Every book begins with a seed of an idea.
I went on with my life, writing books, giving talks, doing what I could to be an ally to the Native people and help them tell their stories. Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo came and went. Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce filled up four years of my life. Voices in the Stones became a quiet passion.
And, still, the image of the boy remained.
Finally, after 25 years, he could no longer be denied. His face said what I had been trying to say in words for almost three decades. He was innocence stolen, promise denied, confusion and defiance in the face of a world he did not make and could not understand. He was both victim and conqueror, the conscience and the survivor. He was guilt and he was hope.
If there was redemption to be had for what we as a nation had done and become, it was he who embodied the need for that redemption and the means by which it might be achieved.
And so, when the pandemic sent me into isolation, I knew I had a chance to address the image that had been haunting me for over three decades.. I also knew I could not do it as a single character; his reality was too complicated. Instead, he became the life blood that flowed through the two little fellows who live at the center of Lone Dog Road, eleven-year-old Levi and six-year-old Reuben.
So, as you read Lone Dog Road, remember this little boy in the rocking chair. I do not know his name, or even where he came from. I only know that from the first moment I saw him he issued a challenge to me that I could never forget.
Just know that as you journey with Levi and Reuben — two young boys crossing the Dakotas, sleeping in strange beds and hiding in corn fields — they are not traveling alone. They are carrying the ghost of that young boy who haunted me from the moment I pulled his photograph from a dusty file in some historical society archive in 1989.
It was he who set me on this literary journey and he to whom I owe this entire book.
Thank you, my young anonymous friend. I have done the best I can. Know that I never forgot you.
Gunalchéesh (thank you) for your heart and your gift of truly understanding and being able to share that with the world.
It makes a difference.
I am waiting with anticipation for this book, Kent. Waiting with thanksgiving for what I know will be a work, like so many of your others, for which I am again … grateful.
You are one of our favorite writers. Your mystery series are always a great read but Ordinary Grace and this tender land are excellent…we have all your books and introduce others to your stories
I’d like to be one of your favorite writers, but, sadly, you have me confused with my friend, Kent Krueger. I commend you on your taste.
Waiting with great anticipation of another great read. I think I have tattered the corners on most of your previous books! Hugs to you and family from southern Colorado!
Have you desired to learn who the boy was in the photo etc.? Or has his photo become more to you ‘without a name?’
I would love to learn more. But I don’t even have the actual photo anymore, and I can’t remember in which of the local historical societies I found it. This is one of those lost corners of my life that I will likely never be able to explore.
Greetings Kent – I have my own version of the experiences of moments when an incident or an image “. . . takes root deep in your subconscious and grows, unnoticed, until it demands your attention and refuses to be denied.” I have had these pearls (or lumps of coal) drop into the quiet pool of my mind, sending out ripples of connection to the shores of creative possibility. We can ignore these even though they persist, but we do so at our own peril and at the price of our readers’ loss. Thanks for the reminder, Kent.
When Marty mentioned your mystery series, my first thought was that he was seeing your trilogy of Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo as mysteries. Because they are mysteries in a way, and The Wolf at Twilight is a classic mystery, because Dan gives Kent a mystery to solve that goes back 80 years. It’s one of my favorite books of all. At first you think there’s no way Kent can find things buried so long ago — and then you take us on an amazing journey.
Man, that really hits close to home. Maybe you’ll meet on the Path of Souls.
Thank You Kent, I will remember this young man.
Not just when I read Lone Dog Road.
But also when I pray and meditate.
I feel haunted by this image.
Spirits have something to say.
Like ghosts in remote places.
They will haunt us until we listen.
Jung wrote Seven Sermons to The Dead.
Shamans sing and dance to calm the spirit.
I leave food offerings, keeping my head down.
The release of Leonard Peltier may be part of it.
Wandering Ghosts are stirring with his homecoming.
There is joy but also sorrow at the terrible injustice to him.
Even the judge and prosecutor condemned the false evidence.
There was no link between the bullets recovered and Leonard’s gun.
The FBI framed him and still perpetuates the lie despite his innocence.
Cf In The Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Thiessen
Heartfelt Prayers and Blessings Always to you Kent, your family and Native Friends.
Your books open our hearts and minds to always remember and do what we can to amend.
You are an amazing writer who easily captures my imagination and I find myself being immediately transported. Thank you for being one very important voice for our Brothers and Sisters 💞