Bøger udgivet af UNIV PR OF COLORADO

"In Mountain Amnesia, Thompson's poems rebuild a new world-and self-in the wake of destruction and loss. Influenced by the landscape of rural Appalachia, these poems depict a nature relentlessly working on its own disappearance for survival. Decaying plants and animal remains are housed in the same world as ramps and bellflowers on the cusp of blooming. These poems do not placate or cover up the inevitability of death, but rather use this knowledge to seek connection and make meaning: "how little and yet / how much it matters to count the dead." Mountain Amnesia seeks a path through destruction, using ruin to clear the way for new beginnings; or, as Thompson writes, "the painful, florid bloom of passing forward." This collection is a testament to survival and resilience, and animal encounters - the lonely fox, the folded fawn, the returning whale, the emerging voles - become new myths along the way. Mountain Amnesia also explores the question of how implicated or dependent we are on the lives and actions of others. What does it mean to be accountable to and responsible for those around you? How are we implicated in others' crimes? What can we do in the aftermath? The poems in this collection explore the limits of knowing and seeing, and how we come to be known and seen: "I ask the world for its bandage /of meaning." Mountain Amnesia both pursues and surrenders to these limits of knowing, narrowing the vast distances between ourselves and others"--

"With more than twenty books published about the Navajo people, Robert S. McPherson is one of the most prolific contemporary writers concerning their history and culture. Scouting for the Bluecoats addresses a little-known and, until now, undocumented story of an estimated five hundred Navajos employed by the United States Army, primarily in the campaigns against the Apaches between 1873 and 1886. The author takes us with these scouts as they guide U.S. soldiers into the deserts, canyons, and mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, and Northern Mexico; he also provides a solid context about the origin of the Navajos and Apaches, their intertribal conflicts, and their elements of shared culture. Once again McPherson demonstrates his skill as a master historian, his understanding of these people, and a meaningful context for this long-neglected story of warrior-soldiers whose fieldcraft and dedication proved critical in shaping relations between the military and two Indian tribes in the Southwest." -Kent Powell, Senior historian at Utah Division of State History and editor of Utah State Historical Quarterly (retired) "Scouting for the Bluecoats examines the important role that Navajos played in military operations during the last quarter of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Unlike the famous Navajo code talkers of World War II, little has been written about these men who served in some of the most challenging and noteworthy struggles against the Apaches. Until now, their story has been forgotten. Navajo skills in understanding and tracking a wily foe across an inhospitable landscape proved to be essential elements in ending the Apache wars. For those interested in the recruitment and deployment of the scouts, measures taken to counter enemy tactics, and the challenge of obtaining recognition for their service, this book is an invaluable source and a must-read for any serious scholar of Navajo history." -Ronald P. Maldonado, Tribal historic preservation officer (retired), Navajo Nation

"If we are always at war, is all poetry then war poetry? Adrian Lèurssen's Human Is to wander is a book of dislocation, migration, and witness at a time of war-but whose war, fought where, and at what costs to whom? Born and raised in apartheid-era South Africa, Lèurssen migrated to the U.S. as a teen in order to avoid military service at a time when the country's authoritarian regime engaged in a protracted, largely unknown war in Angola. Years later, as a father of young children in his adopted country, echoes of everything his family thought they had left behind has returned: endless bloody conflicts on the horizon; an alarming rise of authoritarianism and nationalistic fervor; pervasive racism, inequality, and daily violence in a country whose mythic promise was once held as freedom, equality, opportunity. In Human Is to wander, Lèurssen explores these echoes of his personal history within a landscape that is familiar and unfamiliar all at once. Neither the brutally oppressive South Africa of his childhood nor the precarious United States of today, Lèurssen's landscape emerges in the broken rhyme between "troop" and "troupe" where "our captions / are picture less" and "the plan to explain is absolute, but only an entrance." His is an inner landscape as song no longer sung in a mother tongue, in which the human cost of war, climate crisis, and forced migration is "all part of the explanation." Lèurssen uses collage, constrained cut-up, Oulipean procedures, abecedarian, and other generative play to allow poems to emerge that respond to the turmoil and dislocation of this violent century, attempting to witness if not understand his-and our-place in it"--

"McPherson, through this oral history of Navajo Women living in Monument Valley, provides a unique story of cultural understanding specific to the area. From personal experience and a shared heritage, these women explain their early struggles in life, religious beliefs and sacred teachings, daily activities of a traditional family, and later, battling against cultural loss. Today's rapidly changing world challenges these elders while enticing the young to forget what it means to be Diné. Here, these women share what they want the youth to know. I highly recommend this book to those who wish to learn about the past, understand the present, and consider the future." --Ronald P. Maldonado, Navajo Nation Cultural Resource Supervisor "The teachings and stories presented here are fascinating and important. When reading them, I heard my granmother's and aunt's voices, connecting me to the past while strengthening my understanding of Navajo culture. It is the women who are the heard and soul of preserving this information as they guide youth into the future. Here that wisdom becomes real. Those interested in a balanced presentation of the difficult, yet rewarding live of Navajo elders will be highly rewarded by learning from this book" --Charlotte Nez Lacy, Heritage Language Educator/Translator

Stories from the Land: A Navajo Reader about Monument Valley provides a traditional Navajo view of this iconic landscape and its people. Couched in the oral tradition of the elders, the reader is invited to view their history and culture through the eyes of those born at the turn of the twentieth century before massive inroads from the dominant culture began to erode the old ways. Each chapter follows a chronological sequence beginning with the creation of the world (specifically Monument Valley), teachings about the Anasazi, then later the Long Walk Period and incarceration at Fort Sumner. Subsequent chapters discuss traditional life and values, trading posts and their ties to the community, the devastation of livestock reduction, the film industry during the John Wayne/John Ford years, Anglo induced cultural change, uranium mining, and reaction to the current explosion of tourism. All of this as seen through the eyes of the Navajo people of Monument Valley and filtered through their unique cultural perspective. For the reader interested in authentic Navajo teachings, these people's ties to the land, and a very different view of the world and how it functions, Stories from the Land offers fascinating insight that is fast disappearing from our world.