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mnboyer's review against another edition
2.0
Vizenor reinvents history by reclaiming Christopher Columbus as a man of Mayan heritage. This allows for new inventions of storytelling involving trickster figures, satire, mythopoetic motifs, magical realism, and enchantments. But mainly--it involves satire. I cannot say that I "loved" this novel. In fact, I found it hard to get through once I was about halfway through because of how "new-history" it becomes. If you don't know anything about Columbus or Native American history, you might not follow all of the elements of the novel (including lots of the satirical elements) and therefore I must admit the novel is not very inclusive.
Here are all of the highlights that I found though, in case you're ever tasked with having to read this for a course in the future:
Comments about Columbus
--Columbus described as "the explorer has become a trickster healer in the stories told by his tribal heirs at the headwaters of the great river" (p3) and he is also an "obscure crossblood" (p3)
--Ships are reimagined and one is a casino, one a restaurant, one a market (p6)
--Columbus described as Mayan (p9)
--Columbus had erectile problems that pained him (p31)
--"Overnight his discoveries reduced tribal cultures to the status of slaves" (p41)
--identity issues (p48)
--discussions of Pocahontas (p105-106) and the noble savage (p108)
Sacred History/Oral Tradition
--Naanabozho is a "tribal trickster" but this is actually accurate for Ojibwe culture (p5)
--Oral stories change; "'Columbus is ever on the move in our stories'" (p11)
--Wiindigoo and the Moccasin Game first discussed (p20)
--finishing the Moccasin Game (p177)
Comments about Museums, Art, Anthropology, Etc.
--"The House of Life is on the descent to the headwaters, the burial ground for the lost and lonesome bones that were liberated by the heirs from museums." (p5)
--Anthropologists steal things/NAGPRA (p14)(p83)
--Ownership is discussed (p75) according to Indigenous knowledge
--Museum crime (p77)
--Native Arts and Crafts Act and protections (p161)
Comments about Literature
--"signature of survivance" (p6)
--story as significant (p80)
--other authors mentioned and Krupat v. Momaday discussion (p110-111)
--flag representing survivance (p123)
Sovereignty and Policy
--"fortune on sovereign bingo" (p6)
--commentary on Native American gaming (p7)
--recognizing tribal sovereignty (p7) including definitions of sovereignty as "tribal connection to sovereignty as a homestead, mineral rights, the sacred cedar, and the nest of a bald eagle"
--NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) discussed (p8, 14, 63)
--further sovereignty discussions and heir issues (p78)
--blood quantum issues and "causative binaries" (p82)
--blood quantum "creeds" (p132)(p162)
--Welfare agencies and supposed child abuse allegations (p153, 155)
Here are all of the highlights that I found though, in case you're ever tasked with having to read this for a course in the future:
Comments about Columbus
--Columbus described as "the explorer has become a trickster healer in the stories told by his tribal heirs at the headwaters of the great river" (p3) and he is also an "obscure crossblood" (p3)
--Ships are reimagined and one is a casino, one a restaurant, one a market (p6)
--Columbus described as Mayan (p9)
--Columbus had erectile problems that pained him (p31)
--"Overnight his discoveries reduced tribal cultures to the status of slaves" (p41)
--identity issues (p48)
--discussions of Pocahontas (p105-106) and the noble savage (p108)
Sacred History/Oral Tradition
--Naanabozho is a "tribal trickster" but this is actually accurate for Ojibwe culture (p5)
--Oral stories change; "'Columbus is ever on the move in our stories'" (p11)
--Wiindigoo and the Moccasin Game first discussed (p20)
--finishing the Moccasin Game (p177)
Comments about Museums, Art, Anthropology, Etc.
--"The House of Life is on the descent to the headwaters, the burial ground for the lost and lonesome bones that were liberated by the heirs from museums." (p5)
--Anthropologists steal things/NAGPRA (p14)(p83)
--Ownership is discussed (p75) according to Indigenous knowledge
--Museum crime (p77)
--Native Arts and Crafts Act and protections (p161)
Comments about Literature
--"signature of survivance" (p6)
--story as significant (p80)
--other authors mentioned and Krupat v. Momaday discussion (p110-111)
--flag representing survivance (p123)
Sovereignty and Policy
--"fortune on sovereign bingo" (p6)
--commentary on Native American gaming (p7)
--recognizing tribal sovereignty (p7) including definitions of sovereignty as "tribal connection to sovereignty as a homestead, mineral rights, the sacred cedar, and the nest of a bald eagle"
--NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) discussed (p8, 14, 63)
--further sovereignty discussions and heir issues (p78)
--blood quantum issues and "causative binaries" (p82)
--blood quantum "creeds" (p132)(p162)
--Welfare agencies and supposed child abuse allegations (p153, 155)
patrickmcguire's review against another edition
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
funcharge's review against another edition
challenging
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
christytidwell's review
2.0
I just don't dig Gerald Vizenor. I really disliked Bearheart and, though I didn't actively dislike The Heirs of Columbus, neither did I enjoy it. I am not yet able to put my finger on specifically what isn't working for me in Vizenor's work. A large part of it, I think, is my inability to connect with any of the characters or to get a concrete sense of the place in which the story is happening. As a trickster tale, a novel of ideas, The Heirs of Columbus foregoes realism in favor of playfulness, and realism (not verisimilitude, but realistic characters and situations) is apparently a key element in my emotional engagement in and enjoyment of literature.
As in Bearheart, Vizenor's work here is theoretically interesting, though. In this book, he refigures Columbus as a Native ancestor, a crossblood, more complex than a conqueror of Native peoples. In doing so, Vizenor the trickster complicates ideas about tribal identity and American-ness.
Stone Columbus, one of the heirs of Columbus on whom the book focuses, complicates these ideas explicitly. It is reported that "Stone resists the notion of blood quantums, racial identification, and tribal enrollment. The heir is a crossblood, to be sure, but there is more to his position than mere envy of unbroken tribal blood. Indians, he said, are 'forever divided by the racist arithmetic measures of tribal blood.' He would accept anyone who wanted to be tribal, 'no blood attached or scratched,' he once said on talk radio. . . . His point is to make the world tribal, a universal identity, and return to other values as measures of human worth, such as the dedication to heal rather than steal tribal cultures" (162). This is a fascinating idea, one that is tempting in its appeal and in its dangers. The "racist arithmetic measures of tribal blood," as he describes it, may be limiting and may even function to reinforce divisions between white and Indian and between various tribal groups (relying on the old divide and conquer bit), but these measures also protect tribal groups from specific forms of appropriation. If "Germans, at last, could b genetic Sioux, and thousands of coastal blondes bored with being white could become shadow tribes of Hopi, or Chippewa, with gene therapies" (162), what does this say about the specificity of tribal identity and experience?
Even more than being about racial identity, The Heirs of Columbus is about trickster stories and their function. Judge Lord, trying to understand their significance, says, "Stories, then, are at the core of tribal realities, not original sin, for instance, or service missions." She is corroborated and corrected in this by Lappet Browne, a Native witness in court, who says, "Stories and imagination, your honor, but of a certain condition that prescinds discoveries and translations. . . . Comic situations rather than the tragic conclusions of an individual separated from culture, lost and lonesome in a wilderness" (80). Lappet continues, saying, "The comic mode is as much an imposed idea as the tragic; the comic is communal nonetheless, and celebrates chance as a condition of experience, over linear prevision, but at the same time myths, rituals, and stories must summon a spiritual balance, an imaginative negotiation in a very dangerous natural world" (81). This works as a defense of the kind of story Vizenor tells here. The comic trickster tale he tells is about chance, community, and spiritual balance. It is, in fact, liberatory in its re-imagining of historical figures and in its ability to question everything. The conversation between Judge Lord and Lappet continues:
"Even languages must have rules," said Lord.
"The languages we understand are games," said Lappet.
"Language can be a prison," said Lord.
"Trickster stories liberate the mind in language games," said Lappet.
"Touche," said the judge.
Vizenor's story is an attempt to liberate the mind, to liberate history and culture, through language games.
As in Bearheart, Vizenor's work here is theoretically interesting, though. In this book, he refigures Columbus as a Native ancestor, a crossblood, more complex than a conqueror of Native peoples. In doing so, Vizenor the trickster complicates ideas about tribal identity and American-ness.
Stone Columbus, one of the heirs of Columbus on whom the book focuses, complicates these ideas explicitly. It is reported that "Stone resists the notion of blood quantums, racial identification, and tribal enrollment. The heir is a crossblood, to be sure, but there is more to his position than mere envy of unbroken tribal blood. Indians, he said, are 'forever divided by the racist arithmetic measures of tribal blood.' He would accept anyone who wanted to be tribal, 'no blood attached or scratched,' he once said on talk radio. . . . His point is to make the world tribal, a universal identity, and return to other values as measures of human worth, such as the dedication to heal rather than steal tribal cultures" (162). This is a fascinating idea, one that is tempting in its appeal and in its dangers. The "racist arithmetic measures of tribal blood," as he describes it, may be limiting and may even function to reinforce divisions between white and Indian and between various tribal groups (relying on the old divide and conquer bit), but these measures also protect tribal groups from specific forms of appropriation. If "Germans, at last, could b genetic Sioux, and thousands of coastal blondes bored with being white could become shadow tribes of Hopi, or Chippewa, with gene therapies" (162), what does this say about the specificity of tribal identity and experience?
Even more than being about racial identity, The Heirs of Columbus is about trickster stories and their function. Judge Lord, trying to understand their significance, says, "Stories, then, are at the core of tribal realities, not original sin, for instance, or service missions." She is corroborated and corrected in this by Lappet Browne, a Native witness in court, who says, "Stories and imagination, your honor, but of a certain condition that prescinds discoveries and translations. . . . Comic situations rather than the tragic conclusions of an individual separated from culture, lost and lonesome in a wilderness" (80). Lappet continues, saying, "The comic mode is as much an imposed idea as the tragic; the comic is communal nonetheless, and celebrates chance as a condition of experience, over linear prevision, but at the same time myths, rituals, and stories must summon a spiritual balance, an imaginative negotiation in a very dangerous natural world" (81). This works as a defense of the kind of story Vizenor tells here. The comic trickster tale he tells is about chance, community, and spiritual balance. It is, in fact, liberatory in its re-imagining of historical figures and in its ability to question everything. The conversation between Judge Lord and Lappet continues:
"Even languages must have rules," said Lord.
"The languages we understand are games," said Lappet.
"Language can be a prison," said Lord.
"Trickster stories liberate the mind in language games," said Lappet.
"Touche," said the judge.
Vizenor's story is an attempt to liberate the mind, to liberate history and culture, through language games.
aimiller's review
3.0
So I will say going into this that it took me like 2 months to finish this book because I got behind on other reading, so on top of it being a kind of magical realism-style that I already find confusing (but not a turn off!) I was confused. This is a book I would have loved to read in a class, as I just don't feel smart enough to approach everything that's going on in it--the conversations around blood quantum are like on a level I can't even approach, and the NAGPRA conversation. There's SO MUCH packed into this little book, and I really feel like I barely scratched the surface in my reading, but I'd need a reading buddy to get more out of it.
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