How It Is: The Native American Philosophy of V. F.

Cordova by Kathleen Dean Moore; Kurt

Peters; Ted Jojola; Amber Lacey; Linda Hogan
Review by: David Martínez
Wicazo Sa Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (SPRING 2009), pp. 122-126
Published by: University of Minnesota Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40587771 .
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 realizedthatartwasinhisfuture. Ultimately he returned to Oklahoma,
wherehecontinued painting selling regularbasis,withhorsesa
and on a
dominant theme.Hood didnotattendartschool,butstudiedotherart-
ists'workbyvisiting museums andgalleries.He considers T. C. Cannon
andJerome Tigeramonghismentors. Anotherinfluence wasthought to
be Blackbear Bosin.Morerecently he has shownsomeJacksonPollock
influence by addingstreaksand dropsof paintoveror aroundthefig-
uresin his painting.Usingthattechniquein hisNative AmericanFamily
he wrote:"I paintedthiswiththeabstractbackgroundto tryto show
theviewerwhattheIndiangoes throughin thewhiteworld.It is very
complicated fora NativeAmerican" (91).
Hester quotes numerousart criticsand scholarswho have
attemptedto understandand analyze Hood's work.PerhapsHood
himself isthebestone toexplainhisart:"I see something through med-
icine,thenpaintsymbolsthataremyfeelings aboutwhatI saw.In that
mannereverytrueIndianpaintingis an abstraction - theIndianartist
does notcarryhisbrushesand canvasto thefieldand painta treeex-
actlyas itstandsthere.Ifhe feelssomething abouta treehe paintsthat
feeling:spiritual symbolizedbydrawingfromobjectsexist-
revelation
ing in the conscious world. . . Color is as you see it/the Indianartist
sees itinhisown,agelessway. . . My painting styleexplainsitself.I am
Comanche"(39).

REVIEW ESSAY by David Martinez

How It Is: The Native American

Philosophyoff V. F. Cordova
by KathleenDean Moore, KurtPeters,
Ted Jojola,and AmberLacey,witha foreword
by Linda Hogan
UniversityofArizona Press,2007

IH
posthumous collectionofunpublished papers,poems,and
>
ill
a shortstoryby ViolaFayeCordova(1937-2002),ofJicarilla
ac
< Apache/Hispanic descent,is presentedwiththepresumption
M
of beinga majorpublicationin philosophyby an American
O
N
<
Indianwoman,whichobviouslyis an indisputable rarityforbothphi-
losophy and American Indian/Native American studies.However,the
122 i novelty of Cordova'sethnicity and academic trainingsoon wearsthin
O'
O
thefurther one ventures
intothisseriesofwhatone mustcall sketches,
O
as the individualpiecesare too underdeveloped to be called articles.
o
z More specifically,whatbecomesclear is thatCordova'swritings are
oc
Û. littlemore than philosophicaleditorialswrittenfromthe perspec-
tiveofsomeonewho,althoughshe identifies as "NativeAmerican," is
drivenmorebyherbitterpersonalexperiences inacademiathanbyher

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experiences as an Apache woman. Polemics and hasty generaliza-
tions about whitesociety abound in thisvolume, interruptedhere and
thereby some unexceptionalpoems and a ratherdroll storyfeaturing
hippies.
Because all of the selections contained in this volume were un-
publishedas of the time of the author'suntimelydeath in 2002, they
bear the distinctshortcomingsof never having been put throughthe
peer review or editing process. Beginningwith the fact that Cordova
has an annoyingtendencyto referto "theNative American,"as ifNative
philosophy were somehow the product of an archetypal Indigenous
being,Cordova goes on to severelyhandicap heranalysisof history,cul-
ture,metaphysics,and ethicsby limitingthecontextforherdiscourseto
a verysimplifiedportrayalof Indian-White relations,namely,"Indian,
good,-white man, bad." Workingfromsuch a flimsypremise,much of
Cordova's timeis wasted on recountinganecdotes in which she felthurt
or offendedand how these personal affrontswere really examples of
the Westerntraditionand itsoppressionof "theNative American,"such
as occurs in "The Bridgeover Romero Creek" and "Taos Bridge."Then
thereis "Windows on Academics,"which is Cordova's attemptat seek-
ing retributionfromher formerprofessorsat the Universityof New
Mexico, who commentedon her workwithsuch remarksas, "You must
not make the mistakeof attributingsophisticatednotions to primitive
minds,"and "The Greeks were not a primitivepeople" (53). Cordova
refrainsfromnamingeitherthecommentatorsin question or theirinsti-
tutionalaffiliation. I only know the source of these offensivecomments
because Viola told me about themwhen we spoke on the phone back in
August 1989,the day beforeshe and herhusbandmoved to Alaska.
It is oftendifficultforme to identifywith Viola's experiences as
a Native person. We differgreatlyby age, gender,tribalaffiliation, and
personality type. Nonetheless, although I have heard my fairshare of
ignorant comments about Indians coming from the mouths of suppos-
edly educated persons, my own work as an American Indian philoso-
2
pherwas generallysupportedand sometimeslauded by both my peers
and professors.What I learned as an undergraduatephilosophy major
at the Universityof Rhode Island, where I attended 1986-1988, was
Westerncivilizationis farfroma monolithof customsand values. Ever
since Socrates took the Athenianaristocracyto task on its notions of
the Good, Justice,and the State, Western philosophers have consis-
tentlybeen some of the severestcritics of Western customs and val-
i 123
ues. Enteringinto that discourse as a Native thinker,one encounters
the source of ideas and institutionsthathave shaped Westernsocieties,
whetherit is platonic ideals, the Cartesian method, Locke's notion of
government,or the Augustinianconcept of time.At the same time,one
will also discover radical departuresfromthese traditions,be it Kant's
critique of pure reason, Schleiermacher'sand Kierkegaard'scriticisms

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 of Christianity,or Marx's comprehensiveassault on capitalism.What
one hopefullyrealizes as an Indigenous thinkeris that Native people
have theirown answersto the questions thatour Westerncounterparts
have been askingformillenniaabout life,nature,and the cosmos, which
are complemented by an array of modern and postmodern philoso-
phers and theoristswho have theirown doubts and misgivingsabout
the Westerntradition.
As someone who is a professorofAmericanIndianstudiesand who
holds a doctorate in philosophy (which I earned fromStony Brook in
1997), I can understandhow easy itis to lapse intocolloquialisms- some
mightsay stereotypes - about whitesociety.As a person of Gila River
Pima descent,I have experiencedfirsthandthe necessityof referring to
"some whiteguy,""thewhites,"or the "miligahns"in orderto establisha
meaningfulrapportwithotherIndians,particularlywhen discussingour
experiences,histories,concerns,and hopes forthe future.However,as an
AmericanIndian intellectualwritingat the beginningof the twenty-first
century,I cannot excuse myselffrombeing unknowledgeableabout the
Westernintellectualtradition,not because it is "superior,"but because it
is an ineluctablepartof my environmentas an academic. One does not
need to be an apologist forWesterncivilization,let alone its historyof
colonialismand attendantsuperioritycomplex,to maintaina productive
relationshipwith the dominantsociety at hand- and by "productive,"I
mean beneficialto one's Nativecommunity.
In Cordova's case, she explainsher pursuitof doing philosophyin
ratherdramaticterms.Upon quoting a Native acquaintance, who was
disgruntledwith being a resource fornon-Indianswritingtheirtheses
and dissertations,and who consequentlydeterminedto get their"own
degree,"Cordova states:"I, on the otherhand, decided to studyWhite
People. I wanted to be a 'White Expert.'"The justificationforthisrather
bizarre endeavor was, "Survivalrequired thatI know 'the enemy'"(42).
For someone who admittedlydid not speak her language, go to board-
ing school, or even want to live in or near her homeland- the latter
s
IH of which Cordova informedme about in an e-mail- but who went to
college and graduateschool, subsequentlybecoming a professor,albeit
neverin a tenure-trackposition,it is difficultto see what she means by
"survival."
Perhapsthe answerlies in a passage Cordova wroteregardingthe
urgentneed formore Native philosophers:"There are at the moment,
124 i throughoutthe country,almost no Native Americans in philosophy
departmentsat our universities.We have earned the rightto become
doctors, lawyers,scientists- we have not yet been accorded the right
to speak forourselves"(53). What is astounding about this passage is
that Cordova willfullyoverlooks two very importantcommunities:
one, thecoterieof Cordova's contemporarieswho identifyas American
Indianphilosophers,be itDennis McPherson (Ojibwa), GregoryCajete

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(Santa Clara Pueblo), Laurie Whitt (Mississippi Choctaw), Thomas
Norton-Smith(Shawnee), or Dale Turner(Teme-Augama Anishnabai),
not to mentioneveryonewho joined the American Indian Philosophy
Association (AIPA), including Anne Waters (Seminole/Choctaw/
Chickasaw/Cherokee/Jewish), formerpresident and cofounder with
Cordova of the AIPA/second, the historicallyimportantcommunityof
AmericanIndian writersand intellectualswho have been advocating a
Native perspectiveon Indigenouscultures,histories,and politicssince
the 1770s, when Samson Occom, Mohegan and Presbyterianminister,
remindedhis audience that they were "sinners,"too, no less than the
Indian convict, Moses Paul, whom they gathered to see hung forhis
crime of killinga white man. Since then, a legion of Indian writers,
includingGeorge Copway (Ojibwe), Charles Eastman (Dakota), and
Vine Deloriajr. (Lakota), have been speaking in theirown voices about
the Indiancondition forthe past two centuries.
I understandthatCordova is referringspecificallyto the dearth
of American Indianswith PhDs in philosophyworkingforphilosophy
departments,- however,one cannot possibly talk about "speaking for
ourselves"withoutacknowledgingone's peers and predecessors. With
the latterin mind,itbecomes readilyapparentas one proceeds through
How ItIs thatthe "Native AmericanPhilosophyof V. F. Cordova" is ex-
pressedas ifshe wants to be the only Indian in the room. In spite of all
her talk about the virtuesof tribalism,there is very littletribalismthat
informsCordova's discourse on the natureof the world,being human,
or being human in the world. In a call to action, Cordova declares:
"Our 'myths'and 'legends' are explored over and over again in many
disciplines and always the explanations seem inadequate to Native
Americans.The time has come forAmerican native peoples to give
theirown explanations.And that is the relevance of the study of phi-
losophy forNative Americans:not to see ourselvesas otherssee us, but
to look at ourselvesthroughour own eyes" (53). At this point it would
have been nice to see Cordova embarkon such a project,which she did
in her dissertation,focusingon the Dine, but which is nowhere to be III

seen in How It Is, least of all, with respect to the JicarillaApache. Nor
does Cordova analyze any of the work thathas been done previously
on otherApache traditions,such as Keith Basso's workon the Western
Apache,-nor does she acknowledge there being any other Apache in-
tellectualsother than herself,consequently ignoringthe work of Inés
Talamantez (Mescalero Apache). i 125
Justas critical,Cordova nevercites Vine Deloriajr. forthe work
he did initiatingthe critiquewithinAmerican Indian studies regarding
non-Indian discourses on Indian culture and history,namely,the infa-
mous fourthchapter of CusterDiedforYourSins,titled"Anthropologists
and Other Friends."Instead, Cordova goes on to undermineher own
philosophical principles with an uncritical reference to the Bering

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 Straittheory,so thoroughlymaligned in Deloria Jr.'s1997 book, Red
Earth,WhiteLies. Cordova claims at the beginning of "The Bridge to
America":"An ancestor of mine crossed the land bridge that spanned
the BeringStrait.Ten thousand,thirtythousand years ago. The dates
are disputed" (30). Cordova then goes on to recount that her father
claimed "to be a descendant of Folsom man" (30). What, then,of the
Apache assertion of a differentorigin story? Cordova's grandfather
affirmedin answer to a whiteman'squestion, asking him where he was
from:"I am fromhere . . . and I have alwaysbeen here" (30). To which,
Cordova responds: "May be not always. But being as how his memory
had no thoughtof any otherplace, 'always'was good enough" (30).
On thatcondescending note, it is fairto claim, in thisreviewer's
opinion, thatHow It Is is ultimatelyan inconsequential addition to an
American Indian intellectualtraditionabout which Cordova seemed
littleaware. More than likely,Cordova's collected works will go the
way of American IndianThought,a 2003 anthology of currentAmerican
Indian philosophers,edited by Anne Waters,which sought to proclaim
the arrivalof American Indian philosophy,but which instead quietly
went out of print.Thus, when Linda Hogan says in her prefacewith
regardto Cordova's work,"As an American Indian woman and thinker,
I have long wished fora person who could bringto lightand language
the significanceof indigenous knowledge and the culturaldifferences
of our peoples so eloquentlyand brilliantly,"
I can only say in turnthat
your wait continues.This assumes, course, thatyou do not botherto
of
read any of the manyIndian authorsaround you already.

REVIEW ESSAY by James V. Fenelon

The Sioux in South Dakota History

by RichmondL. Clow
South Dakota State HistoricalSociety Press,2007
III

>
III
articles fromthe South Dakota State Historical Society
on the Sioux, or Lakota, make a series of major contribu-
<
M
tions toward understandingsome of the lesser known devel-
O
N
<
opments over the twentiethcentury.The firstthree articles
U
by major scholars with deep experience in their respective areas re-
126 i flecta "Struggleforthe Land" as the theme forpart one of the edited
o
volume. Hoxie's "From Prison to Homeland" on the Cheyenne River
o
fN ReservationbeforeWorld War I demonstratesthe massive land trans-
o
z fer(also called "takings"or even "theft")under allotmentand cultural
ce.
a. change or adaptation fromSioux control to governmentassimilation
policies and an oftenmixed whiteand Indian land holding. Hoxie sees
the accompanying institutionallife,whether "admired or hated," as

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