The Cambridge History of Native American Literature ed. by Melanie Benson Taylor (review)

Reviewed by: The Cambridge History of Native American Literature ed. by Melanie Benson Taylor Frederick White (bio) The Cambridge History of Native American Literature edited by Melanie Benson Taylor Cambridge University Press, 2020 IN THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE, the reader embarks on an ambitious endeavor to resolve two major issues concerning what a Native American is and what Native American literature is. For those in the field—whether Indigenous or not—both issues are problematic because identity and cultural products have historically been a matter of transimpositional labeling. In other words, Native Americans have not been the ones who defined who they are or what they have produced. When they do try, the world vehemently opposes. The book explores five different epochs in which the notion of "literature" undergoes a series of semantic extensions in order not to limit it to graphemic representations. While the traditional notions of literature are represented in all epochs, in part 1, chapters by Benson Taylor and Mackenthun offer a concerted effort to expand that canon beyond written texts. According to Rivett (24) and ho'omanawanui (216), essentially any mode of history or storytelling is literature, including Indigenous languages and oral traditions. As the authors progress through each epoch, various concatenations arise with geography and modality for each literary inclusion. Examples: the pre-Columbian Andean khipu—multicolored knotted strings associated with historio-statistical information (Madsen, 482); the Mayan hieroglyphic system (Bauer, 66); birch bark scrolls and wampum belts that encoded communicable information; and Plains Nations ledger art (Sweet Wong). Flint argues that even performance becomes literary, such as orations in England and across Canada and the United States of Indigenous history, stories, and resistance by individuals such as Pocahontas (Lady Rolfe), Tekahionwake (aka Pauline Johnson), and sermons by Methodist minister Samson Occom (Wyss, 120). The expanded literary canon allows inclusion of any object—even if it is only numbers—having identifiable traits of history or narrative, including totem poles and canoes of the Haida or any northwest coast nations since both totem poles and canoes intricately instantiate history or narrative. [End Page 166] Along with the literary genre expansion, the physical boundaries for Native America expand to Central (Cox, 199) and South America (Cheyfitz, 465). When that border crossing ensues, the notion of "Indigenous" then encapsulates not just continental implications but global ones as well—trans-Indigeneity according to Allen (447). In fact, the only geographies excluded from any claim to Indigeneity are Great Britain eastward through Russia, though Balthaser does include Indigenous nations in Siberia (150). Cheyfitz expands the notion of Native American literature to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, largely supporting Palestinians (471). This inclusivity then brings a focus on sovereignty, which, if limited, means there is no sovereignty according to Byrd (507). Colonialism dies hard. As the focus returns to North American literature in the current epochs, interestingly, the emphasis is no longer on expanding the canon but rather on poetry, novels, and drama and how modes of innovation inculcate Indigenous historical, cultural, and linguistic practices that influence each genre, including futurist/apocalyptic novels addressed by Anderson (432). Novels and poetry receive much attention in chapters by Truer and Rader respectively, while only one chapter by Däwes focuses on drama. However, treatment of Indigenous writers in film or television is lacking. Issues of blood quantum are mentioned, and Lee notes well that the most celebrated and successful authors are those of mixed-blood quanta, some writers with less than a fourth of Indigenous blood and cultures that they represent (265). I sense a hint of curiosity about why these authors are unquestioningly hailed as fully authentic spokespersons for their nation. Dawes also offers an explanation for abandoning the term "Indian" in favor of a number of other terms but ends with typical difficulties for accepting different terms (417). A final issue to ponder is Native American literary theory. Significantly, this topic received no chapter in this collection. While many scholars, such as Byrd, Madsen, Allen, and Huhndorf have addressed this issue in and beyond this collection, I see Indigenous literary theory remaining a thorn in the side of many who want to surmise, encourage, or posit a distinctive...

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