#WritersLife was the first thought I had when I woke. But I couldn't shake the deep depression taking control of me. I felt an immense sadness. It felt like I was so inadequate that I didn't matter to anyone. My life was so pointless and meaningless that no one would ever want to connect with [...]
How Academia Disrupts Native Progress by Reinventing “The Pristine Myth”
Someone tells you, "There's nobody on that piece of land," and you're invited to stake a claim to it, build a home, move your family, and grow crops. Start a new life for yourself. That was the narrative fed to early European settlers and is commonly referred to as "The Pristine Myth," meaning the wilderness [...]
On Writing an “Indian Child Welfare” Novel & Other Grand Adventures
I hiked into the Grand Canyon. I must've been in my late twenties, maybe early thirties. It started out as a walk to look over the rim. I had camped the night before in a tent at one of the sites and woke early (probably about 5am). I was there with a friend and she [...]
Novel DNA: How Writing Chapters can Change the World
What to do with a great idea? Let's sit down and map out a novel. Writing in the dark is a popular way of writing short stories. We get an idea. We pull out the laptop. We write until everything is on the page. As we write, we don't know where the story will lead [...]
Underground Matriarchy: #WIP Debut Novel “Unsettled Between”
We've heard the reified stories of men brutalizing men. A rehearsal of patriarchy. In fact, hyper masculine bullshit permeates our lives. We see in the media, if not in our daily lives, the ramifications of patriarchy unchecked. So what's the answer? Men are being called out now more than ever and violence continues. Wars haven't [...]
Story Like Bonsai are Reborn through Deadlines & Transformations
Like clipping and pruning back branches on a bonsai tree. Then we wire and train those branches to spread in the appearance of organic design reflective of the natural environment, taking careful consideration and steady hands. We have to make the right decisions. I've been revising Unsettled Between over the last two months and it's [...]
Solidarity Outside Sovereignty: New Tribal Politics Multiply & Strengthen Beyond Colonial Boundaries
What I'm about to say is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way, especially an older generation who built their identity on the backs of a sovereignty based in contention between governments. But ultimately a shift occurred while many were sleeping, and this wasn't something the younger generation brought about. We were [...]
Fourth Wall Subtleties as Tool for Liberation in Native American Context
Suppose you're at a coffee shop and you're telling your best friend about your workday. You're saying so-and-so is building a case to take to human resources and will file a lawsuit soon. So-and-so has evidence of coercion and retaliation. Maybe it's based on gender. Maybe it's based on race. So-and-so will also file with [...]
Chaotic Resonance of the Echo Chamber
We're tweeting and sharing and posting. We touch on a politically sensitive subject. And we don't hesitate to engage in a friendly dialogue amongst community members. This is how folks learn. The back and forth sway. As we all know, a simple text exchange can quickly turn a meal of delicacies into a food fight. [...]
Colloquial Traits in Tribal Regionalism
Often I sit here in front of this computer and think about how to capture the voice of a narrator. Voice is the darkness around the thief, his soft footsteps, and his choice of victim. There is nothing innocent about what we writers do. We're persuasive colonizers seeking to intrude on your sensibilities. We're convincing--softly [...]
#NathanPhillips Vs. #MAGA: Are Liberals Too Weak to Defeat MAGA?
Natives watched as a liberal stronghold quickly collapsed with a simple bait and switch. How did the conservatives do it? They just repeated everything Nathan Phillips said by placing his words into their context. So why did liberals collapse so quickly? There has been an ongoing issue within the liberal community, and conservatives make the [...]
Real Life Turns Into Fiction
I've said this before: If you don't want to be villain in fiction then don't be one in real life. The beautiful thing about graduating from two different writing programs are the connections made between creative writers and journalists. We tend to be tasked with a similar challenge. How to captivate an audience. Twitter can [...]
