Word: mahto
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...maturation story. Ahbleza faces countless tasks, which, one by one, he overcomes. As in any epic, he has visions he strives to fulfill. Even the story line is old: the coming of the white man portends ill; the heroes devote themselves to preserving the old Mahto ways. Nor is the book's message a new one. Ahbleza's last prophecy for his people, the Mahto band of the Teton Nation, is to recognize there are good white men as well as bad white men. Ruth Beebe Hill echoes this statement: there were good Indians as well as bad Indians...
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...
...writing is spare but flowing, with no set tense. Common nouns are idiomatic; a digs-with-mouth is a badger and a cloud-bird is an eagle. Mahto terms appear regularly, pta for buffalo and itancan for leader. And although the style at first seems ponderous and tedious, it soon becomes soothing. Like the book, it is steady and predictable. Also like the book, however, it is not for everyone...
...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...