Anthropologists, Novelists and Indian Sacred Material
Brumble Iii, H.D.
Canadian Review of American Studies 11(1): 31-48
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0007-7720 Document Number: 356745
One of the threads that binds the bundle we are coming to call American Indian Literature is that of the Indian caught between two cultures; there are, to name but a few, Abel in Momaday's House Made of Dawn, Martiniano in Waters' The Man Who Killed the Deer, S. B. in Radin's Autobio- graphy of a Winnebago Indian, and, in a muted way, the unnamed protagonist of Welch's Winter in the Blood. Probably this preoccupation with personal identity and the impingements of culture is one of the major reasons for the rising popularity of American Indian books in a country which is stirring its melting pot ever more gingerly. But as the protagonists of such books writhe about in the nets cultures weave, they might be comforted to know that their creators share some of their problems- that the nets are there for authors as well as for heroes.