Just a little update for a few of you who have asked. The book on Chief Joseph is coming along. My editor and I have had a bit of a time of it. He has wanted me to write a book for the New York Times crowd; I’ve wanted to write a book that shows the native people that I have a sensitivity to the issues that so infuriate them about white authors. These are two very different visions. I call it the “sushi versus salmon” wars.
But we’re coming along. I’ve decided to post my rough-out of the introduction so you can get a sense of what will be coming when the book is finally completed. I hope you find it interesting.
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Exceptional! Mesmerizing!
It may be impossible to patiently wait for the release of the book. Please let me know when your new work is complete.
I don’t know a writer I admire more. Your authenticity and heart seem unsurpassed and that is a powerful combination! I just passed along this weblog page to a friend to read and commented that you exemplify the person who I, as a white person, strive to be. I am eager to buy more than one copy of this book.
Hey, brother. Love your work and admire the soul that creates it..
Just one question regarding the Chief Joseph/ sushi and salmon issue…
WHY IN THE WORLD are you working with an editor who doesn’t share your views of Native Americans?????!!!!!!!???????
And , also…I will be interning at a spiritual retreat center ( http://www.borderlandsranch.org ) in the black hills in the spring and I think you should check this place out…
I’ve only read Neither Wolf nor Dog so far and just going by that, I think this is a place you and your family would appreciate..
and is it totally unrealistic to wonder if Dan is still hanging out at Pine Ridge…?
Is that even his real name…?
Anyway, thank you for your honesty and someday I hope our paths cross….
(probably when this world goes through it’s big change in the reletivly near future..i’m pretty sure you know what I’m talking about….
All the brothers and sisters of truth will be there. I’m one of ‘em and so are you, so I guess I’ll see you there!)
God Bless
Mitakuye Oyasin
Kent,
I deeply look forward to reading htis book.
Again, you have a knack for mixing personal pride and personal humility within your narrative.
As far as your publisher is concerned. Write from who you are and your readers will follow.
If the message is meant to be heard, it will be heard by the people who need it.
Be truest to yourself and God will bless you for it.
Good luck and God Bless!
Kent,
Your introduction intrigues me.
I wait with eager anticipation for your finished book and admire your dedication and honesty.
Best wishes and good luck!
Kent Nerburn,
You talk of first-hand experiences with Indians: working with them, living among them, teaching them, sitting with Indian elders and of hearing them talk about white culture and what it often does to us (yes, I’m Native, full-blooded and living my culture day-by-day). You’ve heard, all right, but I wonder, have you been listening?
“If they don’t want books on Indians done by white people, I don’t want to do them. End of story. It’s a simple matter of respect.” When exactly did you arrive to this conclusion Mr. Nerburn? I’ve read enough of your books (and my wife has read each and every one of those you have published) and find that you seem unable, over and over, to stay away from the subject. It is almost as if you cannot write about anything without, at the very least, including mention of Indian wisdom passed on to you somewhere in the text. Is this a newfound belief you hold? Was it born in you after a Nez Perce woman brought it, once again, back to your attention? I marvel at someone who claims to have the ability to hear the voices of ancient Indians at various places you happen to visit (or so you imply in Road Angels) and who, at the same time, has no qualms about ignoring the live and present Indian voices who take the time to reach out and speak their minds. Interesting juxtaposition indeed.
What exactly is this moral premise you so strongly profess to hold? Perhaps you don’t fully consider yourself a white person writing about Indians? I remember another passage in Road Angels in which you talk of your son’s tendency to take his time before talking, comparing it to the Ojibwe way, then half-heartedly suggesting he might’ve picked up the habit from drinking the local water. Is that what has happened to you as well? Is that why you are able to morally reject white authors writing books about Indians but then turn around and yourself do nothing but?
Like children, books may not always turn out like you expect, true, but as men, making either one is a matter of choice. For your purposes, it seems rather convenient to apologize, as you do at the end of your intro to the Chief Joseph book, for any violations to boundaries your “Indian friends might not have [you] cross.” As the saying goes, ask forgiveness not permission, uh? You claim to feel compelled to help us all see the humanity “at the core of our national experience”, speaking almost with a sense of divine mission. Perhaps you believe it to be so, and yet I cannot help but wonder the extent to which your prolific pen follows the directions, however conscious or not, given by your publisher, your audience (at least the kind that posts messages in this website), even the real world—you know, the one in which you must sell books in order to make a living, to provide for your family and to allow yourself the indulgence of thinking and writing as a full-time career. Under such circumstances, I understand how easy it can be to turn a deaf ear to the minority who dares speak against a project so dear to your heart and that of others.
-Travis Nabahe
Nothing’s far when one wants to get there.
Genius is of no country.
Don’t give up, you are close.
Ideas on Earth are badges of friendship or enmity.