An ALA Notable Book

A story--and history--reaching back thousands of years unfolds in this diverse and unusual collection of Native American poetry, which gathers dozens of works that have been translated from over forty languages. Representing all the best-known Indian peoples of North and South America, In the Trail of the Wind is a cross-cultural anthology--the first of its kind--that brings into focus the similarities between tribes as widely separated as the Sioux and the Aztec, the Cherokee and the ancient Maya.

Here we find an array of omens, battle songs, orations, love lyrics, prayers, dreams, and mysteries incantations. Beginning with the origin of the earth and the emergence of humanity, the sequence of poems proceeds through that rituals of birth, love, war, and death to the foreshadowing of the Conquest, the days of despair, and, finally, the apocalyptic visions of a new life.

Editor John Bierhorst also offers a detailed Introduction; a richly thorough Notes section on the translators, meanings, contexts, and specific references of these poems; and a complete Glossary of Tribes, Cultures, and Languages. In the Trail of the Wind concludes with a Suggestions for Further Reading page.