Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women

by Paula Gunn Allen

"Impressive....Haunting....Enchanting...Every story in the book, which covers nearly a century of tradition, is interesting, written with intelligent passion."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Native American scholar, literary critic, poet, and novelist Paula Gunn Allen, who is herself a Laguna Pueblo-Sioux Indian, became increasingly aware in her academic career that the writings of Native Americans, especially women, have been marginalized by the Western literary canon. Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, Louise Erdrich, Mary TallMountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

Genres: Native American, Short Stories, Indigenous, Fiction, Feminism, Womens, Folklore

281 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Paula Gunn Allen was a Native American poet, literary critic, lesbian activist, and novelist.

Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, Allen grew up in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering the Laguna Pueblo reservation. Of mixed Laguna, Sioux, Scottish, and Lebanese-American descent, Allen always identified most closely with the people among whom she spent her childhood and upbringing.

Having obtained a BA and MFA from the University of Oregon, Allen gained her PhD at the University of New Mexico, where she taught and where she began her research into various tribal religions.

Reviews

[Tamara Agha-Jaffar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women edited with an introduction by Paula Gunn Allen, is a must read for those wishing to gain an understanding of the culture and context within which Native American women write.

This slim volume is divided into three sections: The Warriors, The Casualties, The Resistance. Gunn Allen introduces each section by situating it within its cultural context. Each section includes traditional writings that have been transmitted orally for many decades, as well as contemporary examples by well-known authors like Louise Erdrich, Anna Lee Walters, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Linda Hogan.

Gunn Allen’s excellent introduction to the collection provides a brief historical overview of the oppression and broken promises experienced by Native Americans. She also situates the traditional tales, some of which are biographical, and she draws connections between these tales and their contemporary counterparts. Her introductions are enlightening in that she approaches each section by clarifying terms and context, revealing nuances and subtleties in Native American writing that may not be readily apparent to all readers.

Some of the traditional tales may pose a challenge for readers steeped in the Western tradition of story-telling because they do not necessarily adhere to a linear, cause and effect pattern. They weave in and out, frequently circling back on themselves, revealing biographical details about Native lives and perspectives. The contemporary writings pick up many of the same themes of traditional tales while situating them in modern society. The themes remain the same: the struggle to maintain tradition, culture, kinship, and values against the onslaught of a dominant culture that tries to subvert all things Native.

A compelling collection of traditional tales and contemporary short stories, some of which are heart-wrenching.

Highly recommended.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible. Part of what makes it so is that the editor, Paula Gunn Allen, wrote an in-depth introduction so that the non-native reader would understand background conversations among Native writers about their own writing and to introduce cultural nuances of the stories. At the beginning of each section she wrote about the Native concept of that section's title, one of which was warrior, which does not always mean someone who goes to war. She also wrote a brief introduction to each of the short stories giving it's time and place in Native literature and what some of the cultural expectations or illustrations were. A prime example was the stories of Yellow Woman/Corn Woman and her impact on the people. Gunn Allen also created a glossary and provides notes about each writer so that the reader can follow up with other things these women have written.

The stories themselves are breathtaking. Some of them are a punch in the gut as the reader is faced with the decimation of native people by the Europeans. I could barely get through Louise Erdrich's story because what happens in the story is so horrible. Some of the stories show the beauty of Native life and traditions. My favorite section was the one entitled "Warriors" because it showed women who were warriors in ways that the tribe would recognize instantly, but that non-native people would not; we might simply describe the woman as being "strong."

Not enough ways to praise these powerful, painful and beautiful stories.

[Eden Silverfox · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has many stories written by Native American women.

I'm half Native American and I love to read books about Native Americans and learn more about the culture. This book I had found while searching on my library's website and I was very excited to borrow and read it.
The stories are very well-written and a few of them I really did like. All the stories were pretty good, but I actually found the whole book to be depressing.
Reading this made me realize how much people focus on race, gender, etc and focus on what they can't do because of their race, or gender. I know history, I know what has happened to Native Americans and other races. But, if the book taught me anything, it's that race shouldn't be our main focus and we shouldn't focus on what we can't do because of our race.

The book is definitely not a favorite and I don't think I'll read it again, but I think I did take something from it and learned from it.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought more about these stories on my morning walk. My siblings and I inherited our mother's difficult and tragic childhood. These stories helped me understand our mamma better. May she and we all walk in peace with beauty all around us.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was sort of a mixed bag. Some of the stories were very well-written and moving, but it varied, and with the best there was some frustration at how fragmentary they were. The arrangement was interesting, where often there would be one traditional tale followed by a contemporary tale with similar themes, so you could draw some interesting comparisons that way.

The most-irritating segment was by the author. I had not originally seen that, but had been wondering whether she always wrote that way, or if it was just a way of trying to convey the influence of the marijuana on the narrator's thoughts. Seeing that it is the same writer, I see from the introduction and section notes that she can write other ways, but then in those parts there is a lot of resentment that comes through. It makes sense, but I think it weakens the overall work.

I don't regret reading it but I am not recommending it.

[Trisha Swed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Yes- it can be heart wrenching- but so is life. The stories are wonderful, and sequence of the told stories are also meaningful.

This is not a book to read quickly, not a book to skip the Author’s introduction, nor the introduction to each piece. If you do- you will easily miss the point of this literature.

If you are expecting a series of Native American folktales that bring you back to being a child in the US school system- this is not if. If you want to learn about the histories and contemporary struggles of a people often thought of as “history”- this can be a good place to start.

Read slowly. With care and compassion.

[Abby]

This is a very intentional anthology--it gives you the feeling that each story in here really made the cut and is here for a reason. Gotta say I never would have guessed there is so much material from Native American women writers. There are many favorites in this collection, but here are a few: "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky," Traditional Mohawk; "As It Was in the Beginning," E. Pauline Johnson; "Yellow Woman," Leslie Marmon Silko; "An American in New York," LeAnne Howe.

[Anna Marcet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aquest llibre parteix d'una idea molt clara: donar visibilitat a la dona nativa nord-americana tant com a protagonista en la literatura, com a autora i creadora.
Paula Gunn-Allen traça una línia contínua entre la literatura oral precolonització i la literatura contemporània, sense oblidar mai el procés de pèrdua, engany, mort i confinament que ha provocat un trauma col·lectiu que encara perdura avui en dia.
El llibre pretén demostrar que les dones natives nord-americanes no són comparables a les dones blanques en qüestions de feminisme: elles vénen de cultures on ja eren lliures i respectades, i l'opressió com a dona és indivisible a l'opressió colonialista.
Per a complir tots els seus objectius, Paula Gunn-Allen combina històries tradicionals de diversos pobles - sempre protagonitzats per dones, evidentment - amb relats escrits per escriptores natives contemporànies. Ho acompanya tot amb un context històric general, a l'inici del llibre, i breus introduccions a cadascuna de les històries.
El llibre m'ha agradat. Les històries estan curosament triades per a mostrar una varietat d'estils, interessos i moments històrics, a la vegada que compleixen la promesa de presentar-nos dones fortes.
Li dono tres estrelles, i no més, per dos motius:
- El primer i més important, ja que penso que es podria haver tingut en compte a l'hora d'elaborarel llibre, és que Paula Gunn-Allen dóna molt poca informació sobre costums, univers mitològic, percepció del món i d'altres qüestions de context que són molt necessàries per entendre la profunditat i les implicacions de les històries. Les cultures natives nord-americanes són molt desconegudes, i tenen unes particularitats que són difícils d'imaginar. Un context més precís ajudaria a entendre les històries molt millor, especialment tradicionals, on de vegades sembla que "no passa res", i en canvi tots els elements tenen, de ben segur, un significat que per a una lectora occidental és impossible de copsar.
- El segon és que penso que el llibre ha envellit malament. El concepte de dona independent i valenta ha canviat des que es va publicar. Les històries que es presenten com a "revolucionàries" ara mateix, ja no ho són tant. On Gunn-Allen presenta dones que són exemples a seguir, jo no podia evitar veure-hi dones atrapades. El llibre m'ha deixat un profund sentiment de tristesa, no només per les barbaritats que aquests pobles i aquestes dones han hagut de passar (que també) sinó per la sensació que les possibilitats eren molt més àmplies del que les dones que protagonitzen les històries, i la mateixa Gunn-Allen, són capaces de veure.
Potser és moment de treure una nova antologia d'escriptores natives que mostrin les seves perspectives avui en dia.

[Lise Mayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I discovered this collection, and the editor, Paula Gunn Allen. Her preface and writing throughout this book are so enlightening, so astute and prescient. This book offers a wide variety of short stories by FN women, from the late 1800's to modern times. The short story, As It Was In The Beginning, by E. Pauline Johnson, published in 1913, is one of the best I have ever read. Of course, it was never in our syllabus at school, though I think we learned one of her poems. The structure, theme, plot development and startling conclusion are so realistic, moving and intense, it could have been written yesterday. So many of the stories are equally powerful, and some are enigmatic and strange, harkening back to a time of myth and legend, like how the chipmunk got its marks. The cautionary children's tales are as violent and terrifying as Grimms', serving the same purpose those once did, to teach. How many were lost, in the deliberate destruction of language, culture and tradition designed to erase the rich heritage of the hundreds of different tribes? Thank goodness Paula Gunn Allen took up the task to preserve what she could.

When this book was published, the general public knew little about residential schools and the horrors the people had endured. In Canada, we were taught that we treated the aboriginal people much better than they did in the United States, because we had negotiated treaties (most of which we broke, anyway). Yet our residential school system was based on theirs, and the philosophy was the same: "Kill the Indian, save the Man." Only now are the atrocities coming to light. They lost almost everything, and the colonizers lost the chance to learn from them, about how to survive in a harsh landscape, as they did for millennia.

I plan to read more of Allen's work, her poetry and her novel. I find her scholarship and her writing informative and inspiring.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with any anthology, this book has its mix of contributions that resonate and those that do not. While I found myself profoundly moved and occasionally enlightened by some of the stories within, my personal experience found the book lacking.

This may be a valuable anthology for academic purposes, but I don’t recommend it to the casual reader. If you’re engaged with the subject matter, however, it may serve to introduce you to writers that will deepen your appreciation for the experiences and mythological interpretations of indigenous North American women.

[Emily Ho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous compilation, loved the intent focus on the female experience for an American Indian. The stories included were thoughtfully organized and I not only learned a lot, it was beautiful and wrenching and lovely. Loved it loved it loved it.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

mostly enjoyable and particularly the final story. want to read more from misha gallagher in particular.

[Rebecca Russavage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful

[Adriana]

Native American Lit Class

[Pam]

I'm reading it for school....and I'm worried

[Leslie D. Soule · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology of Native American warrior woman literature. :)

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the contemporary fiction and some of the folktales in this collection but I feel there are more compelling collections of writing by Native American women.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite story was "An American in New York"

[Abbi Dion]

The story by E. Pauline Johnson and the introductory remarks changed my life.