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May 2015 Vol. 52 No. 9

Senier (Univ. of New Hampshire) initiated this milestone anthology, which makes visible the diversity and longevity of writing traditions within ten Native nations in New England: Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Mohegan, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Schaghticoke, and Wampanoag.  Collaborative in production and format, the anthology includes a section for each tribal nation with works organized chronologically.  "Community editors”—Native scholars, educators, writers, knowledge keepers—provide introductions to their respective nations and communities and to selected writings and bibliographies.  Ranging from poems to petitions, transcribed oral stories to tribal periodicals, representative works demonstrate the continuity and vitality of writing traditions for tribal communities while refuting the narratives of erasure and absence still prevalent about Native peoples in New England.  Senier addresses the notable absence of a Pequot section as part of the inevitable challenge of using a community editor model.  Extending the work the anthology started, a website—Writing of Indigenous New England, https://indnewengland.omeka.net/—serves as digital companion to the anthology and an online “exhibit space.”  A significant contribution to Native American and indigenous studies and to US literature.

--S. K. Bernardin, SUNY College at Oneonta

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.