I Tell You Now: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers

by Brian Swann (Editor), Arnold Krupat (Editor)

I Tell You Now is an anthology of autobiographical accounts by eighteen notable Native writers of different ages, tribes, and areas. This second edition features a new introduction by the editors and updated biographical sketches for each writer.

“An important addition to the library of Native American autobiography and a valuable contribution to literary scholarship.”—World Literature Today

“I do not know of any book quite like this one. Not only does it gather eighteen eloquent autobiographical essays in one place—a rarity in itself—but they are the life stories of some very significant Native American writers. The combination is unique. . . . On many levels, then, this is a book both enlightening and necessary.”—Washington Post Book World

“Rings with an urgency and honesty that promises to go far in setting the record straight about Native American experience in non-Indian dominated America.”—Bloomsbury Review

“Like the cultures from which its many contributors come, this is a protean book—diverse, rich, and revealing at every turn. . . . For those who have yet to come into the literature of contemporary Native American writers, these inclusions offer a taste of what greater richness lies beyond.”—Western Historical Quarterly

Genres: Biography Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Brian Swann was born in Tyneside, England. He received a BA and an MA from Queens’ College, Cambridge, as well as a PhD from Princeton University.

Swann teaches at the Cooper Union and lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

voices from the internal diaspora

When the Romans destroyed the temple of Jerusalem, crushed Jewish resistance, and sent the survivors into exile, nobody could have predicted that the exiles would treasure their language, their culture, and their religious identity for nearly two thousand years. Some dreamed of their old land during their times of troubles, others assimilated to the lands of exile. They became "others" but at the same time remained Jews. They mixed with Romans, Teutons, Slavs, Arabs, Iranians and Ethiopians, to name a few, but kept that separate identity as well. Everybody knows what finally happened---it's the Mother of All Property Disputes. As a descendant of that people, I have always looked at the Native Americans with considerable empathy. Though they didn't lose every shred of their land in many cases, they were otherwise "taken to the cleaners", even villainized for trying to defend their own land, condemned to live at the bottom of the American heap. If modern Indians are bitter about this, if they don't love the Stars and Stripes, who could blame them ? The astonishing thing is that so many do accept their citizenship. Deep inside though, the survivors of the American genocide cling to the land, to the sense of belonging here, to an identity which marks them as separate. At the same time, their families too have mingled and assimilated, so condemning "whites" or "blacks" can often be equivalent to condemning a part of oneself. How can individuals come to terms with such ambivalence ? I TELL YOU NOW is a collection of 18 short autobiographies by Native American poets and writers. Though a sense of alienation and of being people apart flows through the book, the different takes on being Indian in the USA are nearly as many as the writers. Some are angry, some hurt by life circumstances more than by prejudice, yet others pursue successful careers, while others have fought self-destructive habits for years. Poetry runs through the book---each chapter includes some of the author's verses---as does love of the land and the feeling of being connected to it. Some writers were reluctant to focus too much on themselves, having been taught to avoid the limelight, to be modest and self-effacing. This is culturally understandable, but if you refuse to write about yourself, you can't really write autobiography ! We'll have to conclude that it's a European-derived form, not necessarily one which appeals to Native Americans. Still, the shy response tells us about modern Indian cultures too. Given the way the USA is going, will the Native Americans have to wait two thousand years to get their lands back ? Probably not. But will the lands be still inhabitable ? The big question.

Though I found the book interesting, it is rather too choppy to be a five star book. Participation by people who didn't want to participate also dulls the edge quite a bit. You just start to think about the person who is writing, start to wonder about their experience, thoughts and personality, and the chapter is over. For those who are really into Native American literature, the authors may be familiar. I had not heard of most of them, so started from scratch each time. If a reader is more familiar with the present condition of each native nation, it would help as well, since a New Englander like me has little contact or experience with the native peoples of Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, etc. In short, I TELL YOU NOW stems from a good idea, but perhaps the execution leaves something to be desired.

[LL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only on the third autobiography in here, but the first chapter which was Mary Tallmountain's was so beautiful and sad and I dreamt about it and what it would be like to come from her Athabascan village that night.

Alright, so this was a great read. Full of lots of sadness and feeling. Lots of poetry. Made me think a lot about different cultures perhaps having separate collective unconsciouses that are perhaps only overlaps ours at the edges.

[Beth]

I read this book a long time ago and remember being impressed by the quality of the essays, though I don't remember specifics now. I do remember the book had quite the emotional effect on me at the time (I was in graduate school).