Told by Paul Moss (1911-1995), a highly respected storyteller and ceremonial leader, these twelve texts introduce us to an immensely rich literature. As works of an oral tradition, they had until now remained beyond the reach of those who do not speak the Arapaho language. Here, for the first time, these outstanding examples of indigenous North American literature are printed in their original language (in the standard orthography used on the Wind River Reservation) but made accessible to a wider audience through English translation and comprehensive introductions, notes, commentaries and an Arapaho-English glossary. The Arapaho traditions chosen for this anthology tell of hunting, scouting, fighting, horse-stealing, capture and escape, friendly encounters between tribes, diplomacy and war, conflict with the U.S. and battles with its troops. They also include accounts of vision quests and religious rites, the fate of an Arapaho woman captured by Utes, and Arapaho uses of the "Medicine Wheelî"in the Bighorn Mountains.
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A wonderful work for scholars of Native American languages:
It's a wonderful compilation, with a profound emphasis on the Arapaho source (even including a grammatical sketch) and the original oral texts. All of the stories (for lack of a better word) are accompanied with the original Arapaho, and in some of them, broken down morpheme-by-morpheme. If you're interested in the Arapaho language and its structure and use, this is a wonderful resource, and it's probably a good book to have in any library of Native American languages. My only warning is that this is... more info
A superb primary source of Arapaho history, tradition, and culture:
Told by respected Arapaho storyteller and ceremonial leader Paul Moss (1911-1995), and edited by Co-Chair of the Northern Arapaho Language and Culture Commission Alonzo Moss Sr. and linguistics professor Andrew Cowell, Arapaho Historical Traditions presents stories of Arapaho oral tradition in English for the first time. The stories are presented line by line in both their original Arapaho and in English, with extensive notes, grammatical information, and a glossary to help the reader follow the mechanics... more info
