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Books in Credo series

  • Cross-Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry

    Gary Paul Nabhan

    Paperback (Milkweed Editions, Jan. 6, 2004)
    In this book, Nabhan describes the circumstances of several of important--even breakthrough--discoveries that came about through the cross-pollination of science and the arts. His stories mix the personal and scientific in an engaging way. When he found out in high school that he is color blind, an amazing teacher chided him to use his so-called problem to explore varieties of perception. Years later, Nabhan organized teams of color-blind and color-normal scientists to survey a plant thought to be endangered. The color-blind scientists' results changed the views of that ecosystem. Nabhan tells about ancient songs of the O'odham people that contain an understanding of plant ecology that science has only recently caught up to. In perhaps the most stirring chapter, he describes how one of the native women he knows pleaded with him to put his knowledge to use to help find the reason for persistent diabetes among native peoples. Nabhan describes how the structure of an Amy Clampitt poem gave him the inspiration for a research model that led to an understanding of native plants and the metabolism of sugar. The last chapter is a rousing account of the creation of the Ironwood Forest National Monument in the Sonoran Desert.
  • At the End of Ridge Road

    Joseph Bruchac

    Paperback (Milkweed Editions, March 4, 2005)
    In the 1960s in graduate school, Joseph Bruchac studied with Grace Paley and met Allen Ginsberg. He went on to earn his PhD and work in Africa, an experience that confirmed his belief that native peoples all over the world possess hard-won knowledge—of humanity's capacity for self-destruction—wisdom set down in their stories and traditions. Now in his sixties, Bruchac is known for keeping these stories alive, through traditional Native American storytelling, original children’s books, fiction, and poetry. Books in his "Keepers of the Earth" series, co-authored with Michael Caduto, have sold millions of copies.At the End of Ridge Road, a philosophical memoir, brings together the threads of Bruchac's life and reveals the linkage between his interest in native cultures—he is Abenaki—and his views about human dignity and social justice. He begins by asking readers to "take off your watch" and "live time" rather than being ruled by it. He then tells about his childhood in the Adirondacks, the Abenaki heritage of the region, his path from "nature nut" to jock to writer, and his house on Ridge Road. Through these stories, property, and "the circle as a way of seeing."
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  • At the End of Ridge Road

    Joseph Bruchac

    Paperback (Milkweed Editions, March 4, 2005)
    A noted teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and of Native peoples everywhere, Joseph Bruchac has performed throughout the world. That gift for narrative informs this revealing autobiography. Tracing his progression from a child in the Adirondacks to self-confessed "nature nut" to jock to acclaimed writer, Bruchac mines his own rich history and the wisdom from his Abenaki culture to teach life lessons. At the End of Ridge Road begins with a request that readers remove their watches in order to "live time" rather than be ruled by it, and from there explores, through Bruchac's own experiences, the enduring wisdom that native cultures from Africa to America have long known. Embracing "the circle as a way of seeing," learning a new way of understanding time, being a keeper rather than a user of Earth - these are some of the timeless truths in this powerful book.
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