Post by emilylevine on Jun 10, 2009 22:34:00 GMT -5
Has any one read this edition of The Journals and Papers of Father Francis M. Craft, 1888-1890 edited by Thomas W. Foley?
Josephine Waggoner writes about Craft and his "Sioux Sisterhood," so I've been researching him. (Waggoner, of course, reveals a side of him and the Lakota nuns that has not been written about before.) I read Foley's biography of Craft and found it interesting. How could one resist it with a chapter entitled "Was Father Craft Insane?"
Craft really is a fascinating guy.
At Standing Rock and Wounded Knee is published by the Arthur H. Clark, certainly a reputable western press (now affiliated with OU Press), so I was surprised to see that the annotations in the book are really pretty dreadful. The journals themselves will be important reading for those of us interested in Standing Rock history; all the well known characters and names are mentioned.
But the footnotes, usually just one short line, range from inaccurate:
"Martin Kenel, OSB, superintendent of the mission school at Fort Yates from 1884 to 1906,"
"Pizi is the Lakota name for John Grass,"
"Titonwan" is defined as "The Titonwan dialect of the Teton Sioux"
while Isanati [sic] is "the dialect of the Santee,"
Louise Van Solen's mother is misidentified
to incomplete:
"Hampton School" is footnoted only as "The Indian boarding school in Hampton, Va."
People are defined by one line often mischaracterizing their long, complicated and rich lives:
"Theophile Brughier, an early pioneer in DT."
"Grey Eagle served as a judge on Standing Rock Reservation in 1893."
"George Flying By, first Lieutenant of McLaughlin's Indian Police in 1892."
What's the point if that's all you're going to say?
Even Eagle Woman Who All Look At is simply "a full-blooded Sioux, whose first husband was Henore [sic] Picotte, an Indian trader from St. Louis, Mo."
to culturally insulting:
"'Winkte' is the Lakota term for 'heart of a woman,' so Winkte-yuza may have been a male transvestite..."
"The visions of heyoka (free spirits within a tribe) led them to express themselves in a clownish world of 'contraries,' wearing strange clothing, living in ragged lodges, sleeping without robes and blankets..." (Nothing about their power, where it comes from, the "spiritual" nature of lives.)
These are just a few examples.
What is odd is that all of this issues are easily corrected, the information is readily available. One has to wonder who Clark/Oklahoma Press sent the manuscript to for review. It's unfortunate that what I think will be a significant contribution to this particular area of Lakota history is so flawed in this way.
(I have yet to read what he says about Wounded Knee, but I have heard he "offers a bold reinterpretation of that event as a genuine battle rather than a massacre.")
All this said, we owe a debt of gratitude to Foley for his life-long obsession with Craft and his determination to publish his works and about his life.
Josephine Waggoner writes about Craft and his "Sioux Sisterhood," so I've been researching him. (Waggoner, of course, reveals a side of him and the Lakota nuns that has not been written about before.) I read Foley's biography of Craft and found it interesting. How could one resist it with a chapter entitled "Was Father Craft Insane?"
Craft really is a fascinating guy.
At Standing Rock and Wounded Knee is published by the Arthur H. Clark, certainly a reputable western press (now affiliated with OU Press), so I was surprised to see that the annotations in the book are really pretty dreadful. The journals themselves will be important reading for those of us interested in Standing Rock history; all the well known characters and names are mentioned.
But the footnotes, usually just one short line, range from inaccurate:
"Martin Kenel, OSB, superintendent of the mission school at Fort Yates from 1884 to 1906,"
"Pizi is the Lakota name for John Grass,"
"Titonwan" is defined as "The Titonwan dialect of the Teton Sioux"
while Isanati [sic] is "the dialect of the Santee,"
Louise Van Solen's mother is misidentified
to incomplete:
"Hampton School" is footnoted only as "The Indian boarding school in Hampton, Va."
People are defined by one line often mischaracterizing their long, complicated and rich lives:
"Theophile Brughier, an early pioneer in DT."
"Grey Eagle served as a judge on Standing Rock Reservation in 1893."
"George Flying By, first Lieutenant of McLaughlin's Indian Police in 1892."
What's the point if that's all you're going to say?
Even Eagle Woman Who All Look At is simply "a full-blooded Sioux, whose first husband was Henore [sic] Picotte, an Indian trader from St. Louis, Mo."
to culturally insulting:
"'Winkte' is the Lakota term for 'heart of a woman,' so Winkte-yuza may have been a male transvestite..."
"The visions of heyoka (free spirits within a tribe) led them to express themselves in a clownish world of 'contraries,' wearing strange clothing, living in ragged lodges, sleeping without robes and blankets..." (Nothing about their power, where it comes from, the "spiritual" nature of lives.)
These are just a few examples.
What is odd is that all of this issues are easily corrected, the information is readily available. One has to wonder who Clark/Oklahoma Press sent the manuscript to for review. It's unfortunate that what I think will be a significant contribution to this particular area of Lakota history is so flawed in this way.
(I have yet to read what he says about Wounded Knee, but I have heard he "offers a bold reinterpretation of that event as a genuine battle rather than a massacre.")
All this said, we owe a debt of gratitude to Foley for his life-long obsession with Craft and his determination to publish his works and about his life.