"From the grandeur of the Great Plains to the solitude of the northern woods, from the intensity of a summer storm to the quiet redemption of a fresh blanket of snow, Kent Nerburn's Native Echoes pays homage to the power of the land to shape our hearts and spirits.
An Ojibwe elder once counseled Nerburn to 'always teach by stories, because stories lodge deep in the heart.'' Using skills learned from Native storytellers as well as a deep reverence for the world's spiritual traditions, Nerburn takes us to an Ojibwe burial, down lonely winter roads, and into landscapes where trees have presence and the earth is made alive by the mystical power of water and light.
Native Echoes is a stark, poetic work that honors both Native American traditions and our western way of thinking and believing. NAPRA Review calls it a ''beautiful book that will touch not only those who find Spirit in Native American paths, but anyone who has felt the presence of something powerful beyond the known.''"
"From award-winning author Kent Nerburn, whose writing Louise Erdrich has praised as “storytelling with a greatness of heart,” a tale of compassion and redemption played out against the haunting backdrop of the Dakota High Plains during the drought-stricken summer of 1950
Two young Lakota boys, ages eleven and six, huddle in a boxcar hurtling through the prairie night as they run from a government agent sent to take them to an Indian boarding school. But what begins as a pursuit soon becomes a complex human drama of intersecting lives as the boys make their way across the vast Dakota plains to the pipestone quarries of western Minnesota to replace their great-grandfather’s channunpa, or sacred pipe, that was broken by the government agent.
Alive with a rich tapestry of characters the boys meet along their journey, Lone Dog Road is at once an exploration of the hidden corners of the human heart and a moving study of the way the land shapes the people who live, love, dream, and die upon it. Sprawling, complex, and intimate, Lone Dog Road is destined to take its place in the grand tradition of great American road novels."
"A note is left on a car windshield, an old dog dies, and Kent Nerburn finds himself back on the Lakota reservation where he traveled more than a decade before with a tribal elder named Dan. The touching, funny, and haunting journey that ensues goes deep into reservation boarding-school mysteries, the dark confines of sweat lodges, and isolated Native homesteads far back in the Dakota hills in search of ghosts that have haunted Dan since childhood.
In this fictionalized account of actual events, Nerburn brings the land of the northern High Plains alive and reveals the Native American way of teaching and learning with a depth that few outsiders have ever captured."
"1996 Minnesota Book Award winner ? A Native American book
The heart of the Native American experience: In this 1996 Minnesota Book Award winner, Kent Nerburn draws the reader deep into the world of an Indian elder known only as Dan. It's a world of Indian towns, white roadside cafes, and abandoned roads that swirl with the memories of the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. Readers meet vivid characters like Jumbo, a 400-pound mechanic, and Annie, an 80-year-old Lakota woman living in a log cabin. Threading through the book is the story of two men struggling to find a common voice. Neither Wolf nor Dog takes readers to the heart of the Native American experience. As the story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently on the difference between land and property, the power of silence, and the selling of sacred ceremonies. This edition features a new introduction by the author, Kent Nerburn.
"This is a sobering, humbling, cleansing, loving book, one that every American should read." ? Yoga Journal
If you enjoyed Empire of the Summer Moon, Heart Berries, or You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, you'll love owning and reading Neither Wolf nor Dog by Kent Nerburn"
"A haunting dream that will not relent pulls author Kent Nerburn back into the hidden world of Native America, where dreams have meaning, animals are teachers, and the 'old ones' still have powers beyond our understanding.
In this moving narrative, we travel through the lands of the Lakota and the Ojibwe, where we encounter a strange little girl with an unnerving connection to the past, a forgotten asylum that history has tried to hide, and the complex, unforgettable characters we have come to know from Neither Wolf nor Dog and The Wolf at Twilight. Part history, part mystery, part spiritual journey and teaching story, The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo is filled with the profound insight into humanity and Native American culture we have come to expect from Nerburn's journeys. As the American Indian College Fund has stated, once you have encountered Nerburn's stirring evocations of America's high plains and incisive insights into the human heart, 'you can never look at the world, or at people, the same way again.'"
"The teachings of the Native Americans provide a connection with the land, the environment, and the simple beauties of life. This collection of writings from revered Native Americans offers timeless, meaningful lessons on living and learning.
Taken from writings, orations, and recorded observations of life, this book selects the best of Native American wisdom and distills it to its essence in short, digestible quotes—perhaps even more timely now than when they were first written. In addition to the short passages, this edition includes the complete Soul of an Indian, as well as other writings by Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman), one of the great interpreters of American Indian thought, and three great speeches by Chiefs Joseph, Seattle, and Red Jacket."
"Small Graces is a journey into the sacred moments that illuminate our everyday lives. In twenty elegant pieces, writer, sculptor, and theologian Kent Nerburn celebrates the daily rituals that reveal our deeper truths. Through the exploration of simple acts, Small Graces reminds us to chart a course each day that nourishes the soul, honors the body, and engages the mind.
Small Graces asks us to observe life's quiet rhythms, the subtle shifts in perception and changes in light, the warm comfort of family voices; to feel the blessing of birdsong, the solitude of a falling leaf, the echo of footfall in snow-covered woods. By inviting us to recognize the hidden power of the ordinary, Small Graces reveals the mystical alchemy of the mundane made profound by the artistry of a well-lived life."
"Joseph, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Black Elk, Ohiyesa, and many others share their insights on Native American ways of living, learning, and dying.
There is something archetypal about the philosophy of the original Americans, especially to the sensibilities of modern European Americans. We recognize it as coming from the earth we walk on, from those who preceded us. As we read the wisdom of these peoples, it is possible to feel a reconnection with our land and ourselves.
Taken from orations, recorded observations of life and social affairs, and other first-person testimonies, this book selects the best of Native American wisdom and distills it to its essence in short, digestible quotes that are meaningful and timeless — perhaps even more timely now than when they were written."
