The Native Blog

'Blonde Indian'

The other day I saw this article on the Red Lake Net News site: Hayes wins American Book award for her memoir, 'Blonde Indian.' It looked like a real interesting book to read, so I went onto the Amazon.com book site and ordered the book. I am suppose to get the book this Thursday or Friday, once I get done reading it, I may write a book report on it...!

Time It Was

Citizen Band Potawatomi tribal member, Johnny Flynn, has written a chapter in a book that just came out, the book is called Time It Was: American Stories From The Sixties and in the chapter Flynn writes about his days in Topeka, and at Haskell in Lawrence, Kansas. Johnny Flynn said "The chapter I wrote starts with that demonstration in Topeka in June of 1972 organized by Mayme Mattwaoshe when she was the Director of the Indian Center in Topeka." I am going to order the book from Amazon.com later in the week. Here is the cover to the book...

Advanced Praise...

Advanced Praise for Ana Castillo's new novel "The Guardians."

“Ana Castillo is a fearless storyteller. In The Guardians, she addresses the key issues racking our immigrant nation and hemisphere. This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.”

-- Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World and Once Upon a Quinceañera

"The Guardians" can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com

Kansas Poet laureate

I was reading the Topeka Capital Journal on line newspaper this morning and I read an article that said  Denise Low is going to be the next Kansas Poet laureate!  This award could not go to a better person. And I say congratulation to Denise Low for getting that poetic honor!

Back three and half years ago when I was living in Kansas and my wife was going to Kansas University to get her Master's degree, I submitted the manuscript of my book "Potawatomi Tracks: The Ballad of Vietnam and Other Stories." to the Washburn Press in Topeka, Kansas. The Washburn Press had a program where they published first-time Kansas Authors and I waited for months for an answer. I thought they were not interested in my book, so I went the print on demand route. I contacted Washburn Press and told them I was pulling my book from consideration and the editor at that time was Denise Low. She told me they were going to publish my book. That is when I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life, I told her I was going to a print on demand publisher and was pulling my manuscript. Denise Low was going to work with me on my book, she was going to help edit it and everything!

I would go on into the dark and sleazy world of print on demand publishers for the next three and half years. I tried to submit my book to Indian publishers and they all turned me down! There was one called Spirit Talk press on the Blackfeet Indian rez, that said they would print my book, but wanted money to publish it, so like a dummy, I ended up giving them over $900.00 dollars and they kept coming up with excuses not to publish it, so in the end they would not give me my money back, they hid behind tribal sovereignty to rip me off. Now the latest publisher I had Heliographic press went belly up, and I just decided to let my book go out of print! The less things change!

My wife said it was all my own fault for not  going with Washburn Press and for not having that editor, Denise Low, work with you on the book! It is funny sometimes how the wife is always right!

Heist

If anyone is interested in the Jack Abramoff scandal and how he ripped off the tribes for millions of dollars, you have to go out and get the book Heist: Super Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his Republican Allies, and the Buying of Washington." by Peter H. Stone.  I have read half the book and it is truly a book about power, greed, and corruption. The book details while Abramoff was ripping off the tribes like the Mississippi Choctaws, the Tigua tribe in Texas, and the Saginaw Chippewa in Michigan, he referred to  his tribal clients with contempt, calling them "troglodyetes," "morons," "monkeys," and "imbeciles."

On the other hand, this must have worked both ways! Those tribes must have known what they were getting into! It was like what Kevin Gover said at the end of Chapter One, "The thought of acquiring political power was a narcotic for some of these tribes...they lost their minds and got ripped off."

Go out and buy this book and you will not be able to put it down!

Jim Thorpe

I have read a few different accounts about Jim Thorpe being part Potawatomi Jim Thorpe Bio and I have read quite a few articles about Jim Thorpe, but never read any books about his life, so I ordered this new book by Joseph Bruchac from amazon.com to see if it mentions what Potawatomi band his mother belonged too, it probably doesn't, but I will read it anyway!

'06 Nobel Prize for Literature

Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish Novelist, won The Nobel Prize for Literature  this past Thursday. Last night I went with my wife to Borders and bought one of his books. It was called 'Snow' and is about an exiled poet return to his native Turkey. I can see why he won the Nobel Prize for Literature...that book is truly a masterpiece!

When J.M. Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for Literature back about four years ago, I had never heard of him and decided I would read every book written by the author. The next year the Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek won the prize and I never heard of her either, so during that year I read all her books too. So that is what I do, I read all the books written by the Nobel Prize winner for Literature during the course of the year.

"Stories of the Potawatomi"

If you want to read a good true history of the Potawatomi, you got to read Gary Mitchell's "Stories of the Potawatomi"! When Gary wrote this book, there were no new books written about the Potawatomi since the late '60's.

Among the stories, he wrote about Potawatomi veterans, about their war experiences and how they coped with the sorrow of war when they came home! And that was long before it was really in: to honor vets like they do nowadays! I think this book is now out of print, but you can read the stories in the link above!

Counting Coup

I am re-reading Counting Coup: The True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn by Larry Colton. I read the book when it first came out in '01. The book is about journalist Larry Colton trip to the Crow rez in Montana to do a story on high school basketball. There he met Sharon Laforge, a seventeen-year Crow girl, the star player on the Hardin high school basketball team. He then ended up writing about her and the season she took her team to the state finals!

I am re-reading the book because early in the summer, my wife and I went through Montana on our way to Seattle and we did stop off and visit the Crow rez. We went by Hardin high school and I said to my wife isn't that the high school where Sharon Laforge went to school? We went on to the trading post there on the Crow rez and they had a bookstore that had all kinds of Indian books, but not "Counting Coup." I asked the woman if she had the book and she said I had the book a few years ago. It just seems like they would have a few copies on hand since it is about one of their tribal members and it is such a well writtten book!

If you have a daughter that plays basketball this is the book to read!

So Far from God

I just read a novel called So Far from God by the poet Ana Castillo! In her dedication she states:

   "To all the trees that gave their life to the telling of these stories"

Then she writes about two decades in the life of a Chicano family out in New Mexico. I was amazed by the language she used! So haunting! So Poetic!

I dwelled on the sentences and paragraphs she wrote! And I don't remember the last writer I did that for! She used the term "Grandmother Earth" and I have only heard my people use that term! She also used Spanish words throughout her book and I struggled to understand the words! I went over the context she used them and still could not understand what some words meant!

Ana Castillo is truly a gifted poet! And now I feel like a greedy prospector finding gold on Indian land! I want more and more and more...of her books!