A Tree Rooted in Faith: A History of Queen of Angels Monastery by Alberta Dieker

Additionally, the triballywritten chapters do not commonly include referencestooutside sources. The authors' individual Native per spectives are presented as a single source, and thereare fewreferencesto otherNative people tellingtheirown histories. This isnot somuch a problem as it isunderstood that theauthors, being researchers and cultural leaders in their tribes, likelyhave condensed the perspectives ofmany tribalmembers into theirnarrative. There is value, however, in offering "first person" oral histories narrated by tribalElder historians; theyofferdeeply layeredand inter estingvoices inhistorical texts. Despite this,the authors should be commended fortheiryears of research on tribal histories and forbeing able to condense all of the individual accounts down to essay length summaries ofwhat must be severalbooks iffullyassembled. The chapters on Federal Indian Relations and theOregon Coast written by esteemed scholar Stephen Dow Beckham do not offer Native perspectives or a true introduction, con clusion, or critical reflectionabout the subject. While the information is a valuable addition to the book, the chapter deserves more sub stantiveanalysis thatwould help readers fully engagewith the subjects. In theOregon Coast chapter,Beckham does offera nice summary but does not distinguish individual tribesalong the coast,where a variety ofdifferentlanguage families and cultures are represented. The Grand Ronde IndianReservation chap ter isauthored by two scholars, tribal member Brent Merrill and academic Yvonne Hajda. The chapter benefits from collaboration between two authorswith differentscholarly strengths, making itpacked with information.There are paragraphs of the chapter, however, that are obviouslywritten byHadja and othersby Mer rill, making the reading recognizably uneven. A synthesis of thewriting styleswould have benefited the chapter. Any edited volume has itschallenges, as dif ferent writers offerdifferent writing strengths. This book isno exception. What makes itamaz ing is the breadth and depth of information available about Native peoples from various cultural and scholarlyperspectives. The Native authors are some of thekey scholars in their community who can write these stories, an option thatwas not available for all Oregon tribes in theprevious decades due to the ter mination ofmost tribesinOregon. The book is destined tobecome amainstay and theprimary resource forall scholars ofOregon Indians and will be sought afterby historians, anthropolo gists,linguists,and students majoring in Native Studies.No Oregon libraryshould be without several copies of this book, and college and secondary school curriculum writers need to findways to utilize it in all classes concerning Oregon Indian history and culture. Inmany ways, The FirstOregonians: Second Edition fully engageswith and fills what authorGeorgeWas son, Jr., calls the cultural blackhole. David G. Lewis and Anthropology 231 students Grand Ronde Tribe andWillamette University ATREEROOTED INFAITH: A HISTORY OF QUEEN OF ANGELSMONASTERY by AlbertaDieker Wipf 8c Stock Publishers, Inc., Eugene, Oregon, 2007. Photographs, notes. 217 pages. $24.00 paper. SisterAlberta Dieker, a longtimemember and formerprioress of theQueen ofAngels Bene dictine community at Mount Angel, isa trained historian and a good storyteller.In thisbook, written to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the monastery's founding, she recounts the vibrant and oftendifficulthistory of her com munity with respect, even reverence,without glossing over the struggles,conflicts,and disil lusionments that inevitably arise in the lifeof any human community, religious or secular. She has given us an engaging story,although one with a somewhat narrow scope. Reviews 341 Dieker begins her talewith Sister Bernar dineW?chter, the strong-willed German nun who helped carry the Benedictine rule of her Swiss mother-house to America. In 1876, W?chter immigrated and joined a group of Swiss monks and nuns who had settled in Missouri. In 1882, she was part of a group that came west to theGerman-speaking town of Gervais, Oregon. Two years later, both communities settled in the nearby town of Fillmore, which the fathers renamed Mount Angel, afterEngelberg, theirhome monastery in Switzerland. A Tree Rooted in Faith traces the sisters' struggles and successes as theybuilt up their monastic community in Mount Angel, founded a boarding school and a college, educated Indian children, staffed parochial schools throughout the Willamette Valley and beyond, and opened theirdoors toOregon girlsdesiring a religious life,all thewhile maintaining their strict Benedictine prayer life.Dieker docu ments big and smallmilestones: theblessing of thenew convent in 1888, the death ofMother Bernardine in 1901, thefirst movie the sisters ever saw in 1921 ("a series of biblical represen tations described as Very devotional'"), the...

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