New Voices for Old Words: Algonquin Oral Literatures

Edited by David J. Costa
University of Nebraska Press (2015) 
548 pages

Review by Paul Zolbrod    

A cooperative venture that resulted from the Fortieth Algonquin Conference in 2008, New Voices for Old Worlds provides a handful of narratives recorded in the late 19^th and early 20^th century from Algonquin dialects such as Gros Ventre, Peoria, and Arapaho. They were first gathered during a period of fieldwork encouraged by the Bureau of American Ethnology but languished in advance of today’s ethnopoetic revival. Some of the originally transliterated languages are no longer spoken, or else those premodern redactions have outlived elders who might have amplified them. Reformatted as eight case studies undertaken by contemporary ethnolinguistic scholars to demonstrate how such problems can be surmounted, this book contains a rich variety of storytelling, speechmaking, and prayer worthy of attention at any tribal college. Furthermore, the care put into the reconfigurations exhibits a level of Native American verbal artistry yet to be fully recognized.

     Uninitiated readers, however, must wade through densely technical passages of linguistic analysis before approaching each clear translation finalizing the case studies. But It remains for instructors to pry them from densely framed demonstrations of underlying verbal power and intricacy—no easy task for those untrained in advanced textual analysis—to remind Native students that their grandparents grew up absorbing a vibrant worldview framed in rich oral traditions now being lost.      

     Retired now after teaching at Diné College for 20 years where I applied my knowledge of Athabaskan verbal artistry in the classroom, I wish I were still there after reading this book. I could have used it as another tribal source with its show of Algonquin verbal dexterity rivaling material found in the world’s grandest literary traditions. Even a brief sampling shows the depth and range of that language family. In a Gros Ventre tale, for example, a sudden snowstorm foils a raiding expedition against the Sioux. A Peoria narrative uses subtle humor as a trickster outsmarts a Frenchman. An Arapaho anecdote shows how triumph leads to a name-changing prayer. A hauntingly told story I especially admire tells how a young man learns to please the good spirits by fasting, but then takes his power for granted by heeding an evil spirit, bringing about his tragic downfall.   

     At work here is language as finely crafted and authentic as found in the works of Chaucer, Keats, or Walt Whitman. Tribal college students learning to write need to realize as much without relying exclusively on models from the dominant culture. That’s what the detailed analysis of the eight case studies demonstrates. As challenging as they are to instructors wishing to apply them, these studies can give Native students an extra boost as they begin college on a home reservation. In that regard, whether or not the editor and individual authors intended it that way, this book offers a significant contribution to tribal pedagogy, even if it does make intense demands on readers.     

Paul Zolbrod, Ph.D., taught at Diné College and is author of Diné bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story.