"Stars Above, Earth Below" is a well written, lavishly illustrated, and thoughtfully organized series of essays devoted to the complex and rich relationship between American Indians and nature. Supported by very useful bibliographies for further reading, and an abundance of artwork, photographs, and diagrams "Stars Above, Earth Below" makes for an excellent resource for both teachers and students and for an excellent choice as a textbook.

The book is divided into five topical areas of discussion: "Origin Stories," "Astronomy," "Animals," "Botany and Nature," and "Society." Each of these individual chapters follows the same structure of an initial general or overview essay, followed by a chapter(s) that focus on practices or stories of specific tribes or peoples. This movement from general to particular works quite well and serves to give readers a sense of the diversity and ingenuity of Native American peoples. The preface essay to the whole volume, "Native American Attitudes to the Environment," by N. Scott Momaday was an excellent choice to set the ground work for the book. Speaking in large terms, Mr. Momaday defines Native American attitudes toward the natural world in terms of three interlocking concepts, "reciprocal appropriation," "moral and kind imagination," and "racial and cultural experience." Each concept is an integral part of the larger definition which is formed by putting the three pieces together.

The essays then begin, like all good beginnings, with origin stories. Using the umbrella concept of "distributive power," Gregory Schrempp investigates the large scale concepts of transformers, tricksters, and culture heroes, cosmic kinship, and the emergence of humanity that are all so central to origin myths. This is followed by Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer's very thoughtful essay on "Tlingit Origin Stories." I was particularly impressed and delighted with how the Dauenhauers so clearly expressed the fluidity and adaptability of Tlingit creation stories. Drawing on historical resources we are shown how the arrival of Christianity and Christian mythology became an interpretive lense for some members of the community for creation stories; yet this process did not occur with others. This historical and mythical flexibility is shown again in the character of Raven. Is he culture hero who shapes the world or is he trickster? Yes is the answer.

The chapter on astronomy is excellent as well. We move from discussions of specific sites such as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel to conceptions of the Milky Way, the calendar, fixed stars, sun, moon, and the relationship of stellar patterns to architecture. The construction of sacred space in Navajo hogans and Iroquois longhouses based on stellar patterns and orientations to space was well diagramed and easy to follow.

From there we move on to the next chapter and a discussion of Native American attitudes toward animals. The range of animals discussed in the introductory essay is wide. This is followed by an essay on the Zuni relationship with birds, and the very thought provoking, "Ecology, Conservation, and the Buffalo Jump," by Shepard Krech III. There is a common assumption that Native American peoples were "conservationists," and "ecological." His concern is that there is a tendency to romanticize, and thus not really see the complexities of Native American attitudes toward the buffalo hunt. Mr. Krech suggests that our categories of conservation and ecology may not be really useful in trying to understand Native American attitudes towards the buffalo. He suggests that we need to look deeper and more empathically into worldviews quite different from ours and to consider the historical impact horses, guns, and the hide trade had on hunting practices.

The book ends with chapters on "Botany and Nature," and "Society." Starting first with a study of plants in various locales and geographic regions these chapters move to look at the use of plants for food, medicine, fiber arts, weaving, and dyes. The section on plants has two excellent focused essays. One is on trees, "The Sacred Cedar Tree of the K'ak'aka'wak People," and the other is "Corn Man and Tobacco Woman in Pima Cosmology." The section on society look at how models from nature are used to construct human social, political, and artistic institutions. Themes here range from Hopi brides as the Corn Maiden, to divisions of the world along natural lines, to political organization based on the cycle of the year.

"Stars Above, Earth Below" is first and foremost an aesthetically beautiful book. Well designed, amply illustrated, and very thoughtfully edited it makes a major contribution towards understanding aspects of the widely diverse Native American people's attitudes towards the natural world. We recommend it very highly.

review © 2000 by Tom Collins and RSiSS

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