In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviews 153 They are less successful, this reviewer feels, in supporting the “Wind River” theory of Sacagawea’s later life. Their view, based wholly on the oral tradition of several Indian tribes and testimony of a number of white people, all of great age, is that Sacagawea, separating from her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, wandered about the western plains for several decades and died in her nineties among her Shoshone people on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, in 1884. The woman who did so, it is reported, often spoke of her experiences with Lewis and Clark, carried papers which she said “showed she was worth something,” and a medal a great grandson said had an image of President Jefferson. Other scholars reject the Wind River theory, insisting that documentary evidence of Sacagawea’s contemporaries establishes her death “of a putrid fever,” at Ft. Manuel, a fur trading post in South Dakota, when she would have been in her early twenties. Clark, by then Governor of the Territory, who always exercised concern for the Indian woman and her family, and educated their son, wrote “Se car ja we uh — dead” in his journal for 1825-28. Professor Clark and Edmonds, basing upon Indian tradition, argue that Charbonneau, coming to St. Louis at Captain Clark’s invitation in, perhaps, 1809, brought two Indian wives, and that the one that died was the “other” wife, Otter Woman. Readers interested in the life of the Indian heroine will find themselves readily caught up in the play of argument as the conflicting versions are brought against each other. REX E. ROBINSON, Logan, Utah The Secret of the Sierra Madre: The Man Who Was B. Traven. By Will Wyatt. (New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1980. 369 pages, photographs, maps, appendices of aliases, dates, occupations, descriptions, genealogy, bibli­ ography, $14.95.) The search for the true identity of B. Traven, author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Death Ship, to name his best works, has engaged scores of people for scores of years. B. Traven’s penchant for anonymity made him the most mysterious twentieth century author. Will W'yatt, a documentary film maker and head of Presentation Programmes for BBC Television, was given a princely budget and full BBC support to search out the truth about Traven. This search, with film crews in his wake, led Will Wyatt to the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. His accounts of his many interviews with fans, scholars, film makers, and B. Traven’s widow are brilliantly written. The 154 Western American Literature piece by piece putting together of the puzzle, the study of the evidence, the searches of government documents, police records, and old photographs are recounted by a man of wit, intelligence, and perseverance. The book reads like a first-rate detective novel. Wyatt is convinced that he has dis­ covered by hard work and (he will also admit) by extreme good luck the true identity of the man who used the pen name, B. Traven. Accompanied by a fine selection of photographs and quotes from Traven’s letters, notes, and fiction, the book is impressive. The line of Wyatt’s final proofs is difficult to refute. It does seem that Will W'yatt has discovered most of the “secrets of the Sierra Madre.” B. Traven was born Otto Wienecke, then became Otto Feige, then Ret Marut, then B. Traven, and used in the course of his life these other names-. Arnolds, Baker, Hal Croves, Traven Torsvan, and Fred Maruth, to name only a few. Why? Read The Secret of the Sierra Madre. You will not be disappointed byWill Wyatt. ROBERT B. OLAFSON Eastern Washington University This Song Remembers. Edited by Jane B. Katz. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980. 207 pages, $8.95.) Judging from its subtitle — Self Portraits of Native Americans in the Arts — This Song Remembers professes itself to be a collection of selfportraits by North American Indian painters, dancers, singers, writers, and other artists. However, the news release refers to the volume as a “documen­ tary history,” and its editor further categorizes it as “a medley of personal experiences and perceptions that document a people’s migration from yester­ day to today...

pdf

Share