Join us in celebrating the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center’s 50th anniversary through the stories, knowledge, and voices found in 50 special books from the IPCC Library collection. This curated selection features titles for readers of all ages and interests, offering meaningful ways to explore, honor, and celebrate Pueblo culture.
Each week, we will spotlight one or two featured titles. The selected books are available to view in the IPCC Library Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. We invite you to stop by, spend time with the collection, and discover your next recommended read.
Ceremony of Brotherhood: A Commemorative Anthology of the Pueblo Revolt
Co-edited by Rudolfo A. Anaya and Simon J. Ortiz
Published by Academia, 1981
“Active revolt against oppressive government is not a new notion to the native people of the Americas,” writes co-editor Rudolfo Anaya in the introduction to Ceremony of Brotherhood: A Commemorative Anthology of the Pueblo Revolt. Co-edited with Simon J. Ortiz, this highly regarded literary collection was published by Academia, a small, independent press in Albuquerque.
This unique anthology successfully bridges both Indigenous and Chicano worldviews with an impressive collection of poetry, essays, historical photographs, drawings, and paintings to mark the tricentennial of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. In the anthology’s foreword, Anaya emphasizes that the collection grew from collaboration between representatives of both cultures and offered a way to honor the shared history that sustained them.
The anthology’s table of contents reads much like a Who’s Who among New Mexico’s notable writers, poets, and artists. Work by authors such as Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday, who wrote the poem If It Could Ascend, appears alongside that of celebrated poet Simon J. Ortiz. The anthology also features contributions from artists including Nora Naranjo-Morse, a renowned sculptor and writer from Santa Clara Pueblo, and Luis Jiménez, whose vibrant, larger-than-life public artworks include Blue Mustang, located outside Denver International Airport.
If It Could Ascend
I behold there
The far, faint motion of leaves.
The leaves shine,
And they will shiver down to death.
Something like a leaf lies here within me;
It wavers almost not at all,
And there is no light to see it by –
That it withers upon a black field.
If it could ascend the thousand years into my mouth,
I would make a word of it at last,
And I would speak it into the silence of the sun.
N. Scott Momaday
Due to a limited print run in the early 1980s by Academia, a small independent press in Albuquerque, this anthology is considered something of a collector’s item and is no longer readily available, although it can still be found through vintage booksellers or thorough searches in used bookstores. Fortunately, the IPCC library does have a copy of this amazing book in our collection. We invite you to come spend some time with this book and us soon.