Corbett Mack: The Life of a Northern Paiute

by Michael Hittman

Overview

Corbett Mack (1892–1974), was a Northern Paiute of mixed ancestry, caught between Native American and white worlds. A generation before, his tribe had brought forth the prophet Wovoka, whose Ghost Dance swept the Indian world in the 1890s. Mack’s world was a harsh and bitter place after the last Native American uprisings had been brutally crushed; a life of servitude to white farmers and addiction to opium. Hittman uses Mack’s own words to retell his story, an uncompromising account of a traumatized life that typified his generation, yet nonetheless made meaningful through the perseverance of Paiute cultural traditions. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874179163
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	09/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Michael Hittman is professor emeritus at Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York, and the author of Great Basin Indians: An Encyclopedic History. 

Editorial Reviews

We are presented, then, with an important historical document.”—blogcritics

blogcritics

Corbett Mack: The Life of a Northern Paiute is a superb addition to the life history literature, and its author is an excellent field ethnographer. This book will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in Northern Paiute culture, or life history studies.”—Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

"We should also always remember that every tribe, tongue and nation has at some time or another in its history oppressed and subjugated and dominated another people. Corbett Mack's story tells us this: taivo, or, we are all people, with the same needs, the same failings and proves that 'oppression makes even the wise act mad.'" Gray Hunter, blogcritics.org Jan. 9, 2014

From the Publisher