American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Current Contributions to American Indian Biography: A Review Essay G. Edward Evans Marilyn Durkin Native Americans: 23 Indian Biographies. By Roger W. Axford. Indiana, PA: Halldin Publishing, 1980. 128 pp. pap. $4.50. Dictionary of Indians of North America. St. Clair Shores, MI: Scholarly Press, 1978. 3 vols ., $85.00. Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership. By Frederick j. Dockstader. New York: Van No strand, Reinhold, 1977. 386 pp. $16.95. American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity. Edited by R. David Edmunds . Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1980. 257 pp. pap . $5.95. The Third Woman: Minority Women Writers of the United States. By Dexter Fisher. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. 594 pp. pap. $9.50. Yaqui Women: Contemporary Life Histories. By Jane Holden Kelley. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1978. 265 pp. $12.50. American Indian Intellectuals: 1976 Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. Edited by Margot Liberty. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1978. 248 pp. pap. $12.95. Problems in American Indian Biography Locating biographical information is a lengthy and frustrating experience. Should one require reasonable accuracy and currency, the search time will probably double. And once one has verified the accuracy and currency of information, he still may not know how complete it is. In those directories which are issued periodically and frequently revised, information is brief but generally up-to-date. Collections of essay-length profiles, however, are usually monographic works and seldom, if ever, revised. Retrospective works thus will not reflect current scholarship while biographies of persons still living will always be partial, and current only as they are being written. The problem is compounded for subjects who are relatively unknown or rarely encountered in print.