Like all fields of history, Native American history has many classic works. However, this title is different in that it is one of the first recent books on the North American Indian past written by a Native American. Jennifer Nez Denetdale, a graduate of Northern Arizona University, is the first Navajo to earn a PhD in History and currently teaches at the University of New Mexico. Her great-great-great grandfather is the Navajo chief Manuelito (1816-1894), who helped lead his people against the United States Army before, during, and after the Long Walk (the forced removal of the Navajos) in 1864 to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Manuelito’s wife Juanita, or “Weaver Woman” (1845-1910), is relatively unknown compared to him, although she is visible in many photographs. This book is excellent because it represents a more inclusive perspective of history with Native Americans telling their own story themselves. Denetdale gives an excellent analysis of the historiography (writing of history) on Navajo Indians. She claims that two images of the Navajo emerge in Anglo history texts: one, as hunter-gatherers who migrated to the Southwest between 900 and 1500 A.D. and were cultural borrowers with little or no cultural knowledge of their own, and second, as one of the most aggressive, warlike Native American nations in North America. She also points out that the Navajo telling of the past, including its emphasis on oral history and weavings telling stories, is much different than Western education (which has tried to eradicate Native American culture). This book is superb as a starting place for anyone wanting an overview of historical literature on the Navajo. In her study of Juanita's place in Navajo history Denetdale analyzes gender relations, arguing that Navajo women possessed a significant amount of power and autonomy in their society. The author discusses Diné creation stories that illustrate women's central role in Navajo society. For example, in the story of how Asdzáá Nádleehé (Changing Woman) created the first Diné clans, Sun tried to persuade her to move to the sky where he could visit her every time he appeared. However, Changing Woman told Sun that she would think about his request and would do so if it suited her. According to Denetdale, these narratives illustrate Navajo women's autonomy and empowerment among their people. Navajo women also established kin relationships across tribal cultures. The author also examines how photographs of Navajo women (including Juanita) shaped white American perceptions of Native American women. One of the most important questions raised by this book is who owns history. Denetdale illustrates this point In her Introduction when she describes her 1998 visit to the Southwest Museum, a repository of Native American objects, in Los Angeles. She found a dress woven by Juanita and appropriated by George Wharton James, an English-born journalist and collector of Southwest Indian artifacts in the early twentieth century. As Denetdale writes: "The dress, like the history of Navajos, has been appropriated, classified, and defined by non-Navajos." More Native Americans are writing their history, such as Ned Blackhawk, a Western Shoshone and author of Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West (2006), a historical account of the Great Basin Indians. Reclaiming Diné History also shows how the Navajo Indians have retained their culture despite assaults from European and American colonialism over the centuries. Denetdale, Jennifer Nez. Reclaiming Diné History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007.
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CategoriesAuthorTom Schmidt lives in Prescott Valley, AZ. Archives
October 2018
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October 2018
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