A creative collective interpretation of the significant occurrences in the Native American culture as...

books:

	• Writing the Cross Culture: Native Fiction on the White Man's Religion Fulcrum Publishing, 2006 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A creative collective interpretation of the significant occurrences in the Native American culture as impacted by Christianity

Deftly compiled and professionally edited by James Treat (Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, University of Illinois), Writing The Cross Culture: Native Fiction On The White Man's Religion is a provocative and somewhat iconoclastic anthology of writings based upon the Native American cultural transformation and adaptations of the beliefs and practices of the Christian faith. Featuring works ranging from satire to philosophy, Writing The Cross Culture presents a creative collective interpretation of the significant occurrences in the Native American culture as impacted by Christianity. Writing The Cross Culture is very strongly recommended to students of Native American history and literature as a quite unique perspective on an often neglected aspect of contemporary Native American culture.

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A creative collective interpretation of the significant occurrences in the Native American culture as impacted by Christianity

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A creative collective interpretation of the significant occurrences in the Native American culture as impacted by Christianity

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Impressive anthology of Native fiction on the experience with Christianity

James Treat has brought together an eclectic group of writings by Native Americans that deal, in one way or another, with Christianity. The quality of the writing is surprisingly high, and consistently so; I had expected greater variation in any anthology. Some of the selections are excerpts from larger works. As such they are not self-contained as fiction, though they work in the context of this volume. A couple did not seem to deal with religion but I am dense sometimes.

Treat enters the book with a semi-fictionalized afterword that imagines itself as a proposal for an anthology of human fiction after aliens have colonized the Earth. The parallels to the book itself are obvious and a bit forced. Coming at the end of the book, this editorial intervention also seemed unnecessary. Rather than setting the stage for the readings the afterword tended to say things that a reader would already have figured out at that point.

By fictionalizing the afterword, Treat wants to stake a claim for fiction as an alternative to nonfiction accounts of Natives' spiritual clash with Christianity. That's fine in principle, though my own tastes run to the nonfiction. In this context, however, this claim comes across as defensive. I may be reading too much into this but parts of the afterword suggest that Treat doubts whether fiction, as opposed to social action, can truly liberate.

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A creative collective interpretation of the significant occurrences in the Native American culture as impacted by Christianity

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reviews: page 1, 2

The tables have turned and there's a lone Indian claiming land in Europe for the Osage Nation. Jesus Christ's half-brother is alive and well on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Manna is falling from the sky. How has Christianity touched you? Together, some of the most prominent Native American writers are telling the story of what the White Man's religion has meant for them. What can only be described as honest fiction, these stories illustrate the cause and effect of Christianity on the Native spirit.

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