I had been looking around on the Native Voices Website recently. I noticed that some of the authors were less than reputable. I was concerned also that they advertise as "a Native American source". I wrote an email and got a response. ?
Native Voices:
Osiyo. If you don't mind my asking, how is it the books you sell are ?
selected? I receive your flyer and have ordered from your company ?
before. With the caption "your best source for books on Native ?
history, culture, herbs and healing, crafts, legends, spiritualism, ?
personal growth and contemporary issues", and the website stating " We ?
feel privileged to be working with this indigenous authors to make ?
their voices heard and to help keep their culture alive"....it appears ?
with your endorsement that the authors of the books sold are ?
Legitimate Native American from various Nations. I did see that there ?
were some Authors that are known to be inaccurate in what they attempt ?
to sell to the public as "real" Native American tradition.
?
With all of the problems created today by folks that have ?
intentionally mixed cultural beliefs and thrown in a few of their own ?
calling it "Native American", it seems to be the acceptance of another ?
treason in agreeing to sell books and materials that are not "keeping ?
the culture alive", but disrespecting the cultures and confusing the ?
people buying it, believing it is accurate.
?
I am trying to understand. I would appreciate your response.
Respectfully, Patty
Patty,
Thanks for pointing this out to us.
This statement was put together when the only books we were selling were ?
those published by our sister company, Book Publishing. They publish ?
titles almost exclusively by Native Americans.
Now that we have branched out to include titles by other publishers, I ?
can see that we need to update this statement. I appreciate your concern ?
about the mixing and mislabeling of cultures that threatens to dilute ?
and disrespect Native ways. There is not only disagreement about what ?
constitutes this dilution and disrepect among the non-Native population, ?
but among Native peoples as well.
We hope to serve the interests of our Native friends and to this end ?
will do our best to represent ourselves faithfully and honestly.
Sincerely,
Cynthia
Native Voices
