Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-233).

A former professor of history at Rutgers University, Martin spent a summer on a Navajo reservation and lived for two years with Yupik Eskimos in southwestern Alaska. Here he looks at Native Americans, their myths, and the philosophical challenge of their way of thinking, wrestling with ontological and ideological ways of interpreting the Native American world. Martin discusses the Native American belief that no true accidents can occur, a belief that springs from the conviction that there are no true bondaries. He also addresses the despiritualization of present-day Native Americans. Adopting an Emersonian approach to history, he tries to take a deeper view of the expansion of the human narrative in both space and time. In one of the books best chapters, Einsteins Beaver, Martin writes that Paleolithic mythology, being the language of native philosophy, understands the universe very differently than the Newtonian mechanical model does. A fresh viewpoint on Native American landscape and legend. Recommended for public and academic libraries.