The expertise of Native glass artists, in combination with the stories of their cultures, has produced a remarkable new artistic genre. This flowering of glass art in Indian Country is the result of the coming together of two movements that began in the 1960s--the contemporary Native arts movement, championed by Lloyd Kiva New, and the studio glass art movement, founded by American glass artists such as Dale Chihuly, who started several early teaching programs. Taken together, these two movements created a new dimension of cultural and artistic expression. The glass art created by American Indian artists is not only a personal expression but also imbued with cultural heritage. Whether reinterpreting traditional iconography or expressing current issues, Native glass artists have created a rich body of work. These artists have melded the aesthetics and properties inherent in glass art with their respective cultural knowledge. The result is the stunning collection of artwork presented here. A number of American Indian artists were attracted to glass early in the movement, including Larry "Ulaaq" Ahvakana and Tony Jojola. Among the second generation of Native glass blowers are Preston Singletary, Daniel Joseph Friday, Robert "Spooner" Marcus, Raven Skyriver, Raya Friday, Brian Barber, and Ira Lujan. This book also highlights the glass works of major multimedia artists including Ramson Lomatewama, Marvin Oliver, Susan Point, Haila (Ho-Wan-Ut) Old Peter, Joe David, Joe Fedderson, Angela Babby, Ed Archie NoiseCat, Tammy Garcia, Carol Lujan, Rory Erler Wakemup, Lillian Pitt, Adrian Wall, Virgil Ortiz, Harlan Reano, Jody Naranjo, and several others. Four indigenous artists from Australia and New Zealand, who have collaborated with American Indian artists, are also included. This comprehensive look at this new genre of art includes multiple photographs of the impressive works of each artist.

"With connections to traditional homelands being at the heart of Native identity, environmental justice is of heightened importance to Indigenous communities. Not only do irresponsible and exploitative environmental policies harm the physical and financial health of Indigenous communities, they also cause spiritual harm by destroying the land and wildlife that are held in a place of exceptional reverence for Indigenous peoples. Combining elements of legal issues, human rights issues, and sovereignty issues, Indigenous Environmental Justice creates a clear example of community resilience in the face of corporate greed"--

Part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural history, and part literary polemic, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter asserts the vital significance of literary expression to the political, creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous peoples today. In considering the connections between literature and lived experience, this book contemplates four key questions at the heart of Indigenous kinship traditions: How do we learn to be human? How do we become good relatives? How do we become good ancestors? How do we learn to live together? Blending personal narrative and broader historical and cultural analysis with close readings of key creative and critical texts, Justice argues that Indigenous writers engage with these questions in part to challenge settler-colonial policies and practices that have targeted Indigenous connections to land, history, family, and self. More importantly, Indigenous writers imaginatively engage the many ways that communities and individuals have sought to nurture these relationships and project them into the future. This provocative volume challenges readers to critically consider and rethink their assumptions about Indigenous literature, history, and politics while never forgetting the emotional connections of our shared humanity and the power of story to effect personal and social change. Written with a generalist reader firmly in mind, but addressing issues of interest to specialists in the field, this book welcomes new audiences to Indigenous literary studies while offering more seasoned readers a renewed appreciation for these transformative literary traditions.

All communities are teeming with energy, spirit, and knowledge, and Spiral to the Stars taps into and activates this dynamism to discuss Indigenous community planning from a Mvskoke perspective. This book poses questions about what community is, how to reclaim community, and how to embark on the process of envisioning what and where the community can be. Geographer Laura Harjo demonstrates that Mvskoke communities have what they need to dream, imagine, speculate, and activate the wishes of ancestors, contemporary kin, and future relatives—all in a present temporality—which is Indigenous futurity. Organized around four methodologies—radical sovereignty, community knowledge, collective power, and emergence geographies—Spiral to the Stars provides a path that departs from traditional community-making strategies, which are often extensions of the settler state. Readers are provided a set of methodologies to build genuine community relationships, knowledge, power, and spaces for themselves. Communities don’t have to wait on experts because this book helps them activate their own possibilities and expertise. A detailed final chapter provides participatory tools that can be used in workshop settings or one on one. This book offers a critical and concrete map for community making that leverages Indigenous way-finding tools. Mvskoke narratives thread throughout the text, vividly demonstrating that theories come from lived and felt experiences. This is a must-have book for community organizers, radical pedagogists, and anyone wishing to empower and advocate for their community.

Viola Cordova was the first Native American woman to receive a PhD in philosophy. Even as she became an expert on canonical works of traditional Western philosophy, she devoted herself to defining a Native American philosophy. Although she passed away before she could complete her life’s work, some of her colleagues have organized her pioneering contributions into this provocative book. In three parts, Cordova sets out a complete Native American philosophy. First she explains her own understanding of the nature of reality itself—the origins of the world, the relation of matter and spirit, the nature of time, and the roles of culture and language in understanding all of these. She then turns to our role as residents of the Earth, arguing that we become human as we deepen our relation to our people and to our places, and as we understand the responsibilities that grow from those relationships. In the final section, she calls for a new reverence in a world where there is no distinction between the sacred and the mundane. Cordova clearly contrasts Native American beliefs with the traditions of the Enlightenment and Christianized Europeans (what she calls “Euroman” philosophy). By doing so, she leads her readers into a deeper understanding of both traditions and encourages us to question any view that claims a singular truth. From these essays—which are lucid, insightful, frequently funny, and occasionally angry—we receive a powerful new vision of how we can live with respect, reciprocity, and joy.

Capturing the narratives of indigenes, this book presents a unique anthology on global Indigenous peoples' wisdoms and ways of knowing. Covering issues of religion, cultural self-determination, philosophy, spirituality, sacred sites, oppression, gender and the suppressed voices of women, the diverse global contexts across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North and South America, and Oceania are highlighted. The contributions represent heart-felt expressions of Indigenous peoples from various contexts - their triumphs and struggles, their gains and losses, their reflections on the past, present, and future - telling their accounts in their own voices. Opening new vistas for understanding historical ancient knowledge, preserved and practiced by Indigenous people for millennia, this innovative anthology illuminates areas of philosophy, science, medicine, health, architecture, and botany to reveal knowledge suppressed by Western academic studies.

Arizona’s San Pedro Valley is a natural corridor through which generations of native peoples have traveled for more than 12,000 years, and today many tribes consider it to be part of their ancestral homeland. This book explores the multiple cultural meanings, historical interpretations, and cosmological values of this extraordinary region by combining archaeological and historical sources with the ethnographic perspectives of four contemporary tribes: Tohono O’odham, Hopi, Zuni, and San Carlos Apache. Previous research in the San Pedro Valley has focused on scientific archaeology and documentary history, with a conspicuous absence of indigenous voices, yet Native Americans maintain oral traditions that provide an anthropological context for interpreting the history and archaeology of the valley. The San Pedro Ethnohistory Project was designed to redress this situation by visiting archaeological sites, studying museum collections, and interviewing tribal members to collect traditional histories. The information it gathered is arrayed in this book along with archaeological and documentary data to interpret the histories of Native American occupation of the San Pedro Valley. This work provides an example of the kind of interdisciplinary and politically conscious work made possible when Native Americans and archaeologists collaborate to study the past. As a methodological case study, it clearly articulates how scholars can work with Native American stakeholders to move beyond confrontations over who “owns” the past, yielding a more nuanced, multilayered, and relevant archaeology.