How It Is: Essays by V.F. Cordova

Edited by Kathleen Dean Moore

Publisher’s Description

These essays by Viola Cordova are something this world has not seen before: From a person who grew up nourished by Apache wisdom and worldviews, a powerful critique of European-Christian thought. From a person trained as a scholar of European thought in the analytic and classical traditions of an American Ph.D. program, a brilliant statement of a Native American’s philosophy. From a woman writer who knows firsthand what it means to be excluded and embraced, life-changing answers to the fundamental questions of our lives: What is the world? What is a human being? What is the role of a human in the world? How, then, shall I live?

Selection

The Mother of us all
made many kinds of human beings.
Some she made for mountains
others
for rivers
and deserts
and plains
and lakes.
The story of the mountain people
will not be the story
of the desert people
and their story will differ
from those of the lakes.
In the east
will be one story
in the west
another
And all of them
the stories
will be true.

Reviews

“This collection will not only be a source of inspiration for students and scholars, Native and non-Native, but will also be useful in mapping the intellectual conversations that Native scholars have engaged in for several generations.” – Jennifer Denetdale, University of New Mexico

Purchase

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