Christopher Vecsey | Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 226 words from this article are provided below; about 330 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Christopher Vecsey | Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Huron-Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle. By Georges E. Sioui. Trans. by Jane Brierley. (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1999. xxii, 258 pp. Paper, $23.95, ISBN 0-87013-526-0.)

I get nervous reviewing a book that is dedicated to "the Great Spirit" and other mythological personages, especially when headed by quotations proclaiming History's partiality, distortion, and irrelevance and a preface that preaches, "For human beings there is really only one way of looking at life." Is this a work of scholarship or an ideological tract? 1

It is both. Georges E. Sioui has written a work (originally published in French in 1994) that describes in great and interesting detail the material, social, and intellectual culture of the Wendat Indians (known in America as Hurons—a disparaging term Sioui wishes to delete, but the English translation inserts in the title). It is based upon the first-rate writings of Marius Barbeau, Denys Delâge (Sioui's thesis adviser), Conrad E. Heidenreich, and Bruce G. Trigger (Sioui calls him his "clan brother"), as well as primary documents and other unpublished sources. At the same time, it is a testimony of Sioui's Wendat faith, including the belief that Wendat (and, by extension, Native American) culture—"the civilization of the Circle, the Sacred Circle of Life" is "the only one civilization appropriate to human existence" and that Euro-American "linear-thinking societies destroy circular life." . . .

There are about 330 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.