Designs of the
Night Sky by Diane Glancy
"Designs of the Night Sky is a search for the meaning of written language in a Native American culture based on a history of oral tradition," Glancy writes in the Preface to her 2002 novel. The book comprises very brief chapters, or "named spaces". Contemporary voices interweave with historic texts, such as records of the Cherokee Emigration to the Indian Territory in the late 1830s (best known as the Trail of Tears). Glancy creates a vivid portrait of the past that lives on in the Cherokee Nation, and of the modern-day Cherokee still adjusting to a relocated life.
The novel tells the story of Ada Ronner, a librarian in the Manuscripts and Rare Books department of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The contemplative Ada is happily married to Ether, her childhood sweetheart. Ether (a nickname earned when he dozed off in his high school physics class) is a professor of physics. While Ether has "ideas in his head like constellations," Ada's three brothers are more rough-and-tumble; Ada lives in worry that she'll see their names in the Cherokee Observer for fist-fighting and spousal abuse.
Ambivalence infuses Ada's story, as she is torn between the old and the new ways in realms of faith, work, and family. A devout Christian and a member of the Bible study group, the Truthettes, she also hears ancient spirits as she skates around Tahlequah's roller rink, the Dust Bowl. Though a descendant of the Cherokee, once an entirely oral culture, she makes her living in a library that keeps their stories under lock and key. Surrounded by books, she says, "I know the old stories do not like books. Do not like the written words. Do not like libraries." She views writing as "the Removal trail of the voice." All the while, she remains deeply tied to an area that is a constant reminder of her ancestors' immense suffering.
This book presents some challenges to a reader seeking a linear narrative with a tidy beginning and ending, and I believe that was the author's objective. Her message seems to be that history has not bestowed a "happy ending" on Ada and her family, and after reading Designs of the Night Sky, the audience has a much better understanding of why. Glancy chronicles a singularly untidy period in American history, the forced relocation of a culture, and the rippling repercussions of history on today's Cherokee Nation.
If this topic is of interest to you, you might also like to read the
following articles from the March 2004 issue of American Libraries:
"Nunavut: Talk about Remote!" by Leonard Kniffel, on the
impact of (and challenges to) libraries and technology in the Canadian
territory of Nunavut.
"A World Beyond the Reservation" by Ann Abdoo, on the SuAnne
Big Crow Boys and Girls Club, located at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota. The Club, which opened in 2002, contains a library, basketball court,
swimming pool, computer lab, and restaurant.
"Strength in Numbers!" by Bonnie Biggs, on the history of the
American Indian Library Association (formed in 1979), other regional
affiliations, and their ongoing role in providing information by, about, and
for populations indigenous to the United States.
Down Cut Shin
Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky
by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer
"It's early, four thirty A.M., and the air in the dark barn is cold and crisp. In the dim light of the coal-oil lamp, the book woman can see gray puffs of steam float from her horse's nostrils. She shivers. At the age of twenty-two, and having grown up in these hills, she knows how bitterly cold a January day here can get." So begins "An Ordinary Day" the second chapter in Appelt's and Schmitzer's excellent book about the Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, a program born of the Depression-era WPA. For anyone who has little connection with the Appalachian region or the coal mining, mountain life, black and white photographs of both the librarians and their "patrons" breathe life into the written descriptions.
The opening chapter is a brief history of the national and local events leading up to the creation of the WPA and the Pack Horse Library Project. After the already-mentioned second chapter, which captivatingly describes a typical day for a "book woman," the authors return to "just the facts," but the work is in no way pedantic. Kentucky's poverty didn't begin with the Great Depression, but the crash on Wall Street sent shock waves throughout the nation. For those already teetering on the edge of destitution, the tremors quickly sent them over. Many husbands and fathers, unemployed with no hope of work in sight, "abandoned their families rather than watch them suffer." Creating jobs for women became imperative, and the Kentucky terrain made horse-back (or foot) the only viable means of transportation. Begun in 1935, the program continued until 1943, when the effects of WWII caused the government to drop the program. The Pack Horse Library Project's national acclaim and longevity is a testament to the program's success. At the conclusion of the generally sad final chapter ("Legacy"), which notes that from 1943 until 1957 many eastern Kentuckians had no library service, the authors leave us with this final thought: "The Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project and its book women deserve credit for their services, and acknowledgment for their part in library history -- indeed in the very history of our country....what they gave was no less than the keys to the world."
Although ostensibly written for children (recommended for ages 8 - 12), this book should be considered required reading for any librarian, and is recommended reading for everyone. Totaling 58 pages, with many illustrations, it's a very quick read, but one with a deep impact. You can find Down Cut Shin Creek at the Coraopolis branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, or request it though interlibrary loan. It's also available at Amazon for $17.89 (you can always donate it to your local library!).
Publication of the
Department of Library & Information Science
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
135 N. Bellefield Avenue
Pittsburgh , PA 15260
biblio@mail.sis.pitt.edu