Word: hillings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
HANTA YO'S value, then, does not lie in its greatness as a novel. Rather, it is important because of its authenticity, subject matter and message. But in choosing to write a novel about the Sioux, Hill has perpetrated the Plains Indian myth. She has not shown Americans the real, native American, the Indians who were the same in 1750 as they were in 1410. Instead she has only given Americans what they have idolized since they helped create him: the scalp-wielding, horse-riding savage...
...Hill spent two years thrashing out Hanta Yo, or what was to become Hanta Yo. According to her collaborator Chunksa Yuha, a full-blooded Sioux, she read over 1200 ethnographies and wrote over 2000 pages. Beginning in 1967 the two translated all 2000 pages into pre-reservation Mahto only to retranslate back into English. They wanted to transmit the style and flavor of the ancient language as much as they wanted to depict the Mahto culture. They succeeded. Not only is Hanta Yo the best researched noyel yet written about an American Indian tribe, but it is also written...
...Hanta Yo fast-moving. Just over 800 pages long, Hill's epic is hardly suspensful. Rather, it is sagalike, but the reality is Siouian. The ethnography can be tedious if the reader is not interested. On the other hand, for readers who are familiar with American Indian history, Hanta Yo is just another well-written novel that does not work as well as it should...
...ethnographies, let alone novels about native Americans, have been written by women. Rarer still are those that focus on women. But Hill does not offer a fresh perspective. By being true to the Mahto, a male-dominated society, Hill tells her tale through primarily male eyes. Her women, though they win sympathy and admiration, are secondary characters. They are either treated as such by their men or, if not, two out of three times they end up dying. Their deaths--Wanagi's and Ahbleza's wives die--only strengthen the men's resolve to be pure and unselfish; neither takes...
...addition to these minor flaws, Hanta Yo is disappointing for another reason. Hill tries for something that she cannot achieve; by starting off well she promises more than she can deliver. The Mahto men: as philosophers, fathers, warriors, hunters, and leaders: face questions that all humans face: is my son's bad behavior my fault? As leader of the people, should the people follow me or should I follow them? Is there a God? But her protangonist's quest--self-control and the meaning of existence--she never fully answers...