University of Nebraska Press

Off the Shelf: Searching for My Destiny by George Blue Spruce Jr.

Read from "Creighton Years" in Searching for My Destiny by George Blue Spruce Jr. as told to Deanne Durrett:

"Many years before my high school graduation and the Elks banquet, my parents had vowed that their children would go to college. They acted on faith that there would be a way for me to achieve a college degree and began making definite plans for my education during my junior year of high school. Knowing of my strong desire to become a dentist, the Christian Brothers at St. Michael’s spoke to my parents and recommended Creighton University, a Roman Catholic university with a dental school. In the Brothers’ opinion, there were no better educators than the Jesuit priests. Daddy had great respect for the Christian Brothers, and once they had made their recommendation no other colleges were considered. I was going to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

The backstory of Rainy River Lives

Today is the official release of Rainy River Lives, the text of which was written nearly 100 years ago, and which almost never saw publication.

In 1932 anthropologist Ruth Landes arrived at the Manitou Rapids Reserve on the Rainy River, which flows along the Ontario-Minnesota border, to conduct her doctoral research. There, Landes met Maggie Wilson, who became both a friend and an invaluable source. Wilson, a traditional Ojibwe storyteller, described to Landes what life was like on the reservation during the early 20th century, as the Ojibwes were being relocated and forced to assimilate. After Landes left the reservation, she and Wilson continued to correspond, and Wilson sent her many letters describing her life and the lives of her neighbors on Rainy River.

Landes carefully filed and saved the letters, but somehow, they got lost. Decades later, they were discovered in the basement of the Smithsonian Institute, where they had been misfiled with the papers of another anthropologist. Rainy River Lives, published, obviously, by the University of Nebraska Press, collects those stories for the first time.

An aside: Landes finished her doctorate in 1935 and became a well-known anthropologist, particularly in the fields of race and gender studies. Her 1947 book, City of Women, about women who adhered to the candomble religion in Brazil, is still in print.

Another week, an award and a podcast

Welcome back to the work week. I hope you’re enjoying the warm (yet rainy weather), and perhaps have the good fortune of being able to spend the day curled up with a good book. If not, here’s a bit of reading to tide you over.

Remember how on Friday I mentioned that University of Nebraska Press author John Turnbull (The Global Game) would appear on NPR’s Only a Game? Well, he did, on Saturday, and you can listen to him and fellow editor Alon Raab discuss soccer with host Bill Littlefield here.

In other news, UNP author William L. Ramsey has received the 2008 George C. Rogers award for his book, The Yamasee War. The award is presented annually by the South Carolina Historical Society to the author of the best book of South Carolina history published during the preceding calendar year. Ramsey was honored on Saturday during the annual meeting of the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston.

The Yamasee War, by the way, tells the story of the violent conflict between southeastern American Indian tribes and English colonists in South Carolina from 1715 to 1718. In the book, Ramsey argues the war was a pivotal event in the formation of the Old South.

Tuesday Trivia: January 27, 2009

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: Lt. Charles Gatewood & His Apache Wars Memoir by Charles B. Gatewood, edited and with additional text by Louis Kraft.

Lt. Charles B. Gatewood (1853–1896), an educated Virginian, served in the Sixth U.S. Cavalry as the commander of Indian scouts. Gatewood was largely accepted by the Native peoples with whom he worked because of his efforts to understand their cultures. It was this connection that Gatewood formed with the Indians, and with Geronimo and Naiche in particular, that led to his involvement in the last Apache war and his work for Indian rights.

Realizing that he had more experience dealing with Native peoples than other lieutenants serving on the frontier, Gatewood decided to record his experiences. Although he died before he completed his project, the work he left behind remains an important firsthand account of his life as a commander of Apache scouts and as a military commandant of the White Mountain Indian Reservation.

This week’s installment of Tuesday Trivia is about the Apache Indians. Ready?

1. The word “Apachean” describes Indian groups language and culture are similar to that of the Apache. Name another major Apachean Native American group.

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve at the Great Plains Art Museum

University of Nebraska Press author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve will read from some of her many books at the Great Plains Art Museum (1155 Q Street, Hewit Place, Lincoln) from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Sneve is a well-known Lakota writer and a recipient of the 2000 National Humanities Medal. She is the author of Lana’s Lakota Moons, Grandpa Was a Cowboy and an Indian and Other Stories, Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman and many other children’s books. Her memoir, Completing the Circle, won the North American Indian Prose Award. The event is free and open to the public.

Tuesday Trivia: January 20, 2009

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934, by Katherine M. B. Osburn.

After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, the Southern Ute Agency was the scene of an intense federal effort to assimilate the Ute Indians. The Southern Utes were to break up their common land holdings and transform themselves into middle-class patriarchal farm and pastoral families. In this assimilationist scheme, women were to surrender the considerable autonomy they enjoyed in traditional Ute society and become housebound homemakers, the “civilizers” of their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Southern Ute Women shows that these women accommodated Anglo ways that benefited them but refused to give up indigenous culture and ways that gave their lives meaning and bolstered personal autonomy.

This week’s Tuesday Trivia will test your knowledge of Ute history and culture. Ready?

1. Which state derived its name from the word “Ute”?

2. Most Utes today live in two states. Which ones?

This Week in History: January 5-9, 2009

The first full week in January is always the official week of buckling down, returning to pre-holiday routines and hunkering down for another few months of winter (let’s hope we don’t see a return to the sub-zero temps we had here in Nebraska in the weeks before the holidays). January may not be as crazy as December, but over the years many important events have still happened this month. Let’s take a look, shall we?

January 5, 1972 - President Richard Nixon orders the development of an organized space shuttle program.

Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story, by David Hitt, Owen Garriott, and Joe Kerwin, tells the story of what happened next, after astronauts stopped merely exploring space and began also living there.

January 6, 1912 – New Mexico becomes the the 47th U.S. state.

The states and regions in which Americans live can affect their accents, their preferences for certain foods and types of entertainment, the styles of homes they live in, the way they dress and, of course, which sports teams they cheer for. Likewise, the place in which an author lives often affects the way he or she writes, as detailed in Regionalism and the Humanities, edited and with an introduction by Timothy R. Mahoney and Wendy J. Katz.

January 7, 1789: The United States of America holds its first presidential election.

We all know how that election turned out, just as how we all know about that before he was president, George Washington was the leader of American forces during the Revolutionary War. But what many of us don’t know is that as American forces were fighting the British, they were also fighting the Native Americans who Washington thought stood in the way of white settlement, a topic explored in George Washington’s War on Native America by Barbara Alice Mann.

January 8, 1877: Crazy Horse fights his last battle, losing to U.S. Calvary in Montana.

The University of Nebraska Press first published Mari Sandoz’s famous biography of the Oglala Sioux leader in 1942. The New York Times praised the book, titled simply Crazy Horse, as “a glorious hero tale told with beauty and power . . . the story of a great American.” The University of Nebraska Press published a third edition of the book in 2008, and has published other books about Crazy Horse as well.

January 9, 1908: Simone de Beauvoir, a French philosopher, feminist and writer perhaps best known for her 1949 book Second Sex, is born.

Views from the Margins, edited and with an introduction by Kevin J. Callahan and Sarah A. Curtis, explores what it means to be French, and how class, gender, nationality, religion and other factors play into the French identity. 

I hope this week’s edition of This Week in History taught you something new (or at least brought back memories from high school history classes). Remember you can find all of these titles and more at the University of Nebraska Press website.

Linking in Lincoln: January 1, 2009

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is Song of the Oktahutche: Collected Poems by Alexander Posey, edited and with an introduction by Matthew Wynn Sivils. Muscogee (Creek) writer and humorist Alexander Posey (1873–1908) lived most of his short but productive life in the Muscogee Nation, in what is now Oklahoma. He was one of the most prominent American Indian literary figures of his era. Song of the Oktahutche collects for the first time all of Posey’s poetry, which has until now been scattered in various rare volumes, either unpublished or replete with textual errors. This week Linking in Lincoln will be providing you with an array of links that, yes, some might call ‘scattered’ but should still be very entertaining.  Hope you enjoy reader!

1.    Alexander Posey was born in Eufaula, Oklahoma. Sound interesting? If so, then check out at Oklahoma's Historical Society.

2.    Well, in the truest spirit of bipartisanship I present you with Freedom Keys. A collection of funny quotes on politicians and their always crazy antics. Check out fredomekeys.com

3.    The official poem of Oklahoma is called “Howdy Folks: The Official Will Rogers Poem” by David Randolph Milsten. Head to state.ok.us to read this little piece of Oklahoma history.

4.    For the full scoop (and by scoop I mean history, festival info, and tribal members) head to the Muscogee Creek Nation website.

Well readers I hope you enjoyed today’s links. Remember you can find Songs of Oktahutche: Collected Poems by Alexander Posey at the UNP website. Have a Happy New Year!!!

Linking in Lincoln: December 25, 2008

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is The Buffalo Hunters: The Story of the Hide Men (2nd edition) by Mari Sandoz. In 1867 there were fifteen million buffalo in the trans-Missouri region, but by the mid 1880’s there were only a few hundred to speak of. It is the decimation of this species that The Buffalo Hunters centers around. This week Linking in Lincoln is going to center on buffalo as well. We’ve got Buffalo University, Buffalo Gals, and just a little Mari Sandoz to spice things up. Are you ready reader?

1.    Mari Sandoz has written 21 books to date. You can get the full list, and more, at marisandoz.org

2.    “Buffalo gals won’t you come out tonight/Come out tonight, come out tonight” I bet you know this song, but do you know where it came from? You can with Wikipedia.com

3.    Two scholars at the University of Buffalo are putting together a book of support to Michelle Obama called “Go Tell Michelle: African Women's letters to the New First Lady.” You can find out more at buffalo.edu

4.    For everything Buffalo, and I do mean everything, check out buffalo.com

5.    “The American bison is a bovine mammal” For more check out Wikipedia.com

6.    Buffalo Girls- “Wild: Untamed, legendary”  and also a very good movie. For a closer (and perhaps more information filled) synopsis head to imdb.com

Well readers I hope you enjoyed this edition of Linking in Lincoln, remember you can find The Buffalo Hunters: The Story of the Hide Men at the UNP website. Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for another installment of This Week in History.

Merry Christmas from the University of Nebraska Press!!

Tuesday Trivia: December 16, 2008

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is The American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Red Power and Self-Determination by Troy R. Johnson. From November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971 the world focused its attention on Alcatraz Island and the American Indians who were occupying it. In this detailed recounting of the occupation, those who participated in it and those who organized it, Johnson explains how it was pivotal in developing “pan-Indian activism" as Americans rallied in support of the Indians. This week Tuesday Trivia will give you a few facts about this infamous island and give you an idea of what it was before the occupation.

1.    The word Alcatraz is a Spanish word for what?
2.    True or False: There were no executions on Alcatraz?
3.     What was the prison’s nickname?
4.    The prison operated for how long?
5.    Prisoners stayed on Alcatraz for an average of how long?
6.    True or False:  There were no women guards or prisoners on Alcatraz?
7.    The only rumored escapees of Alcatraz were who?
8.    The prison could hold how many inmates?
9.    Before it was a prison the island was what?
10.    True or False:  From 1969-1971 Native Americans occupied the island?

Ok readers, how do you think you did? Remember, you can find The American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Red Power and Self-Determination by Troy R. Johnson at the UNP website. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the answers.