Gandert's images carry the viewer into the most important dimension of ritual: the experiential element. Witnessing these ritual dances, even as a mere spectator, can be a moving experience. A vivid recollection of one New Year's Day at Jemez Pueblo Plaza comes to mind. I sat crosslegged on the ground at the inward-facing edge of the assembly, following the action of the Matachine dancers. A little boy portraying El Torito, the bull, was being chased by a whip-wielding Abuelo, who represents both wise elder and taunting clown. I held my hands over my head, feigning a protective gesture in mock fear, as they ran around me in ever tightening circles. The double-line pattern of the danzantes suddenly shifted and swept over me on both sides with ribbons flying in a swirl of color. In that moment I found all concept of time and structure collapsing into liminality. Afterwards, I became concerned that I might have inadvertently violated ritual space. Upon expressing my feelings to a tribal member, however, I was assured that no such transgression had taken place and that I might have even received a blessing.

The event described above could, no doubt, be interpreted quite differently from another standpoint and through another's eyes. Similarly, this book can be appreciated on many different levels. It's relevancy to universal elements and ritual may resonate with a widely diverse audience. Gandert and four knowledgeable essayists create a compelling cultural admixture of polarity and paradox. The resultant images emerge through layers of time, space, and history like so many bubbles from some deep, ancient well. This book is truly a verbal and visual treasure.

Readers interested in expanding their knowledge of the Matachines tradition will also find a valuable resource in The Matachines Dance: Ritual Symbolism and Interethnic Relations in the Upper Rio Grande Valley by Sylvia Rodriguez.

"The magic of Pablita Velarde is all here in this book." --R.C. Gorman (acclaimed Navajo artist)

"Pablita Velarde has told the story of her Santa Clara people throughout her career and has become a legend in her own time." --United Features Syndicate

The cover and title page painting -- titled Old Father Storyteller -- may be Pablita Velarde's best known work. The elder is shown telling people of the pueblo stories about the stars and constellations, which march in an arc across the sky. This painting, which Velarde was inspired to by her father's stories, won the Grand Prize at the 1955 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial.

It is also recognized by archaeoastronomers (scholars studying pre-contact native star lore) as one of the few records in which pueblo constallations can be identified, and star lore is told. (Long Sash is basically the familiar Orion, for example.) So that story has uses in Native-centered science. Beautiful uses.

There are 6 stories in the book, each with several of Pablita's fabulous paintings. "Turkey Girl" is the Tewa version of a Zuni storyteller's remake of Cinderella. Turkey Girl -- clad in finery by her flock of turkeys, instead of a fairy godmother -- goes to a dance, and is not recognized as the ragged orphan, courted by many men. But when she is found out by her mean stepmother, there's quite a different ending from Perrault's (and Disney's).

She doesn't wind up with any of those Indian men, indeed, those Prince Uncharmings are all chasing her to kill her for a witch! Some kind of big turkey spirit hides her; she disappears into a canyon with her flock. Turkeys are found no more by people hunting them for food. The moral and ethical meanings in this Indian transfiguration are very different from Cinderella. The only moral of that one is that nice clothes get you in anywhere. The Indian storytellers disagree.

Velarde says in her preface: "I was one of the fortunate children of my generation [she was born in 1918] who were probably the last to hear stories firsthand from Great-grandfather or Grandfather. I treasure that memory, and I have tried to preserve it in this book so that my children as well as other people may have a glimpse of what used to be."

Velarde's father was a respected Tewa storyteller in the Santa Clara Pueblo. She and her sisters as children had heard these stories during summer nights when they returned from Indian boarding school (where Native children were forced to go in US government attempts to destroy Indian culture by separating children from their families, language, and homes) to help their father farm his fields. In the late 1950's, when her marriage to Herbert Hardin, a non-Indian policeman, was breaking up, she returned to the Pueblo, recorded her father's stories and translated 6 of the most memorable into English for this book, which her paintings illustrate. The stories are told simply and clearly, as Pablita told them to her own children, and had been told them, as a child, by her father.

At that point in her life she was already an acclaimed artist, with the Bandolier National Monument murals, many prizes, and paintings in museums to her credit. In 1954, the French government had awarded her the Palmes Academiques for her outstanding contributions to art, the first time a European government had recognized Indian art as fine art, rather than primitive craft.

Dale Stuart King, who had hired her as to paint the accurate -- and artistic -- murals of traditional Pueblo life at Bandelier National Monument, liked the stories and published them in 1960. The book was chosen as one of the best Western books of 1960. This handsome reprint, 35 years later, uses improved color printing techniques to make Velarde's art available to children and others in highest quality. It's one of Clear Light Publishers' best-selling books, and they have (not on Amazon.com) a special slipcased, signed gift edition for $200, for rich folks with art-loving friends.

You can see some of Velarde's murals. at http://www.viva.com/nm/PCCmirror/murals.html. These murals in the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center are explained and shown, large and in details. In addition, see a painting by Pablita's daughter, artist Helen Hardin, who died untimely young, in 1984 at http://www.wingspread.com/fa/fa048.html.

Content and art reproductions and quality are identical in the paperback and hardcover versions of this book. Schools may need to get the paperback for cost reasons; parents and art-loving adults interested in Indian culture should get the hardcover, for permanence.

Reviewed by Paula Giese, editor, Native American Books website, http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/books/bookmenu.html