"The Ten Grandmothers" by Alice Marriott. A Review

The Ten Grandmothers: Epic of the KiowasThe Ten Grandmothers: Epic of the Kiowas by Alice Marriott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every year, for the past 6 or 7 years, I have traveled from north Oklahoma City to southwestern Oklahoma, involved in a week-long service among Native Americans in the region. Many of the folks I end up rubbing shoulders with are Comanches, Apaches, Kiowa-Apaches, Delawares, Kiowas, and others. So I was delighted to pick up a copy of this volume at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center bookstore on our last visit.

Alice Marriott, the first woman to earn an anthropology degree from the University of Oklahoma, accomplished author on Native American and Southwestern history, and posthumous inductee into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame in 2004, published this work in 1945. It is a one-hundred-year segment - 1847 through 1944 - of living memory from one "camp" (or band) of the Kiowas, lifted out and laid before interested readers. "The Ten Grandmothers: Epic of the Kiowas" is a 320-page softback that is an ideal resource for anyone studying Native American culture and history, whether they're in High School, College or post graduate studies. But even those outside of academia will find these historical narratives fascinating and memorable. And more so, those who live in Oklahoma will be captivated by the stories and locations.

Marriott collected these accounts mainly from two older Kiowas during the summers of 1935 and 1936, and then picked up a few of the further events over the next eight years. The only thing fictitious in these narratives are the names of those who were living at that time or had recently passed on. The author gives readers valuable historical information in the introduction, covering the dancing and religious societies, the Kiowas' possible ethnic lineage, and their tribal foes and allies.

The tales begin with a young "chief" named Sitting Bear somewhere close to Saddle Mountain, Oklahoma, in 1847. They then develop and unfold, drawing in the recalled perspectives, encounters, mores, heartaches, and dismay that the main subjects experienced. The stories are taken "as an eye-witness account of the event related, and where the feelings of the person are described, it is only because he himself said he felt that way" (xi). The accounts are often intriguing, bringing to mind many aspects of terrain and treatment that held my attention. I also found several of the incidences very touching. I loved watching as scenes evolved in areas of Oklahoma where I've been, which means that that part of the State will never be the same for me! The final chapter from 1944 almost left me in tears, and gave me a greater appreciation for Buffalo grass and the passing away of an age and a heritage. I highly recommend the book to all, especially for anyone who is descended from one of the Plains tribes, and every Oklahoman.

The book can be purchased here: OUPress

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more