The power struggle between traditionalists and progressives on a modern-day reservation is at the center of Eric Gansworth's latest work of fiction. Through the characters and their unique "voices," he deftly develops the multiple viewpoints and arguments that currently exist on many reservations. These voices include a traditional chief and a modern-day group of young adults who, as neglected children, banded together in a traditional dance group. The narrative thread that connects these characters uses the metaphor of traditional dance and its relationship to the integrity of Iroquois culture. A number of the dance group have come to work in the growing empire formed by one of their members--selling tax-free cigarettes and gasoline on reservation land. This new economic base alters the balance of power on the reservation. At the center of the conflict is Fiction Tunny, a dancer and developing love interest of a man in the smoke business. She is also the illegitimate daughter of the chief, who refuses to acknowledge her; to admit she exists would be to admit he is not fit for his role of chief. Fiction's resentment of her father and the sometimes archaic nature of his life and government are juxtaposed with the predatory nature of the entrepreneur who begins pursuing her sexually at all costs. Fiction seeks a balance, a path that will ground her identity in tradition while following her ever-changing culture into the future.

Focusing on the enactment of identity in dance, Indigenous Dance and Dancing Indian is a cross-cultural, cross-ethnic, and cross-national comparison of indigenous dance practices. Considering four genres of dance in which indigenous people are represented--K'iche Maya traditional dance, powwow, folkloric dance, and dancing sports mascots--the book addresses both the ideational and behavioral dimensions of identity. Each dance is examined as a unique cultural expression in individual chapters, and then all are compared in the conclusion, where striking parallels and important divergences are revealed. Ultimately, Krystal describes how dancers and audiences work to construct and consume satisfying and meaningful identities through dance by either challenging social inequality or reinforcing the present social order. Detailed ethnographic work, thorough case studies, and an insightful narrative voice make Indigenous Dance and Dancing Indian a substantial addition to scholarly literature on dance in the Americas. It will be of interest to scholars of Native American studies, social sciences, and performing arts.

"Originally published in 2008 by Jackie Reimer."

Named to the Evanston Public Library's Blueberry List: Kids' Book that Inspire Love of Nature and Action for Planet Earth Selected for the Notable Social Studies 2022 list Named to the ALA Notable Children's Books 2022 “Wowww!”—– Raina Telgemeier, #1 NY Times, #1 USA Today, #1 Publishers Weekly bestselling author/illustrator KIRKUS STAR: Lustrous illustrations and meditative text reflect on the role of smoke in nature and civilization... Smoke dissipates quickly, but this poetic text will linger. KIRKUS'S LIST OF 150 MOST ANTICIPATED FALL 2021 BOOKS Smoke itself acts as narrator, telling us how it has served humankind since prehistoric times in signaling, beekeeping, curing and flavoring food, religious rites, fumigating insects, and myriad other ways. Smoke speaks in mesmerizing riddles: “I lack a mouth, but I can speak…. I lack hands, but I can push out unwanted guests…. I’m gentler than a feather, but I can cause harm…". This rhythmically powerful narration is complemented by illustrations in which swirling smoke was captured on art paper held over smoky candle flames, and the dancing smoke textures were then deepened and elaborated with watercolors and Photoshop finishes. With this unique method, Merce López “let the smoke decide how the idea I had in mind would dance with it, giving freedom to the images.” The resulting illustrations are astounding, and they resonate with the otherworldly text.

In Interdimensional Dancing, author Diane Stephenson recounts her direct experience and personal interaction with spiritual teachers from other vibratory levels of existence. Some of the teachers are living beings in physical bodies and some are not. Interdimensional Dancing depicts these communications during the dream state, meditations, participation in sacred ceremonies, and encounters in the fully conscious state. Sharing the truths revealed during these experiences is an exciting series of adventures!

An explosive memoir of transformation from a high-end stripper and escort who hit rock-bottom, turned to God, and left the sex trade to found Eve’s Angels, a ministry reaching out to women in the sex industry. Growing up as the daughter of an NCAA Championship-winning basketball coach and a stay-at-home mom, Anny Donewald had a seemingly blessed childhood. Then, at thirteen, one of her father’s players sexually abused her, and Donewald embarked on a path toward self-destruction. When Donewald was convinced to compete in an amateur night at a strip club, she found herself drawn into a world of drugs, money, and flesh peddlers in Michigan and Chicago—and eventually Las Vegas’ hottest XXX clubs. But the fantasy of fistfuls of hundred dollar bills quickly turned to the reality of bloodstains on bathroom floors and nights with customers in presidential suites at luxurious hotels. At an emotional breaking point and pondering the termination of her unborn son, Anny reached the gates of her personal hell. There, she found God. Then, this long-legged, fiery blonde fought to free herself from the sex trade, and, by the healing grace of God, launched her non-profit, Eve’s Angels, which reaches out to girls who want out of the sex trade. Dancing for the Devil takes an in-depth look at Anny’s struggles and sheds a new insider’s light on the horrible reality of the sex industry from someone who’s seen the worst of it. This captivating memoir shows how women from all walks of life find themselves trapped by the sex trade and, most importantly, explains how they can get out, start over, and find the love of Christ. Courageous and unforgettable, Dancing for the Devil is a heartbreaking story of darkness, grace, and, ultimately, redemption.

The intertribal pow-wow is the most widespread venue for traditional Indian music and dance in North America. Heartbeat of the People is an insider's journey into the dances and music, the traditions and regalia, and the functions and significance of these vital cultural events. Tara Browner focuses on the Northern pow-wow of the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes to investigate the underlying tribal and regional frameworks that reinforce personal tribal affiliations. Interviews with dancers and her own participation in pow-wow events and community provide fascinating on-the-ground accounts and provide detail to a rare ethnomusicological analysis of Northern music and dance.

This “sterling debut” short story collection explores immigrant life in prose that is “crisp and economical but also poetic and full of imagery” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The nine linked stories of Reema Rajbanshi’s Sugar, Smoke, Song are set in the Bronx, California, India, and Brazil. Following the secrets and passions of young women, these stories and their narrators cross genres and rules to arrive at unforeseen lives. A subway rider remembers enacting the gods with her estranged twin; a concert usher discovers her tango-dancing boyfriend’s lover; and a literacy worker confesses the gambles she and others have lost through the bluesy singers she admires. Told through semi-experimental play with nonlinear plots, plural narrators, and hybrid prose, these stories embody the experiences of immigrants from Africa, Asia and South America who carrying histories both unseen and cyclically lived.

Winner, Hubert Herring Book Award, Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies Candomblé, an African religious and healing tradition that spread to Brazil during the slave trade, relies heavily on the use of plants in its spiritual and medicinal practices. When its African adherents were forcibly transplanted to the New World, they faced the challenge not only of maintaining their culture and beliefs in the face of European domination but also of finding plants with similar properties to the ones they had used in Africa. This book traces the origin, diffusion, medicinal use, and meaning of Candomblé's healing pharmacopoeia—the sacred leaves. Robert Voeks examines such topics as the biogeography of Africa and Brazil, the transference—and transformation—of Candomblé as its adherents encountered both native South American belief systems and European Christianity, and the African system of medicinal plant classification that allowed Candomblé to survive and even thrive in the New World. This research casts new light on topics ranging from the creation of African American cultures to tropical rain forest healing floras.

Responding to the rapid spread of the Ghost Dance among tribes of the western United States in the early 1890s, James Mooney set out to describe and understand the phenomenon. He visited Wovoka, the Ghost Dance prophet, at his home in Nevada and traced the progress of the Ghost Dance from place to place, describing the ritual and recording the distinctive song lyrics of seven separate tribes. His classic work (first published in 1896 and here reprinted in its entirety for the first time) includes succinct cultural and historical introductions to each of those tribal groups and depicts the Ghost Dance among the Sioux, the fears it raised of an Indian outbreak, and the military occupation of the Sioux reservations culminating in the tragedy at Wounded Knee. Seeking to demonstrate that the Ghost Dance was a legitimate religious movement, Mooney prefaced his study with a historical survey of comparable millenarian movements among other American Indian groups. In addition to his work on the Ghost Dance, James Mooney is best remembered for his extraordinarily detailed studies of the Cherokee Indians of the Southeast and the Kiowa and other tribes of the southern plains, and for his advocacy of American Indian religious freedom.