| These gripping and powerful prose narratives relate monumental events in the lives of the forebears of Tlingit clans, from the prehistoric migration to the coast of Southeast Alaska to the first contact with Europeans. | |
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"Too often in the past, translators of Native American folklore mythology have ignored or not understood the cultural and social context of the works they have transcribed ...... In recent years, fortunately, we have begun to see English renderings of Native American texts which have attempted to capture all the qualities of the originals, including the tribal contexts which produced them." "Haa Shuká, Our Ancestors, the first volume in a series of Tlingit narratives to be edited by the Dauenhauers and published by the University of Washington Press, is a brilliant addition to these efforts. The texts are not 'rewrites' but rather transcriptions of what, in each case, a single informant said, on a single occassion, with translations designed - by means of layout, orthography, punctuation, and a thorough knowledge of Tlingit language, history and culture - to capture in English the quality of the original. With texts and a thorough introduction to their format, oral style, and cultural context, a lengthy explanation of Tlingit phonetics and grammar, extensive historical and linguistic notes, and brief biographies ..., Haa Shuká is simultaneously a work of literature, a contribution to scholarship, and an act of homage to the Tlingit elders who contributed to the project for the sake of their descendants." - World Literature Today |
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