Corbett Mack: The Life of a Northern Paiute

Description

This is the compelling yet disturbing story of Corbett Mack (1892-1974)| an opiate addict who was a member of the Nuumuu (Numa)| or Northern Paiute. The Northern Paiute are best known as the people who produced Wovoka| the Ghost Dance prophet whose revitalistic teachings swept the Indian world in the 1890s. Mack is from the generation following the collapse of the Ghost Dance religion| a generation of Nomogweta or “half-breeds” (also called “stolen children”)-Paiute of mixed ancestry who were raised in an increasingly bicultural world and who fell into virtual peonage to white (often Italian) potato farmers. Around the turn of the century| the use of opium became widespread among the Paiute| adopted from equally victimized Chinese laborers with whom they worked closely in the fields. The story of Corbett Mack is an uncompromising account of a harsh and sometimes traumatic life that was typical of an entire generation of Paiute. It was a life born out of the turmoil and humiliation of an Indian boarding school| troubled by opiate addiction| bound to constant labor in the fields| yet nonetheless made meaningful through the perseverance of Paiute cultural traditions. Michael Hittman is chairman of the Anthropology and Sociology Department and a professor at Long Island University| Brooklyn. He is the author of Wovoka and the Ghost Dance: A Sourcebook and A Numa History: The Yerington Paiute Tribe.