A Forest of Time: American Indian Ways of History

by Peter Nabokov

A Forest of Time is the first introduction for undergraduates and graduates, Western and Indian history buffs, and general readers to the notion that American Indian societies had vital interests in interpreting and transmitting their own ways for themselves. Through separate discussions of legends and oral histories, creation stories and folktales, it illustrates how various Indian peoples related and commented upon their changing times. Drawing upon his own varied research as well as sampling the latest in scholarship from ethnohistory, anthropology, folklore and Indian Studies, Dr. Nabokov offers dramatic examples of how native peoples put rituals and material culture, landscape, prophecies, and even the English language to the urgent task of keeping the past alive and relevant. Throughout these lively chapters, we also witness the American Indian historical imagination deployed as a coping skill and survival strategy. This book surveys the latest integrating ideas while offering a useful bibliography that opens up, and demands that we engage with, alternative chronicles for America's multi-cultural past. Peter Navokov is Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures and American Indian Studies Program at UCLA. He is the author of several books, including Native American Architecture, (Oxford, 1991, co-author Robert Easton) which won the American Institue of Architects honor award and the Bay Area Book Reviewer Association Award. His book Native American Testimony (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1978) was named the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults and Library School Journal Best Book 1978 in addition to receiving the Carter G. Woodson Award. His work as a journalist in 1967 earned him prizes from the Albuquerque Press Association and the New Mexico Press Association.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Indigenous, Native American, Native American History

260 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2002

About the author

Peter Nabokov is professor of American Indian Studies and World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. His previous books include A Forest of Time, Native American Testimony, Native American Architecture (with Robert Easton), Indian Running, Two Leggings: The Making of a Crow Warrior, and Architecture of Acoma Pueblo

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a kind of difficult book to talk about because its thesis is so obvious that it goes without saying but then there's a whole 300 page book that does nothing more than provide examples of it. Forest of Time is basically a first-step corrective for the cultural genocide Native American methods of history have been subjected to by imperialists in the Western academy. It introduces dozens of little vignettes about historical techniques and modalities and academic commentary, grouped loosely into chapters but not in support for any particular argument, just with the message that: these are all things you probably didn't know about, and you should know about them, so here they are. It makes a fun, quick read and there's some neat stuff in here, from the growing consensus that a lot of communities have oral history that accurately describes ecological and geological events from many thousands of years ago, or early responses to writing that incorporate it as a kind of magic totem, or synthetic religious movements that bring shattered tribes into one community and form a millenarian narrative around the apocalypse wrought by settlers. It doesn't spend a lot of time on theoretical or epistemological questions of any sort, from relativism to accuracy or translation, but limits itself to just description, which is not exactly what I was expecting but still enjoyable enough that I'm glad I picked it up.

[Maura W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an informative bit of historiography. Nabokov discusses oral histories and Native American vs European concepts of historicity, and Native American history in material culture and place. Very dense and a bit dry in places, but still readable. Nabokov has some problems with awkward (uncomfortably paternalistic) word choice. He spends a lot of time discussing ethnographers who "collect" stories and "discover" things about modern Native cultures. A little awkward but still a good resource.

[NinjaMuse · Rating 3 out of 5]

In brief: This is an introductory overview of the ways North America indigenous peoples approach, rework, and interact with their histories.

Thoughts: This is a tricky review to write, partly because I skimmed most of the book and partly because this is a textbook—or a textbook-like book, hard to say which. It’s less a narrative than a series of connected essays, which bring up some interesting points, present some things for me to mull over and bear in mind, and critique anthropologists, historians, folklorists, and other academics who have occasion to interact with indigenous peoples and their stories. I don’t know enough about historigraphy or indigenous histories to evaluate his bias, but it doesn’t seem like Nabokov’s cherry-picking his topics or examples apart from what he needs to to drive home his points: accept that Native people have their own histories which don’t look or act like European histories; let Native people be their own historians without imposing Western mindsets on their work; take White histories of indigenous peoples with a heaping of salt; respect indigenous peoples, their culture, and their stories. I found it interesting and readable, but it wasn’t gripping or page-turning or overly enlightening the way I prefer books to be. (But then again, textbook. What do you expect?)

7/10

[Melody Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read about Native Americans. It goes over several different tribes and their interpretation of time and history.

[Remington Krueger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read chapters 4, 5, 6 for an indigenous epistemology course. Interesting perspectives in the book. This topic is so diverse that it is difficult to wrap my head around every idea, but every day I strive to understand more.

[Mary Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A survey approach to the subject, and handy for that reason - could be described as a well-written annotated bibliography. Last chapter on prophecy makes some good points.

[Nanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting analysis of the differences between First Nations stories and European stories.