An important, well-researched look into the printed history of an Indigenous language.
A team of Chickasaw linguistic experts explores their nation’s language in this edited anthology of two 19th-century works.
A Methodist minister, politician, and educator, Judson Dwight Collins was a central figure in mid-to-late-19th-century Chickasaw history. In addition to serving in various high-profile roles within the Chickasaw government, including its Supreme Court, as well as overseeing the Collins Institute school, he also collaborated with Swiss ethnologist and linguist Albert Samuel Gatschet to document the Chikashshanompa’ language. The duo published two manuscripts: Words, Phrases and Grammatic Elements of the Chicasa Language Obtained from Judson Dwight Collins and Chikasa: Lexical and Syntactical Collection Obtained from J.D. Collins. Published together here, these two documents “are the earliest to contain whole narratives and examples of complete, interconnected speech in sentence form” of the language, as well as vocabulary lists, verb declensions, and archaic and novel words that do not appear in Chickasaw dictionaries. Housed at the Smithsonian Institution since the 1920s, the manuscripts are offered to a general audience in this groundbreaking anthology. Seeking to maintain the eclectic transcription style of Gatschet, the book provides high-resolution scans of the original, handwritten manuscripts on the right page, with a typed and annotated version provided on the left. Beyond offering the full versions of both manuscripts, the authors provide several essays that introduce readers to the historical context of the documents and discuss their linguistic methodology. All editors are experts on the Chickasaw nation’s linguistic history and have Ph.D.s centered on Indigenous languages; most have served in leading positions within the Chickasaw Nation Language Preservation Division. The work includes an academic bibliography and ample footnotes that complement the translations. And while the book’s goal is the continued preservation and study of Chikashshanompa’ among the scholarly community, it remains accessible to nonexperts by offering an approachable introduction to the language. The inclusion of photographs, newspaper clippings, and other visual elements makes for an intellectually stimulating and visually stunning work.
An important, well-researched look into the printed history of an Indigenous language.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781952397196
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Chickasaw Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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