Clifford E. Trafzer's Books

Blue Dawn, Red Earth

New Native American Storytellers

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

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Blue Dawn, Red Earth

New Native American Storytellers

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

In recent decades, Native American literature has experienced a resurgence in prominence and popularity. Beginning with the 1969 publication of N. Scott Momaday's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel House Made of Dawn, and continuing with the work of Paula Gunn Allen, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, and Craig Lesley, American Indian writers have become an increasingly visible part of the literary landscape. In this collection of thirty varied and powerful short stories, almost all being published here for the first time, emerging talents carry on the tradition of their storytelling ancestors.

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Page Count

450

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Anchor

Published Date

ISBN 10

0385479522

ISBN 13

9780385479523

Fighting Invisible Enemies

Health and Medical Transitions among Southern California Indians

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

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Fighting Invisible Enemies

Health and Medical Transitions among Southern California Indians

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

Native Americans long resisted Western medicine—but had less power to resist the threat posed by Western diseases. And so, as the Office of Indian Affairs reluctantly entered the business of health and medicine, Native peoples reluctantly began to allow Western medicine into their communities. Fighting Invisible Enemies traces this transition among inhabitants of the Mission Indian Agency of Southern California from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. What historian Clifford E. Trafzer describes is not so much a transition from one practice to another as a gradual incorporation of Western medicine into Indian medical practices. Melding indigenous and medical history specific to Southern California, his book combines statistical information and documents from the federal government with the oral narratives of several tribes. Many of these oral histories—detailing traditional beliefs about disease causation, medical practices, and treatment—are unique to this work, the product of the author’s close and trusted relationships with tribal elders. Trafzer examines the years of interaction that transpired before Native people allowed elements of Western medicine and health care into their lives, homes, and communities. Among the factors he cites as impelling the change were settler-borne diseases, the negative effects of federal Indian policies, and the sincere desire of both Indians and agency doctors and nurses to combat the spread of disease. Here we see how, unlike many encounters between Indians and non-Indians in Southern California, this cooperative effort proved positive and constructive, resulting in fewer deaths from infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis. The first study of its kind, Trafzer’s work fills gaps in Native American, medical, and Southern California history. It informs our understanding of the working relationship between indigenous and Western medical traditions and practices as it continues to develop today.

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Page Count

401

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806164174

ISBN 13

9780806164175

Strong Hearts and Healing Hands

Southern California Indians and Field Nurses, 1920–1950

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

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Strong Hearts and Healing Hands

Southern California Indians and Field Nurses, 1920–1950

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

In 1924, the United States began a bold program in public health. The Indian Service of the United States hired its first nurses to work among Indians living on reservations. This corps of white women were dedicated to improving Indian health. In 1928, the first field nurses arrived in the Mission Indian Agency of Southern California. These nurses visited homes and schools, providing public health and sanitation information regarding disease causation and prevention. Over time, field nurses and Native people formed a positive working relationship that resulted in the decline of mortality from infectious diseases. Many Native Americans accepted and used Western medicine to fight pathogens, while also continuing Indigenous medicine ways. Nurses helped control tuberculosis, measles, influenza, pneumonia, and a host of gastrointestinal sicknesses. In partnership with the community, nurses quarantined people with contagious diseases, tested for infections, and tracked patients and contacts. Indians turned to nurses and learned about disease prevention. With strong hearts, Indians eagerly participated in the tuberculosis campaign of 1939–40 to x-ray tribal members living on twenty-nine reservations. Through their cooperative efforts, Indians and health-care providers decreased deaths, cases, and misery among the tribes of Southern California.

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422

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University of Arizona Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0816542171

ISBN 13

9780816542178

Forgotten Voices

Death Records of the Yakama, 1888-1964

By: Clifford E. Trafzer,Robert R. McCoy

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Forgotten Voices

Death Records of the Yakama, 1888-1964

By: Clifford E. Trafzer,Robert R. McCoy

Despite a recent resurgence in studies of death and disease in native peoples of the Western Hemisphere, little work has been done on death and disease in Native Americans during the reservation period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Forgotten Voices: Death Records of the Yakama, 1888-1964 begins a discussion of the health of the people on the Yakama Reservation in Washington using statistical data. This is the first detailed work that focuses on the causes of death on American Indian reservations. It contains an extensive introduction to Yakama history and lifestyle, and tables that present statistical information on the major causes of death. Each chapter highlights a different cause of death on the Yakama Reservation, including • Tuberculosis • Pneumonia • Heart Disease • Gastrointestinal Problems • Influenza • Cancer • Birth Complications • Old Age • Stroke Forgotten Voices is an invaluable resource for students and scholars that encourages further research in the field of Native American history.

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Page Count

207

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

081086648X

ISBN 13

9780810866485

Death Stalks the Yakama

Epidemiological Transitions and Mortality on the Yakama Indian Reservation, 1888-1964

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

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Death Stalks the Yakama

Epidemiological Transitions and Mortality on the Yakama Indian Reservation, 1888-1964

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

Clifford Trafzer's disturbing new work, Death Stalks the Yakama, examines life, death, and the shockingly high mortality rates that have persisted among the fourteen tribes and bands living on the Yakama Reservation in the state of Washington. The work contains a valuable discussion of Indian beliefs about spirits, traditional causes of death, mourning ceremonies, and memorials. More significant, however, is Trafzer's research into heretofore unused parturition and death records from 1888-1964. In these documents, he discovers critical evidence to demonstrate how and why many reservation people died in "epidemics" of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and heart disease. Death Stalks the Yakama, takes into account many variables, including age, gender, listed causes of death, residence, and blood quantum. In addition, analyses of fetal and infant mortality rates as well as crude death rates arising from tuberculosis, pneumonia, heart disease, accidents, and other causes are presented. Trafzer argues that Native Americans living on the Yakama Reservation were, in fact, in jeopardy as a result of the "reservation system" itself. Not only did this alien and artificial culture radically alter traditional ways of life, but sanitation methods, housing, hospitals, public education, medicine, and medical personnel affiliated with the reservation system all proved inadequate, and each in its own way contributed significantly to high Yakama death rates.

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294

Publisher

MSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0870139606

ISBN 13

9780870139604

A Chemehuevi Song

The Resilience of a Southern Paiute Tribe

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

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A Chemehuevi Song

The Resilience of a Southern Paiute Tribe

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

The Chemehuevi of the Twenty-Nine Palms tribe of Southern California stands as a testament to the power of perseverance. This small, nomadic band of Southern Paiute Indians has been repeatedly marginalized by European settlers, other Native groups, and, until now, historical narratives that have all too often overlooked them. Having survived much of the past two centuries without rights to their homeland or any self-governing abilities, the Chemehuevi were a mostly “forgotten” people until the creation of the Twenty-Nine Palms Reservation in 1974. Since then, they have formed a tribal government that addresses many of the same challenges faced by other tribes, including preserving cultural identity and managing a thriving gaming industry. A dedicated historian who worked closely with the Chemehuevi for more than a decade, Clifford Trafzer shows how this once-splintered tribe persevered using sacred songs and other cultural practices to maintain tribal identity during the long period when it lacked both a homeland and autonomy. The Chemehuevi believe that their history and their ancestors are always present, and Trafzer honors that belief through his emphasis on individual and family stories. In doing so, he not only sheds light on an overlooked tribe but also presents an important new model for tribal history scholarship. A Chemehuevi Song strikes the difficult balance of placing a community-driven research agenda within the latest currents of indigenous studies scholarship. Chemehuevi voices, both past and present, are used to narrate the story of the tribe’s tireless efforts to gain recognition and autonomy. The end result is a song of resilience.

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Page Count

329

Publisher

University of Washington Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

029580582X

ISBN 13

9780295805825

Hardship to Homeland

Pacific Northwest Volga Germans

By: Richard D. Scheuerman,Clifford E. Trafzer

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Hardship to Homeland

Pacific Northwest Volga Germans

By: Richard D. Scheuerman,Clifford E. Trafzer

Hardship to Homeland recounts Volga Germans’ unique story in a saga that stretches from Germany to Russia and across the Atlantic. Burdened by war and debt, life was extremely difficult for impoverished European peasants until a former German princess came to power. Seeking to increase borderland population, provide a buffer against Ottoman Empire incursions, and bring agricultural ingenuity to her country, Russian empress Catherine II issued a remarkable 1763 manifesto inviting Europeans to immigrate. Their passage paid, colonists would become Russian citizens, yet retain their language and culture. For the next four years, some 27,000 settlers came--mostly from Hesse and the Palatinate--founding 104 communities along both banks of the Volga River near Saratov and introducing numerous agricultural innovations. But the Russian Senate revoked the original settlement terms in 1871. Facing poor economic conditions and a forced Russian army draft, 100,000 Volga Germans joined other immigrant waves to the New World. After a decade of hardship in the Midwest, some began moving to the Pacific Northwest, and their westward movement was one of the region’s largest single ethnic group migrations. From outposts in Washington State they spread throughout the Columbia Basin, along the coast, and into northern Idaho, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alberta, transforming their new homelands into centers of western productivity and significantly influencing North American religion, politics, and social development. Hardship to Homeland is a revised and expanded reprint of The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest, published in 1985 and long out of print. This edition offers a new introduction as well as Volga German folk stories from the Pacific Northwest, collected and retold by Richard D. Scheuerman, with illustrations by Jim Gerlitz.

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Page Count

408

Publisher

Washington State University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0874223962

ISBN 13

9780874223965

Native Americans of Riverside County

By: Clifford E. Trafzer,Jeffrey A. Smith

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Native Americans of Riverside County

By: Clifford E. Trafzer,Jeffrey A. Smith

The Colorado Desert lands that became Riverside County in the 19th century were home to diverse bands of California Indian people, including the Cahuilla, Gabrielino, Serrano, Luise-o, Chemehuevi, and Mojave tribes. Other Native Americans call the county home, including urban Indians who moved here in the 20th century. The tribes of Riverside County are survivors, descendants of sovereign people who left their mark on the county's history eons before the first European explorers entered the land. These historic photographs depicting the tribes and their way of life were culled from the authors' personal archives as well as the collections of the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians Museum, Twenty-nine Palms Tribe, Riverside Municipal Museum, and the University of California, Riverside.

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Page Count

130

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0738546852

ISBN 13

9780738546858

Grandmother, Grandfather, and Old Wolf

Tamánwit Ku Súkat and Traditional Native American Narratives from the Columbia Plateau

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

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Grandmother, Grandfather, and Old Wolf

Tamánwit Ku Súkat and Traditional Native American Narratives from the Columbia Plateau

By: Clifford E. Trafzer

A fascinating compilation of original sources recounting the history, culture, and societies of Native American groups of the Great Columbia Plateau. Edited and annotated by award-winning writer Clifford E. Trafzer, this is a magnificent collection of oral stories of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Whisram, Klickitat, as well as several other tribes. Rich in detail, the stories form the basis for Plateau Indian history, offering readers traditional native narratives that allow people to enter a sacred world of words and stories. At the beginning of time -- for all times -- these stories were told and retold for generations by all the Grandmothers and Grandfathers. These stories set animals, plants, and places in motion, and they help spin the cosmos into being. They keep the traditions alive and recreate the world with each telling. This unique collection is representative of oral traditions that are still much a part of Plateau Indian culture today. Trafzer provides a provocative introduction that ties the oral traditions of the people to their history and culture, inviting readers to use the stories as windows that will offer a better understanding of Native Americans and their relationship with the natural world. Trafzer simply asks readers to enter the Native American world through the teachings and tellings of the Wahteetash, the first peoples.

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Page Count

326

Publisher

MSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0870134450

ISBN 13

9780870134456

Book's by Clifford E. Trafzer

Blue Dawn, Red Earth

Blue Dawn, Red Earth

Fighting Invisible Enemies

Fighting Invisible Enemies

Strong Hearts and Healing Hands

Strong Hearts and Healing Hands

Forgotten Voices

Forgotten Voices

Death Stalks the Yakama

Death Stalks the Yakama

A Chemehuevi Song

A Chemehuevi Song

Hardship to Homeland

Hardship to Homeland

Native Americans of Riverside County

Native Americans of Riverside County

Grandmother, Grandfather, and Old Wolf

Grandmother, Grandfather, and Old Wolf

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