Smoke dancing

Book

Smoke dancing / Eric Gansworth.

Gansworth, Eric, 1965- (Author).

Summary:

The power struggle between traditionalists and progressives on a modern-day reservation is at the center of Eric Gansworth's latest work of fiction. Through the characters and their unique "voices," he deftly develops the multiple viewpoints and arguments that currently exist on many reservations. These voices include a traditional chief and a modern-day group of young adults who, as neglected children, banded together in a traditional dance group. The narrative thread that connects these characters uses the metaphor of traditional dance and its relationship to the integrity of Iroquois culture. A number of the dance group have come to work in the growing empire formed by one of their members--selling tax-free cigarettes and gasoline on reservation land. This new economic base alters the balance of power on the reservation. At the center of the conflict is Fiction Tunny, a dancer and developing love interest of a man in the smoke business. She is also the illegitimate daughter of the chief, who refuses to acknowledge her; to admit she exists would be to admit he is not fit for his role of chief. Fictions resentment of her father and the sometimes archaic nature of his life and government are juxtaposed with the predatory nature of the entrepreneur who begins pursuing her sexually at all costs. Fiction seeks a balance, a path that will ground her identity in tradition while following her ever-changing culture into the future. -- Amazon.com.

Record details

ISBN: 0870137085
ISBN: 9780870137082
Physical Description: x, 235 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Publisher: East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, ©2004.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:: Rabbit dance -- The last dance -- Redman's drop -- Harvest moon eclipse -- Unfinished business -- A six-chair night -- Curbside Phoenix -- Standing quiver dance -- The sharpest vision -- Frostbite -- Winter garden -- Commodities -- Fighting and flying -- Undercurrents -- Smoke dance -- Snap shots -- Bloodstone mortar -- Washed in the blood of the land -- Mourning rituals -- Rites of passage -- The first dance.