Native American Literature, O-Q
382. OANDASAN, William. Summer Night. (n.p.): A Publications (1989). Haiku. Small ink price rear cover; copyright dates changed from 1987 to 1989. Fine in stapled wrappers.
383. O'BEIRNE, H.F. and E.S. The Indian Territory. Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men. St. Louis: C.B. Woodward, 1892. A biographical dictionary of the leading figures of four of the Five Civilized Tribes -- the Muskogees, or Creeks; Cherokees, Choctaws and Chickasaws -- including historical sketches of each tribe and an overview of their myths, legends and customs, taken from the authors' interviews with various of the tribal elders. Also includes thumbnail sketches of a number of whites who figured prominently in the recent histories of the tribes. This would appear to be an expanded version of a similar dictionary issued a year earlier by H.F. Beirne alone, which covered just the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Illustrated with numerous photographs of the leaders along with some of their wives. Very near fine, without dust jacket. An invaluable reference to the leading figures of the tribes during the first half-century after their removal to the Indian Territory.
384. (Ojibwa). Ojibwa Summer. Barre: Barre Publishers, 1972. The issue in wrappers of this collection of photographs of one summer in the lives of a number of Ojibwa in central Ontario. Photographs by B.A. King and accompanying text by James Houston. Quarto. Wear to the edges and folds; about very good.
385. OLIVER, Louis (Littlecoon). Caught in a Willow Net. (Greenfield Center): (Greenfield Review Press) (1983). Greenfield Review Chapbook #57. Poetry and prose by this writer of Muskogee descent, from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Fine in wrappers.
386. ORTIZ, Simon J. Going for the Rain. NY: Harper & Row (1976). The first book by this Acoma poet and the seventh volume in Harper's Native American Publishing Program. Simultaneously published in cloth and paper, this is the cloth issue. A touch of fading to the upper spine cloth; else fine in an internally tape-strengthened dust jacket; about near fine.
387. ORTIZ, Simon J. A Good Journey. Berkeley: Turtle Island, 1977. Poems, with artwork by Native American artist Aaron Yava. This is the issue in wrappers; one of 2000 copies. This title was reissued in 1984. Quarto. Fine.
388. ORTIZ, Simon J. Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, For the Sake of the Land. (Las Lomas): (Institute for Native American Development) (1980). A collection of poetry and prose pieces dedicated to the notion of workers' resistance to capitalist exploitation. Fine in wrappers. Signed by the author.
389. ORTIZ, Simon J. From Sand Creek. Oak Park: Thunder's Mouth Press (1981). A powerful collection of poems, which many consider his best book to date and which one poet was quoted as saying should have won the Pulitzer Prize if the judges had had any courage, or words to that effect. The title alludes to an infamous massacre of unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children in 1864, and the poems address moral, spiritual, and political issues -- in particular, the process of victimization and the possibility of finding some kind of redemption -- with urgency, clarity and poetic grace. This is the simultaneous issue in wrappers. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication: "For ___, For the struggle & victory,/ Simon J. Ortiz." Tiny horizontal crease to spine; else fine in wrappers.
390. ORTIZ, Simon. Woven Stone. Tucson: U. of Arizona Press (1992). Collects three of his earlier, out-of-print volumes of poetry -- Going for the Rain, A Good Journey, and Fight Back -- adding a lengthy (30+ pages) introduction in which Ortiz reflects on language, writing, and the specific considerations of being a Native American writer. A major collection. This is the hardcover issue; fine without dust jacket (as issued?). Signed by the author.
391. ORTIZ, Simon J. After and Before the Lightning. Tucson: U. of Arizona Press (1994). The hardcover edition of this collection of poetry and short prose pieces. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
392. (ORTIZ, Simon). Sun Tracks, Vol. 2, No. 1. (Tucson): (U. of Arizona) (1975). An early issue of an important "American Indian Literary Magazine," published at the University of Arizona and predating the impressive series of books that were later published under the Sun Tracks imprint of the University press. This copy is signed by Ortiz, who contributes "Many Farm Notes." Fine in stapled wrappers. We have found early issues of this important magazine hard to come by.
393. (ORTIZ, Simon). The Indian Rio Grande. (Los Cerrillos): (San Marcos Press) (1977). Subtitled "Recent Poems from 3 Cultures" and edited by Gene Frumkin and Stanley Noyes. A collection of Indian, Hispanic/Chicano, and Anglo poetry. Seven poems by Ortiz, and signed by Ortiz. Other Native American authors include Leslie Silko, Joy Harjo, Harold Littlebird, Roberto Sandoval and Grey Cohoe. Price inked out on rear cover; check marks in contents; very near fine in wrappers.
394. (ORTIZ, Simon). Pembroke Magazine 8. (Pembroke): (U. of North Carolina) (1977). Ortiz contributes several "Amerindian Sketches," as they are called in the contents. Other Native American contributors include N. Scott Momaday, Craig Kee Strete, Lloyd Oxendine, and Paula Gunn Allen. Near fine in wrappers.
395. OSKISON, John M. Black Jack Davy. NY: D. Appleton, 1926. The second novel by this author of Cherokee descent, who was a lifelong friend of Will Rogers. Oskison attended Stanford University and later did graduate work at Harvard, and he was one of the earliest Native American novelists, arguably the earliest. His first book, Wild Harvest, appeared in 1925. Oskison's novels made no reference to his Indian background or upbringing and addressed Indian issues only in passing, although all were set in the West. This novel is about a young white settler contending with the lawlessness of other whites in the Indian Territory, before it became the state of Oklahoma and during a period when Indians had no authority to deal with the whites who moved into their territory, generally seeking asylum from the law. Fading to mid-spine; a near fine copy in a good dust jacket chipped at the spine corners and with a tenuous hold at the front spine fold. A very scarce book; this is the first copy we have seen in dust jacket.
396. -. Another copy. Lower spine cloth chipped, otherwise a near fine copy, lacking the dust jacket.
397. OSKISON, John. Brothers Three. NY: Macmillan, 1935. A novel that is widely considered his best book and was the only title of his to go into multiple printings. A novel of a white family settled in Oklahoma, and spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A fine copy in a good dust jacket with several edge chips and tears and the lower spine abraded.
398. OSKISON, John M. Tecumseh and His Times. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1938. The last book by this Cherokee writer -- a biography of the great Shawnee chief who tried to organize a confederation of Indian tribes to resist the white man's invasion of Indian lands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His only book of nonfiction, and his only book to deal explicitly with Indian issues and history. Tan cloth; spine a bit sunned, erasure to half title and blue check mark on front flyleaf; still near fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with modest edge wear. Quite uncommon in dust jacket, in our experience.
399. OWENS, Louis. The Sharpest Sight. Norman: U. of Oklahoma Press (1992). A novel of a mixed-blood Vietnam vet. This was the first volume in the University of Oklahoma's American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series, edited by novelist, poet and critic Gerald Vizenor. Blurbs by James Welch, Michael Dorris and Vizenor. Label removal abrasion front flyleaf; else fine in a fine dust jacket. Owens, who is of Choctaw, Cherokee and Irish descent, has written several books of criticism as well as fiction. His volume Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel, is widely considered one of the best introductions to the field of Native American literature.
400. OWENS, Louis. Nightland. (NY): Dutton (1996). The uncorrected proof copy of his first book to be published by a major trade publisher. A novel that combines elements of suspense fiction with a strong dose of Native American culture and mythology. Fine in wrappers.
401. PALE MOON. The Story of an Indian Princess. Wheaton: Tyndale House Press (1975). An Indian "conversion" story, published by a religious press. Owner label and name on front flyleaf and gift inscription previously tipped in there; else fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a small chip at the spine base.
402. PATENCIO, Chief Francisco. Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians. (Palm Springs): Palm Springs Desert Museum (1943) [1969]. Second edition of this collection of tales originally published in 1943. The author was a member of the Cahuilla tribe. Mild spine and edge-sunning; near fine in wrappers.
403. PEITHMANN, Irvin M. Red Men of Fire. A History of the Cherokee Indians. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas (1964). A history of the Cherokees told from the Indians' perspective, by a writer who is 1/8 Cherokee. While the book covers early Cherokee history to some extent, the bulk of it is devoted to the period of the tribe's encounters with whites, its banishment on the "Trail of Tears" from its traditional homelands, and its history in the Indian Territory afterward. Substantial space is given to John Ross's role and the book is highly critical of the behavior of the whites in dealing with the Cherokees. Fine in a fine, mildly spine-tanned dust jacket.
404. PEIRCE, Ebeneezer W. Indian History and Genealogy. North Abington: Zerviah Gould Mitchell, 1878. An early volume of genealogy of the Wampanoag tribe and, in particular, their famous chief Massassoit and his descendants. Published by an American Indian woman, Zerviah G. Mitchell, a descendant of Massassoit, who claims in her introduction to this book to be owed $1500 from the state of Massachusetts for wood cleared from her land. Hinges cracked; dampstaining to prelims; mild soiling to boards; a good copy. A very early volume to have a contribution by an American Indian, in particular a woman.
405. PEIRCE, Norman A. "The White Man Cometh." (Red Cloud): (Self-published) (n.d.)[c. late 1950s]. A history of Red Cloud and the town of Red Cloud, Nebraska, which begins in Genesis and covers many of the intervening years in a first person narrative -- i.e., in part a fictionalized history/autobiography of the Lakota chief. Signed by the author on the inside rear cover. Mild sunning; else fine in wrappers.
406. PELLETIER, Wilfred. Two Articles. (Toronto): Neewin Publishing Co./(Institute for Indian Studies) (n.d.)[c. 1969]. The two articles of the title are "Childhood in an Indian Village" and "Some Thoughts about Organization and Leadership." The book was produced by an educational-resource center for Canadian Indians. Fine in stapled wrappers.
407. PELTIER, Leonard. In Total Resistance. (Mohegan Lake): (Leonard Peltier Support Group) (n.p.)[c. 1980]. A volume including statements and poetry by Leonard Peltier -- a Sioux-Chippewa activist in the American Indian Movement imprisoned for the killings of two FBI agents in an armed standoff on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. Peter Matthiessen's exhaustive account of the affair and the subsequent trial -- published as In the Spirit of Crazy Horse -- depicted Peltier's conviction as a gross miscarriage of justice. Matthiessen's book was effectively suppressed for nine years by lawsuits initiated against him and his publisher by some of the principals on the Government side. Fine in stapled wrappers, with errata sheet laid in.
408. PERCEVAL, Don. From Ice Mountain. Flagstaff: Northland Press (1979). A posthumously published children's book by the highly regarded Southwestern artist. Perceval illustrated Natachee Scott Momaday's Owl in the Cedar Tree, and his own Navajo Sketch Book is considered a classic. This tale covers the Indian settlement of the Americas, particularly the Southwest. Introduced by Frank Waters. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
409. (Peyote Tale). Jesus and the Donkey. (n.p.): (Black Rock Press) (1973). A fine press edition of a peyote tale, originally recorded in 1954 by anthropologist Warren d'Azevedo as it was told by a Washo man to a group of his friends. One of 190 copies on English handmade Crown & Sceptre paper printed damp. Saddle-stitched in wrappers with a woodcut engraving on the cover and colophon page. Fine.
410. PIERCE, William Henry. From Potlatch to Pulpit. Vancouver: Vancouver Bindery Limited, 1933. Autobiography of a half-Indian missionary in British Columbia during the last half of the 19th century and first part of the 20th. Illustrated with photographs. The front flyleaf is damaged from the removal of something once glued to the verso; this is otherwise a near fine copy in a fair dust jacket: chipped, split and threatening to split at the folds; externally tape-repaired. An uncommon and important historical account.
411. PIERRE, George. American Indian Crisis. San Antonio: Naylor Company, 1971. A look at the issues facing contemporary Indian tribes, written by a hereditary chief. Light mottling to cloth and foxing to edges; about near fine in a near fine, spine- and edge-sunned dust jacket.
412. PIERRE, Chief George. Autumn's Bounty. San Antonio: Naylor (1972). A novel by a chief of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington state, dealing with a chief and tribe facing the controversial question of "termination" -- the ending of federal control over Indian reservations and the resultant freedoms, and losses, the policy would entail. This is the seemingly more common issue, in reddish-brown cloth. (There was also an issue in a deeper brown, textured binding.) Inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded and price-clipped dust jacket.
413. -. Another copy. This copy belonged to Charles R. Larson, author of the landmark book American Indian Fiction, "the first critical and historical account of novels by American Indians." Larson's pencilled notes are in evidence throughout; Autumn's Bounty is included on pp. 137-140 of Larson's text. Fine in a spine-tanned dust jacket with a couple closed edge tears; about near fine. A significant association copy of this novel.
414. PITSEOLAK. Pictures Out of My Life. Montreal: Design Collaborative Books (1978). The first paperback edition of this bilingual volume of Pitseolak's autobiography, transcribed from recorded interviews by Dorothy Eber and illustrated with Pitseolak's drawings. Quarto; near fine in wrappers.
415. PLYMELL, Charles. Apocalypse Rose. San Francisco: Dave Haselwood, 1966. The first book by this poet/collagist who is of partial Cherokee descent and was associated with the San Francisco Beat poetry scene and the hippie counterculture that emerged from it in the 1960s. Plymell was a close friend of Allen Ginsberg and lived with him and Neal Cassady in San Francisco. Ginsberg provides an introduction to this volume, which is dated October 28, 1966; his stridently antiwar poem, Wichita Vortex Sutra had been published two months earlier, in August, 1966. Plymell helped Ginsberg on some of the poems that appeared in Planet News, and Ginsberg, in his introduction to this volume, credits Plymell and his friends with "inventing the Wichita Vortex" in "a tradition stretching back...to Poe and earlier American vibration artists." Plymell grew up in Kansas and went to school in Wichita before leaving for the West Coast. While his poems are not strictly about Native American issues, and his Native American ethnicity is barely mentioned in the biographical information accompanying his books, his writing is that of an outsider to the dominant culture, and allusions to Indian themes crop up repeatedly as an undercurrent to much of his work. Inscribed by the author. Lightly dusty covers; else fine in stapled wrappers.
416. PLYMELL, Charles. The Last of the Moccasins. (San Francisco): City Lights (1971). His third book, an autobiographical novel in the tradition of Jack Kerouac, which describes his Wichita days and later his travels, to California, Mexico and elsewhere, and his days with Ginsberg, Cassady, et al. He also writes about traveling with his late sister. Inscribed by the author. Near fine in wrappers, with a blurb by William Burroughs, among others.
Please Note: Also available, a small archive of original material by Plymell. Please inquire for details.
417. POKAGON, Chief Simon. O-GÎ-MÄW-KW MIT-I-GWÄ-KÎ (Queen of the Woods). Hartford: C.H. Engle, 1899. A novel by the last chief of the Potawatomi tribe. While the publisher's preface asserts that this book is nonfiction, Larson argues with that, and Owens includes it among his "nine novels" by Native American writers published prior to 1968. Pokagon was involved with securing the payment for the sale by the Potawatomis of the land that became Chicago and its environs, a claim which was settled in 1896, three years before his death. This novel was published just after he died. Cloth moderately worn along all the edges and folds, small spot to rear cover; still about very good, without dust jacket.
418. POSEY, Alexander. The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Topeka: Crane & Co., 1910. The prolific Creek poet's only book, a posthumous collection of the poems he had published over the years in various newspapers and periodicals. A scarce and important early volume of poetry by a Native American writer. Gift inscription first blank and name and label removed from front pastedown; otherwise a near fine copy of a book issued by a small press in the midwest, far from the publishing centers of the time.
419. (Pueblo). DeHUFF, Elizabeth W. Taytay's Tales. NY: Harcourt, Brace (1922). Folk tales, collected and re-told by DeHuff. With illustrations by two seventeen year old Hopi boys. Faint edge-sunning to boards and a tiny tear to the cloth at the crown; near fine in a very good, unevenly sunned dust jacket.
420. (Pueblo). MAILS, Thomas E. The Pueblo Children of the Earth Mother. Garden City: Doubleday, 1983. The two volume trade edition of this massive work on the Pueblo and their Anasazi ancestors, considered the most exhaustive treatment of the subject for general readers. Illustrated with over 1000 line drawings. The first volume deals with the Anasazi and the second with the Pueblos, up to the present day. Each volume is fine in a fine dust jacket with very slight edge wear (apparently lacking the cloth slipcase).
421. QUERRY, Ron. The Death of Bernadette Lefthand. Santa Fe: Red Crane Books (1993). The well-received first novel by this author of Choctaw descent. A blurb by Tony Hillerman calls it "the best novel of its type since Leslie Silko's Ceremony." A near fine copy of the issue in wrappers.
422. QUERRY, Ron. Bad Medicine. NY: Bantam (1998). His second novel, a combination medical thriller and exploration of Hopi and Navajo culture and society. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
423. QUIRK, Patrick Edward. When Spirits Touch the Red Path. Salt Lake City: Northwest Publishing (1994). Autobiographical account by a Pueblo writer, which includes stories told to him by his grandfather, a "Spirit Caller of the Isletta Pueblo." Only issued in wrappers. A bit of scattered rubbing; still fine in wrappers.
424. QOYAWAYMA, Polingaysi. No Turning Back. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico (1964). An autobiographical account "of a Hopi Indian girl's struggle to bridge the gap between the world of her people and the world of the white man." Tape residue on the rear free endpaper; else fine in a good, internally tape-strengthened dust jacket with moderate edge wear and splitting along the front flap fold.