[Anpao] takes many of the native American Indian tales and weaves them together into one story—a kind of Odyssey—which relates creation, the beginnings of Death, and even the coming of the White Men.

This book would be a delight to read, especially in the context which the author in his afterword explains; for while [the hero] Anpao journies through many of the customs and tribal rites of many native Americans, he also journies through their histories. This book would be a good introduction to the evolution of oral history—the manner in which the stories are told has captured that oral tradition, even down to sounds and calls of animals. (p. 7)

Ellen Sisco, in Young Adult Cooperative Book Review Group of Massachusetts, October, 1977.

[In Anpao: An American Odyssey] Highwater's subtitle, no idle choice, is a measure of his ambition in this ordering of traditional tales and...