Enduring Wisdom: Sayings from Native Americans

by Synthia Saint James

Sayings from Native Americans. Quotations from their earliest contact with Europeans to contemporary tribal persons. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823414558
• ISBN13: 9780823414550
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 10.3" x 10.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

A collection of three dozen wise sayings from Native Americans

"Enduring Wisdom: Saying from Native Americans" is a collection of sayings by Sioux author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve and Cherokee-and-African-American artist Synthia Saint James. As Sneve points out in her Author's Note, there are thousands of "wise" saying attributed to Native Americans, but much of what you will find here was passed down through oral traditions, because Native Americans did not have any written languages until long after white people came to the Americas. Those that were written down, often my missionaries, historians and anthropologists, have been translated and interpreted by those outside of the cultures. The book's End Notes detail the original selections for all of these quotes, so you can see where they came from, although the authors of the quotes and their dates are identified in the book as you go along. The passages come from Native Americans who were among the earliest to make contact with Europeans up to those from contemporary tribal people who value their heritage. The wise words contained in this book are organized into five categories: Mother Earth, The People, War and Peace, Spirit Life, and Enduring Wisdom. There are almost three dozen quotations, as well as poetic introductions to each section by Sneve. For the most part you will find a balance on these pages between ancient sayings and more contemporary words of wisdom. For example, the 1997 words of Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday on the need to walk the sacred earth are put next to the words of the Maker of heaven and earth repeated by the Ottawa chief Pontiac in 1760. The words of famous Native American leaders including Chief Joseph, Cochise, Red Jacket, and Black Hawk are found here, but they are in the minority compared to the others who are quoted here, from Strung Arm, a Nachez mother in 1729, to Tatewin Means, a Dakota high school student in 1996. So there is an excellent mix of sources here, with the renowned political and spiritual leaders with those of ordinary tribal members. The artwork by Saint James consists of shapes of color, the sort that young students should be able to imitate, even if they resort to cutting out shapes from construction paper to do it (I thought that was what the art was until I noticed on the cover it says "paintings"). Then again, teachers might want to try something along these lines because the pages of this book would definitely be an inspiration for a classroom bulletin board or poster display. The art work is simply and large enough that a teacher can read from the book and show the paintings to the entire class as well, so there are a lot of ways of using this book for a variety of classroom units.