A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772–1924 by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., James W. Parins (review)

Reviews 267 their lives “to local conditions over generations.” Their husbanding of flood water has resulted in hardy crops, some of them richer in protein than those we buy at the supermarket. And the little oases formed around springs and mud tanks have created an ecological diversity that will surprise readers who think of the desert as barren. In contrast, modern agribusiness is invading the Papago’s traditional grounds, beginning to ruin these fragile ecosystems as it has done elsewhere throughout the Southwest. The invasion is based on the premise that tech­ nology can “beat the system” of nature. However, as Nabhan points out, people concerned with the future are beginning to see the folly of abusing the land for short-term gains. Plummeting water tables, pesticide wars threatening human welfare, and massive erosion present glaring evidence to the fact that, after only a few decades of mistreatment, nature is kick­ ing back. Yet Nabhan’s book, a delicate blending of science and poetry, touches only briefly on the alarming omens. For The Desert Smells Like Rain is no polemic; it doesn’t have to be. Rather, by its end we are so in sympathy with its nonviolent message concerning the earth that we understand the wisdom, if not the necessity, of reconsidering some of the old ways if we are to provide a sane future for the Southwest. PETER WILD, University of Arizona A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772-1924. By Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. Parins. Native American Bibliography Series, No. 2. (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1981. 360 pages, $19.50.) In this second volume of Scarecrow’s Native American bibliography series, Professors Littlefield and Parins have produced an extremely valuable research tool, an important addition to the several Native American bibliog­ raphies that have appeared since Arlene Hirschfelder’s pioneering volume in 1973, and one which appears to duplicate little that has already been catalogued. Jack Marken, General Editor of this series (and himself an experienced bibliographer, co-compiler with Herbert T. Hoover of a Bibli­ ography of the Sioux, 1980, the first volume of the Scarecrow series, and of The American Indian: Language and Literature, 1978), notes in his “Fore­ word” that Littlefield and Parins “have restricted eligibility for inclusion to writings done solely by Indian authors and have omitted material by Indian people but written down by non-Indians” ; this inevitably results in “the omission of some books considered to be by Indians, particularly in the area of autobiography.” But this would seem to have been a wise decision on the part of the compilers, for H. David Brumble’s excellent Annotated Bibliog­ raphy of American Indian and Eskimo Autobiographies (Lincoln: Uni­ 268 Western American Literature versity of Nebraska Press, 1981) came out only a little before their own work; and the two volumes complement each other very nicely. The book is arranged in three parts, Part I, A Bibliography of Native American Writers, Part II, A Bibliography of Native American Writers Known Only by Pen Names, and Part III, Biographical Notes: these are followed by an Index of Writers by Tribal Affiliation, and a Subject Index. (It is interesting to note that other than under the listing for Indian, and Indians, American, the greatest number of entries are found under the head­ ings Cherokee Nation, and under Education.) Users of the book will be particularly grateful for the third part; although some further information about the lives of the authors cited may occasionally be desired, Littlefield and Parins have made the way to it a good deal easier. Perhaps it would have been more helpful still if they had appended to each of their biographi­ cal notes the sources for their information. These are given generally in the Preface, but one might occasionally wish to know the particular sources for a particular entry (this might have been done with a list of abbreviations). Littlefield and Parins have also attempted to aid students of Indian writing by providing a generic classification (A = Address, C = Collections and Compilations, D = Drama, etc.) for each of their entries. This is a pro­ cedure potentially fraught with difficulty, inasmuch as the question of genre has...