Light On The Prairie

Alongside sixty-two of Butcher's iconic photographs, "Light on the Prairie" conveys the irrepressible spirit of a man whose passion would give us a firsthand look at the men and women who settled the Great Plains.

Karen Grassle, the beloved actress who played Ma on Little House on the Prairie, grew up at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in a family where love was plentiful but alcohol wreaked havoc. In this candid memoir, Grassle reveals her journey to succeed as an actress even as she struggles to overcome depression, combat her own dependence on alcohol, and find true love. With humor and hard-won wisdom, Grassle takes readers on an inspiring journey through the political turmoil on ’60s campuses, on to studies with some of the most celebrated artists at the famed London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and ultimately behind the curtains of Broadway stages and storied Hollywood sets. In these pages, readers meet actors and directors who have captivated us on screen and stage as they fall in love, betray and befriend, and don costumes only to reveal themselves. We know Karen Grassle best as the proud prairie woman Caroline Ingalls, with her quiet strength and devotion to family, but this memoir introduces readers to the complex, funny, rebellious, and soulful woman who, in addition to being the force behind those many strong women she played, fought passionately—as a writer, producer, and activist—on behalf of equal rights for women. Raw, emotional, and tender, Bright Lights celebrates and honors womanhood, in all its complexity.

Established in 1884 and operative for nearly a century, the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma was one of a series of off-reservation boarding schools intended to assimilate American Indian children into mainstream American life. Critics have characterized the schools as destroyers of Indian communities and cultures, but the reality that K. Tsianina Lomawaima discloses was much more complex. Lomawaima allows the Chilocco students to speak for themselves. In recollections juxtaposed against the official records of racist ideology and repressive practice, students from the 1920s and 1930s recall their loneliness and demoralization but also remember with pride the love and mutual support binding them together—the forging of new pan-Indian identities and reinforcement of old tribal ones.

Here is the third and final book in the Ruby Prairie series about a small town in Texas and the quirky characters who live there. Life in Ruby Prairie is seen through the eyes of Charlotte, a widow in her mid-thirties who has come to the town to open her home and be a foster mother for girls.

Temple Emanu-El, the first Jewish congregation in North Texas, has played a historic role in the growth of Dallas. Founded in 1875, the temple evolved from the Hebrew Benevolent Association, organized in 1872 by eleven men who established a cemetery and held the first Jewish services. This initial gathering of pioneer Jews occurred just two weeks before the arrival of the first train--the indispensable catalyst for Dallas' development into a bustling commercial center. Arguably, Temple Emanu-El owes its ascendancy to the auspicious designation of Dallas as a railroad crossroads. Jews, like other enterprising newcomers, were drawn to the railroad boom town and became part of the westward sweep of trade and emigration to Dallas. These early settlers participated in every aspect of civic growth and responsibility. They invested their life savings in stores on the courthouse square, manned the volunteer fire department, and ran for public office. Like Alexander Sanger, who opened the Dallas branch of Sanger Bros. in 1872 and was elected city alderman the next year, Jews quickly identified with the progressive "Dallas spirit." While retaining the basic principles of their ancestral faith, Temple Emanu-El's Reform Jews adapted their religious practices to conform to the secular demands of life in America. With confidence in the city's promise of progress, congregants actively promoted Dallas' business, civic, and cultural development. Each succeeding generation of temple families produced important leaders whose contribution to the advancement and enrichment of both the temple and the city shaped both. The temple's rabbis addressed controversial issues--Dr. David Lefkowitz denounced the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920s and Levi A. Olan preached to the troubled city after President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Gerry Cristol has set this absorbing story against the history of both Dallas and American Judaism. Temple Emanu-El's story affirms a unique but nonetheless eloquent tribute to the American experience, and in A Light in the Prairie, significant social history becomes fascinating reading.

Playbook

"An inside view of the Lakota world-of the meaning of Lakota song and dance, of their history, of what it is to be Lakota in America today. . . . A lasting personal tribute to the Lakota way of living."-Whole Earth Review. "A unique, in-depth presentation on Lakota music and the profession of singer, a useful contemporary Oglala representation of the core of their culture, and a version of the involvement of the American Indian Movement on Pine Ridge Reservation, told by a man who was affiliated but not a principal leader. . . . This is a subjective statement, well and persuasively written."-Choice. Severt Young Bear stood in the light-in the center ring at powwows and other gatherings of Lakota people. As founder and, for many years, lead singer of the Porcupine Singers, a traditional singing and drumming group, he also stood, figuratively, in the light of understanding the cherished Lakota heritage. Young Bear's own life in Brotherhood Community, Porcupine District of the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, is the linchpin of this narrative, which ranges across the landscape of Dakota culture, from the significance of names to the search for modern Lakota identity, from Lakota oral traditions to powwows and giveaways, from child-rearing practices to humor and leadership. "Music is at the center of Lakota life, " says Young Bear; he describes in rich detail the origins and varieties of Lakota song and dance. Severt Young Bear performed with the Porcupine Singers throughout North America, taught at Oglala Lakota College, and served on the Oglala Sioux tribal council. He was music and dance consultant for the films Dances with Wolves and Thunder Heart. This book is the fruit of his longfriendship and collaboration with R. D. Theisz, a fellow Porcupine Singer and professor of communications and education at Black Hills State University.