The Inland Whale: Nine Stories Retold from California Indian Legends

by Theodora Kroeber

Book Overview

Nine tales, selected and retold here by anthropologist and author Theodora Kroeber for the adult general-interest reader. The new foreword by her son, Karl Kroeber, provides context about the author's methods and describes his own personal connection to the stories themselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520246934
• ISBN13: 9780520246935
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Poem for Ishi

Theodora Kroeber is best known for her account of Ishi, the Yahi or Yana Native American who emerged from a life of evasion of 'the White Man' in Northern California, at the beginning of the 20th Century, and had the fortune to fall into the 'care' of anthropologists rather than bounty hunters. Theodora never met Ishi. Her book was first published in 1961, while Ishi died in 1916. Theodora worked from the notes of her famous pioneering anthropologist husband, Alfred Kroeber, after his death. Details of her account have been challenged by later writers, but the story of Ishi has become an icon of America's callous disruption and decimation of indigenous cultures. Indeed, of all the nations of the Western Hemisphere, the USA has most thoroughly and hypocritically 'cleansed' itself of its "First Nations" , their languages and their significance in the modern population. Ishi spent his few last years at what is now the UCSF Medical Center, wher he is said to have roamed the wildly neglected UC property called The Sutro Forest. That land is still undeveloped and overgrown, though the vegetation isn't remotely what Ishi might have explored. There are semi-secret paths through the gullies of the forest, and one comes upon makeshift tributes to Ishi here and there. It was the second marriage for both the elderly Alfred and the younger Theodora. Their daughter is the well-known fantasy novelist Ursula Le Guin, who in turn has a daughter, Elizabeth Le Guin, who is a very fine baroque cellist, performing with Philhormonia and Tafelmusik. Quite a family! This is a collection of stories based on the oral traditional narratives of Northern Californian Native Americans. It is not written as ethnographic material; rather, the stories are told in forthright literary English. Nonetheless, they taste and smell authentic, and make excellent reading. Both of Theodora Kreober's book are popular assignments to high school students in California, as they should be. The title story tells of a young gray whale tossed by a tsunami into a fresh water lake; it's a reflection of the kind of calamity that can result from "imbalance" between humanity and nature. And it's a memorable story as literature. I first read this collection many years ago. As if by fate, it suddenly popped up at the top of my to-read-again stack. The title story still impressed me, so I wrote a poem in response to its impact: THE INLAND WHALE A hard land to need consolation from. An awkward visit, rainy weather in a small tent. What tells it to exist? Subsistence in the cave of care conditions one, as the thoughts of a landlocked whale teach one to dream of whales, one who camps out at this inland sea and persists despite overweariness. Without some need, a self gets stagnant.... a landscape too familiar to visit, a flood reflected in a puddle, a care which accommodates itself. Those who care are amphibious and may procreate in need, though both care and need are fantasies of a whale which

Voices of the First Americans

Kroeber heard these stories mostly from Natives who had begun their syncretism with the modern world. These stories are rightly told in a contemporary fashion. For instance, Eskimo kinship terms are utilized to establish kindred, (grandfather, uncle, etc.) instead of the more traditional, descriptive anthropological method of using terms such as "fathers-mothers-sister." Theodora Kroeber can be congratulated for this great little book of traditional stories from California's Native Americans. Lessons can be learned, values can be taught, and more importantly, the people who originally inhabited these lands can have their voices heard. This book is appropriate for all age groups, but I would insist also that this book be read to youngsters, who could indubitably benefit from the lessons taught within.Truly a great piece of ethnographic work and literature simultaneously.