How the World Moves: The Odyssey of an American Indian Family

by Peter Nabokov

Overview

A compelling portrait of cultural transition and assimilation via the saga of one Acoma Pueblo Indian family

Born in 1861 in New Mexico’s Acoma Pueblo, Edward Proctor Hunt lived a tribal life almost unchanged for centuries. But after attending government schools he broke with his people’s ancient codes to become a shopkeeper and controversial broker between Indian and white worlds. As a Wild West Show Indian he travelled in Europe with his family, and saw his sons become silversmiths, painters, and consultants on Indian Lore. In 1928, in a life-culminating experience, he recited his version of the origin myth of Acoma Pueblo to Smithsonian Institution scholars.

Nabokov narrates the fascinating story of Hunt’s life within a multicultural and historical context. Chronicling Pueblo Indian life and Anglo/Indian relations over the last century and a half, he explores how this entrepreneurial family capitalized on the nation’s passion for Indian culture. In this rich book, Nabokov dramatizes how the Hunts, like immigrants throughout history, faced anguishing decisions over staying put or striking out for economic independence, and experienced the pivotal passage from tradition to modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780670024889
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/22/2015
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	1,079,506
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Peter Nabokov is a professor of world arts and cultures and American Indian studies at UCLA. His previous books include Where the Lightning Strikes and Indian Running, and he edited the volume Native American Testimony. He lives in Los Angeles.

Read an Excerpt

THIS IS THE STORY of a man who told a story. It was nothing less than his version of his people’s account of the creation of the world and the beginning of their history, their equivalent of the Old Testament, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Upanishads, or the Koran. Commonly told orally and in separate episodes depending on the traditional occasion, here for the first time it was on paper and of a piece. Although his version proved one of the most complete examples from Native America of the most important narrative that any society can tell itself about itself, it was published anonymously. Until recently no one knew the narrator’s name. How it took a lifetime for this man to experience and string together this epic, its fate as a publication out in the world, the banishment that he and his family endured for being themselves and sharing such information, and their subsequent adventures and struggles for survival throughout the twentieth century are this book’s story.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "How the World Moves"
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Copyright © 2016 Peter Nabokov.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Day Break (1846-80) 5

Part 2 Edward Hunt (1880-1918) 115

Part 3 Big Snake (1918-30) 229

Part 4 Dad Hunt (1930-2007) 351

Postscript 467

Acknowledgments 469

Sources and Notes 473

Illustration Credits 534

Index 535

Editorial Reviews

08/10/2015
In 1928, Edward Proctor Hunt, a Pueblo Indian, recounted to Smithsonian Institution scholars the previously secret origin story of his community. This volume, published in tandem with Nabokov’s new edition of Hunt’s account, places Hunt’s narrative in the context of his family’s travels throughout the U.S. and Europe as performers in “Wild West” shows and as participants in the development of a growing fascination with the indigenous cultures of the American Southwest. Nabokov (Where the Lightning Strikes) produces a vibrant and heartrending picture of traditional Pueblo Indian life, which at Hunt’s birth in 1861 seemed to be “timeless and reliable,” though would soon suffer irrevocable changes as a result of warfare and white expansionism. More poignant is Nabokov’s depiction of Hunt’s multiple estrangements from his culture: first as a student at Duranes Indian Training School in Albuquerque, then as a struggling farmer and as a “fantasy of a native potentate from the golden West,” and finally as an anthropologist’s informant and “popularizer of native wisdom” and “Indian Lore.” Nabokov’s painstaking yet irregular narration may alienate some readers, but others will be fascinated by his story of a man who saw his culture drastically altered by its encounters with the forces of scholarship and tourism. Illus. Agent: Susan Bergholz, Susan Bergholz Literary Services. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 09/01/2015
Numerous works have documented the lives of cultural brokers east of the Mississippi River, such as Pocahontas and Mary Musgrove, who bridged the divide between American Indians and Euro-Americans. Comparatively few volumes have addressed similarly controversial individuals in the West. Nabokov (American Indian studies, Univ. of California, Los Angeles; A Forest of Time) addresses this niche by producing an illuminating account on the life of Edward Proctor Hunt and his sons. Hunt was born an Acoma Pueblo but abandoned tribal traditions by becoming an entrepreneur in American society. Ironically, what he sold to America was a stereotyped version of Indians through Wild West Shows. Through his family, one also gets a captivating picture of how native peoples dealt with modernization from the era of the Civil War to the years following World War I. VERDICT This superb title as well as Edward Proctor Hunt's The Origin Myth of Acoma Pueblo, which should be regarded as a companion volume, are highly recommended for a general audience. Readers should also consider Helen C. Rountree's Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough and Steven C. Hahn's The Life and Times of Mary Musgrove. [See Prepub Alert, 2/23/15.]—John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Library Journal

★ 2015-07-15
In the story of Edward Proctor Hunt's family, Nabokov (World Arts and Cultures, American Indian Studies/Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places, 2006, etc.) reveals the history of the Pueblo Indians.Named "Day Break" when he was born into the Acoma Pueblo, a "mesa-top village…in western New Mexico," in 1861, Hunt lived the self-sufficient life common to the communal, insulated Pueblo. He was initiated into the Pueblo's religious rites and, after a near-death experience, the secret Fire Society. Eventually, he became a shaman. Despite not including details "best left alone," the author vividly explores the different ceremonies. Hunt spent three years being re-educated at the Indian Training School and there found his Anglo name in a Bible. He also became a Koshare, or sacred clown spirit whose laughter represented detachment and, thus, freedom. Hunt "knew something about himself," making him one of the strongest members of the community. He also remained a closeted Christian. Nabokov's deep feeling for this civilization is obvious in his descriptions of the land and the Pueblo's strong ties. Hunt's entrepreneurial spirit, his ease with outsiders, and his financial success eventually led to his departure from the Pueblo. With the help of his wife and sons, he dictated the Acoma creation myth at the Smithsonian Institute over nine weeks in 1928. They explained the myths, legends, and history through the genres of prayer, chant, tale, myth, legend, and song. His family made a life selling tribal art and pottery and as "show Indians" touring Europe and the United States. The pull of the Pueblo was always powerful, and the familial ties and love of ceremony and song were sufficient to bring them back often. The lure of the Land of Enchantment is irresistible, as Nabokov draws us into the simple, cooperative life of the Pueblo Indians and their magnificent territory. A great choice for lovers of the Southwest.

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for How the World Moves

“[A] dazzling biography of a man whose life both spanned and exemplified extraordinary cultural changes . . . How the World Moves generates its own dizzying cosmology, a universe in which cultures collide, indigenous people become refugees, and many have to ‘strike hard bargains between tradition and progress.’”
– The Boston Globe

“For me what emerges in the story of Edward Hunt and his family is how resilient and generous-hearted they were.”
– Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books
 
“A very good book. . .the background Nabokov provides. . .is as rich as any American story can be, with twists and turns and unlikely alliances.”
– The Portland Oregonian

 “A comprehensively researched biographical epic. . .How the World Moves is not only Hunt’s story, it is also a history of the time he lived in and the socioeconomic forces that shaped that time.” 
– The Santa Fe New Mexican                                                   

“Colonialism and dispossession cast such a shadow over the American past that it takes extraordinary effort to uncover the complexity and inventiveness of the indigenous people whose home this is.  This brilliant family biography shines a floodlight onto the last century of Indian experience, lifting some of that shadow and revealing extraordinary people who were both heroic survivors and creative architects of a new, modern identity. Nabokov has produced an epic, instructive tale.  If you thought you understood America and its past: think again.” 
– Frederick E. Hoxie, author of This Indian Country: American Indian Activists and the Place They Made
 
"Peter Nabokov's How the World Moves is a beautiful journey over a terrain of race, culture, and Native American identity.  Nobody weaves American Indian lore together with the tick-tock realities of the modern condition more brilliantly than Nabokov."
– Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
 
“How the World Moves is doubly unique.  The Hunt family’s atypical trajectory within Pueblo society is well served by the rare depth of Peter Nabokov’s friendship, knowledge, and research.” – Lucy R. Lippard, author of Partial Recall:  Photographs of Native North Americans

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