Sacred Language: The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota by William K. Powers (review)

364 Western American Literature Sacred Language: The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota. By William K. Powers. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. 247 pages, $24.95.) Powers, an anthropologist, is fluent in the Lakota language, and in thirtysix years of field trips to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota has established close and enduring relationshipswith Lakota people. Consequently, this scholarly and readable addition to his writings about the Oglalas is also revealing and insightful. It should appeal to specialists in language, music, philosophy, and religion, and to others interested in understanding American Indian ways. The author explains how Lakota sacred language comes into being and says it isof two types: that used by medicine men and women to address super­ naturals and that used by medicine men and women to communicate philo­ sophical ideas among themselves. It ismarked, as is all Lakota language, by its contemporaneity and readiness to change. Though its words and phrases are incomprehensible to the common people, sacred language and common lan­ guage are “one and the same;only the contexts provide the senseofopposition.” In conjunction with linguistic analyses, the author treats Lakota song and song texts, sacred numbers, and shamans and priests, all part of the religious and social life of which Lakota sacred language is an integral part. Along with his own experiences and observations, Powers uses relevant literature, com­ paring and contrasting his conclusions to those of others and taking issue with thosewith whom he disagrees. His appended notes add considerably to the text. Beyond its interest to scholars, the book would appear to have value for the Lakota because it records and preserves some of both their language and their way of life, either of which might otherwise disappear as succeeding generations lose their Indian tradition. DONALD E. GRIBBLE Hibbing, Minnesota The Moccasin Maker. By E. Pauline Johnson. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987. 266 pages, $9.95 paper.) The intersections of race and gender in American literature have stimu­ lated new critical study and compelled renewed interest in hitherto unknown literary documents. E. Pauline Johnson’squasi-biographical talesofCanadian/ Mohawk relations in nineteenth-century Ontario are collected in her book, The Moccasin Maker (first published by the Ryerson Press of Toronto in 1913) and are re-issued with an introduction and annotations by LaVonne Ruoff in order to provide a distinctive Native American variant on women’s sentimental fiction of the last century. Ruoff provides careful annotations and ...