Sworn Before Cranes

Poet and essayist Gilfillan ( Magpie Rising ) turns to fiction in a collection of 18 brief but luminous stories set in the ``dipstick towns'' and rattlesnake terrain of the American plains. History reverberates through these tales, many of which focus on contemporary relationships between whites and Native Americans. In ``A Photo of General Miles,'' Ruben Bear, who had always been proud of his grandfather's reputation as an able scout for the white man, finds his feelings about his ancestor more mixed in light of new Native American attitudes about ``the fighting days''; ``The Committee'' shows a town discussing (with considerable humor) ``the visitor problem'' of tourists coming to Indian territory in search of mystical experiences. Gilfillan paints with a poet's eye for detail: birds ``drop from trees soft as ash,'' and yellow jackets thud against screen doors ``as if they were drugged or happy beyond good sense.'' At times his metaphors are a bit obscure, particularly in the title story, but the images he creates are so precisely observed they could pass for fact. The finest story, ``Eureka,'' interweaves the startling account of a medicine man using his powers to locate a missing teenager with the image of a cow jumping fences--``the embodiment of the simple extraordinary.'' Meticulously constructed, these stories offer an unforgettable view of an often overlooked geographic and literary landscape. (May)