Dancing ghosts
Subtitle: Native American and Christian syncretism in Mary Austin's work
By: Mark T. Hoyer.
Series: Western literature series
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Reno
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
Subjects: Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934 -- Characters -- Indians.; Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934 -- Religion.; Indians of North America -- California -- Religion.; Literature and anthropology -- California.; Christianity and literature -- California.; Western stories -- History and criticism.; Indians in literature.; Ghost dance.; California -- In literature.
Description: How did an Illinois Methodist homesteader in the West come to create one of the most significant cosmological syntheses in American literature? In this study, Hoyer draws on his own knowledge of biblical religion and Native American cultures to explore Austin's creation of the "mythology of the American continent" she so valued.

Austin lived in and wrote about "the land of little rain," semiarid and arid parts of California and Nevada that were home to the Northern Paiute, Shoshone, Interior Chumash, and Yokut peoples. Hoyer makes new and provocative connections between Austin and spiritual figures like Wovoka, the prophet of the Ghost Dance religion, and writers like Zitkala-sa and Mourning Dove, and he provides a particularly fine reading of Cogowea.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-206) and index.