All of the above and more. I found it to be educational and moving. Don't let the number of pages scare you. Large easy to read print. If you like historical fiction, romance, humor, adventure, surprises and just a plain good story this is a must read book. For me, an eye opening account of the truth of the white man's encroachment into a culture, a people and a land. We can't change the past but we can be changed by it. Read and learn.

My grandmother loved River Rising and said it was the "best book".

I am not Cherokee, or even Native American, but I have always felt an affinity with the Cherokee especially. The characters in your book came alive for me and I went on the Trail of Tears just as they did. I felt their sorrow and grief, their joys and triumphs, and felt as if I knew each one. A superbly written book!

(From Planeta Journal) - Ready to explore one of the world's most intriguing regions? Take your trip with Christopher Shaw who introduces readers to the Usumacinta River and its magnificent watershed that stretches across the Mexico-Guatemala border in his new book, Sacred Monkey River (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000).

Subtitled "A Canoe Trip with the Gods," this notable book traces the author's canoe trips running the great river. Unlike many adventure travel narratives in which the author plunges into an unknown terrain, Shaw aims for comprehension rather than searching for misadventure. The result is an account which combines the best of travel literature and environmental reporting.

Few travelers opt for the watery path, particularly with the threat of hijackings and shootings in such a remote area. But Shaw, an accomplished river guide and an enthusiast of the Maya culture, will not be deterred.

"In classical art, two gods pictured as canoeists, accompanied travelers on both actual and metaphysical journeys," Shaw explains. "Both gods paddle the souls of the dead to the Otherworld and the cosmic canoe -- the Milky Way -- across the sky."

Shaw also connects with the environmentalists in the region, including Fernando Ochoa and Ronald Nigh -- two pioneers in developing sustainable agricultural practices in the region.

The book is a veritable "Who's Who" in the region. Meet Scott Davis of Ceiba Adventures, Maya scholars Linda Schele and David Freidel, Moises Morales, the owner of El Pachan and Victor Perera, author of The Last Lords of Palenque.

The book is divided into 12 chapters and boasts the 1953 Franz Blom map of the Selva Lacandona on the inside book cover. What would be useful additions would be a map of the author's expeditions and an index of places and names.

Sacred Monkey River deserves a long shelf-life and it will no doubt be consulted for many years by travelers and environmentalists alike.

This is the real thing folks. No more cute travel stories that romanticize without substance, that Disneyize and exaggerate. This book is the story of the author's courageous and thoughtful trip through an amazingly historical place that is also presently complicated and important. However, the author comes at it from a personal angle: the cosmology of canoes. We learn the importance of canoe travel not only to the Maya but to the author and people in general. That connects to the Maya cosmology and culture, the sense of place that is inherent in living in a watershed and having your existence contingent to flowing water (whether you live in the Lacandon forest or Westchester County), the importance of the geography of the region to the people who live there, and then finally to how all this connects to the Zapatista movement and the modern, and not so modern (this thing is full of scholarly but apt historical asides) plight of the indigenous Maya. All along the way you get to like the author, in his sometimes goofy gringo ways but his omnipresent awareness of his own place within the experience. Sprinkle in healthy doses of heart-thumping whitewater in canoes with inexperienced bow-men, death defying swims, life-threatening bandits, and tight, musical prose, and you've got one heck of a book. I tell you what, Shaw's got it right, the same way Matthiesson did. I recommend this book extremely highly. I wish it were getting more publicity. Read it. Its important.

This book has been a genuine page turner for me, and as I approached the end I tried not to read too much at each sitting so I could prolong its pleasures.

It is for anyone interested in Mesoamerica, Mayan culture, canoeing as adventure, or boats as the movers of trade and ideas. Also for anyone who is lusting for an otherworld experience, metaphorically or actually, though trave, boating, psychogenic drugs, or all of the above. It is full of honest hard-nosed obserevation of nature and the specific nature of this area, and at the same time streches for and is able to peek at the"final" trip, perhaps as many civilizatins saw it, goin on a craft down a river or out to sea/see. shaw effortlessly intertwines some Spanish into his evocative--dare I use the word--poetic English, always aiming for and touching precision and clarity without sacrificing mystery. On, I believe, its deepest level, the language as well as the story drew me into the unknow, into the future, and of course the past as well.

When I read Cotton's first Jeston Nash novel, I thought it was the best non-Louis Lamour western I'd ever read. Powder River's content is less graphic than his first, and even more entertaining. One almost begins to feel sorry for Jeston; but luckily the misanthrope manages to let his true greedy nature show through. The two anti-heroes (Jeston Nash and Quiet Jack) are the biggest thing to stagger out of the west since US Grant!

This is the kind of western I always look for but hardly ever find. Ralph Cotton tells it like it is when it comes to the government and what they did to the sioux indians. Once I started reading it and seeing the war from both sides, I realized this was no ordinary western. Sometimes the language is a little strong but that's easy to overlook for a person who enjoys real life like stories

I didn't think another western could top While Angels Dance, but Powder River does. It is more like watching a Sam Peckinpaw movie than reading a book. Cotton is one heck of a writer with a lot to say. These are the kind of westerns that I've been looking for

Author Geoffrey O'Gara uses two decades of legal wrangles over control of the watershed on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation to explore two centuries of the collision between whites and Native Americans in the West. He accomplishes this feat in 300 pages by presenting the story as a human drama, focusing on the lives of individuals, living and dead, each with their own aspirations, history, and personality.

On the one hand are the white farmers who have settled legally within the boundaries of the reservation, "reclaiming" arid land with water provided by federally funded irrigation systems. On the other are the Indians of two tribes, Shoshone and Arapaho, historically antagonistic, reduced by over a century of conquest and together discovering a new-found strength to resist the will of state and federal governments. Among them are the college-educated, the young drop-outs, the old who still remember some of the lost Indian culture -- a wide range of people challenging easy ethnic stereotypes while at the same time representing the social ills that plague the reservations: poverty, unemployment, alcoholism. It is a Dickensian cast of characters.

A third group of key figures in O'Gara's story are the non-Indian professionals whose lives become entwined with reservation residents as the struggle over water rights heats up: engineers, hydrologists, conservationists, bureaucrats, lawyers and judges. The endless legal battles bring to mind Dickens' "Bleak House." Court decisions progressively yield more ground to the Indians, and appeals take the case against them all the way to the Supreme Court, yet after $50 million in legal fees, the issues remain unresolved.

While O'Gara makes an effort to maintain a journalist's objectivity throughout the book, his underlying sympathy is pretty clearly with the Indians, whom he gives the lion's share of the book to. Seeming to acquire privileged information in his interviews, he also points out that as a journalist he is often permitted to know what will best serve the Indians' purposes. He must still question its veracity and speculate about the rest, based on what seems to be extensive research in public records and historical accounts.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the American West, its history, cultures, geology, topography. The book is organized as a journey upstream, along the river's two main branches, into its headwaters in mountain glaciers. In fact, it's a good idea to have a map of Wyoming at hand for reference. As a companion to this book, I'd recommend Frank Clifford's "Backbone of the World," which explores some of this same subject matter and introduces readers to many other inhabitants up and down the Continental Divide.

The author manages to guide the reader though a conflicting set of water resource issues on the most legally confusing of all landscapes... the Wind River Reservation. Lined up across the court-room aisle sit the anglo farmers who tap the river for irrigation and the native residents wanting to restore the "in-stream flows" to support the trout fishery. Its a conflict the author uses to drive the story forward, but is only a single thread of a much richer story. The author interleaves the battle over water rights with the history of both the Shoshone and Arapaho and the opening of land within the reservation for white settlers. The author's love of the Wind River Reservation is evident in his first hand accounts describing the area's geography and natural history. This book succeeds by tying together the story's long and interconnected threads into a comprehensive picture of water politics.

One of this books central characters is the former state engineer of Wyoming...my dad. I picked up this book for the soul purpose that it had to do with my dad. It was kind of interesting reading about what he has done at his job during the course of almost MY entire lifetime. It's an excellent book and I reccomned it to anyone looking for a good non-fiction book to sink into.

This book carried me WAY beyond the story line, using the questionable character of Lewis Moon as transportation. The well-meaning Quarriers were as lost and out of place in the jungle as the natives would have been if you dropped them off somewhere between 42nd Street and Central Park. And the death of the innocent child is a sacrifice to that ignorance.

The journey of Lewis Moon away from civilization into the native life represents two things--a retreat from the sophistication of a society to which he did not seem to belong, and a search for an ultimate truth. As he penetrates further and further into the jungle, he comes closer and closer to the heart of life itself, and closer ultimately to death. This story is a mystery to which you have to write your own ending, and I dearly loved reading it!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the juxtaposition of humor and tragedy, and the complicated contradictions of the human spirit

This book is the comparison of Missionaries Vs. Mercenaries and is charactered by peopled with ethnic groups who also come from the same sort to conflict: Jews and American Indians in the land of the Amazon. Kind of a "If religion doesn't work, shoot the bastards," and "women like being ravaged by animals." This is not a book for the weak stomached, or the self righteous. This is a book for people who want to tear the face off of reality. This is a great, honest and sad book. It is a requiem for indigenous people around the world, maybe for you

One theme I found to be particularly compelling in this book which has not been directly explored in the reviews currently posted is the search for identity which seemingly each character in this novel is engaged. Lewis Moon, a man who existes on the fringe of the dominant culture of the US, longs for validation in the culture of his ancestors, a culture which is tragically unavailable. The missionaries, Protestant and Catholic alike, seek identity and validation in the people they seek to convert, including the endless "conversion" of their own families. The other characters have their own identity issues. The most compelling of these searches, to my mind, was that of Lewis Moon who, without any feeling of loyalty to any culture available to him, seeks identity in an indiginous culture not yet eradicated by the dominant Chilean culture of European origin. (Perhaps he thinks he can help them avoid the fate of the culture of his ancestors.) The novel explores each character's basis for self-perception and what they do when their basic assumptions about their role in the world are challenged. What does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be an American who has had his citizenship revoked? What does it mean to have faith? What if the dogma of your denomination appears to produce results that seem "un-Christlike?" What does it mean to indentify as a member of an indigineous people? What does that mean when you are among members of another indiginous people? All these questions (and there are many more) posed in the book have lead me to a better perception of who I am and why I think so. One of the best books I've had the pleasure to have read.

I was given this book by my father, who met Sidney and said he was a heck of a guy. That alone is a glowing review. I have been born and raised in Alaska and even though I lead a more urban life, I could relate to and picture most of the accounts in this book. I think the more time you spend in the wilderness, the more you would appreciate this book. Hopefully, those of you who have not been in the wilds of Alaska will still get a lot out of this book. This book is without question one of the best books I have ever read (And I'm comparing it to classic literary works as well). I am not an emotional reader, but I had tears in my eyes more than once while reading it. One should pay special attention to the section on wolves - it is the real story - the one the animal rights activists don't want you to know.
Sidney bridges the native and white cultures so well - I think both cultures would be better off if we lived to his ideals.

The experiance this man has growing up in the Koyyakuk is almost to unbelievable, but true. From losing your mom at age 7 and taking care of 2 younger siblings for days until they were discosvered, to killing a Grizzly bear by hand, this was the norm before civilization hit the region. A truly remarkable book. YOu will want to re-read again and again.

Sidney Huntington grew up along the Koyukuk River in Alaska's harsh interior over 80 years ago. After his legendary mother suddenly dies, 3 year old Huntington protects & cares for his younger siblings during two weeks of isolation before rescue comes. As a teenager he plies wilderness traplines with his father, nearly freezing to death several times.

Shadows on the Koyukuk is a plain & simple memoir with unpretentious recounting of arduous survival interwoven with memories of cheerful, wholehearted contentment of where Sidney found himself in a fabled & beautiful land.

With names like Weaselheart & Schilikum, Monkey John & Cosmos Mountain, Sidney tells of his life on the edge & what happened when civilization arrived & bureaucracy took over. These are the memories of when Anchorage was a city of about 2,000 souls, after the great the Alaska Railroad system was built & the railroad crews had left. You will also find out what "tundra daisies" are. A pleasing memoir of a full life!

From early in the 20th to the birth of the 21st Century, little changed along the banks of the Klamath in 95 years. The path these women followed remains little altered from when they traveled tho now covered in asphalt, it is still a remote and rough territory for the uninitiated. They stepped off a ship in Humboldt Bay and then walked off the map into the unknown. Surrounded by wilderness, the Marble Mountains and the Trinity Alps, as spectacular and rugged peaks today as they were then. Great Grandchildren of some of those who taught these adventerous ladies the skills to survive in this wild country still live on the same piece of ground. This is the canvas Mary and Mabel painted a wonderful picture of the world they found here. Let them show you the neighborhood and see if you could follow those footsteps down the trail.

Since the world was created at Katimin, the Klamath River has been home to the salmon runs that fed the eagles and fattened bears and filled the smokehouses of the people. The river is the life-blood that flows thru the canyon veins, like a puzzle, each piece necessary to make it complete. A blood transfusion 150 miles away only slowing foreclosure on farmland in another state, no crops must die. Now less water flows downstream and is murky colored and too warm for the salmon to survive in but the life of a potato was saved! A river with no fish is a watershed dying, when the life of the river dies will life along that river follow? These hardy women managed to live without fries, but a river without salmon would be both unbelieveable and inconceivable to them.

Mary and Mabel wandered into my part of northern california to be schoolteachers. From their story you can see how they knew nothing of what the territory was like, how the people were, or any local customs. They seemed to have a vague sense that it was a 'wild' land. They fit in amazingly well in a land where killing another person meant you had to pay that persons family $100 and law was either non-existant or uneffective. They seem to throughly enjoy themselves and set to learn the culture around them and teach what they can. Surprises are around every corner, from rattlesnakes to mountain lions to injun devils. Surprises such as their trusted friend telling them he couldn't go into one town because he had to 'pay $500 last time.'
A great story that is easy to read and gives a glimpse of the hidden corner of northern california where the hupa, yurok and karuk indians reside.

This is an amazing account, by two very adventurous women, of their time spent in an extremely remote area of this country. Even with the speed of modern automobile travel, the tiny communities along the Klamath River, in Humboldt & Siskiyou Counties of northern California, are still remote. Mary & Mabel's sense of adventure, humor, tolerance & joy radiate from this book. It's been 20 years since I lived near the Company Ranch, in Orleans, and read this story. I'm looking forward to owning my own copy and re-reading it. Another reader recommended a wonderful book of similar format. It's exact title is "Tisha: the story of a young teacher in the Alaskan wilderness". It is available through Amazon. I lent my copy several years ago; it's time to buy another copy and re-read it, too. These books are very difficult to find in bookstores. Thank you, Amazon.

Whether real or imagined I seem to be reading more work by writers and stories about Newfoundland. This is the first novel by Michael Crummey and, "River Thieves", is a very strong debut. The book has been compared to, "Cold Mountain", that I have not read, and to, "In The Fall", which I very much enjoyed. This work is not as sweeping a story as Jeffrey Lent's first book, however if you enjoy his writing you will enjoy this tale as well.

This story takes place primarily in the very early 19th Century although there are references to years that bracket the story. The atmosphere I take to be absolutely on point, as the author was borne and continues to live in the same settings on which his book takes place. This leap of faith is difficult to make when the reader has never been to the locale of the book, but Michael Crummey makes the presumption effortless.

The story is ostensibly about the demise of the, "Red Indians", or "The Beothuk". The reasons for the near extinction of these people is the result of the same effects felt throughout the Americas that settlers from Europe either brought with them, or practiced, disease or their desire to take the native population's land. Had the author restricted himself to this review of history, the book would have been too familiar. Instead the author gets deeply involved with a variety of players, and by sharing their stories reveals the fate of the Beothuk as well.

Included are settlers, criminals from England that have been transported, as well as the government officials that were the rule of law. The author also departs from attitudes and the people who hold and act on them. Governments have not been traditionally sympathetic to the indigenous people they found on new lands they claimed for King/Queen and country, Crummey changes that. He introduces, "Indians", which have become a part of the European community with a variety of results. And as he brings his tale to a close, it is not just governmental policy that shapes the fate of people and new nations, but often the people that hold a variety of positions, either governmental or in their communities, that can shape history as well.

The poet in Crummey is very much in evidence throughout this book. His prose (which makes use here of arcane words and expressions unique to Newfoundland, as well as some of the surviving nouns of the Beothuk language) is as strong and often bleak as the island itself in his narrative of the early 18th century inhabitants and their violent relationship with the (literally) red indians, the Beothuk.

Fact and fiction are seamlessly woven into a fascinating study of the bleak beauty of the place and the difficulties of the trapping/fishing lives of the residents--most of whom have found their way to the island from Great Britain. These "newcomers" are at great odds with the indigenous peoples: the Mi'kmaqs and the Beothuks; and the Mi'kmaqs consider themselves to be far superior to the Red Indians. The eternal pecking order.

What makes this book so fascinating, aside from its fully fleshed, very human cast of characters and the neverending labor of their daily lives (as well as the wretched weather), is the decimation and, ultimately, the complete eradication of the Beothuks. From the modern perspective, genocide is an ongoing horror. But for those arriving on foreign, North American shores, it was a matter of killing to stake a claim to the land, killing out of fear or contempt, but killing and killing until those with the most legitimate claim simply ceased to exist.

In dealing with many perspectives, the author gives us an insightful view of the rationales operating for every one of the characters in this book. It's a tour de force of collective viewpoints woven together to form an historical tapestry.

Beautifully written by a writer with great feeling for his characters and for history, wrenching and sad, River Thieves is a splendid book.
Most highly recommended.

"River Thieves" by Michael Crummey captures the landscape of Newfoundland with poetic brilliance. The characters are misty and intense. The plot is a wonderful mix of Newfoundland history, adventurer's biography and beach book. I can't wait for the sequel.