Death and Rebirth of Seneca

Death and Rebirth of Seneca
Author: Anthony Wallace
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2010-09-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307760561

This book tells the story of the late colonial and early reservation history of the Seneca Indians, and of the prophet Handsome Lake, his visions, and the moral and religious revitalization of an American Indian society that he and his followers achieved in the years around 1800.

The Making of Anthropology

The Making of Anthropology
Author: Jacob Pandian
Publisher: Vedams eBooks (P) Ltd
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2004
Genre: Anthropology
ISBN: 9788179360149

"This book offers an interpretation of anthropology as a discourse that contrasts the western self and the non-western other and shows that the organizing principle of this discourse was the Judeo-Christian episteme of the "Other in Us" that the Christian Church Fathers developed to define why the pagan others were endowed with negative, ungodly attributes of humanity. It is pointed out that the anthropological application of this episteme to represent and explain the colonized non-western others resulted in the emergence of eurocentric, hierarchical models of humanity, and that although these models of humanity were largely replaced by pluralistic models in the late 20 century, anthropology has continued to be linked with the episteme of the other in us"--Dust jacket.

Spellbound

Spellbound
Author: Elizabeth Reis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780842025775

Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America is a collection of twelve articles that revisit crucial events in the history of witchcraft and spiritual feminism in this country. Beginning with the "witches" of colonial America, Spellbound extends its focus through the nineteenth century to explore women's involvement with alternative spiritualities, and culminates with examinations of the contemporary feminist neopagan and Goddess movements. A valuable source for those interested in women's history, women's studies, and religious history, Spellbound is also a crucial addition to the bookshelf of anyone tracing the evolution of spiritualism in America.

Seneca Possessed

Seneca Possessed
Author: Matthew Dennis
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2012-02-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812207084

Seneca Possessed examines the ordeal of a Native people in the wake of the American Revolution. As part of the once-formidable Iroquois Six Nations in western New York, Senecas occupied a significant if ambivalent place within the newly established United States. They found themselves the object of missionaries' conversion efforts while also confronting land speculators, poachers, squatters, timber-cutters, and officials from state and federal governments. In response, Seneca communities sought to preserve their territories and culture amid a maelstrom of economic, social, religious, and political change. They succeeded through a remarkable course of cultural innovation and conservation, skillful calculation and luck, and the guidance of both a Native prophet and unusual Quakers. Through the prophecies of Handsome Lake and the message of Quaker missionaries, this process advanced fitfully, incorporating elements of Christianity and white society and economy, along with older Seneca ideas and practices. But cultural reinvention did not come easily. Episodes of Seneca witch-hunting reflected the wider crises the Senecas were experiencing. Ironically, as with so much of their experience in this period, such episodes also allowed for the preservation of Seneca sovereignty, as in the case of Tommy Jemmy, a Seneca chief tried by New York in 1821 for executing a Seneca "witch." Here Senecas improbably but successfully defended their right to self-government. Through the stories of Tommy Jemmy, Handsome Lake, and others, Seneca Possessed explores how the Seneca people and their homeland were "possessed"—culturally, spiritually, materially, and legally—in the era of early American independence.

Cornplanter

Cornplanter
Author: Thomas S. Abler
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2007-04-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780815631385

The era following the American War of Independence was one of enormous conflict for the Allegany Senecas. There was then no Seneca leader more influential than Chief Warrior Cornplanter. Yet there has been no definitive treatment of his life--until now. Complex and passionate, yet wise, Cornplanter led his people in war and along an often troubled path to peace. This incisive biography traces his rise to prominence as a Seneca military leader during the American Revolution, and his later diplomatic success in negotiations with the Federal government. The book also explores Cornplanter’s dealings with other Native American councils and with his own people. It tells how Senecas faced heavy pressure to sell their lands, and how they concurrently embraced a reformed and revitalized Iroquois religion, as inspired by Cornplanter’s visionary half-brother, Handsome Lake. Thomas S. Abler skillfully weaves together previously discordant strands of the Chief Warrior’s life into a concise, animated and enlightening portrait. Even as Cornplanter examines a critical period in American history, it gives us a multi-dimensional knowledge of politics and diplomacy from the Seneca point of view. Thoroughly researched and clearly written, this is an ideal companion for students and aficionados of the American Revolution and early nationhood, the Iroquois, and New York State history.

We Survived the End of the World

We Survived the End of the World
Author: Steven Charleston
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2023-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1506486681

From the moment European settlers reached these shores, the American apocalypse began. But Native Americans did not vanish. Apocalypse did not fully destroy them, and it doesn't have to destroy us. Pandemics and war, social turmoil and corrupt governments, natural disasters and environmental collapse--it's hard not to watch the signs of the times and feel afraid. But we can journey through that fear to find hope. With the warnings of a prophet and the lively voice of a storyteller, Choctaw elder and author of Ladder to the Light Steven Charleston speaks to all who sense apocalyptic dread rising around and within. You'd be hard pressed to find an apocalypse more total than the one Native America has confronted for more than four hundred years. Yet Charleston's ancestors are a case study in the liberating and hopeful survival of a spiritual community. How did Indigenous communities achieve the miracle of their own survival and live to tell the tale? What strategies did America's Indigenous people rely on that may help us to endure an apocalypse--or perhaps even prevent one from happening? Charleston points to four Indigenous prophets who helped their people learn strategies for surviving catastrophe: Ganiodaiio of the Seneca, Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee, Smohalla of the Wanapams, and Wovoka of the Paiute. Through gestures such as turning the culture upside down, finding a fixed place on which to stand, listening to what the earth is saying, and dancing a ghostly vision into being, these prophets helped their people survive. Charleston looks, too, at the Hopi people of the American Southwest, whose sacred stories tell them they were created for a purpose. These ancestors' words reach across centuries to help us live through apocalypse today with courage and dignity.