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SUNY
PRESS/Excelsior Editions
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THE INTERPRETER
"The
harsh reality, the natural beauty and the mystical wonder of the American frontier is
vividly rendered in this spellbinding fictional profile of a genuinely remarkable
pioneer...Painstakingly researched and richly steeped in authentic period detail, the
evocative narrative unfolds into a vibrant tale of courage and adventure."
(Author's note): The
Interpreter flows from some extraordinary personal experiences that began when I
moved to a farm in upstate New York in the mid-1980s and started dreaming in a
language I did not know, which proved to be an archaic form of Mohawk. Eventually I
studied Mohawk to interpret my dreams, and learned about the shamanic dream
practices of the First Peoples of Northeast America. The Interpreter
describes the encounter between Conrad Weiser -- a young German refugee who became famous
as Pennsylvania's Indian interpreter -- and the Mohawks in a dark time of war and imported
disease. It also describes the initiation of a young Mohawk healer, Island Woman,
and her training under the tutelage of a remarkable shaman nicknamed Longhair who is still
revered among traditional Iroquois. Longhair teaches that big dreams are flights of
the soul and that nothing happens in ordinary reality until it is dreamed. The
climactic sequence, set on Gay Head in Martha's Vineyard, also springs straight from my
dreams and involves a close encounter with the spiritual entity the Wampanoag Indians call
Moshup. |
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