Presents a collection of folklore, poetry, speeches, songs, fiction, personal narratives, essays, and non-fiction prose by members of the Great Lakes Native nations.

Native stories and writings by women pioneers, travelers, and working women from the Great Lakes

Gothiniad of Surazeus - Oracle of Gotha presents 150,792 lines of verse in 1,948 poems, lyrics, ballads, sonnets, dramatic monologues, eulogies, hymns, and epigrams written by Surazeus 1993 to 2000.

Written in 1894 and recently recovered from the archives of the University of Minnesota, this autobiography tells the story of a Chippewa-Scots-French woman from Madeline Island in Lake Superior. The child and grandchild of fur traders, Eliza Morrison describes her family's starving time on their homestead, and her travels by boat, dog sled, and on foot. M'tis culture comes alive as Native American lore blends with homesteading stories, giving a nineteenth century woman's view of the Wisconsin Death march, the Dream Dance, Indian marriage and burial customs, making maple sugar, and the Chippewa-Dakota War. She relates two never-before-recorded Native stories, complete with songs. Includes glossaries of names, places, and Chippewa words.

From the Native water monster who raised canoe-killing storms to thousand-foot cargo ships, sailing the Great Lakes has inspired autobiography, folksong, poetry, drama, and fiction about some of the most beautiful, most dangerous, waters in the world. In the words of those who lived them, here are stories o fdangers and triumphs, ghosts and mysteries, and darevevil risks and losses. White Squall is a history of the Great Lakes written by those who knew them best in all times and all weathers from the beginning to the present.

Case studies combine archaeological data and oral tradition to illustrate how the archaeological expression of beliefs and meanings passed down in the oral tradition may be interpreted. Explanations in Iconography: Ancient American Indian Art, Symbol, and Meaning is a significant contribution to the field of archaeology – a contribution in iconography studies that has gradually been coming into its own. Iconography is a rich and fascinating field, as applied to the complex, and heretofore enigmatic, imagery on many ancient Pre-Columbian artifacts. When viewed through the lens of early ethnographic records and American Indian oral traditions, as well as information from knowledgeable American Indian elders, it opens a world of understanding and clarity until recently unknown in the field of anthropological archaeology. It brings us closer to the people who created the artifacts and offers a glimpse into the symbols and beliefs that were important to them. Chapters cover a wide variety of artifacts and imagery from several ancient American Indian cultures. These artifacts include petroglyphs and pictographs (rock art), mounds, engraved shell cups and gorgets, burial architecture and grave furniture, pottery, copper repoussé, and other media. Ancient graphics, engravings, mounds, and all were created to deliver a message to the viewer – and many of those messages are finally coming to light. The artifacts included are from a variety of regions, mainly in the Midwest and Eastern United States. We hope that this volume will encourage others to look more deeply into the meaning behind the ancient imagery and arts and give the past a chance to be known.