From Library Journal
The late Caldwell was well known as a poet, musician, interviewer, and writer, and her works have been widely published. Here she presents an innovative and compelling study of Native American artists, activists, and writers. Caldwell employed the oral interview to explore the personal and traditional side of a very diverse group of people. This book taps into the psyche, spirit, and essence of Native American artists but does not present them in the typical fashion. Rather, the interviews are quite candid, exploring key social, intellectual, and spiritual issues. What results is a very informative and open exchange on creativity. This book is recommended for all public and academic libraries but would also be appropriate for specialized collections on Native American history and personalities.
-John Dockall, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The voices are eloquent, urgent, humorous, and brutally honest. They belong to a dozen Native Americans who have, in their art, in their song, and in their passionate activism, helped to forge the renaissance in Indian culture that is one of the unanticipated delights of the late twentieth century. There are 13 voices, as the late Caldwell, a respected Native poet and musician in her own right, leads her interview subjects to open and honest revelation about subjects of intense personal interest. Topics range from singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie's consideration of the uses of computer technology for tribal people, to activist Dino Butler's reflections on his personal and political evolution from hatred toward healing. These are Native voices with shared inflections and recurrent subjects: the appropriation of spiritual objects and beliefs by New Age practitioners and the question of blood quantum as centers of controversy in Indian country. This work affirms the enduring potency of Native oral traditions as it hints that our salvation may lie in that traditional wisdom.
Manny Skolnick
