How the World Moves: The Odyssey of an American Indian Family

In 1928, Edward Proctor Hunt, a Pueblo Indian, recounted to Smithsonian Institution scholars the previously secret origin story of his community. This volume, published in tandem with Nabokov’s new edition of Hunt’s account, places Hunt’s narrative in the context of his family’s travels throughout the U.S. and Europe as performers in “Wild West” shows and as participants in the development of a growing fascination with the indigenous cultures of the American Southwest. Nabokov (Where the Lightning Strikes) produces a vibrant and heartrending picture of traditional Pueblo Indian life, which at Hunt’s birth in 1861 seemed to be “timeless and reliable,” though would soon suffer irrevocable changes as a result of warfare and white expansionism. More poignant is Nabokov’s depiction of Hunt’s multiple estrangements from his culture: first as a student at Duranes Indian Training School in Albuquerque, then as a struggling farmer and as a “fantasy of a native potentate from the golden West,” and finally as an anthropologist’s informant and “popularizer of native wisdom” and “Indian Lore.” Nabokov’s painstaking yet irregular narration may alienate some readers, but others will be fascinated by his story of a man who saw his culture drastically altered by its encounters with the forces of scholarship and tourism. Illus. [em]Agent: Susan Bergholz, Susan Bergholz Literary Services. (Oct.) [/em]