ABSTRACT
This Introduction to native American literature is designed to serve as an aid to those who wish to read, study, teach, or simply enjoy Native American literature. Literature, of course, is written to be encountered and appreciated without necessitating the added burden of supplemental reading. Wampum actually holds deep spiritual and diplomatic significance for eastern nations and was essential to the maintenance of peace in native space. Monogamy is not a cultural expectation—the nineteenth-century Blackfeet world that Welch recreates for us operates under a system of values for understanding honor and right action that could not properly register in the world of Hester Prynne. This chapter privileges indigenous perspectives and traditions as articulated by indigenous authors who have been projecting their voices into the national dialogue for a period of roughly 400 years. Paramount to this consideration of native-centered reading is the understanding that literature was not something bestowed upon Native peoples by the dominant white culture.
