Description
William Fenton: Selected Writings is a collection of anthropologist William Fenton's (1908 - 2005) classic articles about Iroquoian studies. Edited by fellow ethnologists William A Starna and Jack Campisi includes 11 essays; 5 book reviews; 4 obituaries of key Haudenosaunee informants; and 6 brief accounts of the annual Conference on Iroquois Research. Fenton did his fieldwork among the longhouses at Allegany, Cattaraugus, Tonawanda, and Six Nations of the Grand River and in the homes of many of the renowned Haudenosaunee Faithkeepers and speakers - Simeon Gibson, Johnson Jimerson, Howard Sky, Chauncey Johnny John, and Henry Redeye. Essays in this collection include Iroquois Indian Folklore; Island, the World on the Turtle's Back; Return of Eleven Wampum Belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy on Grand River, Canada; He-Lost-a-Bet (Howan?neyao) of the Seneca Hawk Clan; Howard Sky, 1900-1971: Cayuga Faith-Keeper, Gentleman, and Interpreter of Iroquois Culture; TwÝ-yendagon' (Woodeater) Takes the Heavenly Path: On the Death of Henry Redeye (1864?-1946), Speaker of the Coldspring Seneca Longhouse; and Simeon Gibson: Iroquois Informant, 1889-1943. In the piece, Letters to an Ethnologist's Children: From Simeon Gibson to the Children of William N. Fenton Who Took Them Down, contain stories such as how mush was made of chestnuts, how the bear lost his tail, the hunter and his dogs, and the boy and the crow. The volume contains an index and reading lists. An important volume.