In North America, the Indigenous literature we know today reaches back thousands of years to when the continent''s original inhabitants first circled fires and shared tales of emergence and creation, journey and quest, heroism and trickery. Sean Teuton tells the story of Indigenous literature, from the time when oral narrative inspired the first Indigenous writers in English, through later writers'' appropriation of genres to serve the creative and political needs ofthe times. In this lucid narrative he leads readers into the Indigenous worlds from which the literatures grows, where views about land and society and the role of humanity in the cosmos continue to enliven western understanding. In setting Indigenous literature in historical moments he elucidatesits various purposes, from its ancient role in bringing rain or healing the body, to its later service in resisting European invasion and colonization, into its current place as a world literature that confronts dominance while it
