American Indian grandmothers are almost universally occupied with child care and child rearing at some time in their lives, but cultural variables influence the definition, role, and status of grandmothers in different tribes. This book contains nine chapters that blend documentary history, oral history, and ethnographic observation to illuminate the complexity of grandmothering among the Navajo, Puget Sound Salish, Tewa, Hopi, Otoe-Missouria, Choctaw, and Sioux. Following a definition and Shawnee creation story of grandmothers, an introduction (Marjorie M. Schweitzer) describes the research projects; discusses early ethnographies and contemporary studies of elderly Indians; and provides context for threads that run through various chapters: the roles of grandmothers in child rearing and cultural transmission, changing roles of grandmothers across generations, and the positive and negative aspects of aging in American Indian communities. Chapters are: (1) "Thinking Good: The Teachings of Navajo Grandmothers" (Karen Ritts Benally); (2) "Give-and-Take: Navajo Grandmothers and the Role of Craftswomen" (Ann Lane Hedlund); (3) "Coyote Looks at Grandmother: Puget Sound Salish Grandmothers in Myth and Message" (Pamela Amoss); (4) "Discontinuities in the Statuses of Puget Sound Grandmothers" (Bruce G. Miller); (5) "Being a Grandmother in the Tewa World" (Sue-Ellen Jacobs); (6) "The Two Aspects of Hopi Grandmotherhood" (Alice Schlegel); (7) "Otoe-Missouria Grandmothers: Linking Past, Present, and Future" (Marjorie M. Schweitzer); (8) "Powwow Princesses and Gospelettes: Cross-Generational Enculturation in American Indian Families" (Joan Weibel-Orlando); and (9) "Daughters of Church Rock" (Patricia McCabe). (Contains references in notes, a 17-page bibliography, photographs, and an index.) (SV)