CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLERS SPEAK OUT

It is important to me to encourage the welfare of the beautiful indigenous people of my country. For this reason, I include Native American characters in my books when appropriate, facets of my stories that place me on joyous research studies about them—about their histories, their cultures, and their priceless and immeasurable contributions to American life. Today and for fitting days in the future, I will post the covers and short descriptions of books about American Indians, many of them from my library, as well as from other sources. I hope they will spark interest in, concern for, and support of Native Americans on the part of my friends who read my posts.

Today’s feature is BLUE DAWN, RED EARTH, NEW NATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLERS. The book features a stunning collection of thirty, contemporary Native American voices in short stories and essays that “shimmer with wit and erupt with rage while, most crucially, demonstrate the astonishing complexity and richness of Native American stories, both past and present.”[1]

Books by Linda Lee Greene are available for purchase at Amazon.com.

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[1] Louis Owens, author of
”Other Destinies and Wolfsong”

A GREAT AND PASSIONATE BOOK ABOUT AMERICAN INDIANS

It is important to me to encourage the welfare of the beautiful indigenous people of my country. For this reason, I include Native American characters in my books when appropriate, facets of my stories that place me on joyous research studies about them—about their histories, their cultures, and their contributions to American society. Today and for fitting days in the future, I will post the cover and short description of a book about American Indians from my library and other sources. I hope they will spark interest in, concern for, and support of Native Americans on the part of my friends who read my posts.



Today’s feature is “TOUCHES THE SKY,” a great and passionate yarn authored by JAMES CALVIN SCHAAP: The Lakota and Dutch settlers clash on the mid-country plains during America’s western expansion. The settlers charge the Lakota wrongly with the death of a white settler, a situation that not only places the honor of the Lakota in peril, but also their freedom, home, and way of life.



Books by Linda Lee Greene are available for purchase at Amazon.com.  

Best-selling author Linda Lee Greene's latest novel

Best-selling author Linda Lee Greene’s latest novel CRADLE OF THE SERPENT (goo.gl/i3UkAV) is a story whose protagonist is a contemporary North American archaeologist named Lily Light. Her work centers on the “Great Serpent Mound” in Adams County, Ohio, USA. The book is written in the voices of Lily Light and her psychotherapist Michael Neeson. Lily’s therapy is based on her estrangement from her husband Jacob, also an archaeologist at work on a project in Arizona. Early in Lily’s therapy, Jacob is injured in a violent shooting at the edge of the Navajo Reservation there, and is left permanently paralyzed from his shoulders down. Lily also learns that a woman murdered at the scene of the crime was Jacob’s mistress.

During several of Lily’s therapy sessions, she experiences dream-states or time-travels in which she takes on the bearing of a young Indian female, a member of the indigenous clan of the mound’s original architects. Through her remarkable journey through time, Lily finds her way to the other side of her shattered life wrought by Jacob’s infidelity and its numerous catastrophic consequences.

CRADLE OF THE SERPENT, the new novel by best-selling author Linda Lee Greene

A fire glow in the clear and silent night sky points to the rim of the star-wound where I was born, and in my mind’s eye I transform into an archaeologist whose job it is to unearth the secrets of the early Indian civilization, the “Fort Ancient” American Indians, the bits and pieces of their lives contained within the great mound of the serpent lying there in the cradle of the debris of that long ago meteor strike. With the delicate tools of the trade in hand, I imagine myself beginning to dig. Will I find her? I wonder. Will I find that other woman, that Indian woman whom, like me, was born on the rim of this star-wound? Among arrow heads and shards of pottery, I imagine I find a small bone: a section of one of her fingers, then remnants of her jawbone lying beside a rock that reveals itself to be a pillow for her head. A group of four small and nearly matching stones fairly tumble into my hand when my trowel scrapes away a knot of finger roots of a tree. Each of the stones is punctured with a little hole at its center, the jewelry for her necklace, I realize. Yes, four stones: the sacred number of those early people—the number four symbolizing the four directions of the world—the four seasons. I declare kinship with that Indian woman, and in that new sisterhood, I feel buoyant and lifted, taken above and beyond this material world as our joined spirits float on the silver mist blanketing the panorama before me....

The above excerpt of the final pages of my novel GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS (http://goo.gl/imUwKO), published in 2012, and re-released in 2015, laid the groundwork for my current novel CRADLE OF THE SERPENT (goo.gl/i3UkAV),  a story whose protagonist is a contemporary North American archaeologist named Lily Light. Her work centers on the mounds of the Ohio Valley, with special emphasis on the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, USA. It is an endeavor that sets my archaeologist on a remarkable journey through time to the prehistoric period of the American Indian architects of the mysterious serpent effigy, and specifically to White Flower, the young woman to whom I refer in the earlier novel. To this indigenous culture, the mound is not only a critical component of everyday life, but also a link to the stars, which they believe to be their pathway to immortality. 

CRADLE OF THE SERPENT is written in the voices of Lily Light and her psychotherapist Michael Neeson. A patient of Michael’s, Lily’s therapy is based on her estrangement from her husband Jacob, also an archaeologist at work on a project in Arizona. Early in Lily’s therapy, Jacob is injured in a violent shooting at the edge of the Navajo Reservation there, and is left permanently paralyzed from his shoulders down. Lily also learns that a woman murdered at the scene of the crime was Jacob’s mistress.

During several of Lily’s therapy sessions with Michael, Lily experiences dreamstates or time-travels in which she takes on the bearing of White Flower, and through the process, finds her way to the other side of her shattered life wrought by Jacob’s infidelity and its numerous catastrophic consequences.

I wrote the initial version of GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS when it was still generally accepted that the Great Serpent Mound was constructed by the Fort Ancient people. The current analysis, based on radiocarbon dating conducted in 2011 and made public in 2014, is that the mound was built by indigenous people of the Adena civilization about 1,400 years earlier than previously thought, making it as old as Aristotle of Greece. 

“And This Too Shall Pass”

The morality tale I posted three days ago titled “The Wise Woman’s Stone – An American Indian Legend” struck such a chord with my Facebook friend Yatendra Singh that he responded with another parable I will share with you today. Yatendra was so generous in that he even sent me the appropriate graphic to accompany the article. Thank you for your kindness, Yatendra. You have touched my heart.

The following is Yatendra’s message to me: “Awesome…Reminds me of a story from the Chronicles, which we read in school. It goes like this:

‘One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister. He said to him, “Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot, which gives you six months to find it.”

“If it exists anywhere on earth, Your Majesty,” replied Benaiah, “I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?”

“It has magic powers,” answered the king. “If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy.” Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility.

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day’s wares on a shabby carpet. “Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?” asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. “Well, my friend,” said Solomon, “have you found what I sent you after?” All the ministers laughed, and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone’s surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, “Here it is, Your Majesty!” As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: “gimel, zayin, yud,” which began the words “Gam zeh ya’avor” – “This too shall pass.”

At that moment, Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.’”

The Wise Woman's Stone - An American Indian Legend

The Great Spirit Wakan Tanka

The Wise Woman's Stone
An American Indian Legend - Nation Unknown
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A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.
The traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."
The Great Spirit Wakan Tanka