Sat, Nov 14, 2009 -- 2:00 PM

American Indian and Alaska-Native Tribal Traditions (from Whats the Word)

Sat, Nov 14, 2009 -- 2:00 PM

In 1969, the pioneer N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel House Made of Dawn. With his 1969 book, The Way to Rainy Mountain, about Kiowa history and traditions, he showed how a writer could bring an oral literary tradition to the printed page. The following decade continued the development of American Indian and Alaska-Native literature. Fiction, poetry, songs, essays and news articles form a body of work that reflects tribal tales and traditions, as well as issues of concern to the American Indian and Alaska-Native communities. The program talks with three writers and teachers about how their tribal traditions influence their work. Ofelia Zepeda, winner of a 1999 MacArthur Fellowship, shares the poetry that she writes both in English and her tribal language, O'odham. Robert Warrior takes listeners back to the 19th century for a look at the written 1881 constitution of the Osage nation and the oral version of the nation's origins. And Jean Breinig reads and talks about writings from her tribe, the Haida, in Alaska.