Selu: Seeking the Corn Mother’s Wisdom by Marilou Awiakta (review)

Reviews 209 reward ofbefriending thiswonderful young woman ofcharacter should not be missed. In 1865, Julia Stellwagen married Captain James Gilliss, an Army supply officer. Three weeks after their marriage, both boarded a ship in Baltimore destined for the Pacific Northwest via the Panama Canal, San Francisco, Port­ land, and finally arrived at their first post—Fort Dalles on the Snake River in Washington territory. What did women on the frontier at remote Army posts do to occupy their time? What were their living and travel conditions like?Julia Gilliss’s descrip­ tions to her relatives of her own history and of local events answer those questions and many others. Having mountain howitzers in the parlor and copingwith the terror ofearthquakeswere not unusual. Even on the frontier in 1866, the perennial complaint of “Too much crime!”was heard. Besides commenting criticallyon herself, she had no qualms about discuss­ ing religion, God or even her own death in childbirth in her letters. “Now I think this is a pretty good world on the whole and the more you rub against people and rub offthe coating ofconventionalism the more real gems you find beneath.”Areader cannot help but be enriched byencountering Mrs. Gilliss’s optimism and enthusiasm for life. Her most memorable letters contain opin­ ions in favor ofthe Indians. “I think the Indian depredations are ajust retribu­ tion on their persecutors.” The book isauthentic, unvarnished historywithout the baggage ofmessage or rhetoric attached, and it honestly reflects a feminism of the most important kind. Her letterswill be read with enjoyment for a long time to come. MICHAEL L. POWELL Alexandria, Virginia Selu: Seeking the Corn Mother’s Wisdom. By Marilou Awiakta. (Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 1993. 352 pages, $19.95.) The product ofCherokee and Scotch-Irish Appalachian heritage, Tennes­ see writer Marilou Awiakta grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the shadow of the atomic bomb. Awarded the Distinguished Tennessee Writer Award in 1989, Awiakta is the author of Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet and RisingFawn and theFire Mystery. In her third and latest book, Selu: Seeking the Corn Mother's Wisdom, Awiakta constructs what she calls a double-woven basket of seed thoughts. Blending poetry, political commentary, homespun Appalachian philosophy, and Ameri­ can Indian traditional stories, Selu is an odd but effective collection. In it, Awiakta employs repetition, elliptical narratives, and personal testimony to make her case for the power ofaboriginal “wisdoms.” 210 WesternAmerican Literature Deeplyconcerned with Native identity,women’splace inAmerican society, and the potential dangers ofnuclear energy, Awiaktaproposes that traditional Cherokee narratives about the Com Mother, Selu, and aboutAwiUsdi or Little Deer can offer insights of inestimable value for all Americans who share her hopes and concerns. Selu:SeekingtheComMother’sWisdomisawarm, caring book thatpresents, in a fresh and original way, Native American precepts about harmony, balance, and the sacredness of all life. In Selu, Awiakta displays a healthy respect for technological invention and greathopes for the future ofthe planet, evenwhile she shares the fears ofa Memphis cabdriverwho once told her: “Our country’s going broke and the planet’s dying out from under us. .. . If America’s not careful, we’re gonna eat ourselves alive.”In Selu, Awiakta poses the question: “Do human beings have enough respect for life to cope with the atom?”While she sees the atom’s “immense nurturing potential,” she also believes that we could be sowing the seeds ofour own destruction. Awiakta’smessage issimple to sayand hard to enact in a capitalistic society such asours: “Ifyou take, you mustgive back.”While her “wisdoms”aren’t new, the wayin which she slowlyand expertlyweaves them together is engaging and convincing. Some of her formulations appear simplistic, even romantic. For example, she argues that the Western dynamic isdetachment, represented bya box, while the Native American dynamic is connection, represented by a web. But there isenough truth in herclaimsto demand our respectful consideration. ELIZABETH BLAIR University ofIllinois, Chicago TheRifles. ByWilliamT.Vollmann. (NewYork:Viking Penguin, 1994. 411 pages, $22.95.) When Ifirstread aboutVollmann’splanned seven-partnovel series treating the impact of the European conquests of North America and the resulting cultural fissions suffered byaboriginal peoples, Ithought ofAsburyFox. One of Flannery O’Connor’s purblind, sanctimonious intellectuals, Asbury, driven by...