Reviews of and Features About LaVerne Harrell Clark's THEY SANG FOR HORSES

This quadruple award-winning book of non-fiction about the importance of the horse in Navajo and Apache life, folklore and customs, focuses on the impact that the horse made on Navajo and Apache culture. Now in a newly-revised edition, it also contains, for the first time, Clark's photographic illustrations throughout.

The University of Colorado Press published THE REVISED EDITION of They Sang for Horses WITH A NEW EPILOGUE & PHOTOGRAPHS in a 2001 paperback, containing 340 pages. In a 6 x 9 format, it is illustrated with 35 black & white photographs of Clark's, two of which are also reproduced again in color, as is shown on the back cover reproduction of them that appears above, across from this text.

Retailing for $26.95, the study tells of how the traditions and mythology of the Navajo and Apache, who became horsemen within only two generations of that animal's introduction to North America, and who built their lives around the creature the Spaniards first brought them, say instead that the animal was a gift of their holy beings, not the Spaniards. Clark provides their versions of how the gods gave the animal to the people through the ceremonies and songs the goddesses and culture heroes performed in order for the people to have them. Her weaving of the horse into the existent mythology of the Navajo and Apache forms the basis of this contemporary classic. She examines how storytellers, singers, medicine men, and painters created the animal's evolving symbolic significance by adapting it to their previously existing folklore and cultural symbols. Exploring the horse's importance in ceremonies, songs, prayers, customs, and beliefs, she investigates the period of the horse's most pronounced cultural impact on the Navajo and Apache, starting from the time of its acquisition from the Spanish in the seventeenth century and then carries her examination of its impact on up until the mid-1960s--the time when the pickup truck began to replace the animal as the favored means of transportation for all the people. In addition, she presents a look in the revised edition at how the Navajos and Apaches of today continue to redefine the horse's important role in their spiritual, as well as material lives.

Dee Brown, reviewing the book in SOUTHWESTERN AMERICAN LITERATURE, wrote that it "belong[ed] in the company of the great saga-legends of Europe . . . it is a work of combined scholarship and art which should be kept in print and read for as long as books endure," Brown observed.

They Sang For Horses on its first appearance in 1966 from the University of Arizona Press, who put it through three more printings, was the 1967 co-winner of the prestigious University of Chicago Folklore Prize. It won a second prize in the National League of Pen Women's 1968 literary competition, and also received two other awards for book design and production. The first edition was illustrated by Ted DeGrazia, the late well-known Southwestern artist, whose sketches appeared on UN greeting cards. It also included 6 full-color paintings by these Navajo artists: Adee Dodge, Harrison Begay, Andy Tsinajinie and Beatien Yazz.

Besides the above praise from Dee Brown, other reviewers have made these comments in the publications cited:

"Poetic in tone, scholarly in treatment, this book will be treasured." (The Amerindian)"

"...a remarkably well-written and poetic study...an exciting and illumiinating examination of the creative process among Navajo and Apache Indians, in transforming the new element in their folklore after the likeness of the old. The design and format of this book match the depth and beauty of the content." (LOS ANGELES TIMES)

"Clark's style is highly readable...the book attractive...unusual...notable as the first extensive attempt to investigate the impact of the horse not merely on the material aspects of Navajo and Apache life but in the traditional forms of folklore" (JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLKORE)

"A vivid study of myths, songs and folkore...deserves careful reading [to] gain a new understanding of Indian customs." (LIBRARY JOURNAL)

"A fine book...the writing has been done with care, and there are many passages of poetic value reflecting fresh Indian concepts of beauty and giving insights into the complex and sensitive imagination of racial groups that have been rarely understood." (WESTERN AMERICAN LITERATURE)

David McAllester, himself the author of ground-breaking classics of Navajo lore and religion, notes: "Clark's deep interest....in Navajo and Apache folklore led her to do a thorough search. What result[ed] is a valuable collection of stories." (In THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF NATIVE AMERICAN HUMANITIES, ed. by Sam Gill, Az. St. Univ., Tempe, 1977).

PART OF A LONG FEATURE ON CLARK AS A FOLKLORIST OF SOUWHWESTERN NATIVE AMERICANS by Jeanne Tro Williams, published in THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, Women's Forum sec., Phoenix, AZ., 5/16/70 follows:
Headline: ARIZONA'S INDIAN FOLKLORIST DROPS IN ON AN EIGHTH-GRADE CLASS

"Study your wonderful heritage. I'd like to see folklorists, artists, writers come from this class," LaVerne Harrell Clark, Tucson folkorist-anthropologist, told Indian students in Laveen School's eighth-grade class.

She pointed through a classroom window: "That's South Mountain. According to Pima legend, it's Mist Mountain, home of Old Mist Man. Ask your grandparents what happened on Mist Mountain, or Greasy Mountain. Write down all they tell you, preserve the legends."
"Clark's reputation as an American folklorist was built by the patient intellect of a research scientist...a poet's unwavering sense of wonder...an ardor for our land and its rich mix of peoples.
Her specialized field of research is Navajo and Apache myth and legend. "Mythology is the mirror of mankind. You study myths to understand a people. Yours are beautiful," she told the 11 Pima and Maricopa children in the class of 40.
Clark spoke of her admiriation of Anna Moore Shaw, the gentle Pima woman, now in her 70s, who was the first Indian to graduate from Phoenix Union High School.
"Mrs. Shaw heard the old tribal legends from her father," Clark said, "and about 1930 began collecting and writing them. Two years ago they were published by the U. of AZ Press, and I think all of you would profit from reading Mrs. Shaw's PIMA INDIAN LEGENDS.
Clark read "Coyote's Trip to the Land Above from Shaw's book, and pointed out similarities between Navajo and Pima myths.
"The Navajos tell of trips to the Land Above. Both tribes honor folk heros who took part in creation, Elder Brother and his twin, Child of the Water."
A student asked Clark how she became interested in folk ways. "As a child in Texas I loved to hear people talk about the old days. I found arrowheads, tried to find out about the Indians who had lived there."
Clark talked with the students for nearly two hours, speaking with them as a guide and interested friend, not as a lecturer.
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The University Press of Colorado advertises the book as a classic work, which continues to appear on the suggested reading list of the Smithsonian, noting that it is also a must for historians, readers interested in Native American Folklore and mythology, and anyone who has ever been captivated by the magic and romance of the horse. Find more information from the Colorado publishers at www.upcolorado.com. Amazon.com also advertises used copies of the first o.p, edition from the U. of AZ. Press.