SRJC English Department's
Fall 2006 & Spring 2007

Articles in the Library's Online Databases

Literature Resource Center

Find biographical information about Leslie Marmon Silko as well as literary criticism of her writing, including her novel, Ceremony. The information is drawn from standard reference books such as Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography and Contemporary Literary Criticism .

(Are you off campus? -- Use the "Off campus" link for Literature Resource Center on the Library's Articles & Databases page. SRJC User Name and PIN required for off-campus access.)

Expanded Academic ASAP (InfoTrac)

The Expanded Academic ASAP (formerly called "InfoTrac") database contains magazine and scholarly journal articles on many topics. A Subject Guide search for "leslie marmon silko " or an Advanced search for "silko ceremony " will locate articles (including literary criticism) in online magazines as well as in print copies of magazines held in the SRJC libraries. You can also search Expanded Academic ASAP for topics which are related to Ceremony such as laguna pueblo , native american religion , etc.

(Are you off campus? -- Use the "Off campus" link for InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP on the Library's Articles & Databases page. SRJC User Name and PIN are required for off-campus access.)

ProQuest Databases

ProQuest offers articles from magazines and scholarly journals on Silko and Ceremony . You can also look for newspaper articles on topics related to the novel such as Native Americans, symbolism, etc.

(Are you off campus? -- Use the "Off campus" link for All ProQuest Databases on the Library's Articles & Databases page. SRJC User Name and PIN are required for off-campus access.)

Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Contains a main article on the "Pueblo Indians," and other articles on various aspects of Pueblo culture.

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Books, Articles and Films on Library Reserve for the WOLM

A collection of books and journal articles about Leslie Marmon Silko, her novel Ceremony and related topics has been placed on reserve in the SRJC libraries for the WOLM project. In addition, several films may be be viewed inside the SRJC libraries.

Doyle Library: Ask for books and articles at the Reserve Books Desk on the fourth floor; ask for films at the Media Services Desk on the ground floor.

Mahoney Library: Ask for books, articles or films at the Circulation Desk.

Selected Web Sites for the WOLM Project

Leslie Marmon Silko and Her Work
Some Websites on Native American Cultures
Pueblo Tribes and Culture
Indian Boarding Schools
Native Americans and the U.S. Military
Native American Spirituality and Beliefs

Websites on Leslie Marmon Silko and Her Work

Running on the Edge of the Rainbow: Laguna Stories with Leslie Marmon Silko

Watch a short film, recorded in Laguna, New Mexico, in which the young Silko discusses the importance and the role of storytelling in the Pueblo culture and reads some of her own stories. (Part of the Univesity of Arizona website "Words & Place; Native Literature from the American Southwest website. Includes transcript and suggested readings.) (Please use headphones so that you don't disturb others in the libraries. Headphones are available at the Doyle Library Periodicals Desk and the Mahoney Library Circulation Desk.)

An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko pt. 1 and pt. 2

An interview with German correspondent Thomas Irmer. In Part 1, Silko talks about her upbringing and about traditional stories and their place in Pueblo and other indigenous cultures. Part 2 is a wide-ranging discussion of capitalism, Marxism, and other economic and political topics related to her novel Almanac of the Dead .(Published on the ALTX Online Network, a website devoted to supporting experimental art and writing.)

Poetics and Politics - Leslie Marmon Silko

On April 6, 1992, Leslie Marmon Silko visited the University of Arizona's Poetics and Politics Graduate Seminar to speak with students and read from one of her novels. This site includes the seminar transcript, an article "Storytelling's Healing Power" by Andrew Peterson which was originally published in the Tucson Weekly and a video clip of Silko reading from her work.

Voices from the Gap: Women Artists & Writers of Color (VG) - Leslie Marmon Silko

Very brief biographical information about Silko followed by a bibliography of works by and about the author.

Austgen, Suzanne M. Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and the Effects of White Contact on Pueblo Myth and Ritual . Hanover Historical Review Vol. 1 Spring 1993

This student paper offers background information about Pueblo myth and ritual as well as an overview of the more than 400 years of white contact with the Pueblo and their influence. And it discusses the creative force of myth and ritual and their potential for change. [The Hanover Historical Review is a student-edited journal dedicated to the promotion of excellence in undergraduate scholarship and writing.]

 

Some Websites on Native American Cultures

Circle of Stories (PBS)

View documentary film, photography, artwork and music in a PBS program designed to honor and explore Native American storytelling. Features four specific storytellers and discusses different types of Native American stories (lessons, instructions from spirit mentors, survival accounts and more).

Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Native American Resources

A collection of links from the Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian - Links

" The National Museum of the American Indian is the sixteenth museum of the Smithsonian Institution. It is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans."

Indians/Native Americans

From the National Archives, Archives Library Information Center

Indigenous Peoples Literature

(Compiled by Glenn Welker, musician, musicologist, webmaster, programmer, Internet trainer, and consultant.)

SRJC Library Guide: Native Americans

Lists books, periodicals, some websites and museums which might be useful for research on topics related to Native Americans.

WWW Virtual Library - American Indians: Index of Native American Resources on the Internet

(Scroll down each page; links are below the top section of each page.)

Pueblo Tribes and Culture

Map of the Pueblos

Map of All Federal Lands and Indian Reservations - New Mexico (Requires the free Acrobat Reader software.)

Laguna

Very brief description of the Laguna Pueblo, from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Pueblo of Laguna Tribal Government Profile

From the University of New Mexico School of Law's Tribal Law Journal, this article describes traditional law, governance by Pueblo Council and village officials, methods of dispute resolution, and more.

Pueblo: Indigenous People of North America

Short overview article from the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Briefly describes the history, languages and social structure of Pueblo cultures.

Ambler, Marjane. "Mainstreaming on the Reservation." APF Reporter 3.4 (1980)

...

Pueblos

[Ignore the links above the word "Overview." They are advertisements.] This article by D.L. Birchfield provides an overview of Pueblo history, from approximately 100 B.C. to the modern era.It very briefly describes some Pueblo traditions, their languages, family and community dynamics, religion, employment and economic traditions, government, arts and more.

The Ancestral Pueblos

An introduction to the Anasazi, the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indians, from the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado.

Pueblo Indian Influence - Heritage and Human Environment

This article by Linda Cordell and Matthew Schmader offers historical information on the culture of early Pueblos. (Part of Albuquerque's Environmental Story: Educating for a Sustainable Community, 3rd ed.)

Daily Life in Olden Times: The Pueblo People

Website designed for elementary and high school students offers very basic information about the Pueblo people, their food, their religion, costumes, etc.

Essay by Leslie Marmon Silko

In this introduction to a bookseller's catalog, Silko talks about the U.S. government's treatment of Native American children and families, and more specifically about a book given to Native American children as they left the "Indian School" to prevent their slipping back into tribal ways.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. "Border Patrol," Tuscon Weekly, September 26, 1996.

In this cover story for the Tuscon Weekly, Silko describes what she considers to be the U.S. government's continuing war on Native America along the U.S.-Mexican border. [Originally published in the October 17, 1994 issue of The Nation.]

Photographs

For photos of Laguna pueblo members and scenes, search the Native American History section of the Library of Congress's American Memory Project for the words indians of north america new mexico laguna . Click the small thumbnail images to enlarge the images.

Google Search: pueblo culture

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About.com: Pueblo Culture

... and bibliography

Spanish Mission Churches of New Mexico: 17. Laguna

by L. Bradford Prince (1915)

Pueblo photographers

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Resources on the Laguna

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Hilgendorf, Lucy. "Transmitting Tribal Traditions - Laguna Indian Reservation Elderly Try to Pass on Their Traditions". Children Today, September - October, 1985.

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"Indian Boarding Schools"

About Indian Boarding Schools

Discusses key issues and challenges presented by the "Indian schools" of the 1800s and 1900s which were designed to acculturate Native American youth to "American" ways of thinking and living. Also presents a photo gallery, the daily schedule of one of the schools, and accounts of various schools.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Offers background and history of a well-known "Indian school" in Pennyslvania. "The Carlisle Indian School's mission was to shape identity.  In its infancy, that shaping meant to transform American Indian children  to resemble their so-called civilized American brothers and sisters...." At least 352 Pueblo children were enrolled in the Carlisle School.

Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools

"U.S. and Canadian authorities took Native children from their homes and tried to school, and sometimes beat, the Indian out of them. Now Native Americans are fighting the theft of language, of culture, and of childhood itself." Article from the Amnesty International magazine describes the abusive conditions common in "Indian schools."

Native Americans and the U.S. Military

Native Americans and the U.S. Military

" It is well recognized that, historically, Native Americans have the highest record of service per capita when compared to other ethnic groups." This page from the U.S. Naval Historical Center explains how Native Americans' "warrior tradition" drove them to serve their country. Also includes information on the Navajo code talkers in WWII and the entire text of a 50+-page pamphletIndians in the War [WW II].

Morgan, Lt. Col. Thomas D, U.S.A. (Ret.) Native Americans in World War II. [ Excerpted from Army History: The Professional Bulletin of Army History , No. 35 (Fall 1995), pp. 22-27]

"No group that participated in World War II made a greater per capita contribution, and no group was changed more by the war. As part of the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of World War II, it is fitting for the nation to recall the contributions of its own 'first citizens.' "

Indians in the Military

A collection of links maintained by Mohawk and former librarian Lisa Mitten. Topics covered include individual native nations, education, the [Native American] mascot issue and more.

The American Indian in the Great War: Real and Imagined

This Master's Thesis by a student at the University of Paris focuses mostly on the participation of Native Americans in World War I, but Chapter III, "Portraying the Indian," describes various images of "the Indian," from Colonial times through the mid-twentieth century. (Scroll down the page for Table of Contents, and click on the blue dots to access items listed in the Contents.)

Native American Spirituality and Beliefs

Native American Religions

"...there is no such thing as a generic 'Native American religion.' Attempts to understand these religious traditions en masse are bound to produce oversimplification and distortion. Instead, it may be useful to consider the broad characteristics that pertain to the religious lives of many indigenous North American communities." This 12-page article from Britannica Online, while acknowledging that Native Americans themselves do not think of their beliefs as "religion," discusses various elements related to Native American beliefs and culture (e.g. place, participation, the kin group, oral narratives and much more). [Off campus? Use the off-campus link for Britannica and search for native american religions . ]

Encyclopedia of North American Indians - Religion

Another article which discusses how the spiritual traditions of Native Americans are not "religion" in the same sense that the term is used by white society. Written by George Tinker, Osage.

Pueblos; Your Children Are We

Briefly discusses the importance of corn in the Pueblo culture and a bit about Pueblo religion. (Part of the exhibit " Of Earth Stone and Corn: The Anasazi and their Puebloan Descendants," from Brigham Young University. )

From the Internet Sacred Text Archive:

Complete texts of Pueblo Indian Folk Stories by Charles Lummis. New York: Century Co., 1910. (See Table of Contents.) , Tales of the North American Indians, by Stith Thompson. Bloomington: Indiana U Press, 1929. and various Laguna Pueblo stories.

Pueblo Myths

Seven stories scanned from the Internet Sacred Text Archive

Dancing Gods: Indian Ceremonials of New Mexico and Arizona, by Erna Ferguson (1931)

"This is a first person look at a wide range of Pueblo, Hopi, Navajo, Zuñ, and Apache ceremonials in the late 1920s. This book is both an ethnographic document and a classic of Southwestern literature."

The Land Is Itself a Sacred Living Being

Excerpts from an article by law student Joel Brady, "The Land Is Itself a Sacred Living Being:" Native American Sacred Site Protection on Federal Public Lands Among the Shadows of Bear Lodge, American Indian Law Review 24: 153 - 185, 2000. Discusses the implications of Native American beliefs and experiences concerning land for U.S. laws. Also offers links to other articles on Native American law issues.

Native American Spirituality

Briefly outlines general beliefs and those of specific tribes

Google Directory: Society > Religion & Spirituality > Native American

Links to a wide range of websites which deal with Native American spirituality.