Barbara Kramer writes a much needed biography of Nampeyo, the Tewa potter. This book is a comprehensive look at Nampeyo's life, as both a member of the Hopi/Tewa nation, and as a seminal artist. Kramer also succesfully challenges much of the conventional wisdom surrounding Nampeyo's life and work, some of which has persisted for almost a century.

While setting the context in which Nampeyo lived and worked, Kramer also draws a vivid picture of life in the Hopi/Tewa villages at the close of the 19th Century. Beset by archeologists, ethnographers, and missionaries, the Hopis attempted to maintain a way of life and culture that had sustained them for generations.

Kramer writes in a clear, accessible style, and makes liberal use of quotes and other references from Nampeyo's extended family. For anyone interested in the history and development of 20th Century Hopi pottery, this book is a must read.

Nashville Tales starts from the town's exciting beginnings from the people Nashville, Davidson County is named for, to the earliest pioneers dramatic stories, on into the 20th C. A natural story teller, Louise Davis wrote the best story on Revolutionary War General, William Lee Davidson, I've ever read! (I'm a fan of this hero). She also brings to life the times and heroics of the well-known and lesser known people that have shaped this town, the state and our country! Couldn't put it down. TN history lovers will find renewed spark as she reveals how a tiny log cabin community grew into the huge city today. Can't ever part from it.

I was hunting for a recipe of Indian Frybread because we'd eaten it up at the Makah Nation's summer celebration & wanted some at home. I found Native American Cooking: Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations & gave my Southwest-raised Webmaster a palatable surprise.

I also tried Pozole because hominy has such a primal aroma & flavor - incredible & so simple! We do not, of course, eat anywhere near as elegantly as the photos which present Cornsicles, Arrowheads of Blue Cornmeal Gnocchi or Lamb Stuffed Chiles or Cactus Pad Salad with Fiery Jalapeno Dressing. However, Hohoise Ice or Prickly Pear Ice refresh us up here in our plain bowls just as well!

The Adobe Bread was heavenly, the Dandelion Salad with Mustard Greens Vinaigrette was energizing & the Picuris Indian Bread Pudding with Apricot Sauce - dreamy! What I liked the most was bringing home the sights, smells, tastes & textures of a sunburned country & its people - both in the ingredients I hunted up & Lois Ellen Frank's book.

For a taste of the American Southwest & a glimpse into what has sustained healthy & contented generations, I heartily recommend this one - the recipes work & can easily be adapted to wherever you happen to have settled.

If you're going to travel in "Indian country" you need to keep this one in the front seat. Your companion can read while you drive. This book is recommended in the conclusion of The Native American Indian Artist Directory. Along with The Field Guide to Southwest Indian Arts and Crafts you can have a great adventure in the Southwest. Read Kosik and Hardeen's book first. Then read the Field Guide to learn about the art along the "Native Roads." Then open up The Native American Indian Artist Directory and find an address or phone number for the artist that interests you most and have a memorable experience!!

Of the many books I've read on southwest gardening, this was the most rewarding. I learned so much about native and adaptive plants that are suited to our climate and growing conditions here in the southwest. Also about the different "microclimates" that determine proper location of particular plants in the garden so they will thrive. After applying the valuable information from this book to my own gardening efforts I see miraculous results! This book is a MUST for New Mexico gardeners interested in beautiful, water conservative plants.

Caught between a plethora of beautiful picture books written by visitors who rush undigested material into print and scholarly tomes too pithy and densely packed with jargon to be understood by anyone, sometimes even the author, it is rare to find a book that is written by an academic thoroughly versed in her subject yet so enjoyable to read that it may as well be a novel. You will find Professor Willow Roberts Powers' "Navajo Trading the end of an era" a joy to read for its lively style, and you will gain an introduction to and an understanding of a complex period in our national history.
The text is enlivened with quotes from oral histories of Navajo Indians and traders who lived together through friendship and animosity, trust and fear, hardship and wealth. It is evident that Powers understands her subject from decades of contact and is able to outline the intricate social and political interactions that changed the lives of people in the Southwest in fundamental ways.
I know some of the people in the book, many are still alive, and even after years of contact I feel I know them better now that I have read their story as Powers writes it, casting light in the cobwebby corners of memory and bringing a time past into clear view. The era may have ended but the story and its people still live today in its aftermath.
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Library Journal's review of this guide: "Combining encyclopedic coverage of destinations with loads of practical information and atlas-type maps, the series illuminates the wonders of nature but emphasizes the peculiarity of a place's people and their folklore."

Spanning the years 1840 to 1890, New Mexico In The Nineteenth Century by Andrew K. Gregg is an impressive and informative "picture history" of New Mexico's history and features more than 500 original woodcuts and steel engravings by 19th Century artists and explorers. Replete with scenes of Indian pueblos, Spanish villages, and frontier army posts, the engaging text draws from diverse sources as the journals of early travelers, long out of print books, official reports. Each illustrations is enhanced with an accompanying text and is identified as to its source. New Mexico In The Nineteenth Century is a unique and highly recommended contribution to American Frontier History in general New Mexico historical studies in particular.

Rick Bass' New Wolves (1-58574-265-1, $14.95) charts the return of the Mexican Wolf to the American Southwest and the controversies surrounding its preservation. Political, social and natural history blend in essays which survey the wolves and provide first-person observations. A recommended pick for any who love animals and natural history.

When I read the professional book review, I was disappointed, for the reviewer either does not understand the story told here or lacks certain cognitive ability....This is a great book, well researched and extremely well documented. This is not the story of some heathen band of farmers being puppeted by large land holders as the reviewer stumbles with. This is a document which validates the efforts of those farmers with enough foresight and guts to break the chains of slavery imposed by a monopolistic market place, controlled by "the trust", James B Duke, who was the American Tobacco Company (yes, same Duke as the University and Duke Power)who controlled all aspects of the tobacco market in the United States and Europe.(The reviewer mentions Missouri and Illinois which never in history have grown tobacco and do not enter into the picture in any frame here except that the author may have taught in Universities in those states.) And these undereducated farmers then took steps to enforce the fact that no farmer could benefit unjustly from the sacrifices made by all the member farmers of the Tobacco Association to bring about the end to the unjust enrichment of the Trust. This is the story of economic justice at the point of force, first of numbers and then the willingness to commit talk to action in defending the future of every farm family in Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee...with blood for blood if necessary. This is a story of economic and social action. It is an enduring story...which lasted into the new millenium...until today...
Only in the racial aspects attempted to be pulled into the frame of the picture does Waldrep venture into left field...it was never about race. Blacks were involved as association members and even as Night Riders...and although not in actions pivitol, they fought bravely for economic justice on their own terms. I am currently writing my book "The last Night Rider" which tells the story as it was lived by my family....my grandfather was the next door neighbor to Dr Dave Amoss, the Night Rider General....My four great uncles were all heavily involved in all of the raids and activities. I recommend the Waldrep book...it is very good reading....