1. James Welch saw deep-seated defeat in the Indian male consciousness, and he expresses alienation regarding the land and reservation. Not romanticizing the past, Welch’s writing evokes a realistic view—being in a place and seeing it. With no way back, individuals must live in the present reality. Being in touch with nature and home makes the present real. With Indian/Cowboy images inundating Welch‘s world, the cowboy dominates the West and the Indian is criminalized and the victim. Welch’s characters are looking to find their way home. Welch’s writing exhibits a search for a useful past, and ultimately, his writing is hopeful, giving something to live by. Kathryn Shanley (2011)

2. [Richard] Hugo, in his infinite wisdom and generosity, said, "Go ahead, write about the reservation, the landscape, the people." At the moment I thought that was a fine idea, but as I walked home that day, I became more depressed with each block. I knew that nobody wanted to read about Indians, reservations, or those rolling endless plains that turned into Canada just thirty miles north. By the time I got home, I began to think that maybe that country was bleak and that life on the reservation was hopeless. Nevertheless, I began to write poems about the country and the people I came from.... I was writing about a world I was born into, a world full of bones and wind—the world of my ancestors. And thirty years later, in one way or another, I am still writing about that world.

3. Happily, I was wrong in thinking that nobody would want to read books written by American Indians about American Indians and their reservations and landscapes. But I may have been justified in my skepticism. … there was no "Native American Renaissance" in literature then. We were all pretty much on our own in various parts of the country. Now you can't shake a tree without two or three Indian writers falling out. And the best part of this renaissance is that these writers are good. … They are writing about vital subjects with an energy and vitality that comes with a youthful literature that is based on the oldest tradition of mankind—storytelling. They are taking that literature several steps forward by telling their own stories through poems, short stories, novels, memoirs. Indian writers might come from different eras, from different geographies, from different tribes, but we all have one thing in common: We are storytellers from a long way back. And we will be heard for generations to come.”

4. Historical and Cultural Significance Shows aspects of daily life Rewrites the myth of the conquest of the West (Romantic Primitivism: individualism is celebrated. Wilderness is the ultimate value and forms of social community shunned). Welch shows a West that consists of interpersonal relations and a close-knit community. Marias Massacre, an event that was not a part of Montana‘s cultural history.

5. Marias or Baker Massacre

6. Literary Significance Poetic prose: oral tradition elements – first-person stories interspersed in a third-person, omniscient narrative Calque – literary art of translating by inventing. Translation from spoken to written language (Ritual into 20 th century text) [Question: Compare and contrast prose style ch. 1 and ch. 25] When we combine a twentieth-century perspective on nineteenth-century Indian history with the eighteen-century Cooperspeak of the characters, we have an amazingly present and delicate web of sense being spun for us, not with the strands of culture but with the silk of language.

7. Ideas The stories of Fools Crow and the Baker Massacre demonstrate the way individuals and communities can survive injustice and terrible grief. Fools Crow demonstrates the consequences of cultural and personal misunderstanding, as well as misunderstandings that occur between individuals. Fools Crow is a coming-of-age story in the midst of much greater conflicts Themes Personal loss, injustice and survival Cultural difference and misunderstandings. Promise and betrayal. Coming-of-age narrative

8. Starting to Write DICE – Disturbs, Interests, Confuses, Enlightens What does it say? What might it mean? Why does it matter? Some Questions What do you think is the most significant internal or external conflict of the novel so far? How does Pikuni justice differ from Napikwan justice in this novel?