Review of Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today by Leslie Marmon Silko

While you would not usually find this title among high school reading lists I think that Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit, along with many other non-fiction essays written by contemporary writers, idealists and activities, should find their way into the classroom. Non-fiction as a required percentage of high school curriculum gives teachers a chance to integrate a wide variety of writing that can include essays, articles, memoirs, photographic essays, etc. When it comes to including books of essays, there are two ways to do this. Introduce the book as a whole and use the variety of topics for discussion and writing. Or pick one or two of the short essays to supplement a specific lesson. This can be done without losing any of the integrity of the essays as a whole work. Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit can easily be used either way. As a unit text, it covers a great many contemporary Native American political issues, sociological practices, history of pueblo peoples, and even a section on Mayan screenfolds that could all be worked into a unit on Native Americans in History, Civics, or English classes.

Even though the book covers a plethora of topics it is relatively small, only 200 pages long. There are 22 essays ranging from as few as 3 pages to 7-10 pages. The book also includes photography by the author. Her essay On Photography and An Essay on Rocks struck me as great essays to have in a photography class. Students would be introduced to the way that Leslie Marmon Silko relates to the world and then how she takes this perception into her study of photography.

One can also not ignore the passion in Silko's writing. In the section Stone Avenue Mural, she writes a two paragraph essay with all the excitement of her voice in the other essays but boiled down so thoroughly the essay comes off as a call for revolution. The collection also includes these small drawings, additions to augment breaks in the writing. The drawings are tribal by the author and lend to the idea that Silko is trying to invoke the Native American spirit in every element of this book.

There is also an addition I have not seen in any of her other works. Maybe added because this is non-fiction? Not sure, but the few notes after the acknowledgements are very helpful. For example, their is a short glossary for the section on ancient pueblo culture. Though I have to admit that the notes are by no measure thorough. A warning here as well, the book is a lovely collection but it is essentially organized by an author that admits that linear organization or even a linear awareness of time are not how she thinks. I can see the collection being very confusing to the novice reader of Native American writing.

I was impressed with how much I liked this book. I have been reading Silko's fiction and poetry for years but I had not given much thought to her non-fiction until recently (thank you to you know who). If you find yourself interested in Native American literature, culture, politics, or biographies I would recommend this title wholeheartedly. ( )