She's tricky like coyote : Annie Miner Peterson, an Oregon Coast Indian woman /

Anthropologist Melville Jacobs once said that "you need only one informant in a food gathering society" to study a dying or virtually extinct language. In 1933, Jacobs found his Miluk speaker in he-T 'SMI.'XWN, "She's Tricky Like Coyote," the given Hanis Coos name for the subject of the book, Annie Miner Peterson. Peterson was born in about 1860 on a tidal slough near Coos Bay, Oregon, a few years after the first permanent white settlement there and the infamous Rogue River War, and about five years after the signing of a treaty that encompassed nearly all the Oregon Coast Indians. In 79 years she witnessed the systematic dismantling of her traditional culture and was positioned to collaborate with Jacobs in the preservation of a language and a way of life. Peterson's story, as told by Youst, clearly relies on Jacobs's extensive notes from conversations with her about her life and the life of the Hanis and Miluk people. Youst carefully footnotes sources and provides a good bibliography and several illustrations, including maps and kinship charts. General readers through graduate students. L. De Danaan Evergreen State College

"I know what my old people tell me." When Peterson uttered this sentence, she was merely answering a question at a court proceeding on behalf of her tribe, the Coos. But as Youst recounts in this straightforward biography, the statement also reflects her greatest legacy. Growing up, Peterson (whose Indian name means "She's Tricky Like Coyote") was formed by the rich culture of her people in the Pacific Northwest, just as whites began eradicating that culture. Fluent in both the Mulik and Hanis dialects, this colorful, gifted woman was able to make significant contributions to Oregon tribal anthropology, linguistics and the preservation of their mythic oral literature in the original language. Though the author has done a prodigious amount of research, the book is hindered by an academic tone that rarely moves beyond the mechanistic chronicling of Peterson's life during this fascinating and bittersweet moment of American history. For example, Youst repeatedly notes that she is strong-willed and controversial, but with limited anecdotes, quotes and personal reminiscence, that facet of her personality is never brought to life. Youst's research portrays Peterson as a resilient, audacious survivor; a woman who had to part with her first child to save her own life; a woman whose five husbands included a physical abuser, a drunken lout and a gentle, supportive partner. Though the result is a worthwhile contribution to Native American anthropology, it falters as biography: readers never get a glimpse into the heart of a woman who seems worth getting to know. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A remarkable woman in any era, Peterson (c.1860-1939) was born at a time of unprecedented cultural change for the Native Americans of Oregon. As a child she learned the languages and traditions of her mother's family while moving with them from place to place at the behest of increasing numbers of European Americans. In her seventies, when she served as linguistic and cultural informant for anthropologist Melville Jacobs, she was the only remaining speaker of the Miluk language. She dictated her autobiography in Miluk, along with many myths of the Coos Indians of Oregon. Youst, an independent scholar of the Pacific Northwest, does an outstanding job of putting the life and work of Peterson into a historical context. We not only learn about a remarkable woman who made a unique contribution to scholarship, but we begin to understand the upheavals facing Native Americans around the turn of the century. History, Native American, and biography collections will benefit from this book.‘Mary B. Davis, Huntington Free Lib., N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.