Pitch Woman and Other Stories - (Native Literatures of the Americas and Indigenous World Lite) by William R Seaburg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The rich oral traditions of the Athabaskan Indians from southwestern Oregon are showcased in these pages for the first time. This volume features vivid and humorous tales of familiar Tricksters: Coyote, known for his unusual sexual prowess and escapades that often go awry; the vain and gullible Grizzly Bear; and Raccoon, often greedy and ever elusive. The collection also includes the less familiar but all-too-human stories of Pitch Woman, Little Man, the unicorn-like Hollering-Like-a-Person, and other local figures, all of which add to the wealth of Native oral literature in the Pacific Northwest. In 1935 Elizabeth D. Jacobs conducted ethnographic fieldwork with survivors of several Athabaskan cultures living on the Siletz Reservation. Her work preserves the forty-seven stories recorded here as recounted by Upper Coquille consultant Coquelle Thompson Sr., an accomplished storyteller who lived through the Rogue River Wars of 1855-56. His tribal community was evicted from its homeland and resettled with other Athabaskan groups on the Siletz Reservation, where he lived for ninety years. This volume offers a behind-the-scenes look at the collection of oral accounts, a sketch of Upper Coquille Athabaskan culture, an examination of Thompson's storytelling, and extended analyses of four stories, including "Pitch Woman." The reader is encouraged to "listen" to the stories with an ear attuned both to the storyteller himself and to the stories' own cultural context.

Review Quotes

"A substantial corpus of well-told narratives from the Oregon coast, a region from which few such things have appeared in print, is self-recommending to anyone concerned with native literatures of the Northwest. But this well-presented collection should repay the attention of other readers as well."--Paul D. Kroeber, Journal of Folklore Research-- (9/3/2008 12:00:00 AM)

"This book is a gift to anthropology, linguistics, and folklore . . . . A chapter in which Seaburg isolates and analyzes four particular tales is valuable and rich. . . . [T]his important work chronicles a person who represents a largely undocumented and little-known Native American group."--CHOICE

"Seaburg employs an easy style that avoids heavy scholarly jargon while using linguistic terms appropriately. . . . This book will become an essential volume and reference work to add to any library, personal or public, of Northwest Coast Indigenous anthropology or ethnohistory. Tribal scholars will appreciate its references to other similar oral histories throughout Oregon, Washington, and California. Because the oral histories are all presented in English, there will be a wide audience of folklorists, ethno-poetics, and scholars of other disciplines. Linguists may seek the book, as there are rare uses of Coquille language."--Oregon Historical Quarterly
-- (10/3/2007 12:00:00 AM)

"Though referencing many technical elements of the oral tradition, Pitch Woman and Other Stories is accessible to all audiences. Seaburg is to be applauded for this sensitive and exemplary rendering of oral narratives in this written text. The process revealed is one of honesty and of care for the 'voices' of Thompson, as well as of Jacobs and even of himself."--Pacific Northwest Quarterly
-- (8/18/2008 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

William R. Seaburg is a professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell. He is the editor and annotator of The Nehalem Tillamook: An Ethnography by Elizabeth D. Jacobs, and the coauthor of Coquelle Thompson, Athabaskan Witness: A Cultural Biography. Elizabeth D. Jacobs (1903-83) was mentored in anthropology by her husband, the noted anthropologist Melville Jacobs.