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- Oct 30, 2007
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I need some help. Some of you may have read my query and symopsis for Sonora Symphony. I've received lots of comments on it and am having a very hard time with getting it right.
Some people mentioned Jim Chee who along with Joe Leaphorn who are creations of Tony Hillerman. I have read many of his books and they are very good mysteries. Clearly they are popular as there are so many of them.
However, I have a major problem with Hillerman's presentation of the Navajo reservation and the way he partially relates their belief system. He constantly refers to the dark phase of their beliefs such as witches, shape-shifters and skinwalkers.
He ignores the homeopathic/herbal side of their beliefs in which their medicine men not only learn the Blessing Ways but the use of herbs and plants found where they live. They were the original homeopaths and herbalists. (It used to exist in European cultures but those practicing it became shunned as witches.
He also fails to show the richness and beauty of the land and the creatures that live within it.
He hints at but doesn't bother to explain clan taboos pertaining to marriage and completely ignores the tradition that it's the women who usually select their mates.
My aim is to show American Indians as the original Green Party - people who understood that nobody truly "owns" land but lives on Earth Mother at the behest of The Creator. I want to dispel the myth that they were drunken scalp hunters - in fact, scalping came from Europeans who wanted proof of those killed for the bountys they offered.
In my research I have come to understand that, with the exceptions of MesoAmerican Olmec, Aztec, Mayan and Inca, they lived peacefully and seldom warred upon one another.I may have mentions but, in eastern tribes, disputes were normally settled by games of what we know as Lacrosse that could go on for days.
I also wish to introduce readers to American Indian marvelous myths and legends, in this particular work, concentrating on those who live in the southwest. American Indian myths are usually humorous and have a moral as they were used to teach the young. Coyote continually sticks his nose into things, messes up and ends up in trouble - although he never dies. They also explained many things that scientists later proved to be true. Unlike Judeo-Christian stories, they are light and the creators/gods and so on are forgiving and even likeable. They have stories about First Man and First Woman (Adam and Eve), coming from the land of ice and great floods, even one of a man and a woman creating a special boat to get through it while the naughty one were drowned. The only truly dark legends come from the same Mesoamericans I mentioned above.
It's clear that there are problems in how I'm trying to present this. I do not have the credentials to be an "expert" for the purpose of a scholarly tome that nobody would read anyhow. I want it to be amusing, light reading and generally telling stories. So, if non-fiction is not an option, how in the world do I get my goal across without some soul-shaking stuff that might detract from my goal
Help!!! And thanks.
Some people mentioned Jim Chee who along with Joe Leaphorn who are creations of Tony Hillerman. I have read many of his books and they are very good mysteries. Clearly they are popular as there are so many of them.
However, I have a major problem with Hillerman's presentation of the Navajo reservation and the way he partially relates their belief system. He constantly refers to the dark phase of their beliefs such as witches, shape-shifters and skinwalkers.
He ignores the homeopathic/herbal side of their beliefs in which their medicine men not only learn the Blessing Ways but the use of herbs and plants found where they live. They were the original homeopaths and herbalists. (It used to exist in European cultures but those practicing it became shunned as witches.
He also fails to show the richness and beauty of the land and the creatures that live within it.
He hints at but doesn't bother to explain clan taboos pertaining to marriage and completely ignores the tradition that it's the women who usually select their mates.
My aim is to show American Indians as the original Green Party - people who understood that nobody truly "owns" land but lives on Earth Mother at the behest of The Creator. I want to dispel the myth that they were drunken scalp hunters - in fact, scalping came from Europeans who wanted proof of those killed for the bountys they offered.
In my research I have come to understand that, with the exceptions of MesoAmerican Olmec, Aztec, Mayan and Inca, they lived peacefully and seldom warred upon one another.I may have mentions but, in eastern tribes, disputes were normally settled by games of what we know as Lacrosse that could go on for days.
I also wish to introduce readers to American Indian marvelous myths and legends, in this particular work, concentrating on those who live in the southwest. American Indian myths are usually humorous and have a moral as they were used to teach the young. Coyote continually sticks his nose into things, messes up and ends up in trouble - although he never dies. They also explained many things that scientists later proved to be true. Unlike Judeo-Christian stories, they are light and the creators/gods and so on are forgiving and even likeable. They have stories about First Man and First Woman (Adam and Eve), coming from the land of ice and great floods, even one of a man and a woman creating a special boat to get through it while the naughty one were drowned. The only truly dark legends come from the same Mesoamericans I mentioned above.
It's clear that there are problems in how I'm trying to present this. I do not have the credentials to be an "expert" for the purpose of a scholarly tome that nobody would read anyhow. I want it to be amusing, light reading and generally telling stories. So, if non-fiction is not an option, how in the world do I get my goal across without some soul-shaking stuff that might detract from my goal
Help!!! And thanks.