Inside Dazzling Mountains - (Native Literatures of the Americas and Indigenous World Lite) by David L Kozak (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Inside Dazzling Mountains provides fresh new translations of Native oral literatures of the Southwest, a region of vital and varied cultures and languages. The collection features songs, stories, chants, and orations from the four major language groups of the Southwest: Yuman, Nadíne (Apachean), Uto-Aztecan, and Kiowa-Tanoan. It combines translations of recordings made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a rich array of newly recorded and produced materials, attesting to the continued vitality and creativity of contemporary Native languages in the Southwest.

For southwestern linguistic and cultural traditions to be more widely recognized and appreciated, retranslations of older works have been sorely needed. Original translations were often flawed and culturally biased and made use of literary conventions that were familiar to Anglo-Americans but foreign to the Native tribes themselves. Inside Dazzling Mountains corrects these flaws and celebrates the diversity of Native languages spoken in the Southwest today.

Skillfully edited and translated by David L. Kozak, who offers a wealth of editorial tools for interpreting songs, song sets, myths, stories, and chants of the Southwest, past and present, this volume contributes to the continued vitality and cultural complexity of the region.

Review Quotes

"[Inside Dazzling Mountains] demonstrates more culturally sensitive and subtle ways of approaching Native tales than have been the norm."--M. F. McClure, CHOICE

"In this beautifully presented anthology of songs, poems, and short narratives from the American Southwest, even the uninitiated reader gains a deep appreciation for the rich diversity of oral literature that ha long circulated in this region."--Sean O'Neill, American Anthropologist

About the Author

David L. Kozak is a professor of anthropology at Fort Lewis College. He is the author of Devil Sickness and Devil Songs: Tohono O'odham Poetics.