For thousands of years, American Indian cultures have recorded their truths in the narratives and metaphors of oral tradition. Stories, languages, and artifacts, such as glyphs and drawings, all carry Indigenous knowledge, directly contributing to American Indian rhetorical structures that have proven resistant—and sometimes antithetical—to Western academic discourse. It is this tradition that Kimberly G. Wieser seeks to restore in Back to the Blanket, as she explores the rich possibilities that Native notions of relatedness offer for understanding American Indian knowledge, arguments, and perspectives. Back to the Blanket analyzes a wide array of American Indian rhetorical traditions, then applies them in close readings of writings, speeches, and other forms of communication by historical and present-day figures. Wieser turns this pathbreaking approach to modes of thinking found in the oratory of eighteenth-century Mohegan and Presbyterian cleric Samson Occom, visual communication in Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead, patterns of honesty and manipulation in the speeches of former president George W. Bush, and rhetorics and relationships in the communication of Indigenous leaders such as Ada-gal’kala, Tsi’yugûnsi’ni, and Inoli. Exploring the multimodal rhetorics—oral, written, material, visual, embodied, kinesthetic—that create meaning in historical discourse, Wieser argues for the rediscovery and practice of traditional Native modes of communication—a modern-day “going back to the blanket,” or returning to Native practices. Her work shows how these Indigenous insights might be applied in models of education for Native American students, in Native American communities more broadly, and in transcultural communication, negotiation, debate, and decision making.

Back to the Blanket: Recovered Rhetorics and Literacies in American Indian Studies (Volume 70) (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)

Literature & Fiction

Wieser, Kimberly G.

History & Criticism

University of Oklahoma Press

For thousands of years, American Indian cultures have recorded their truths in the narratives and metaphors of oral tradition. Stories, languages, and artifacts, such as glyphs and drawings, all carry Indigenous knowledge, directly contributing to American Indian rhetorical structures that have proven resistant—and sometimes antithetical—to Western academic discourse. It is this tradition that Kimberly G. Wieser seeks to restore in Back to the Blanket, as she explores the rich possibilities that Native notions of relatedness offer for understanding American Indian knowledge, arguments, and perspectives. Back to the Blanket analyzes a wide array of American Indian rhetorical traditions, then applies them in close readings of writings, speeches, and other forms of communication by historical and present-day figures. Wieser turns this pathbreaking approach to modes of thinking found in the oratory of eighteenth-century Mohegan and Presbyterian cleric Samson Occom, visual communication in Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead, patterns of honesty and manipulation in the speeches of former president George W. Bush, and rhetorics and relationships in the communication of Indigenous leaders such as Ada-gal’kala, Tsi’yugûnsi’ni, and Inoli. Exploring the multimodal rhetorics—oral, written, material, visual, embodied, kinesthetic—that create meaning in historical discourse, Wieser argues for the rediscovery and practice of traditional Native modes of communication—a modern-day “going back to the blanket,” or returning to Native practices. Her work shows how these Indigenous insights might be applied in models of education for Native American students, in Native American communities more broadly, and in transcultural communication, negotiation, debate, and decision making.

Kimberly Wieser takes us on an expansive journey across mixedblood Indian Americana in this collection of poetry. Home is a place where our surroundings are familiar, an embodiment of one's very own being. It represents a sacred place for healing. "Na he dum--Cheyenne for 'I'm telling the truth'--is the phrase that lingers after reading Kimberly Wieser's no-holds-barred roaring whirlwind of a collection. This is the poetry of a woman, unabashed and unafraid, speaking from her whole mind and whole heart, emphatically declaring, here is the truth of my history, my people, my family, my body, my sex, my languages, my being, my very spirit. Written with unflinching eyes, this is work without hesitation or doubt, that refuses suffering and victimization, that celebrates survival and memory." --ire'ne lara silva, author of Flesh to Bone and Blood Sugar Cantos

Texas... To Get Horses

Poetry

That Painted Horse Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wieser, Kimberly G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wieser, Kimberly G.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wieser, Kimberly G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Back to the Blanket: Recovered Rhetorics and Literacies in American Indian Studies (Volume 70) (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)

Back to the Blanket: Recovered Rhetorics and Literacies in American Indian Studies (Volume 70) (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)

Texas... To Get Horses