Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: Breaking the Great Silence of the American Indian Holocaust

by MariJo Moore

As you walk out of your front door tomorrow morning, look down. Look to your left and to your right. Touch the earth: the concrete, the sidewalk, or whatever surrounds you. Undoubtedly you will be... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560258381
• ISBN13: 9781560258384
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful

I liked this book, it was very informative, and was an amazing book, I loved it and many of my family I shared it with loved it as well. Great book!!

Important book, despite the hit-piece against Ward Churchill

This book is important in many ways, as the other reviewers have described. I just wanted to mention that the article by David Seals titled "Nicaragua: What's Ward Churchill Got Against You?" was pretty pathetic. It included juvenile insults like calling Churchill "Lurch," which is the same crude name that right-wingers directed toward John Kerry. No one knows all the details of Churchill's experiences in Nicaragua. But we can all learn many things from his books on FBI counter intelligence programs, the Native American holocaust, the horrible boarding schools Native kids were subjected to, current day ecocidal assaults from mining, timber and massive hydroelectric projects, and many other important topics. Ward doesn't get it all right, Ward has "issues," - as we all do. But Churchill has made many important contributions, including having the courage to speak some uncomfortable truths regarding the blowback of September 11. Regarding the "scandal" over Ward's heritage, I'd just say even Europeans have tribal roots. Unlike Ward, most Europeans do not have a grandfather who is buried in a traditional Indian buriel ground (so, one could understand the roots of Ward's own assumptions about his ancestry). And unlike Ward, most of us have not spent countless hours writing, speaking and teaching about indigenous holocausts - past and present. Seals' effort to degrade Churchill ultimately speaks more poorly of Seals himself. In addition to this book, I'd recommend anything by Winona LaDuke and the DVD "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action" produced by the Katahdin Foundation.

THE TRAIL STILL WALKED

To tell the story, the real story, who better then the current generation of Native American writers. With Marijo Moore as a contributor and editor of Eating Fire, Tasting Blood she has gathered the essays and poems of her peers to tell us what we were never told in school. With specific references to tribal nations like the Conoy, that are gone but not forgotten and accounts of massacres like Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, these writers bring us up to date and put forth the message that there was a holocaust here too, it just gets no recognition in books or on film. This anthology hopes to change all of that. With the details brought front and center there is no turning away from what was covered up, taken and not returned, and is still being perpetrated on the survivors. To balance these accounts Moore has included tales of children going back home to learn where they came from, and poems that tantalize the mind and make the spirit soar. The accomplishment of bringing the likes of Paula Gunn Allen, Vine Deloria, Jr., and Eduardo Galeano in one volume is to say the least, incredible. Read it and learn about the trail, still being walked today.

just received the book

I just receieved this book the other day and I must say I am very impressed by it. The introduction by Marijo Moore says it all--what this book is about. " To eat the fire of truth is to taste the blood of our existence." Such a beautiful line. Also in this book are great stories and testimonies by Charles Eastman, Steve Russell, Vine Deloria Jr, Joseph Dandurand, also a fabulous poem by Marijo Moore herself "Atop Polacca on First Mesa." Also some great pieces by Susan Shown Harjo, Linda Hogan, and a slew of other amazing writers. With a great title and great chapter titles this book is a great follow up to GENOCIDE OF THE MIND. This book should be read in classrooms all across the U.S. It is a burning reminder that the Indian voice is still not heard, but we will continue to start the fires, and make your blood boil. JW