Tag: Family
-
Calling for One Fire
Some of us our bound to the disparity rates by proximity. We’re born into communities where tragedies cause trauma and we’re left to help, heal, and support those around us. And it happens far too often. One Cherokee shot this week, and another killed days later. Families losing loved ones to early death or incarceration. […]
-
What it Means to Write Decolonization Literature & Why Native Writers Must Not Be Silenced
The process of decolonization. We hear this a lot, and if you’ve taken a Native studies class then you’ve likely thought about this in different aspects of society. So what does this look like in literature? I’d like to take a close look at decolonization and talk about the importance of allowing people of color […]
-
Vernacular, Agency, & Intersectionality of Language Transformation
Growing up in households where words and phrases in both Kiowa and Cherokee were spoken and mixed with English, it gave me a unique understanding of language. As my family spoke, someone could be both skaw-stee and mon’sape. Skaw-stee is a Cherokee word that means “stuck up,” and mon’sape is a Kiowa word that means […]
-
Intro to Literary Fiction: A Native American Writer’s Reasoning Toward Episodic Novel Writing & Unfamiliar Terms in Familiar Terrain
“What do you write?” Have you heard that question before? For literary writers this question is like a grain of dirt on the ass cheek of a wild hog running through the brush in the Ozark Hills. Every time I go to answer the question I know what’s going to follow. It’s going to be […]
-
Native Voices for Native Audiobook: Recording Chapters in CALLING FOR A BLANKET DANCE
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be able to read for my debut novel. Many writers don’t get the opportunity to record for their own audiobooks. Because my novel is polyvocal and comes from the heart of tribally specific communities, Kiowa and Cherokee, I was more than happy when Algonquin Books asked […]
-
The Aftermath of the Final Draft: Novels
So I’m about to use this post as catharsis. I’ve done something tremendous. So momentous that it’s a little unsettling. Or maybe I’ve made it unsettling by overthinking. But I can’t help but wonder if this is a normal part of the process once a writer has submitted the final draft of her novel to […]
-
Self-Imposed Crippling Frustration Under a Wave of Social Justice Advocacy
It was Saturday night when I knew I’d smudge myself and my house with sage the next day. There had been a build up. With the media exposure of police shootings and the new energy for social justice as a response, I was caught up in the energy. But not without personal justification. Under Trump’s […]
-
Mexican Indian: The Shifting Indigenous Identity of Turtle Island
Call it evolution or enlightenment. Our perspective is broadening. Where we once only had the capacity to see ourselves in strict hyper local terms, now we can access the universal. In fact, both the universal and the hyper local are needed as checks and balances. In the narrow reaches of our identity, people are quick […]
-
Being In’din’s a Party and Everyone’s Invited
Sometimes I like to say controversial things, like the title to this article: “Being In’din’s a party and everyone’s invited.” The stodgy conservative Native crowd gets upset with me. I hear comments like, “You’re undermining sovereignty,” or “Don’t give the wannabes more fuel to misappropriate.” All this is said with a fervor of control and […]
-
The 12 Year Journey of Unsettled Between
I spend a lot of time thinking about love, and what I’m about to discuss here is in the vein of love. But a love for cohesiveness, a love that desires modalities in cooperation rather than competition. Certainly, it took the very pessimistic concepts around Baudrillard’s philosophy to engender my thoughts on this subject. But […]
Oscar Hokeah 