cause "more harm than good." But if the tempest has had any lasting effect for most Mowat readers, it seems to have been this: They identified what they valued about his writing and found themselves agreeing with the author's contention that, while they may fall short as history, his stories survive as ripping yarns that serve a greater good."

Offline Ric_Richardson

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #33 on: March 12, 2007, 04:21:56 pm »
Tansi;

I have to agree with Al about Farley Mowat.  His writing is entertaining, but is not good for learning about Cultural issues and realities (or any other realities for that matter).  He would often take stories that he heard from other people, and make them sound as if he was the main character in them.

Ric

Offline Ric_Richardson

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #34 on: March 20, 2007, 04:05:05 pm »
Tansi;

I would like to recommend another Metis author, Howard Adams, who was very active in trying to promote Metis and Aboriginal Rights.

Two of his books are "Prison of Grass" Canada from a native point of view, ISBN 0887702112  and "A Tortured People" the politics of colonization, ISBN 0919441777.

Since Howard's death on his 80th birthday, a book about him, entitled "Howard Adams OTAPAWY" has been edited by Hartmut Lutz, Murray Hamilton and Donna Heimbecker, ISBN 0920915744. 

Ric

 

Offline Tberri

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #35 on: March 21, 2007, 10:06:10 pm »
Thanks for the heads-up! I'd heard some of the critisisms (sp) before, tho not to that extent. It's difficult to sort out government denials from truth a lot of the time. You'll be happy to know I read his books more in the vein of Canada's policies concerning the inuit peoples rather than "gospel" which lead me to Nunatsiaq News an the circumpolar conference stuff.
Nunanni's editorials in the archives in Nunatsiaq News opened a small window on northern culture, an actually helped me understand what I was seeing when I finally got to see "Fastrunner".
It was sort of a trail of breadcrumbs.
 :)

Offline Ric_Richardson

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #36 on: May 01, 2007, 03:28:32 pm »
Tansi;

In relation to Intellectual Property Rights and Aboriginal knowledge of plants and many of legal issues related to them, I would like to recommend a book called "Global Biopiracy" (Patents, Plants, and Indigenous Knowldege) by Ikechi Ngbeoji ISBN 0-7748-1153-6

It is published by: UBC Press
                         The University of British Columbia
                         2029 West Mall
                         Vancouver, B.C.
                         (604) 822-5959 / fax (604) 822-6083


Offline Jamie Hume

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #37 on: August 29, 2007, 11:39:51 pm »
Thank you. That is a really beautiful thing you just did.
Really...thank you.

Peace.

Offline Ric_Richardson

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #38 on: September 04, 2007, 04:17:09 pm »
Tansi;

A good resource for research, for Metis lineage, is "Geneology of the First Metis Nation," by D.N. Sprague and R.P. Frye, which is published by Pemmican Publishing, in Manitoba.

I would give the ISBN, but we have lent this book out and do not have a copy, on hand.

Especially since there are a number of highly suspect people, claiming to be Metis, this would be a good resource to use, in "fraudbusting".

Ric

TheRebel

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Re: NAFPS Highly Recommends...
« Reply #39 on: November 07, 2007, 10:44:07 am »
hi there,

I was surprised to see a reference to Harvey Arden and his description of what he felt an Elder is. I don't take so much of an issue with what he says (or the people he quotes), but the way he goes about things. I have only read Dreamkeepers, and browsed Wisdomkeepers, but I do find him to be a bit of a pain. In my thesis I guess you could say he ranks relatively well, but then again I am writing about Lynn Andrews and Marlo Morgan and I'm calling him "less-bad".

However, I'm not sure what he does is entirely different to what Morgan and Andrews do. He travells to a far away place to gather "wisdom" from people he consistently constructs as noble savages. The title he gives these people "Dreamkeepers" is one he hopes will stick. It obviously comes out of the the white construct called "the Dreamtime", and the idea continues to be a white construct - a white construct for white people in fact. Dreamkeepers (and I suspect Wisdomkeepers) is written for white people, about Indigenous people - the communities where he found his informants  I would doubt have much use for it, I doubt get any money out of it. He wrote as his dedication "This book is dedicated to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, to Aboriginal peoples everywhere and the the Aboriginal in each of us' - it is the "Aboriginal in each of us" that I worry about - is this any different from white people's assertion to "walk the red road"? Or "I was called Cherokee Princess Eats too much Cake in a past life"?

Am interested to hear what people think. I thought My Life is my Sundance was good - but he's certainly used the name he got from that to buy himself leverage.

Cheers

Liam


Is This the same Harvey Arden ?  I got this email in my mail box and found it strange its addresses "To harveyarden" and not my account as you see below. I don't know how I got signed up for the advertisements, never heard of Harvey Arden until I got the email and looked the name up here.


Quote
From: "Harvey Arden" <harveyarden@starpower.net> 
To: harveyarden@starpower.net
Subject: ~"Wisdom isn't something you think. Wisdom is something you DO!"~
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 16:01:55 -0500
   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  ~Please FWD this Message to a few good friends.~ Thanks!

 

From the desk of  Harvey Arden

Founder: ~The Wisdomkeepers Collective ~ "Bringing the Elders to the World & the World to the Elders"

 

Author:  WISDOMKEEPERS: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders

DREAMKEEPERS: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia

  NOBLE RED MAN: Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King

TRAVELS IN A STONE CANOE: The Return to the Wisdomkeepers

~HAVE YOU THOUGHT of LEONARD PELTIER LATELY?~

Editor:  PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE by Leonard Peltier

WHITE BUFFALO TEACHINGS  by Chief Arvol Looking Horse

VOICE OF THE HAWK ELDER by Seneca Wisdomkeeper Edna Gordon

 
                From Amazon.com reviews of WISDOMKEEPERS--A Modern Classic Just Reissued:

 
 Should be required reading

Reviewer: Camilla L Riley (Stillwater, OK) 
This is a book of incredible beauty - linguistically, visually, and spiritually. In an era which seems to skew more and more to the material and superficial, the Wisdomkeepers who are interviewed bring life and its challenges to the level of essence. Although I have walked in the daily company of Native Americans for more than fifty years, my understanding of the nobility of heritage and centered life grew immeasurably with the reading of every page. Anyone who passes this one up will be the lesser for doing so.
 



   it's an experience,a journey,words cannot describe this book, Reviewer: A reader
I have recommended this book to anyone I know that is on a path of awakening and can hear the words with their heart. I have given this book as gifts numerous times, but I cannot find it anymore which saddens me. I would love to turn the world on to this book as it so beautifully depicts our Native Americans - OUR indigenous people. This book does justice to Native Americans which they so very much deserve. Thank you to Steve Wall and Harvey Arden - you have touched my life with this richly textured and moving piece. No words can express the power behind the span of the eagle's wings, the depth of wisdom of a redwood forest or the joy inside to which this book has brought me. My hope is that this book only continues to educate and enlighten us about the Native American culture - tribe after tribe, generation after generation.
 
                                     Just reissued by Atria/Simon & Schuster. 34% OFF at Amazon.com
                       http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/158270158X/ref=pd_rvi_gw_1/002-6357253-1518437
 

                                                               
                                                      An indispensable modern classic.
 
                                         
         
    “Wisdom isn’t something you think .

 

                                          Wisdom is something you DO!???

 

                                                       --Mathew King, Chief Noble Red man

 
Book Description
Wisdomkeepers takes you on an extraordinary spiritual journey into the lives, minds, and natural-world philosophy of Native American spiritual elders. The elders tell who they are, how they live, and what they believe. Magnificent portraits complement the soaring text. Among those profiled are Buffalo Jim, a Seminole who describes the Seminole story of creation as if the Everglades were Eden, talks of his people’s individual passage into the after life, and reveals that every field of wild plants is, to him, a medicine garden. You’ll also meet "Uncle" Frank Davis (Fancy Warrior), a Pawnee Elder who describes the "path to understanding" as a trail filled with scraps of paper, each one a piece of a puzzle. Also profiled is Mathew King, a Lakota who warns of punishments for those who would destroy the Earth Mother. Readers share the innermost thoughts and feelings, dreams and visions, laughter, healing remedies, and prophecies of the Wisdomkeepers, whose humanity shines through every page.
 
tp://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/158270158X/ref=pd_rvi_gw_1/002-6357253-1518437
Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders (Paperback)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List Price: $29.95 
Price: $19.77 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details 
You Save: $10.18 (34%) 

 
                                                                     ~

                                                        A Magnificent Gift

                                                                     ~

 
...


                   
                             And don't miss the extraordinary spiritual message of


         

                                        NOBLE RED MAN:

                    LAKOTA WISDOMKEEPER MATHEW KING

                                          --Compiled and Edited by Harvey Arden

           

                                                           
http://www.amazon.com/Noble-Red-Man-Lakota-Wisdomkeeper/dp/1582700788/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/002-6357253-1518437
 
 
   

“Inspirational....   

                not unlike Conversations with God....

                                   
 
 
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