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Native American Author Roundtable
3.
AOTW: How has writing about a Native American culture impacted you personally? What have you learned along the way?
Thomas Perry: The first thing I learned in writing about a Native American culture (the Senecas) was that I knew very little, and it was mostly wrong. I soon realized that I had looked in the right place for my heroine, because elements of Seneca culture are, in themselves, heroic. The value system has always been an unusual combination of extreme self-reliance (Seneca warriors often stayed on the trail in threes or fours, or even alone, for a year), and an equally extreme concern for the welfare of the group. Part of my job as a writer of fiction was simply to make Jane's behavior consistent with Seneca values --- to have her do things which faintly resemble great acts of strength, courage, cleverness, or kindness which her ancestors performed.
Writing the series of five books about Jane affected me personally in a number of ways, most of them unexpected. One thing it did was make me more patriotic: if "we" includes the people I learned about, then we aren't so bad.
Penina Keen Spinka: I learned that I had a lot to learn. Every discovery led to more questions. I now have a sizable library at home and books filled with Internet research on how each culture dealt with their lives and activities, their foods and beliefs.
David Matheson: I poured much of my deepest feelings from my heart into the story Red Thunder. I purposefully retained and kept out of public display the detail of our ceremonial doings. However, for the first time I wrote about our ceremonial teachings, about why we call the earth our mother, why we call the animals our brother, why we are related to the four winds and the sky above. I had heard these things over the course of my lifetime and felt like they were never portrayed correctly in the non-Indian media. I hope that in sharing these teachings that some readers might learn enough about our native culture to find their own sense of inner peace and gain a sense of understanding and appreciation for the native people. Perhaps along the way others might become more mindful and more kind toward the native people of this continent.
W. Michael Gear: You've got to be kidding! How can I answer this without filling thousands upon thousands of pages? Instead, I am going to respond this way: Archaeology must be the anthropology of the past --- meaning it must be a holistic reconstruction of the culture in its entirety. At least so far as is possible. I continue to be stunned by the depth and complexity of prehistoric North American culture.
David Marion Wilkinson: The focus of Oblivion's Altar is Major Ridge, once the National Speaker for the Cherokee Nation. But ultimately it was his rare and remarkable qualities as a human being that attracted me to his story. Major Ridge has something to teach all of us about leadership, courage, and integrity.
Joseph Marshall III: The primary impact for me has been the realization of the sense of responsibility I have as a writer who is Lakota to state the truth be it regarding cultural or historical issues. I have learned that many myths about Native Americans still persist, in large part due to non-native writers and historians.
David and Aimee Thurlo: Aimee has learned so much about the Navajo people, and David's knowledge and respect for the Dineh has increased as well, especially in the connection to the Navajo Way, the relationships between the lives of the people and the metaphysical and natural worlds --- what other people call religion.
Kathleen O'Neal Gear: Hmm. Everything. Native American history and culture permeate every facet of my life, stretching from my personal religious beliefs and my relationship with the natural world, to the types of stone I use to scrape and tan buffalo hides.
Margaret Coel: Perhaps patience is the most important thing that someone like me, highly impatient, has had to learn. I've learned to allow things to come to me in their own time, rather than struggle to shape events and force things to happen. An Arapaho friend gave me some very good advice when I was working on my first novel, The Eagle Catcher. I was on my way to talk to one of the elders, and my friend said, "Be very quiet; do not ask questions; do not push. The elder will give you whatever gift of information he wishes to give." I still follow that good advice, and I have received many wonderful gifts.
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