West Coast collection of Native literature unveiled in Portland

Would be interesting to get this list and see how many of these titles are available in Oklahoma.

ICT [2005/08/30] West Coast collection of Native literature unveiled in Portland: "Think black and red when you picture Jim Carmin's 176-page roster of American Indian literature. The voluminous printout reads like a wish list for those interested in capturing the zeitgeist - or spirit of the times - of the nearly 40-year renaissance in fiction, poetry, short stories and drama penned by indigenous people of North America.

Black is for the titles Carmin's already acquired as part of Multnomah County Library's goal of creating a body of Native American literature within its Special Collections department. With $62,000 plus many extra unexpected donations, Carmin - the librarian in charge of the John Wilson Room Special Collections Room - has accumulated 1,000 items in the new collection. A quick scan of his lengthy roster, though, reveals enough red to underscore the idea that the goal is to cover the gamut.

''Pre-1968, there are around less that a dozen novels published by Native writers,'' said Carmin. ''The reason is that a lot of Indian writers hadn't had access to [the] publishing world.''

Although the play that became the basis for the musical ''Oklahoma'' - ''Green Grow the Lilacs,'' by Cherokee writer Lynn Riggs - was penned in 1931, a mainstream audience for literature specific to Indian culture simply did not exist until the counterculture of the late '60s.

So the timing was a meeting of minds. N. Scott Momaday's ''House Made of Dawn'' received sufficient attention to earn a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, one year after its publication.

''It was Momaday's work that started the Native American literary renaissance,'' said Carmin. ''So knowing that there was not a huge body of work prior to that date, and working with Ken Lopez, a Massachusetts dealer, we began to develop a core collection.'' "

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