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Native Echoes: Listening to the Spirit of the Land
From the grandeur of the Great Plains to the solitude of the northern woods, from the intensity of a summer storm to the quiet redemption of a fresh blanket of snow, Kent Nerburn's Native Echoes pays homage to the power of the land to shape our hearts and spirits. An Ojibwe elder once counseled Nerburn to "always teach by stories, because stories lodge deep in the heart.'' Using skills learned from Native storytellers as well as a deep reverence for the world's spiritual traditions, Nerburn takes us to an Ojibwe burial, down lonely winter roads, and into landscapes where trees have presence and the earth is made alive by the mystical power of water and light. Native Echoes is a stark, poetic work that honors both Native American traditions and our western way of thinking and believing. NAPRA Review calls it a ''beautiful book that will touch not only those who find Spirit in Native American paths, but anyone who has felt the presence of something powerful beyond the known.''
142 pages, Paperback
Published April 25, 2017
19 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Kent Nerburn
37 books468 followersI'm a child of the 60's, a son of the north, and a lover of dogs.
Grew up in a crackerbox post-war bungalow outside of Minneapolis with my mother and father, two younger sisters, various dogs and cats, and a neighborhood full of rugrat kids playing outside until called in for the night.
Studied American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Religious Studies and Humanities at Stanford University, received a Ph.D. in Religion and Art in a joint program at Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley. Lots of learning, lots of awards. Phi Beta Kappa. Summa cum Laude. Lots of stuff that looks good on paper.
But just as important, an antique restorer's shop in Marburg, Germany; the museums of Florence; a sculpture studio in the back alleys of Pietrasanta, Italy; an Indian reservation in the forests of northern Minnesota; and, perhaps above all, the American road.
Always a watcher, always a wanderer, perhaps too empathetic for my own good, more concerned with the "other" than the "self", always more interested in what people believed than in what they thought. A friend of the ordinary and the life of the streets.
Twenty years as a sculptor -- over-life sized images hand-chiseled from large tree trunks -- efforts to embody emotional and spiritual states in wood. Then, still searching, years helping young people collect memories of the tribal elders on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in the Minnesota north. Then writing,
always writing, finding a voice and even a calling, helping Native America tell its story.
A marriage, children, a home on a pine-rimmed lake near the Minnesota-Canadian border.
Book after book, seventeen in all, ever seeking the heartbeat of people's belief. Journeys, consolations, the caring observer, always the teacher, always the learner. Ever mindful of the wise counsel of an Ojibwe elder, "Always teach by stories, because stories lodge deep in the heart."
Through grace and good luck, an important trilogy (Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo), a film, Minnesota Book Awards, South Dakota book of the year, many "community reads," book sales around the world.
In the end, a reluctant promoter, a quiet worker, a seeker of an authentic American spirituality, more concerned with excellence than quantity. Proud to be referred to as "a guerilla theologian" and honored to be called "the one writer who can respectfully bridge the gap between native and non-Native cultures". But more honored still to hear a twelve-year-old girl at one of my readings whisper to her mom, "He's a really nice man."
At heart, just an ordinary person, grateful to be a father and a husband, more impressed by kindness than by power, doing what I can with the skills that I have to pay my rent for my time on earth. And trying, always trying, to live by Sitting Bull's entreaty: "Come let us put our minds together to see what kind of lives we can create for our children."
And petting every dog that I can.
Grew up in a crackerbox post-war bungalow outside of Minneapolis with my mother and father, two younger sisters, various dogs and cats, and a neighborhood full of rugrat kids playing outside until called in for the night.
Studied American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Religious Studies and Humanities at Stanford University, received a Ph.D. in Religion and Art in a joint program at Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley. Lots of learning, lots of awards. Phi Beta Kappa. Summa cum Laude. Lots of stuff that looks good on paper.
But just as important, an antique restorer's shop in Marburg, Germany; the museums of Florence; a sculpture studio in the back alleys of Pietrasanta, Italy; an Indian reservation in the forests of northern Minnesota; and, perhaps above all, the American road.
Always a watcher, always a wanderer, perhaps too empathetic for my own good, more concerned with the "other" than the "self", always more interested in what people believed than in what they thought. A friend of the ordinary and the life of the streets.
Twenty years as a sculptor -- over-life sized images hand-chiseled from large tree trunks -- efforts to embody emotional and spiritual states in wood. Then, still searching, years helping young people collect memories of the tribal elders on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in the Minnesota north. Then writing,
always writing, finding a voice and even a calling, helping Native America tell its story.
A marriage, children, a home on a pine-rimmed lake near the Minnesota-Canadian border.
Book after book, seventeen in all, ever seeking the heartbeat of people's belief. Journeys, consolations, the caring observer, always the teacher, always the learner. Ever mindful of the wise counsel of an Ojibwe elder, "Always teach by stories, because stories lodge deep in the heart."
Through grace and good luck, an important trilogy (Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo), a film, Minnesota Book Awards, South Dakota book of the year, many "community reads," book sales around the world.
In the end, a reluctant promoter, a quiet worker, a seeker of an authentic American spirituality, more concerned with excellence than quantity. Proud to be referred to as "a guerilla theologian" and honored to be called "the one writer who can respectfully bridge the gap between native and non-Native cultures". But more honored still to hear a twelve-year-old girl at one of my readings whisper to her mom, "He's a really nice man."
At heart, just an ordinary person, grateful to be a father and a husband, more impressed by kindness than by power, doing what I can with the skills that I have to pay my rent for my time on earth. And trying, always trying, to live by Sitting Bull's entreaty: "Come let us put our minds together to see what kind of lives we can create for our children."
And petting every dog that I can.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 2, 2025
Poetry and short story telling in a Native American tone and theme. It was relaxing to listen too and some what meditative. Thx NetGalley for the audio arc.
September 2, 2025
I listened to the audio version of Kent Nerburn's Native Echoes while sitting on a balcony in Taos, drinking tea. It was a magical combination of time and place, the right words in the right setting. The wind in the aspens and the blue skies and the slightly bitter herbs created an immersive experience, enhancing the author's poetic ramblings. Native Echoes is a series of stories, essays, remembrances of a life lived oriented to the land and the people who remember its sacredness. It was interesting in a way I find missing in today's algorithmically curated world. These weren't words written specifically to capture my engagement, instead I was gently invited into the space without being centered. It was a beautiful experience. Thank you to the author, David Stifel for the narration, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for the audioARC.
September 24, 2025
Thanks Netgalley for this ARC! Really great short story collection to listen to, the tone of the voice and book really capture Indigenous storytelling. I’m still getting used to listening to audiobooks and this shorter one was a great one to help me out with that.
August 28, 2025
I have complex feeling about Native Echoes. This book includes beautiful prose and poetry however it fell flat for me. The author uses Native American traditional storytelling however is not Native American. Ultimately, I think I would have had a different experience if I read the book verses listening to it (the audiobook narrator was great, I simply think I would have preferred a different medium). 3 stars
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook Native Echoes.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook Native Echoes.
January 1, 2026
Strenuously dislike, ew. I'm generously giving 2 stars because, when the author could get out of his own dang way, a few short passages had very lovely writing and imagery. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the writing is overwritten and unbearably pretentious. The focus is on this midwestern landscape-- its beauty, isolation, challenges, and harshness. He certainly could have allowed these elements to shine, to carry the writing, and it would have been exponentially better.
The author focuses a lot on regional Indigenous history and customs but, again, seems to center himself. There's no explanation as to why he's an expert/why it's appropriate for him to be speaking on the topic. He shows startlingly poor insight elsewhere, when he tells about how he was fascinated by a trailer on the road to his hometown, through which rotated a number of residents. He manufactures a reason to stop one day and approaches a woman who is alone in the yard. It's hard to interpret this behavior-- lying about needing directions to a place he knows how to get to, contriving a prop (a map) to support his facade, initiating conversation with a woman alone in an open space, manufacturing additional conversation topics when she has displayed unwelcoming body language, and then congratulating himself on how much better of a person he is than the theoretical husband he imagines for this woman-- as anything other than predatory-leaning behavior. If he will do this and think of these actions as those of an artistic and introspective person of good moral character, it's very reasonable to doubt his intentions, and his accuracy, regarding Native customs and history.
If all this weren't enough, I listened to the eAudio edition and this is a narrator I will take steps to never listen to again. I really didn't like him when I listened to Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses, and his style and vocal variation have not improved. If there were a function that allowed me to log into NetGalley, Libro.fm, hoopla, Libby, all of the platforms and block him, I would do it in a heartbeat. He routinely drops to the bottom of his vocal range, seemingly in an attempt to sound serious, but it makes the reading gutteral and makes it more difficult to hear over any ambient environmental noise. I find the places he pauses, or the places he puts emphasis, to be strange and rarely where I would do so. There's a normal amount of not-how-I-would-have-read-that in any audiobook, but when it's as often as he does it, it becomes disruptive. In the case of this book, it seemed like the reader was leaning in to the author's pretentiousness, the two compounding on each other.
Cannot recommend. I received the eAudiobook edition of this title free through Libro.fm's Audio Listening Copy.
The author focuses a lot on regional Indigenous history and customs but, again, seems to center himself. There's no explanation as to why he's an expert/why it's appropriate for him to be speaking on the topic. He shows startlingly poor insight elsewhere, when he tells about how he was fascinated by a trailer on the road to his hometown, through which rotated a number of residents. He manufactures a reason to stop one day and approaches a woman who is alone in the yard. It's hard to interpret this behavior-- lying about needing directions to a place he knows how to get to, contriving a prop (a map) to support his facade, initiating conversation with a woman alone in an open space, manufacturing additional conversation topics when she has displayed unwelcoming body language, and then congratulating himself on how much better of a person he is than the theoretical husband he imagines for this woman-- as anything other than predatory-leaning behavior. If he will do this and think of these actions as those of an artistic and introspective person of good moral character, it's very reasonable to doubt his intentions, and his accuracy, regarding Native customs and history.
If all this weren't enough, I listened to the eAudio edition and this is a narrator I will take steps to never listen to again. I really didn't like him when I listened to Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses, and his style and vocal variation have not improved. If there were a function that allowed me to log into NetGalley, Libro.fm, hoopla, Libby, all of the platforms and block him, I would do it in a heartbeat. He routinely drops to the bottom of his vocal range, seemingly in an attempt to sound serious, but it makes the reading gutteral and makes it more difficult to hear over any ambient environmental noise. I find the places he pauses, or the places he puts emphasis, to be strange and rarely where I would do so. There's a normal amount of not-how-I-would-have-read-that in any audiobook, but when it's as often as he does it, it becomes disruptive. In the case of this book, it seemed like the reader was leaning in to the author's pretentiousness, the two compounding on each other.
Cannot recommend. I received the eAudiobook edition of this title free through Libro.fm's Audio Listening Copy.
September 17, 2025
While not an Own Voices title, Native Echoes still gives readers a strong sense of what it might have been like to grow up in an Indigenous community. Nerburn learned directly from Ojibwe storytellers, and the book is written very much in that storytelling tradition.
The audiobook is narrated by David Stifel. You may not recognize his name, but he’s a seasoned actor and accomplished narrator—and when you see him, you’ll likely recognize his face. I found his pacing just right; I listened at 2x normal speed and never felt it dragged or went too fast.
That said, part of me wishes the narration had been done by an Indigenous voice. In the past, before the concept of Own Voices became widely recognized, this might not have been something I thought about. But now, I do feel it would have added authenticity and resonance to the listening experience.
Even so, this was an engaging and thoughtful listen. If you’re interested in Ojibwe lifeways, spiritual beliefs, and the deep relationship between people and the land, Native Echoes is well worth your time.
The audiobook is narrated by David Stifel. You may not recognize his name, but he’s a seasoned actor and accomplished narrator—and when you see him, you’ll likely recognize his face. I found his pacing just right; I listened at 2x normal speed and never felt it dragged or went too fast.
That said, part of me wishes the narration had been done by an Indigenous voice. In the past, before the concept of Own Voices became widely recognized, this might not have been something I thought about. But now, I do feel it would have added authenticity and resonance to the listening experience.
Even so, this was an engaging and thoughtful listen. If you’re interested in Ojibwe lifeways, spiritual beliefs, and the deep relationship between people and the land, Native Echoes is well worth your time.
October 11, 2019
When I first looked at this book, it sold itself as a book of poetry, but
Native Echoes: Listening to the Spirit of the Land
is actually more about author, Kent Nerburn's thoughts and reminiscing about his life, in a poetic fashion.
I enjoyed the images created by Nerburn's words, with each story imparting some sort of thought provoking idea about his world and that of the Native Americans, with whom he has worked closely. I enjoyed reading this book, and although this is not a standout in his works, Native Echoes appears to be a book that Nerburn had to write, for himself more than others - we've just been given the privilege of being able to share in his thoughts.
I enjoyed the images created by Nerburn's words, with each story imparting some sort of thought provoking idea about his world and that of the Native Americans, with whom he has worked closely. I enjoyed reading this book, and although this is not a standout in his works, Native Echoes appears to be a book that Nerburn had to write, for himself more than others - we've just been given the privilege of being able to share in his thoughts.
September 11, 2025
I didn't do research prior to requesting a ARC of this book. I love reading book written by indigenous voices, which is what I has assumed this was.
After finishing, the prose and the narrative voice didn't sit right with me. I searched the author to find that he is not indigenous, but has also spent his entire career was a writer basing his work on indigenous themes. His original book was published because he had a famous friend.
I would skip this one and seek out some of the amazing works written by indigenous authors that struggle to have their voices heard.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this in exchange for my honest review, but I hope in the future you will give a platform to indigenous voices.
After finishing, the prose and the narrative voice didn't sit right with me. I searched the author to find that he is not indigenous, but has also spent his entire career was a writer basing his work on indigenous themes. His original book was published because he had a famous friend.
I would skip this one and seek out some of the amazing works written by indigenous authors that struggle to have their voices heard.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this in exchange for my honest review, but I hope in the future you will give a platform to indigenous voices.
August 25, 2025
Native Echos attempts to pay tribute to the land through the telling of indigenous traditions and through that lens. I struggled with connecting with the material.
While it's a series of meditations and prose around the land of northern Minnesota and it seems to flow through the timeline of seasonality, I really think it missed the mark with connections to the land and space. Some of the writing felt like too much of a stretch for me to enjoy.
I did go look at the "about the author" on goodreads and the writing style seems right in line, very wordy and perhaps trying too hard to be prophetic.
This was an ARC of a re-release from Netgalley.
While it's a series of meditations and prose around the land of northern Minnesota and it seems to flow through the timeline of seasonality, I really think it missed the mark with connections to the land and space. Some of the writing felt like too much of a stretch for me to enjoy.
I did go look at the "about the author" on goodreads and the writing style seems right in line, very wordy and perhaps trying too hard to be prophetic.
This was an ARC of a re-release from Netgalley.
September 5, 2025
Read this audiobook while walking slowly in the woods, it was such a great way to immerse myself into it. It felt like a journey through seasons, native american and western ways of thinking. The different perspectives interacting together brought lots of reflexions on the world. The quotes were a nice touch. I also enjoyed the narrator, his voice suited the writings very well!
Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape media for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape media for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 21, 2025
A deeply contemplative, almost pragmatic collection of thoughts and reminiscences, folded around Indigenous life in modern times. I understand that Nerburn himself isn't "Native" but an ally of a certain generation, and you can feel it. Still, an enjoyable, quiet selection of poetic stories narrated with candour by David Stifel.
January 20, 2020
This book is a quiet gem that deserves reading again and again.
December 31, 2025
This was...odd. I liked Nerburn's writing style - a lovely mixture of prose and poetry, with interesting turns of phrase and quietly captivating stories. However, this entire book felt like cultural tourism/cultural appropriation, less a "relating of other people's stories" and more a "telling other people's stories in their place."
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews